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What makes an adventure motorcycle? Is it a bike that’s versatile? A bike that can go anywhere? Depending what time of year it is, and where you’re located, this old Honda 919 can indeed go anywhere—in winter it can cover a lot of territory you’d never get through on a TW200, or anything, in the summer, thanks to the modifications!
A practical package
This one-off project is based on the Honda 919, aka the CB900F in some markets. The Honda 919 was one of those excellent naked bikes that never really became super-popular in North America, but was much more appreciated in Europe. Not that 919 owners in Canada and the US didn’t like their bikes, but the machine had a much more faithful following overseas, for good reason. It was a highly versatile streetbike.
The 919 was also known as the CB900F in some markets. Those who owned it, generally liked it, and at least in some markets it was priced close enough to attract even the most thrifty buyers. Photo: Honda
The heart of the 919 was a liquid-cooled, fuel-injected 919cc inline four engine that was derived from the Honda CBR900 superbike. As always with these projects, Honda retuned the engine for use in an unfaired naked bike, with emphasis on affordable internals. The engine still had plenty of stonk, with a claimed 109 horsepower at 9,000 rpm and 67 lb-ft of torque at 6,500 rpm—down a lot from its superbike predecessor, but enough to easily launch you into lose-your-license territory. And the numbers only told part of the story. Where the 919 really shone was in practical, every day riding, with enough roll-on power to leave a sportbike behind at the light, at least until they had enough time to spool up their engines and catch up (or so Honda claimed). Also, for those who didn’t like the typical yippy soundtrack of a four-cyl, Honda said the engineers had cleverly worked the exhaust and intake to give it all sorts of soulful sound and all that jazz. YMMV!
The rest of the bike was as sensible as the engine. The fork was non-adjustable in early years of production, then upgraded later, and the Showa shock was preload-adjustable. There wasn’t much fidgeting you could do here, nor was there much need to. The kind of owners Honda was targeting would not typically be fiddling with clickers. If they did want to do so, they could jolly well go and just upgrade the bits themselves, but my friends who rode these bikes (at least three of my friends had seat time on one of these) all seemed very happy with the machines as-is.
First appearing in the 1998-1999 Fireblade, the 919 engine got some lower-spec internals for its naked bike configuration. Photo: Honda
Speaking of which: One of my long-time riding buddies owned one of these for about a decade, and rode it all over New England and Canada’s east coast with zero problems. I don’t think he even adjusted the valves for 40,000 kilometers or so. He crashed it into a ditch at one point, and aside from a bent luggage rack and a couple of pieces of cracked plastic, the bike was OK, and he ran it another five years or so. You could not ask for a better testament of Honda’s engineering prowess. Eventually, he sold the bike to buy a Strom; with 90,000 kilometers on the clock the 919 ran as good as ever, and I’m sure it’s still running well today as long as the newowner changed the oil.
But by now some of you are whining: “Sure, but it’s no adventure bike.” You’re right. But that 919 traveled the same gravel roads through New Hampshire that my friends did on the KLRs. Upright handlebars and naked ergos made it a machine you could take off-pavement if you were a determined and skillful rider. Not recommended, but it’s been done.
This bike here?
The machine in the title photo is obviously made to take a long, long way off-pavement. It’s being sold with a Timbersled track kit, effectively turning it into a massively powerful snowbike. Considering most of those rigs are built around single-cylinder 450 dirt bikes, this massive Honda should have a lot more zip! It also has a lot more weight, which is generally not a good thing in the snowmobile world any more than it is in the motorcycle world.
Details in the ad are sparse. The bike is for sale in northern New Brunswick, a few hours north of the Maine border. The rear end sports a Timbersled 120-inch track kit, with 2.5-inch paddles and Fox suspension. The streetgoing rear end, including wheel, is included for summer riding, should you want to switch back. Asking price is $8,000.
That’s a lot of cash for an old motorcycle, but track kits are expensive, and if you want something like this, well—you have to pay to play. The ad is here, on Facebook, if you want to contact the seller and learn more.
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