Sabre is one of Honda’s recurring motorcycle nameplates, first appearing in the early 1980s on the VF750 Sabre, part of Honda’s pioneering liquid-cooled V4 era. The name later reappeared on other Honda motorcycles before being revived again for the VT1300 generation, where it was applied to a new custom cruiser introduced for the 2010 model year. In that modern form, the Sabre sat alongside Honda’s other VT1300 variants and carried a stripped, bobbed, performance-cruiser look that contrasted with the more touring-oriented models in the same family.
The VT1300-era Sabre was not a continuation of the older V4 sport-touring machines in mechanical terms, but rather a fresh reinterpretation of a familiar Honda badge. Honda unveiled the VT1300CS at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, signaling the return of the Sabre name to a different kind of motorcycle aimed at cruiser buyers. That revival ran through the early 2010s and ended after the 2013 model year.
Because the Sabre badge had already lived through an earlier Honda production era and then returned on a separate modern motorcycle line, it is best understood as a nameplate with distinct historical periods rather than one uninterrupted model run.