We haven’t had a really big year in the moto industry ever since COVID-19 hit. Yeah, we’ve had some big sales, but we haven’t had a year where a bunch of OEMs launched exciting new machines. It looks like 2022’s show season might give us a taste of that again, and Honda might be leading this move.
The latest gossip out of Japan comes from the magazine Young Machine, which tells us Honda has applied for some sort of trademark for the Transalp 750 name in that country. Aha! This follows on similar paperwork filed with regulatory bodies in Europe, and of course, it also follows the introduction of the Honda Hornet, a naked bike based on a new liquid-cooled parallel twin platform.
A new adventure bike and a new naked bike based on an all-new engine? That’d be more than we’ve seen from Honda in a while. But, the rumors also have a new sportbike and a new retro slated for release this fall, based on that engine, along with new CL500 and CL300 scramblers.
Presuming pricing isn’t insane, these machines all fit into niches that the moto-buying public would like Honda to fill.
Everyone else?
Honda’s not the only OEM supposedly gearing up for a big push this fall. We expect a new four-cylinder ZX-4R from Kawasaki, along with new electric motorcycles.
As far as the rest of Japan, we haven’t heard much about either Suzuki or Yamaha at this point.
We expect Triumph to make a big splash with its new electric platform, its new dirt bikes, and probably a made-in-India entry-level machine. Elsewhere in Europe, expect KTM’s new 500 platform to also show up. And, Ducati’s already promised to start releasing new models online over the coming weeks, opting to forgo the expensive and complicated show circuit launch life (Triumph will probably launch its bikes the same way).
BMW? We expect that new G310 RR to get a western market release this fall, and that’s all we’re really counting on; maybe we’ll see a new electric motorcycle too.
Of course, it never plays out exactly as we expect, but the signs are definitely in place for a good show circuit this year, and that is very good news for the moto industry. Sales were strong in the initial post-COVID recovery, but they have been slipping a bit in recent months. Perhaps some hype over new models will bring that momentum back?
Expectations and Honda never meet. For example, Canadians were waiting for the Honda Trail 125 in late 2021. So what shows up in 2022? The Honda Monkey and the Navi! Unbelievable…
better now the Baby Boomers cant wait any longer to trade down from the gs monster to something like a baby boomer can handle before buying a spyder.