Introduced in Japan for the 2008 model year, this large-displacement sports cruiser grew out of a concept motorcycle shown at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show and was positioned as a new kind of easy-to-ride, automatic motorcycle. Its defining feature was the Human-Friendly Transmission, an automatic system developed from Honda’s long-running work on clutchless motorcycle operation. In Honda’s own history materials, it is identified as the first production motorcycle equipped with HFT. The bike’s launch was framed as part of a broader effort to make sporty riding more accessible without sacrificing the relaxed character expected of a cruiser. Sales began in March 2008, and Honda later revised the color lineup in 2009, but there was no second generation or revival. Honda history pages state that sales of the HFT-equipped machine ended in 2010, after which the company moved on to DCT-based automatic motorcycle technology. As a result, this remains a short-lived but important milestone in Honda’s automatic-transmission motorcycle development, remembered more for its engineering significance and unconventional market position than for long production volume.
MODEL HISTORY