When Kawasaki strapped a supercharger to a Ninja, everybody went wild for the strongest manufacturing bike ever put collectively. Now, with a brand new EICMA launch, it appears Honda needs to replace that spirit into a good wilder type issue: A V3 engine with an electrically-driven supercharger.
A V3 engine is wild on the planet of vehicles, however it’s much less absurd for bikes: We have already got V-Twins in cruisers and V4s in MotoGP, why not cut up the distinction? The truth is, this isn’t even the primary V3 that Honda has put collectively — its early-’80s race bikes get that honor.
The wild addition right here is, in fact, the electrically-operated supercharger. Electrical superchargers by no means actually took off in vehicles past snake oil Amazon kits — although electrically-assisted turbos have began to creep in to the market — however the smaller displacement of bikes may very well be a saving grace for battery-powered compelled induction.
The EICMA engine seems to be an early rendition, given the dearth of energy and even displacement specs, however there are a couple of particulars Honda’s launched. The engine is water-cooled and sits with its cylinders 75 levels offset just like the outdated RC212V MotoGP bike, although Honda claims it doesn’t want an intercooler. The supercharger itself ought to run cooler than a comparably-sized turbo, given the dearth of exhaust gases in play, however it’ll be attention-grabbing to see how these consumption air temperatures look as soon as these engines begin hitting the street.
Honda hasn’t but mentioned what bikes will get the brand new engine, apart from “bigger displacement fashions sooner or later,” however I’ve already bought visions of this in a brand new Fireblade dancing in my head. Please, Honda. That will be so cool.
