2017 Honda Shaft Drive Motorcycle Line-Up

For the upcoming 2017 model year, Honda Motor Co remain the undisputed kings of shaft drive bikes by retaining more than a dozen shaft drive models in their lineup, based upon five distinct drive train configurations.

2017 Honda ST1300

In the touring segment, venerable GoldWing leads the charge in the guise of the GL1800 and F6C six cylinder models, while the Pan European model line offers the ST1300 and CTX1300 four cylinders.

2015 Honda Shaft Drive Motorcycle Lineup

In the current model year, Honda Motor Corp. are offering the following shaft drive machines:

• GL1800 Gold Wing Grand Tourer
• Gold Wing F6B and F6C Baggers
• ST1300 Pan European
• VT1300CX Fury
• CTX1300
• VT750 Shadow

Honda NTV, Revere and Deauville

The Honda NTV was introduced in 1988 as a follow-up model for the VT 500, to recapture some of the success of the legendary CX 500 series. In a way this makes the NTV the last shaftdrive UJM.
The original NTV650 (sold in some markets as "Honda Revere") was a naked bike with a 57 horsepower 650cc water cooled V-Twin engine, mounted in the traditional position with one cylinder in front of the other, and a technologically advanced single-sided swingarm suspension known as "Pro Arm".
The engine shares many similarities with those in other Honda V-Twin models like Africa Twin, Shadow or Bros/Hawk. In fact, the Bros/Hawk series sold in North America and Japan is in many ways simply a chain-drive version of the NTV.
The bikes have a reputation for extreme reliability, with many examples covering in excess of 250,000 miles without any major repairs. Once things go wrong however, the revere is not an easy bike to work on! How about removing the water cooling system just to change a spark plug?

Honda CX 500 - The Plastic Maggot

Unlike today, with 1,800cc 150 horsepower machines ruling the road, the 1970s were the era of the medium displacement, middle weight motorcycle. While there were a number of litre bikes even then, the most hotly contested category was the 400 - 600cc range with each of the Big Four Japanese manufacturers officering several distinct models.

Honda's leading middleweight bike at the time was the CB550, a bike based on the venerable CB750 SOHC, and by 1977 the CB550 had become decidedly old fashioned. Keen to preserve their status as a leading bike manufacturer, Honda put pen to paper and working from a clean sheet came up with one of the most unusual designs of the decade: a water-cooled, shaft drive, transverse mounted, pushrod V-twin with twisted heads and an integrated transmission located below the engine.