Honda Vultus NM4

This week I found another release from Honda (Osaka Motorshow) his time about a new concept motorcycle that reminds me of another Honda parked in my garage. Welcome world to the Honda NM4 Vultus!  It is a production motorcycle due for release within 12 months. The Vultus should be affordable too as it uses quite a number of  parts in common with the NC series which themselves are good motorcycles. 

The Honda NM4 Vultus is clearly inspired from Japanese animation and manga and is probably the closest real world interpetation of any Japanese anime motorcycle to date. The basis of the NM4 Vultus appears to be based on the current Honda NC range of bikes so the mechanicals underneath the futuristic fairing will be as reliable as anything else Honda. Hence the Vultus could be described as sports model or perhaps the ‘Limited edition’ special! 

The engine of the Vultus is not exactly a power house but a good performer and clearly fuel efficient since the fuel tank is a mere 11.6 litres. It’s like its Japanese fictional bikes, an stylish urban motorcycle. The only real feature is the Dual Clutch Transmission or gearbox that operates as an automatic and only has 6 gears – and it is from the NC series. Based on specifications it does appear to be a cost effective motorcycle to manufacture hence could be very competitively priced!

I also like the attitude of Mr Keita Mikura, Large Project Leader (LPL) NM4 Vultus. “Honda is a big company. We make every kind of motorcycle. It’s great that sometimes we make a certain machine simply because we can and because we want to, not because we “should”. 

What he says is very true and historically documented, Honda motorcycles has a great history of releasing technically challenging motorcycles as well producing classic motorcycle designs along with amazingly popular models.  In fact I believe more so than any other motorcycle manufacturer.

See the next post for my thoughts and comparison between the Honda NM4 Vultus vs the Honda DN-01 – NSA700!