Unpopular opinion: The Honda Navi is irrelevant

Pick up that pitchfork. Sharpen the tines. And then take a seat and realize you're pissing in the wind. Look, don't shoot me. I'm just the messenger. I was as excited as you were to hear about an honest-to-God-under-$2,000 brand new motorcycle I could buy with a warranty and dealer support. And after that, I showed it to everyone I know who's even remotely interested in bikes. No one cared.

Just as I suspected.

How my peers feel about the Navi

Reading Ari and Spurgeon's thoughts, you'd think we all better get on the waiting list for these bikes now or we'll never get one! In an unintentional meeting of the minds, I actually agree with Spurgeon about Honda selling "a ton of these bikes." At 236 pounds apiece, Honda only needs to sell about nine. I'm being facetious, of course, but I don't share their optimism. Navi is not going to be any type of sales success.

How I feel about the Navi

I want one! The Navi is a mechanical wonder to me. I can build a motorcycle. I sure can’t build one for $1,807 and turn a profit. Hell, we only seem to be able to manage a minibike or hotrod mini with a Honda clone powerplant for that money. The Navi is a staggeringly cheap motorcycle in 2022 and the low price is its one differentiator.

Navi is basic. Drum brakes. No ABS. Carburetor. Whatever. It's got an electronic iggy. Keep the carb clean and that bike will be as reliable as the sun coming up every day. If you don't keep the carb clean, just scrub the bowl and poke out the jets and it's running in no time.

The feature set (or lack thereof) makes sense, given that this bike was originally cooked up to be basic transportation for those in areas where a car is discouragingly expensive. There's one minor problem with that. Despite the fact this is a solid family vehicle in other places, a motorcycle is not primary transport in America. Period. Amen.

I can pinpoint for you the year the motorcycle died as a primary transportation mode in North America. Look at the chart below comparing the cost of a Harley-Davidson with a sidecar to a Ford Model T, which had seating for four and protection from the elements.

Year	Ford Model T	Harley-Davidson Twin with sidecar
1913	$525	$350
1916	$345	$295
1920	$395	$395
1922	$319	$390
1925	$260	$335

In 1921, the motorcycle died in America as anything more than a leisure vehicle. Full stop. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

That didn't stop motorcycles from selling. They still sold and sold well. But they did not trade on their practicality or their low price. The motorcycle is not a substitute good for a car, for the reasons mentioned above. Instead, motorcycles were marketed as a luxury, discretionary purchase. The American looking to get into motorcycles in 2022, by and large, doesn't want or buy the very cheapest thing. Why? The motorcycle is an optional purchase, not a necessity.

The Navi may be just the vehicle to hammer home the point that Editor Lance and I have been making for a long time: The motorcycle functions as a toy in the U.S.A. Even though inflation has caused the price of a used car to surge beyond belief, most Americans do not see a motorcycle as a suitable substitute for a car. (Lance is still a notable exception.)

Honda's just selling the Navi here because they can. The EPA fee for certifying a motorcycle engine is about the cost of one Navi and we're one of the few countries that will still let a carbureted motorcycle exist.

How non-motorcyclists will feel about the Navi

In the interest of providing equal time, I sent a message to my long-suffering contact at Honda, Powersports Public Relations Assistant Manager Colin Miller. He wrote back: "...there is a whole generation of people who do not feel the need to have a car and will take public transportation, Uber or Lyft, Bird scooters, or some form of throttled E-bike… this is a springboard to bring more people into motorcycles."

If that's the case, then the Navi's success will depend a lot on what non-riders think. Colin added that the Navi is perfect for "someone who may have been thinking about a Grom or other Minimoto as fun alternative transportation but is concerned with the clutch part. Remember, this is the same generation who does not want a car and has very likely never driven a stick."

Very fair, and it seems valid at face value. But are there really teeming hordes of Americans who yearn to ride, but are put off by the Grom's manual transmission or $3,399 price tag? Nope. If that was a problem, scooters would sell like crazy. But they don’t. Nor did quite a few of the other auto and self-shifting bikes Honda has introduced over the years; those were all flops or very modest successes, by all accounts. (I do very much admire Honda, though, for making motorcycling accessible to those with physical limitations for nearly half a century at this point, though. They deserve notable credit for that, and for continuing it with the Navi. Perfect first bike, but an even better last bike, I think.)

Motorcycling for most Americans is a leisure activity, like bowling or inline skating or amateur radio operation. It will appeal to some folks and not appeal to many more, just like all the people I told about the Navi. They didn't care, and they’ll continue to not care, because they have other leisure activities.

How motorcyclists will feel about the Navi

I think we'll be happy there's another cool motorcycle to buy. It is a good entry point for someone who really does want to get in the game. I'm sure Honda will sell some as pit bikes and to beginners, but those sales are almost certainly going to be cannibalistic, eating into the Grom's share. This will be bought in America by the well heeled as a fifth motorcycle, not as primary transport by a starving college kid.

Good luck and best wishes to Honda. My guess is that about 5,000 to 10,000 people will write a check for one of these in the first year in the U.S. market. And it will mainly be irrelevant.