Cruisers aren’t exactly my cup of tea. I find myself gravitating to sportier bikes, particularly sportbikes and naked bikes. But today’s crop of metric cruisers is getting pretty cool, at least for me. On the small-displacement side of things, we have interesting new players like the Kawasaki Eliminator and CFMoto CLC.
Meanwhile, on the big-displacement side of the story, bikes like the Rebel 1100 have certainly changed the game, proving that metric cruisers don’t necessarily have to be imitations of American iron.
The Honda Rebel 1100 made quite a lot of waves when it was released in 2021. Built around the punchy parallel-twin engine that became famous all over the world thanks to the Africa Twin, the Rebel 1100 was the perfect blend of performance and cruiser charm. And it seems that the interest for the most premium machine to bear the Honda Rebel name isn’t dying down anytime soon.
You see, our friends over at Motorcycle.com were able to obtain type-approval documents that hint at updates to the Rebel 1100, at least in the European market. Of course, updates include refinements and tweaks to the engine and exhaust that make it compliant with the latest Euro 5+ standards. Like before, the 2025 Rebel 1100 will come in two transmission options—manual and DCT—as well as standard and touring options.
But Honda’s type-approval documents hint at something pretty interesting, and that’s an additional variant of the Rebel 1100. The bike’s model code, CMX1100D3, suggests that the bike will be equipped with a DCT gearbox, so it’s more than likely that this thing will be a touring-focused machine, rather than a sportier variant a lot of us have been hoping for.
This news comes alongside the upcoming Honda CB1000 Hornet, yet another liter-class naked bike that could hold a lot of potential for Honda. And while Honda itself has yet to make any official announcements on the availability of these bikes, it’s more than likely that we won’t have to wait much longer until we get to see these bikes in all their glory.
Two of the world’s biggest motorcycle expos are just around the corner, with EICMA slated to generate a lot of buzz from November 7 to 10, 2024 in Milan, Italy. This will soon be followed by Intermot, in Cologne, Germany, from December 5 to 8, 2024. As such, we can expect anything and everything to do with new model releases from Honda and dozens of other manufacturers in these trade shows.
I’d keep my eyes peeled if I were you, as we already know that there are some pretty big things planned for EICMA and Intermot this year.
