Honda CB 1100 EX Final Edition 2021 — Specifications

Some motorcycles don't die — they fade quietly, like a flame left to burn down to its very end. The Honda CB 1100 EX Final Edition belongs to that rare category: machines whose disappearance says something greater than the mere end of a production run. When Honda puts the final period on this lineage, it's an entire cooling philosophy signing its last roadmap on the European market. An inline four-cylinder of 1140 cc air-cooled, 90 horsepower at 7,500 rpm, 91.2 Nm of torque at 5,500 rpm, chrome fins that tick as they cool after a good run. That sound, precisely, will exist no more.

Honda made no attempt to turn the farewell into a spectacle. Two understated color options — burgundy or black — a few pinstripes on the tank, and a discreet sticker tucked beneath the fuel cap to signal the final edition. No golden badge on the instrument cluster, no serial number engraved on the fork. Anyone trying to identify this machine will have to lean in, search, almost guess. It's almost a metaphor for the machine itself: everything that matters happens quietly, without theatrics.

What appeals here are precisely the qualities the industry has gradually abandoned. No riding modes, no invasive electronics, no digital dashboard talking at you. A steel double-cradle frame, a 41 mm telescopic fork, two classic dual shock absorbers, wire-spoke wheels, and a finish worthy of an era when manufacturers still took the time to care for every visible detail. At 10,550 euros, you're not buying an ultra-modern motorcycle; you're buying a rare stylistic coherence — the kind the CB 750 Four of the 1970s had imposed on the entire world.

With a wet weight of 255 kg, a seat height of 780 mm, and a top speed limited to 200 km/h, the CB 1100 EX is not aimed at lap-time hunters or aspiring track riders. Its audience is the patient long-distance traveler, the connoisseur of fine machinery who values sensory pleasure over raw performance, someone who still appreciates the sound of an old-school combustion engine. Compared to a Kawasaki W800 or a Royal Enfield Interceptor 650, Honda plays in a higher class in terms of displacement and finish — though the competition doesn't share the same relationship with emissions regulations either.

Because that is the crux of the issue. This final version is sold only in Japan and a handful of Asian markets. Europe closed its doors long ago to this type of powerplant. Which makes the Honda CB 1100 EX Final Edition all the more precious in the eyes of collectors: you simply cannot buy one new here anymore. The last representative of a mechanical philosophy that Euro 5 standards condemned without appeal, this CB 1100 will be remembered as proof that it is sometimes possible to do things right, all the way to the end.