New Honda CB400 on the way?

When our Japanese colleagues at Young Machine reveal some indiscreet news, it’s always worth reflecting. It happens quite often that Rising Sun magazine announces something new from the four sisters (Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha) well in advance, and it wouldn’t be the first time that certain rumors turn out to be fanciful.

But we would like to say a few more words about this supposed new Honda CB 400 for 2025, not so much because it could also arrive on our market (a possibility that has yet to be proven), but because 2024 would be the 40th anniversary of the first Honda CB 400 Four and… In short, in our opinion, important anniversaries should be celebrated: does Honda agree?

First of all, the news: as we mentioned, for several days now a rumor has been circulating in Japan – not confirmed in any way by Honda sources – that a new generation of the Honda CB 400 is on the way, both in naked and fairing versions and, above all, equipped with the new electronically controlled E-Clutch that we saw at EICMA 2023 in the crankcases of the CB650R and CBR650R.

This leaves us, at first glance, a little perplexed: the Honda CB 400 Super Four and Super Bol d’Or were taken off Honda’s list at the end of 2022 because it wasn’t deemed necessary to update their engine to the latest old-fashioned standards and also because the sales figures were no longer what they once were, perhaps also the result of list prices that reflected the refinement of the construction (there was also the Hyper Vtec variable timing system). What was the point of bringing them back a few years later? Have the reasons for their discontinuation disappeared?

Source:https://www.moto.it

Anything is possible, none of us can know the manufacturers’ strategies in detail, especially since the Honda CB 400s were hardly ever imported here. However, in Japan, there has been talk of a new generation of these bikes for at least a year and, if we add these rumors to the news that Honda Motorcycle Sales has just been set up in Shanghai (which will start operating on April 1, 2024) with the aim of selling medium and large displacement bikes in China, everything can take on a different perspective: could it be – a more than obligatory conditional – a new generation of Honda 400 also aimed at satisfying the demand for 400/500 cc bikes in the Chinese market?

From this point of view, it would have a whole other meaning and the imagination could go even further, imagining a four-cylinder sports bike that could keep company with the Kawasaki ZX4-R or the KOVE 450 RR and perhaps, who knows, even arrive in Europe as the heir to the CBR400RRs of the 1990s that never arrived in our country. It would almost be a unique event, announced precisely on the 40th anniversary of the debut of the Honda CB 400 Four! But it’s best to temper our enthusiasm because, as with any rumor, only time will tell if it’s true: we’ll see.

O conteúdo New Honda CB400 on the way? aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.