The Honda Rune, also known as the Honda NRX1800 Valkyrie Rune, is a cruiser that uses the same engine as the Honda Gold Wing of the fifth generation.
The 1832cc flat 6-liquid-cooled engine, 5-speed transmission, and shaft drive are hence its core components.
But the Valkyrie Rune is so much more than its technical specifications. We must first provide a response to the following query: How did we get here?
Before the Rune, Honda produced cruisers, including one that used a six-cylinder engine from the Gold Wing. The 1520cc engine from the GL1500 Gold Wing served as the foundation for the original Honda Valkyrie.
The original Valkyrie (also known as F6C, or “Flat Six Custom”) had a nice exhaust tone that burbled at idle and roared in the middle range, and it was already quite a pretty car.
Honda’s reputation for making “boring motorcycles” is poor. Although I’m not sure how it got started, two elements about this accusation are unquestionably true. In the beginning, the majority of their motorcycles are in fact more “boring than a large unstable cruiser that barks and snarls when you grasp the throttle. In addition, Honda actually produces some quite “boring” commuters and scooters that are known for their storage capacity and fuel efficiency. (They have their place, but you probably won’t fall in love with them.)
Honda therefore occasionally does something incredibly bizarre. Not everyone is like them. BMW surprises us with oddballs like the K1. The three-wheeled Niken was built by Yamaha. The Honda Valkyrie Rune was also created by Honda.
American designers created the Honda Valkyrie Rune, which was mostly produced in the Honda factory in Marysville, Ohio, for the American market. For a Japanese company like Honda, this is extremely unusual.
Engineering came second to design in the Rune. Tony Schroeder, the project director, and Martin Manchester, the senior designer and director of design at HRAHonda Research Association, both had a great deal of creative freedom. “Our aim was to produce something novel, something no one had ever dreamed of before,” Mr. Manchester stated. We intended to design a cruiser with a modern aesthetic as well as one that would be a technological and performance showcase.
Honda offered the Rune design team complete creative freedom. In actuality, they removed all commercial restrictions and were informed that the Rune’s final price was not taken into account during the design process. For Honda, this was a first, and the designers paid attention to it.
The Rune was developed after the team produced several concept bikes. These were displayed to the public at auto exhibitions and in focus groups as well.
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What is the value of a Honda Rune?
All things considered, the Rune is an intriguing homage to the custom bike scene that had the support of a dependable manufacturer like Honda. A good Rune costs, as of this writing, typically between $15,000 and $18,000.
When was the Honda Rune manufactured?
Batman would undoubtedly choose a Honda Rune if he were to purchase a factory motorbike as opposed to creating his own, though he could have problems obtaining one.
Honda debuted the bike in 2004 as a limited-edition model, made in Ohio for the American market. Few people have ever been sent to Australia.
They were purchased here for $50,000, and some purchasers promptly stored them before later selling them for as much as $65,000, according to reports.
Owner Bruce Hartwig of Brisbane is currently accepting bids between $30,000 and $40,000 for his second Rune “investment,” which he acquired from the US a few years ago.
Honda allegedly spent $100,000 making each bike, and they were designed as a hero model to woo American customers away from Harley-Davidson and toward the Japanese manufacturer.
Essentially a stripped-down Goldwing, the Rune has some distinctive aesthetic elements including trailing-link forks.
Honda only made the Rune for a few years, but they now produce the naked F6B, the even more bare F6C, and the racing RC213V, which is one of the quickest motorcycles on the road right now. This motorcycle is highly popular when betting on the MotoGP at bwin.
The Rune is still one of the more bizarre concept/limited models produced by the Japanese firm, nevertheless.
When it debuted at the Brisbane Motorcycle Show in 2004, I rode the showcase model and recall that it was difficult to maneuver through traffic, steady on the highways, and difficult to ride up Mount Glorious.
But wherever it went, it undoubtedly attracted attention. Some others believed it to be a Batman movie prop!
This week, Bruce gave me the chance to reconnect myself with the large beast, and all those memories flooded back.
The bike caught everyone’s attention in a hip West End cafe at the first set of traffic lights, as well as the children on a school bus and another rider who said, “That’s nuts to me.”
At the time, he claims, it seemed like a decent idea. “I considered it to be a wise investment.
“I also had one in maroon. They are beautiful on the highway, simple to ride, and feature fantastic connected brakes.
How numerous Honda runes were produced?
Between 800 and 3000 Runes were constructed, each of which was sold at a significant loss, depending on who you ask.
