Two months ago, Honda announced that it is saying farewell to its last remaining air-cooled big bore motorcycle – the CB1100. Though Honda didn’t really say why the CB1100 will be discontinued, it's likely the current engine can no longer meet the ever-tightening European emission regulations.
However, the CB1100 won't be discontinued. Instead, it's getting a new engine.
In a recent patent filing by Honda, a new UJM seems to be in the works, and at the heart of it lies a liquid-cooled 1084cc engine – the same powerplant inside the CRF1100L Africa Twin, as well as the new NT1100 and the Rebel 1100.
As for the frame, Honda made some tweaks to the Rebel 1100’s frame to make it a UJM-standard, while the electronics are also expected to be shared with that of the Rebel 1100.
1,084 DOHC liquid-cooled
Though the bike hasn’t begun production yet, it is safe to assume that it will be very similar to the outgoing CB1100 and much of it will be carried over to this upcoming model.
The engine, however, will be quite different. The outgoing CB1100 is powered by an air and oil-cooled 1,140cc DOHC inline-four that produces about 90 Ps of power. By contrast, the Africa Twin-sourced powerplant produces 102 Ps of power even though its bore is smaller by 56cc and is 2 pistons less than the outgoing model. Best of all, the newer parallel twin is Euro5 emissions compliant, assuring Honda sales across Europe and other nations that have adopted the emissions standard.
