Honda has announced that its upcoming Hornet will get a brand new 755c parallel-twin engine. Peak output figures are 90.5hp at 9,500rpm and 75Nm of torque at 7,250rpm. This engine has a 270-degree firing order and mimics the sound and feel of a V-twin engine.
This all-new unit isn’t just the smaller Africa Twin engine as previously expected. Instead, Honda has gone back to the drawing board and developed a brand new short-stroke parallel-twin engine, borrowing some elements from its dirt bike range and reworking them for this platform. The Unicam SOHC architecture (borrowed from Honda’s off-road CRF model) allows this engine to have compact dimensions that help reduce weight as well as enable a higher compression ratio.
It has a 270-degree firing order, like almost all modern parallel twin units on the market. Fuyuki Hosokawa, Honda’s project manager for the upcoming Hornet, claims that this uneven firing order allows it to have a wider spread of torque across the rev range while giving it a top-end rush. They claim that this engine will be at home even when riding at city speeds, which should be a boon, especially in our congested traffic conditions.
This engine’s peak production figures for what they are, not to mention the many direct rivals other than the Aprilia Tuno 660 and Honda’s own CB650R. With this bike, Honda aims to enter the international middleweight naked bike market, most of which has been the domain of the popular Yamaha MT-07 and Suzuki SV650.
This engine is expected to be included in the upcoming Honda Transalp adventure bike as well, but will be tailored to suit the specifications and intended use of that bike. With EICMA 2023 just a few months away, it is expected that Honda will launch at least one of these two middleweight challengers.