Japanese publication Young Machine, which regularly publishes “leaks” and hypotheses, as well look this or that production motorcycles Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki, visualized the information about the most likely evolution of the medium-cubature road bikes Honda based on the new 750 cc engine.
The class of “six hundred” is dead, the cubic capacity which some 25 years ago was called “Superbikes” returns! But now it will be called “Supersport”.
One of such motorcycles – Honda Hornet CB750S has already been announced by the factory, there are a lot of “leaks” of its appearance and even official sketches, but its specifications will be known only in autumn. The motorcycle should join the 2023 model lineup. After that, everyone is waiting for the return to the market of the Honda Transalp with the same engine as the Hornet.
Honda is doing a platform similar to that of the CRF1100 Africa Twin, only with a simpler and smaller 2-cylinder inline engine, as Honda Motor Co. does away with the costly in-line four-cylinder engine, which does not fit the new stringent Euro-5 environmental regulations.
According to Young Machine’s idea, the Hornet nacelle and Transalp 750 Tourer will be followed by the launch of a neoclassic (conventionally named Hawk 75 by analogy with the CRF1100-based Hawk 11 introduced in spring), and finally, the CBR650R will finally go into history and the CBR750R (and the 750RR sport version) will take its place.
Regarding the CBR, the hypothesis fits the trend in world motorsport: the FIM in 2022 opened access to World Supersport to motorcycles with 2-cylinder engines up to 955cc. According to the idea of the Federation and the promoter of the championship, “six-hundred” will finally die out by 2024, their place will be taken by motorcycles with less power, simpler engines, but a larger volume.
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Right now, the Yamaha R6 still dominates the world championship as the bike with the richest racing heritage in the WSS. The second – and last – inline-six in the lineup is the Kawasaki ZX-6R, with the rest of the Japanese factories having long since retreated. They are opposed by the Ducati Panigale V2 (955), MV Agusta F3 800 RR (798), and Triumph Speed Triple RS (765). The larger engine displacement provides better torque figures, but while the Ducati, MV, and Triumph racing kits are brand new, they won’t get to step up until 2023.
Honda is looking at bikes that other factories would like to homologize for the future in World Supersport, and that list already includes the Suzuki GSX-R750, the little brother of the flagship GSX-R1000 Superbike. So why not get your “Trojan” into the game, the 750cc 2-cylinder CBR?