Why Not Do It Yourself?
Why Not Do It Yourself?
You do save old issues, don’t you? Good. Root around in the closet or the garage and see if you’ve still got Cycle World for February, 1982. Turn to page 33, the Harley-Davidson ad with the picture of the crate. On the next page there’s a photo of an FXRS. The headline says “Maybe this time nothing will get lost in the translation” and half the text is in Japanese.
A little rough humor there. Harley’s ad agency had noted styling trends, the return of the V-Twin and they wanted to jab a few ribs.
Now find a side view of Honda’s new Shadow.
Some joke.
Worse, from the standpoint of editorial comment, Harley has filed a formal request for action by the Federal Trade Commission, claiming that the Japanese factories are going after Harley customers with Harley’s traditional appeals, that is, big Twins and an appearance that used to be unique to Harley.
We aren’t concerned here with that. Nor are we willing to judge the Shadow on the basis of how it looks, or whether it looks like something else, or has an engine resembling other engines. Every motorcycle company (and every motorcycle magazine) does things the others did first.
This essay is written in sorrow. It’s an expression of disappointment, of loss of faith in a company we admire.
Honda was founded by a man with a talent for invention and an inability to do other than what he believed was right. Honda rewrote all the rules, in racing, in transportation, in engineering and in design. Sometimes Honda’s way worked, sometimes not. The original CB450 Twin, the Hawk 400 and the first CX500, for example, looked distinctly odd, while the CB400F and the CX500 Turbo are works of art. The NR500 wasn’t like anything else in road racing, and they had to subtract most of the improvements before it could even qualify for a race. The NS500 was just as unlike the competition, and it’s a winner.
Win or slink away into the night, Honda became the biggest in its field because Honda doesn’t follow or conform to what somebody says other people want.
Comes now the Shadow.
Here was an opportunity. Here was Honda’s chance to do something different. Their first fore-and-aft V-Twin. The engineering is first rate. The ways to keep the best features of the configuration and minimize the drawbacks are great. The drivetrain works.
So what did they do? Honda listened. And put this excellent drivetrain inside as derivative a package as we’ve ever seen. Somebody in a position of power doesn’t believe the customers know enough to appreciate a Honda, so the Shadow must look like something else.
Several years ago we were told Soichiro Honda, the rebel, the tinkerer, the man who changed the world because he believed he could improve how the world made motorcycles, had retired.
Now we believe it.
Allan Girdler
