Bangladesh Honda Pvt Ltd unveiled the street naked sports bike Honda CB Hornet 160R on 16^th February 2018 at ICCB near Purbachol 300 feet. The bike was the first from Honda to enter in the premium segment in Bangladesh with a muscular look and a wider rear tyre. Today I will talk about the 10,000 km riding Experience with Honda CB Hornet 160R.

Honda CB Hornet 160R 10,000 KM Test Ride Review - In Details

  We have already published the Test Ride Review report after we tested the bike for 2500 km. Now in this article, we will talk about what are the issues we faced in our 10,000 km testing which will further elaborate on the performance of the motorcycle.   

STYLING & FEATURES  The bike also gets the following features as standard:

• Muscular fuel tank with attractive graphics
• 140 section wider rear tyre.
• 276 mm petal disc brake with Nissin calliper.
• X Shaped LED tail light
• 5- spoke split black alloys wheels
• 163 cc powerful HET (Honda Eco Technology) engine.
• 3 step adjustable mono-shock suspension
• MF (Maintenance Free) Battery
• Viscous air filter.
• AHO ( Automation Headlight On)
• Sealed Chain (From October 2018)

Honda CB Hornet Test Ride Video Review

Also Read: Best 160cc Bike In Bangladesh Under 5 Lakh

In terms of styling, Honda really worked its magic in this motorcycle, previous Honda motorcycles like CB Trigger, CB Unicorn, also was good but focused for mature riders but with Honda CB Hornet they made the bike muscular & more importantly sharp which attracted the young bikers a lot. Honda CB Hornet 160R with its muscular fuel tank gives the outstanding look to the bike. It gets sharp & edgy halogen headlight with two positioning laps. The thing which really caught the eyes of the bikers is the X Shaped LED tail light. It is unique & bikers of young generation love this uniqueness.

 ENGINE & PERFORMANCE  The engine of the bike is a brand new 163 cc air-cooled single-cylinder engine. The engine boosts 15.1 BHP of power & 14.7 NM of maximum Torque. The engine is fitted with a 5-speed gearbox. The engine of the bike is something a talking point, the engine is a newly designed one which has Honda ECO Technology (HET) which helps the engine to burn less fuel and gives maximum performance. During the testing the top speed I managed to pickup with my motorcycle was 124 kmph. The mileage feedback was good, in the city we saw that under normal riding condition the mileage figure used to go around 40 kmpl. On the highway, the mileage feedback I received was around 42-45  kmpl.

Comfort & Convenience Honda CB Hornet60R is a comfortable motorcycle to ride on different road condition. It has 1346 mm wider wheelbase with 140 section wider rear tyre which gives better grip and helps on cornering with confidence. The motorcycle has a maintenance-free battery which is just plugged & play. In this type of battery, you don’t need to put any external distilled water to the battery. Viscous air filter also increases the efficiency of clean air entering the bike’s engine. For being wet the dust particles get attract very easily to the filter paper.

Riding Experience  For a rider, the riding posture is comfortable both for the city & on the highway. I rode this bike all the way from Dhaka to Thanchi, Bandarban in one day, around 425 km & I wasn’t exhausted or tired in my trip. One of the reasons is that although the rear suspension is a bit hard to start with but if you can maintain the proper air pressure and adjust it according to the setting you are comfortable with then you will get better feedback. Also, you need to have the proper tyre pressure so that the bike becomes stable under braking & cornering.

The bike’s engine doesn’t make too much noise unless you rev the bike over 6000 RPM that is where the torque kicks in. Unlike some bike in this segment, Hornet doesn’t have a ready pickup but it delivers the mid-range torque well, something which became helpful while riding on the hill tracks of Bangladesh. Even though the bike doesn’t have instant acceleration but it has been backed up by the way the bike handle’s on corners. Due to the design of the bike, Hornet has fantastic cornering ability & it’s been supported well with the front brake & the wider rear tyre.

 I really enjoyed riding with it on the hill tracks of Bangladesh. The bike has taller gear ratio so even at the 4^th gear you can have 100 kmph on the speedometer. You will not feel any vibration from the engine unless the engine passes 7500 RPM. Throughout my testing, I used Honda branded engine oil available across all Honda authorized dealer. I changed the engine oil periodically between 1000-1200 km. Some bikers complain that Hornet has a power loss issue. In my testing of 10,500 km where I rode mostly on the highway, I haven’t experienced any power loss issue. Some bikers also complained about the rear end to be very hard and often the rear tyre skids on high-speed braking. I agree the tyres don’t have the best grip for roads which are dusty but if you can adjust the suspension and keep the recommended tyre pressure then the grip level and handling of the bike will improve.

The chain is the biggest talking point of the bike, the stock chain I had wasn’t a sealed chain, so it used to make lots of noise and I needed to tighten it up more than usual, currently all Honda CB Hornet 160R that are available since October 2018 has sealed chain as standard with them. Honda also took the initiative to change the chain of many Honda CB Hornet 160R customers across Bangladesh. Due to AC operated headlight, you may face some problems in places where there are potholes & you need to lower down the pickup. Although the headlight illumination was good for it’s been AC operated you tend to have low confidence on the highway. I was a bit disappointed with the colour quality of the motorcycle. I have found rust on the motorcycle on the fuel tank nuts & exhaust pipe of the motorcycle. I hope in the near future BHL will upgrade the colour quality of the bikes.

These are the following spare parts which I changed with an interval during my 10,500 km ride

• Front brake shoe at 6000 km. (Depending on riding style)
• Air Filter at 7000 km. (Depending on riding condition)
• Rear Brake Show at 7500 km (Depending on riding style)
• Chain at 8300 km (BHL Changed my stock chain and replaced it with seal chain, the sealed chain made less noise and you didn’t need to tighten it as often as you used to with the stock non-seal chain ).

Pros:

• The engine produces a good amount of torque.
• Muscular-looking Honda motorcycle for this segment.
• Mid-range to high-end torque delivery is good.
• The exhaust note is good
• Fantastic under braking & also handling on cornering.
• Front suspension feedback is good.
• Good mileage feedback.

Cons:

• Switch gears don’t give premium feelings.
• AC operated headlight.
• The stock chain makes lots of noise but with seal chain from October 2018 problem goes away.
• Colour quality needed to be better.

Currently, Bangladesh Honda Pvt Ltd sold around 11,000 Hornets in Bangladesh. Since October all Honda CB Hornet 160R that came in Bangladesh were sold with sealed chain and we hope BHL will solve the small issues with the current model & improve it further in the near future We hope this 10,000 km riding experience will help you elaborate more about the bike. Honda CB Hornet is now available in 3 colors in Bangladesh with a price tag of 189,800 BDT. With every purchase from an authorized dealer, the biker will get 2 years or 20,000 km engine warranty & 4 free services.