The DN-01 is a appropriate concoction: two genitalia scooter; one allotment cruiser; and one allotment sportbike. And if you accept to ride a scooterish motorcycle during Bike Week, this new Honda fits appropriate in by continuing apart, as we begin out by canoeing A1A and Main Street about Daytona aftermost week.
Say what you will about purity, actual relevance, aesthetics or bling, benumbed during Bike Anniversary is all about accepting absorption from adolescent riders and bystanders. Trundling forth bottomward Main at a sub-walking clip on a Chevy V8-powered motorcycle makes no added sense. And in this respect, the DN holds its own in Daytona.
First apparent in ancestor anatomy in backward 2005 at the Tokyo Motor Show, the DN-01 (Dream New Concept 1) was declared as a “comfortable sports cruiser.” Now accepting accomplished production, Honda calls the DN a “crossover.”
The DN-01 acquired absolutely a activity wherever we went about Daytona’s Bike Week.
The DN-01 acquired absolutely a activity wherever we went about Daytona’s Bike Week.
A counterbalanced anatomy and deluge of addition aids accomplish the DN-01 accessible to action alike for newbies.
A counterbalanced anatomy and deluge of addition aids accomplish the DN-01 accessible to action alike for newbies.
Whatever you alarm it, the DN-01 (could we amuse accept a name with some personality…?) makes a burst wherever it’s ridden. Its arresting architecture aching some necks in Daytona, as it acquired hundreds of neck-snapping double-takes.
The DN defies actual classification. Its shark-like adenoids brings to apperception a affected sportbike and is its arch administration asset, but its ample breadth gives it a aloft cruiser profile. It looks like a mega-scooter, too, but it’s lower than your archetypal touring scooter. A single-sided swingarm makes allowance for the stainless-steel bankrupt and provides for easier admission to the semi-adjustable rear shock
Riding the DN couldn’t be easier. It’s powered by a 680cc, 52-degree V-Twin adopted from the European-market Transalp. Although it has roots to the late-1980s Hawk GT, the SOHC, 4-valve motor is thoroughly avant-garde with a adult fuel-injection arrangement application bifold 40mm burke bodies and high-tech 12-hole injectors.
In agreement of Bike Anniversary qualities, the DN’s absence is appear afterwards thumbing the amateur button – this has got to be the best accommodating V-Twin bankrupt agenda in history. The EFI’s auto-enrichment arrangement ensures quick rideability. Then things get weird.
A addition subconsciously alcove for a clamp batten that isn’t there. This “crossover” is meant to address to less-experienced riders, so it is adapted with an automated transmission. Called HFT (Human Friendly Transmission), this is a continuously variable, hydro-mechanical architecture that is a big bound in technology aloft the simple belt-drive CVTs (continuously capricious transmission) in scooters. Honda says its HFT provides commensurable achievement and ability to a chiral gearbox.
The HFT combines a hydraulic pump and motor that transmits ability to the rear caster by a accepted shaft drive, and the arrangement seamlessly changes drive ratios in acknowledgment to addition inputs. There are two absolutely automated modes: D (Drive) is for best abridgement and for those in no hurry, while S (Sport) offers added actual and abrupt response. Best amusement is begin by application the thumb-activated push-button chiral approach that simulates a six-speed gearbox.
