Video: The Honda CB you can't have in the U.S.

With such limited production and hefty price tags (just over $20,000), these are the kinds of bikes you might see on Iconic Motorbike Auctions someday.

The latest generation of CB1100 first landed on our shores in 2013, and it only stuck around for a few years. (I’ll save discussion of the very '80s CB1100Fs for another time.) They didn’t prove to be very popular, and if I was Honda, I’d be a little confused by that. Riders who’d loved Honda’s old-school, air-cooled fours kept asking for a reintroduction. “Just make them like you used to! Simple! Classic! A modernized CB750!”

Arguably, that’s exactly what the CB1100 was: an oil-and-air-cooled, 1,140 cc successor to the CBs of old. It packed a few modern tricks, though, like four valves per cylinder, dual overhead cams, and fuel injection. An RS version was released in some markets with better suspension and brakes. Despite all this, 2017 was the last model year sold here. You can scoop them up now for MT-07 prices.

I wouldn’t call the CB1100 a failure. I think Honda expected to sell more of their neo-UJMs, though. What happened? Was this another case of riders not buying what they said they’d buy? Was the model introduced too late in the cafe craze to catch on? Or were there just too many compelling options from other manufacturers, especially for the money ($12,199)?

Probably a combination of all those things. Japan and Europe seemed to like them, but Americans seem to have wanted something else. And I think Honda UK might have posthumously pushed the CB1100 in the right direction. I’ll let Honda’s video do the explaining. 

So, would releasing a cafe version have moved more units? I think so. 5Four’s RS would be pretty hard to walk past on the showroom floor if you were shopping retro. And plenty of American riders were shopping retro in 2013 through 2017. That segment isn’t slowing down, either.

The history of motorcycling is full of great what-ifs. The creation and subsequent disappearance of the CB1100 isn’t exactly one of them, but maybe if Honda had built a sportier RS variant along the lines of the RS 5Four in the first place, they might have beaten Kawasaki’s Z900RS to the punch by four years. And, possibly a hot take, I’d rather have the Honda.

The silver lining? Part of a UJM's appeal is that you can customize it in infinite ways, but hacking up a new CB1100 you just dropped 12 grand on wasn't something many people would do without pause. But now, standard CB1100s are going for half of what they once retailed for. Build what you want.