Six to choose from

Frank’s questions re the likes of Honda’s CBX1000 got me thinking, as I have had a long-standing fascination with six-cylinder bikes.

Having ridden a Honda CBX1000, a Kawasaki Z1300 and a BMW GT1600, the fascination persists, but I have yet to actually buy one. The CBX was about the only Honda I have ever enjoyed riding – yes, it had Honda’s usual feeling of mechanical efficiency, but it also managed to add something else that other Hondas (I have had a few!) never seemed to have. The Z1300 managed to seem significantly more massive than the CBX (but not as massive as the BMW!) yet I still toy with the idea of buying one from time-to-time. So why would I want one (any six-cylinder)?

Frank’s point about the visual wow factor is a valid one, particularly with the naked CBX’s exposed, forward-slanting engine – the BMW is, to be honest, a bit of a disappointment in that respect, the original concept bike looks so much better and it does seem to be increasingly valid to buy bikes as investments (aka a work of art), so having a CBX just to sit and look at would perhaps be no bad thing?

However, I am pretty sure that I would still want to ride the bike now and again, which brings me to Frank’s second point about how far would you ride such a bike?

Other than the BMW, probably not very far, to be honest – I suspect I would worry about the required level of maintenance. So, for everyday use it would be the BMW, but for cheer-me-up now-and-again use, it would probably be the

CBX, although I have yet to ride the Benelli

750 (or a Horex VR6), so if anyone out there has one to borrow for an hour or so, just for research purposes...?

David Moore

Great to hear from you David, I like six-cylinder cars, but have only ridden the BMW, which was too smooth. Weight is always my argument against them, but there’s a Laverda at our local meet often and it sounds sublime! – Matt