lubricious |loō bri sh əs| (also lubricous | loōbrikəs|) adjective 1 offensively displaying or intended to arouse sexual desire. 2 smooth and slippery with oil or a similar substance. A mobile contradiction in terms the Honda CBF1000 is at once lubricious and not. Designed in Germany, this upright standard’s looks teeter between friendly and bland…

Meet the brand new 2008 Honda Varadero… Except it’s not. Honda introduced the Varadero to the European market in 1999, the bike arriving at the Adventure Touring party well before the hosts put out the plastic cups. Indeed, Canada gets the second generation of the 996cc v-twin adventure bike, which received smoother-styling, fuel-injection and a…

“Ah,” I think to myself, “Honda what have you done?” Our loaner 2007 CBR600RR from Carter Motorsports is blue and quicksilver, launching out of the turn in 2nd gear on a wave of rediscovered midrange torque, the tach sweeping from 7,000-11,000RPM. New lighter titanium under seat exhaust issues the lusty howl of a euphoric in-line…

George Jetson had it right; even in the opening sequence of the show his whirring air car portrayed the kind of congestion-carving nimbleness that any commuter who’s sat in a constipation of single-occupant, Yaletown-apartment-sized SUVs craves.  While a flying car may be out of the question, a sleek solution with slick sci-fi styling and Euro-flair…

When we first tested Honda’s ST1300 we came away wondering just where the sport in big red’s Sport-Tourer resided.  Was it optional?  Had the dealer forgotten to put it in the ample left-hand glove box?  So in the name of journalism (read fun), we took the ST out again… and poked it with a stick… a…

The bike is sitting there in the parking lot, purring to itself in a quiet manner foreign to most big twins. Which is fair enough, because at 750cc the Honda Shadow Aero isn’t exactly a huge thumping, vibing mass of old iron, it’s something from an altogether different caste – an entry-level bang for the…

In truth there can be no call between the two; it’s a mater of individual preference. I had an amazing amount of fun on the 599 – proper hooligan fun at times. The 599 demanded to be ridden hard all the time, turn that loud handle, rev that engine, grab those brakes, lean forward on…

I’m in the middle of a decreasing radius corner and I’m wondering if I’m about to get stung. No, there’s not a wayward bee in my helmet, but from the buzzing in my crotch there’s no doubt I’m on a 600; the Hornet 600, or Honda 599, depending on which part of the globe you’re…

Sibling bikes; comparing them is a lot like comparing white wine to red. They both may come from the same vineyard, they may even come in the same shape of bottle, but really that’s about as far as it goes. Right, fine, no point in doing it then – or is there? In the real…

With all the hubbub over the CBR1000RR these days, its 599cc sibling, the CBR600RR, has taken the pillion seat in the eyes of the world and Honda’s marketing machine. So, before we all get carried away with serious displacement lust of the hyper-sport variety, lets turn the dial on the way-back machine by, gasp, a…

Let’s get it all out of the way right off the top: the mirrors are atrocious, the fuel range horrible, it has a tendency to stall in hard stops, and the ergos are uncomfortable at anything slower than 120kph. Now throw all that out the window. Why? Gobs of low rev torque for one. This…