2014 HONDA CTX1300 REVIEW

With the summer months well and truly upon us and Vancouver's typical July and August temperatures having finally arrived, we thought we would turn this issue's "On Wheels" component of the Range Bag towards something that reflects that: a motorcycle. The first of what we hope will become a regular powersports review, we thought we'd kick it off with a motorcycle that blurs the lines between a few categories, and somehow manages to have one foot in the cruiser market and another in the touring market: the Honda CTX1300

The larger of the two new bikes bearing the CTX name from the world's friendliest motorcycle company, the CTX1300 takes a retuned version of the transverse V4 from the ST1300 sport touring bike, and repackages into a long and low quasi-bagger. The fairing is wide and bears a similar look to that of the larger F6B and, to a degree, the Gold Wing, and the handlebar continues the long and stretched-out theme courtesy of its severely raked stems and heavy rearward sweep. Below, the gauges are easy to read and fantastically finished (even in direct sunlight the detail on the gauge face keeps glare at bay), and the black plastic trim surrounding the gauge cluster sweeps around the forks and finishes off in a pair of small cubbyholes and the switchgear for the optional audio system and centre gauge readout.

The seating position is, as you can tell from the photos, quite low. Combined with the low bullnosed front end and the slow tail, the whole thing looks very traditional-bagger-ish in profile, but feels dramatically better once you climb aboard. Sure, the bars are high and wide enough to earn being called beach bars, but the footpegs aren't placed overly far forward, so you don't need to adopt the back-breaking stretched out approach that so many similar looking bikes require. The only downside is the relatively lack of legroom. With the rear cylinders of the V4 sticking out either side, we found the cylinder heads' trim did rub against our legs, and the relatively lack of space between the inside of our shins and the exhaust headers meant we always felt quite a lot of radiant heat through our boots and pants. Furthermore, with a passenger aboard, there wasn't a lot of room between our passenger's toes, our legs, and the engine itself and we did find our calves bumping into the passenger's foot if we rolled a couple inches forward with one of our feet on the ground.

But once under way the CTX1300 comes into its own. Despite having lost 35 horsepower over the same motor that's found in the ST1300, the CTX's engine remains lively due to a gain in torque, and a more brash exhaust system. Combined with the CTX's relatively decent ground clearance and low centre of gravity (most of the fuel, for example, is stored under the seat) the riding experience is surprisingly lively. The bike rolls into corners nicely and with minimal effort thanks to the ultra-wide bars, and the low centre of gravity ensures that it feels nice and stable mid-corner. In fact, the throttle response and low centre of gravity make this bike so stable that we found ourselves wishing for slightly more ground clearance, as we came within a hair's breadth of introducing the rider's pegs and the low-slung exhaust to the pavement on a few of the longer sweeping corners we encountered.

However we found our inner hooligan mostly satiated by the experience of hammering the big CTX out of corner. The big 1,261 cubic centimetre V4 has a powerband that makes Saskatchewan look bumpy and there is torque everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. If you carry a passenger, you'll want to tell them to hold on, because it's an addictive enough experience that you'll find youself doing it every chance you get. And it sounds great too; an equal mix of cruiser v-twin and high performance four-cylinder, it's relatively quiet when you're on the throttle but pops and burps gloriously during shifts and deceleration.

Of course, it's not all rosy. The overall fit and finish of a few of the trim pieces leave something to be desires; the cubby boxes, dash trim, and console switchgear are all mediocre at best. And according to our passenger, the back seat is at an odd angle and induces back pain... and that's coming from someone that's perfectly happy to ride pillion on a sportbike! Furthermore, while the wide bar makes handling a breeze, it's swept so far back and has such a broad span that slow speed parking lot manoeuvres feel fraught with danger, as it feels like the merest whiff of effort is enough to auger the thing into the ground.

But that's undoubtedly something one would get over with more seat time, and given how fantastically the CTX manages to combine some of the strengths of Honda's popular ST1300 with the look and feel of a big cruising bike, it's a trade off that many will consider worthwhile. Approachable, easy to ride, and versatile without looking overly practical, we only hope our next powersports product review is as pleasant to conduct as this one was!

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