Words: Jock McLauchlan / Photos: Geoff Osborne
After a big redesign in 2017, Honda’s
2018 has been developed further
and now gets an electric starter.
H
ow times have changed, it doesn’t
seem like that many years ago when
the head of Honda MX racing was
quoted as saying they would never
put electric start on one of their
race bikes... going on to say that the
added weight and complexity just
didn’t stack up for a race bike. Now,
I don’t know for certain if the quote
is 100 percent accurate, but there is no denying
E-start is a must have in today’s riding world.
The fact that electric start comes with
approximately a 2kg weight penalty makes that all
the more remarkable. The Honda is now 116.5kg
fully fuelled and ready to go, which makes it no
lightweight. When I think back to my first ISDE in
Wales in 1983 – yeah I know, showing serious age
here – one of my greatest concerns was failing the