Honda preparing new adventure bike?

COULD this be a new baby Honda adventure bike? It’s just been patented by Honda’s Chinese joint-venture Wuyang-Honda and doesn’t seem to match anything that the firm currently makes.

The bike’s basis is the Chinese market CB190R, but while that is an aggressive-looking naked sports bike (albeit one with a modest 15.8hp from an air-cooled single-cylinder, 184cc engine), this is clearly more adventure-styled.

Weirdly, Honda has already got an adventure-style machine based on the same platform, the CBF190X Fight Hawk, revealed last November in China. However, the design seen here is quite different.

Although it uses the same chassis as the CB190R, as does the CBF190X, the new model has a different exhaust instead of the under-belly design of those two models. That means it gets a little more ground clearance and is less vulnerable to damage. It’s also got right-way-up forks instead of the USD suspension of the other two machines, and completely different bodywork.

Is there really a market for Honda to offer two different adventure-styled bikes based on the same underpinnings? Given the huge number of bikes sold in China – where this is clearly aimed – there just might be.

It’s near-certain that, like the CB190R and the CBF190X, this model won’t ever be offered in the west. However, with the right price tag and a downsized, learner-legal 125cc engine something similar might prove pretty popular.