by Sabrina Giacomini from https://www.rideapart.com
Not all new motorcycle rumors are true, especially when you’re Honda and you run your own rumor mill. Sometimes, however, despite all the noise, some of those rumors turn out to be real and we get nice surprises like this shiny new 2021 Honda Rebel 1100.
We’ve been talking about a possible Rebel 1100 since March, 2020, when the folks at Young Machine published a render of an upscaled Rebel 500 armed with the Africa Twin’s new 1100 engine. The bike ultimately showed up in a patent in October which seemed to confirm the rumor. It became more a matter of “when” rather than “if”.
Well, folks, the “when” is November 24. Honda pulled the cover off its all-new buffed up Rebel, equipped, as expected with a retuned version of the CRF1100L’s 1,084cc, 270-degree, Unicam, parallel-twin. Also, like the Africa, the Rebel 1100 is equipped with a ride-by-wire throttle that allows the cruiser to feature three riding modes (Standard, Sport, and Rain) and is offered with a choice of a six-speed gearbox or a DCT.
At the front, the cruiser chassis is mounted to a 43mm telescopic fork while the back is support by a pair of Showa shocks with piggyback reservoirs. The 18-inch front wheel is equipped with a 330mm disc with a four-piston caliper while the 16-inch rear wheel gets its stopping power from a single 256mm disc. The bike also features ABS at both wheels and Honda Selectable Torque Control with wheelie control.
A 3.6-gallon fuel tank sits on top of the chassis (versus 2.96 gallons for the Rebel 500 for comparison) and the bike weighs in at a total of 487 pounds for the manual trim level and at 509 pounds with the DCT.
Pricing for the new 2021 Honda Rebel 1100 starts at $9,299 which is $700 cheaper than, say, the Harley-Davidson Iron 1200 ($9,999) and $2,000 less than the Forty-Eight (for a comparable bobber-ish silhouette). Honda also offers a collection of factory accessories that includes soft saddlebags with rack, a batwing fairing, quilted saddles in black and tan
