After marketing the engine in Japan last year, Honda has also applied for a design patent for the Hawk 11 in India, the first sign that the engine will also be marketed outside Japan.
Around this time last year, Honda released the first teasers of an upcoming Hawk 11, a Neo-retro cafe racer based on the 1,100 parallel twin of the CRF1100 Africa Twin and NT1100, which was unveiled a month later at the Osaka Motorcycle Show in Japan. revealed.
Although the bike was well received worldwide, Honda indicated that the bike would only be marketed in Japan, did so during the year and remained flat on other markets. And so it remained anyone’s guess whether, and if so, when the Hawk 11 would be launched in other countries.
There seems to be some clarity in that. On August 2, 2022, Honda applied for a design patent for the Hawk 11 with IP India Patent, which was published in the Design journal of week 49/2022 on December 9, 2022.
Now a patent application in itself does not say much, patents are applied for all the time and this does not always lead to an actual production model, but in this case it still seems strong that after Japan the Hawk 11 will at least be on the market in India. market will be put.
India is now best known as the country where light motorcycles up to say 300cc are sold like hot cakes, but that is changing – heavy motorcycles are also starting to find their way to the world’s largest motorcycle market.
To serve that market, Honda has introduced BigWing dealers in India, a network that has only expanded since its launch. The launch of the Hawk 11 would fit perfectly into that new business philosophy.
This of course leaves the question unanswered as to whether the Hawk 11 will be marketed with us in Europe, but we now think the chance is slightly greater than last year, when Honda stated very firmly that the engine would only be marketed in Japan. put.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.