The Big Scooter

Thanks to Honda Canada and CMG for the test bike..

First Impression:

I was initially impressed with the futuristic looks. Low long and sleek. I figured it to be Honda's stab at Blade Runner-esque street cred. Nice meaty tires, massive squared off exhaust paired with show shoe sized floor boards. The after market Givi bags and top box just rounded off the whole bigger is better feel. I threw a leg over and felt overwhelmed with the pull back of the handlebars and reach to the "dashboard". Perhaps the amount of switches and doo-dads on the handle bars aided in the head warp.

I had some interested on lookers and was surprised at the comments. I knew the guys ogling the bike and pegged them as old fashioned chromed cruiser lovers (Read: 45 plus yrs of age). However all of them loved the looks of the DN 01. Non of them owned bikes though. They were all Ski-Doo types. Thats when the light bulb flashed. This was Honda's attempt at conquering the snowmachine market. The whole track drive thing would come later. Baby steps people baby steps.

Riding:

With the impression of "Large" firmly planted in my head and the Apocolypto look to back up the badness, I half expected the bike to be a whale to move around. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to toot about. It did take awhile to get used to the length and switch gear but I was comfortable with the posture and very impressed with the placement and styling of the rear view mirrors.

Out on the road, any pretense that this was a badass ride was wiped away by the anemic motor. In all due respect the HFT "Human Friendly Transmission" mated to the shaft final drive sapped some horses from the motor. Then again the sub 700cc power plant may have been out of it's league hauling this scoot around. The automatic transmission is sure to be a hit with some, however in my view it should be relegated to the realm of scooters and Ski-Doo's. My idea of a bike is to be an integral part of the machine. I want to feel, hear and experience the exhilaration of forward mechanical motion. Taking away the clutch and letting a computer or other device decide where to place the shifts just takes another part of me out of that equation. I may as well go play a video game. Speaking of which the sport setting raises the "oomph" factor a bit (computer controlled) however I kept it in the manual mode which is shift by thumb. Better, yes but best left on the Nintendo controller.

On the flip side, the linked ABS brakes were flawless, the seat is fine for shorter distances but takes away the ability to stretch as it is a dished style seat. I despise any type of plastic windscreen in my field of vision. Usually the top seam of these devices is dead centre eye level. The after market Givi was a nice surprise as it was lower than eye level and directed the wind and crud over my lid with out any buffeting. A nice touch. The suspension was plush and absorbed any bumps that I encountered solo and two up. As for two up. My significant other gave it a thumbs up. She liked being perched up higher than I and was comfortable with the seating position and grab rails- as opposed to love handles. The top box really worked well as a seat rest and one of these things might find itself a place on my own bike....

The Givi boxes were able to swallow up my weeks worth of groceries and would do well on a long distance run. My only niggle was the amount of space needed to park with them still on the bike. Baby got too much back, especially in my garage, however it was easy enough to pop them off and place them on a bench.

Final thoughts:

Would I buy one. No. I like gears and clutches too much. My fellow Relics (a merry band of motor biking lunatics) weighed in with the same thoughts as I. They and I were of the opinion that It is a big scooter. Probably the biggest and baddest but a scooter non the less. The biggest shock was the sticker price. Most figured it should be priced mid 8000$ At the price listed, it would do well to have an onboard computer/GPS, hand warmers, seat warmer and well anything else couch comfy they could figure to slap on..