Honda CB 1000 R Sunset 2019 — Specifications

Fifty years. Half a century separates the 1969 CB 750 Four from this CB 1000 R Sunset that rolled out of Honda France's workshops in 2019. While England chose to celebrate the anniversary with the CB 1100 RS 5four, the French responded with something more radical, more personal. They entrusted the project to the concept store "nous", and the result deserves serious attention.

Sixty-nine units. The number is no coincidence: it refers directly to the birth year of the CB 750, the machine that rewrote the rulebook when it landed on a market then dominated by the British. Honda turned everything upside down with that inline four-cylinder, and the Sunset fully embraces that lineage by playing on nostalgia without descending into folklore. The starting point is an already well-equipped CB 1000 R+, but the transformation goes far beyond a simple makeover.

The black bodywork serves as a backdrop, though it's anything but monochrome. The tank, side scoops, front fender and seat cowl receive a Sunset paint treatment — those bands of color that evoke the 1980s more than Seventies psychedelia. The Honda logo applied to the bodywork is the one from decades past, the same seen on the machines immortalized by Joe Bar Team. The swingarm, handlebar, fork yokes and levers are finished in epoxy black, while the exhaust system and SC Project silencer receive a black ceramic treatment. Understated to the eye at rest, it announces its sonic presence the moment the 998 cc four-cylinder awakens. With 145 horsepower at 10,500 rpm and 104.9 Nm of torque available at 8,250 rpm, the engine needs no embellishment to command respect.

For €16,999, you get far more than a differently dressed Neo Sports Café roadster. You're buying a limited-edition collector's piece, an object that is as much a cultural statement as it is a road motorcycle. The standard CB 1000 R already appeals to fans of manageable proportions, with its 212 kg fully fuelled and its 825 mm seat height that makes it accessible without making it ordinary. The Sunset inherits all of that, plus the extra soul that only limited series know how to offer. It speaks to those who ride as much on their history as on their fuel — the forty- and fifty-somethings who grew up with Honda posters on their walls and are now looking for an object that resonates with that mechanical memory. For everyone else, the standard CB 1000 R at a more reasonable price will cover the miles just as well, but with far less meaning.