According to some sources, each bike costs $75,000 US. That might explain a portion of American Honda’s lack of enthusiasm after receiving their motorcycle.
What was the original price of the Honda Rune?
It was among the most lavish production choices in the annals of motorcycles. Build 3,000 or more bikes for an estimated US$100,000 per unit, sell them for only US$25,000, and attribute the resulting $225 million loss to marketing costs.
Is fuel injected in the Honda Rune?
The Rune’s mill is based on the 1,832cc opposed flat six-cylinder liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, Wing engine, which has one overhead cam and two valves per cylinder.
What made the Honda Rune unique?
At its core, the Honda Valkyrie Rune’s engine is the same 1832 cc liquid-cooled unit used in the era’s Gold Wing GL1800 motorcycle.
But Honda altered that engine from the ground up. They changed the top-end tuning, adding hotter cams and more aggressive fuel injection and ignition timing maps, and increased the number of throttle bodies from two to six (32mm throttle bodies with 12-hole injectors). In addition, the Rune sports a different exhaust system from the Gold Wing and a bigger 6.9-liter airbox.
The quoted power is the same as that for the Gold Wing, which is confusing. But because of the modified exhaust system, the engine certainly sounds different.
The Rune has greater mid-range and encourages more bad behavior, according to owners of both motorcycles, but the Gold Wing is faster. The latter is also partially caused by the Gold Wing’s aerodynamic fairings.
Several dyno tests reveal that the GL1800 Gold Wing and the Valkyrie both reach their peak torque at between 2500 and 4000 rpm, consistently around 140-150 Nm (105-110 ft-lb). At 1250 rpm, just above idle on the dyno runs where the peak is higher, more than 80% of the torque is available. So these engines are moving!
The 1832 cc flat six is made to be shifted early, much like an air-cooled cruiser engine. Even when ridden vigorously, the hard redline is at 6500 rpm, and a natural shift would be at around 5000 rpm.
A Honda Rune has how much horsepower?
The 1893cc liquid-cooled, six-cylinder, horizontally opposed engine of the Rune produces 118 horsepower at 5500 rpm and 167 Nm of torque at 4000 rpm.
What is the fastest production bike ever?
Either the Kawasaki Ninja H2R or the specialized MTT Turbine Superbike Y2K is the fastest production motorcycle. The peak speed of both bikes is said to be 250 mph.
What motorcycle is the heaviest?
Finally, though certainly not least (depending on how you look at it), we come to the most weighty and debatable of all. The Boss Hoss powered by a Corvette V8 is undoubtedly the heaviest motorcycle currently being produced (and probably also the silliest and ugliest).
The divisive part is “in production.” The Boss Hoss is not officially imported into the UK and would certainly break a million regulations if it were. It was initially made in 1993 and has 355 horsepower.
However, it is still being made in Tennessee (in both bike and trike form), you can import one into the UK (although I’m sure you could spend your money better elsewhere), and there are used examples driving around in this country.
Honda still manufactures the Valkyrie?
Honda produced the motorcycle known as the Valkyrie from 1997 to 2003. In the US market, it was known as GL1500C, and in other areas, it was known as F6C (“Flat Six Custom”).
In contrast to the V-twin engine often seen on “cruiser” style bikes, the Valkyrie engine is a 1,520 cubic centimeter (93 cubic inch), liquid-cooled, horizontally opposed flat-six engine shared with Honda’s Gold Wing model. The most significant engine modifications in its conversion from the Goldwing were the camshaft and the switch to six unique 28 mm carburetors, one for each cylinder, which improved power and torque.
In Japan, the Valkyrie was available with a reverse gear. The Honda motorcycle plant in Marysville, Ohio, where the Valkyrie was created, is located in the United States.
Who was the Honda Valkyrie’s designer?
A ride on a roller coaster, a run with the bulls, or a spread eagle jump from 15,000 feet are all possible options. Or it can be tearing down the drag strip in a Valkyrie that sucks up nitrous. Gregg Kroman wasn’t particularly looking for the biggest rush. He went through a convoluted process before deciding to develop a N20-powered motorcycle.
The Honda Valkyrie received fuel injection in what year?
A horizontally opposed, four-stroke, liquid-cooled, six-cylinder engine with a displacement of 1,832 cubic centimeters powers the 2005 Honda Valkyrie. The fuel-injected engine has two intake valves on each cylinder for a total of 12 in the engine.
What is the horsepower of the 2014 Honda Valkyrie?
The 1832cc liquid-cooled, horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine with 118 horsepower and 125 lb-ft of torque is carried over into the 2014 Valkyrie unaltered.