I read a review in a motorcycle magazine that got to road test one. They said the Rune just about doesnt even need a trans, just a clutch so you can stop it. The power bands comes on smoothly at about 800 rpm and ends at the red line, they were very impressed, massive torque and smooth. Honda claims they spent tons of time (and money) designing the exhaust, notice one pipe from each side crosses over to the other side, to give it a "V-Twin" sound. The radiator gave the engineers the most dificulty, but design came first and the engineers had to make what the designers wanted work.

If I had an extra $25k I would buy one, and I don't ride bikes.

It would be nice to have the kind of money Honda has. They are loosing thousands of dollars on every Rune sold. It was one of Honda's "can we build a (in this case a custom road bike)?" project, and money really doesn't matter.

Did you know Honda developed a new aluminum alloy for the Rincon's pushrods? They needed to be strong like steel and as light as aluminum with the steel ***** on both ends. How much money do you think the spent on the first Rincon pushrod?

Oh well, back to the old Rubicon.

 

Yeah, I think of Honda as an engineering company as much as a commercial entity. It would be really interesting to get a look at the stuff they got up their sleeves that hasn't even been used. After all, the Rubicon tran came from a patent that was around 30 - 35 years old. BTW, our parts mgr. wasn't surprised about the ordering procedure for the Rune. He says that's a common practice for certain Honda car parts (we sell those too).