Honda trying to beat BMW at its own game...
Despite all the fancy technical gizmos this bike is aimed fairly and squarely at the K1300S. How long before, BMW style, they'll also put out a "naked" a la X11 (K1300R) and a tourer (K1300GT) using the same powerplant and as many components as possible? Oh, wait, a tourer to replace the not overly successful ST1300 is already in the works using this same powerplant.
Honda has gone to incredible lengths to to try and fix the old problem of their V4s, namely shameful specific fuel consumption. As a former VFR owner I can assure you all the horror stories about fuel range are true. Until I see the bike on the road I am inclined to say that this bike, for all its state of the art features, will barely be able to keep up with the K1300 in the fuel consumption department. Mind that for us Europeans fuel consumption is very important given our gasoline prices: that's why you see so many BMW boxers on the road (example: I filled up in Barcellonette and arrived home without refuelling, almost 400 km, or 250 miles, later).
But in the end it's nice to see that someone finally decided to challenge BMW at its own game... now all they need is a good large displacement twin to take on the Hexhead models!
