Honda Hornet CB750 Review – Affordable new middleweight packs a punch

Honda Hornet CB750 Review

Honda CB750 test by Wayne Vickers – Images RbMotoLens

The mid size naked segment is well and truly alive. And why not? Smaller bikes, cheaper to run, with the emphasis on outright fun rather than outright performance and stat bragging rights.

Gone are the days when you needed a big donk for decent power. Three quarters of a litre is now more than enough to produce a terrific power plant.

Honda’s newest driveline offers ample proof of exactly that. It’s not the only thing they’ve done well with the new Hornet – I reckon they’re onto a winner. And no – it’s not perfect, there is one thing that does annoy me about it. But it is a seriously good thing overall. Far better than the $13.5K ride away price suggests.

Let’s get the naming thing out of the way. From a historical sense, being a twin-cylinder, the new CB750 Hornet is no more a CB than it is a Hornet. But time moves on. Honda no longer refers to engine codes when naming models.

So what stood for an in-line, across the frame four-cylinder in the past, now means diddly squat. Having owned no less than six CBRs, I was grumpy when Honda ‘sullied’ the CBR line by including twins in the line up. But I’ve had a few years of therapy and am almost over it. Almost.

The new Hornet. It’s quite a small bike overall. Around the 190 kg mark with a very low seat height, meaning ease of riding is wayyyy up there and it’s a cinch in traffic. Flat feet find the deck easily.

It’s not a super long reach to the bars. In fact my butt was wanting to rest against the rubber seat back in my natural riding  position. I’m around the 181 cm mark or just under six-foot in old money. So basketball players might struggle. That’s not to say I felt cramped on it.

On the contrary – I spent several 200 plus kilometre days on it without any issue or soreness. Even with my ‘only just getting back to normal’ leg after breaking it a couple of months back.

Fit and finish seems typical Honda. It doesn’t look, or feel cheap. Which makes that price all the more impressive.

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I’m happy to report that the new 755 cc parallel twin is a peach. Punching well above what you expect from a ‘mere’ three-quarter. It’s surprisingly grunty. We’re talking 90 hp and 75 Nm. Both of those peaks are quite high up in the rev range, with peak torque coming in at just over 7000 rpm.

That surprises me actually. Firstly – the way it punches, it feels like more than 90 hp, and then secondly it doesn’t exactly feel like it’s missing anything down low. Not riding the bike in isolation anyway.

The way it delivers hump from down low is just lovely. Lovely! Real urge from as low as two and a half grand and it continues to surprise and reward as it revs out. Mid-range is where the fun is and there’s more up top than you might expect. Like the little Aprilia Tuono (which is not remotely in the same price ballpark) this engine will happily rev.

For me the whole Hornet experience revolves around that terrific engine. And the quick-shifter. One of the nicest shifters from a Honda that I can recall right now.

Nice rev matching on downshift – and with a surprisingly good exhaust note for stocker – it’s a pleasure to stir the pot both up and down. I did use the clutch past neutral on the way up, but found it didn’t need any help on the way back from second to first.

It also doesn’t need much help to loft the front, with clutchless wheelies in second being child’s play. And doable in third too… Did I mention it’s got some serious grunt? It’ll point at clouds right through fourth gear too. All the way past the old tonne. Really nice balance point. Reminds me a bit of my old CBR600F4i actually. And I have many happy memories on that bike.

Out of town and on the charge it’s a bloody fun thing. Tips in nicely and feels like you could put it in a postage stamp in terms of line choice. Those Showa SFF-BP forks doing a decent job and even the pre-load adjustable shock being pretty close right out of the box. The front isn’t bad. Lucky, as it’s non-adjustable, but the rear is where you will want to play with some pre-load if you’re getting seriously up it. Or have a few pies under your belt.

It’s arguably a bit underdone there but it’s not far off the mark depending on your weight and riding style. And for the price –  it’s not bad as an all-round compromise. For an extra couple of hundred bucks however I reckon most punters would prefer a more adjustable rear shock though if given the choice.

Change of direction is very quick without being nervous – that 160 section rear tyre profile playing its part there, but what surprised me was how happy it felt on its side. Really solid.

Even on the Michelin Road tyres on a relatively cool Victorian photo shoot day, once a couple of sighting runs were in the bank I felt more than comfortable cranking it over. It feels nimble, care of the relatively short 1420 mm wheelbase, but that doesn’t translate to being flighty. Honda have done well here.

Brakes too are decent. Nissins at both ends work nicely and as a whole package it just seems to gel really well. Some bikes you’ll have certain elements that feel over or under done, but the new Hornet feels pretty bloody right when out and about.

Again it reminds me of the way my old F4i felt in that once dialled in I could do pretty much anything on it with total confidence. The new Hornet has more than a bit of that going on. There’s more than a bit of hooligan in there if you want it…

The only gripe I have is with the fuelling under specific conditions. By specific, I mean filtering slowly through traffic while commuting. First and second gear mostly.

The transition between off to on throttle and back again is fairly snatchy. Moreso than it should be, especially when we’re talking about a bike that no doubt had commuting and urban duties pretty high on the design brief.

I’ve no doubt it will be ridden by a broad spectrum of riders ranging in experience too. So I can’t help be a bit frustrated here as it’s the one thing holding the bike back from an exceptional rating and it really is just a map update away surely. Maybe it was less noticeble on 95Ron fuel? Maybe I was imagining it.

I found my preferred setting of power at three (max), engine braking set to 1 (min) and traction control… sorry, Torque Control turned off. That setting seemed to be palatable but you still had to be ‘on it’ with your throttle control when filtering.

It seemed ok in third gear and up. But first and second could get annoying if you were tippy toeing through traffic. That seems to really highlight any fuelling issues and unfortunately slicing and dicing amongst traffic makes up a lot of my day to day riding.

One more annoyance? Like a lot of other bikes, it also resets that Torque control setting to one every time you turn the key off. Those days should be behind us. I wish it just respected your settings.

I do like mid sized bikes as a whole. And this is one of the better ones for sure. Probably the best sub 15k, mid-sized naked I’ve ridden. More power, electronics and better handling than what was the class leading MT-07. Team blue have got some homework to do now…

Looking forward to riding the Transalp even more now. Are Honda going to drop that engine in a CBR chassis, lean on it a little and throw some up-spec suspension at it? Man… what a fun little thing that would be.

Why I rate the Honda Hornet CB750

• Really well balanced package as a whole.
• With a cracking engine and gearbox. Ripper.
• At a price that seems amazing value.

I’d like the Honda Hornet CB750 more if…

• Can we fix the low speed part throttle fuelling please? How is that still a thing.
• And throw an adjustable rear shock in there.
• I’d have to throw a more open muffler on there, even though the stocky is pretty good.

2023 Honda Hornet CB750 Specifications

Honda Hornet CB750 Gallery