[adouglas]

My $0.02 on this bike...

The entry sport bike class is now crowded with entries from four manufacturers, including Honda. We don't need another, unless:

1) Honda kills off the CBR300R single in favor of something more directly comparable to the R3 and Ninja 300 (i.e., a parallel twin entry level sportbike, with steel frame, upright ergos and nothing but shock preload for suspension adjustments), or

2) Honda ups the game with a true sport bike that has no direct competition, similar to KTM's approach but taken a step beyond. That means higher spec everything, and a higher price tag to go with it. Create that bridge between the Ninja 300 and a 600 supersport for the performance/track rider.

From a business standpoint, 2 makes no sense. As much as some of us would love to see it, the demand isn't there to justify it. It'd be a machine designed for a very, very small niche market.

Even 1 is questionable. Honda's smart move is to admit that the CBR300R isn't as appealing a sport bike as either the Ninjette or R3, let it disappear and just go all in on the naked version to grab the current infatuation with naked bikes.

To be honest I think Honda has created some problems for itself. In the last few years it's introduced three perfectly nice faired motorcycles -- the CBR650F, the CBR500R and the CBR300R. Not one of these has garnered much interest from anyone. So what's the point of adding yet another one, if it's just going to be more of same?

Honda needs to inject some passion somewhere.