You've *never* seen a bike like this unless you've seen a bike like this. Exactly like this in fact. Meeting a Honda Valkyrie Rune face to face for the first time is rather like walking into your favourite sci-fi and interacting with the characters. The lines between fantasy and reality just blur around the edges enough to make you wonder what was in that cup of coffee you had 5 minutes ago.
It's the look of the thing that first grabs your attention. It's huge, it curves elegantly everywhere and there's just *so* much chrome! This is one Cruiser that knows which target audience it's aiming at. Big, brash and glittering it shouts 'look at me' with every beat of that throbbing exhaust note.
It's not just a big bike though, it's a heavy bike. It weighs in at about 350kg but the engineers at Honda have done an excellent job of keeping all the really heavy parts down low in the frame which makes her feel balanced and poised when you ride her. She could so easily have been heavy and sluggish but she's certainly not.
The engine purrs and then kicks like a donkey. Turn into a bend and she digs and growls, shooting out of the apex and leaping down the road for more. I'm not saying she's a road racer you understand, but this is a cruiser through and through. The engine is so smooth and the saddle so comfortable you could stay sitting on this dream of a bike for hour after hour. And enjoy every minute.
So why doesn't everyone have one then? Because Honda designed and built them for Americans, who as we know only ride Harleys (or mopeds), and didn't think there was market for them in the UK or Europe. So we have to either import one by ourselves - if we can find one - or hope that they come up for sale and then catch them before they are gone again.
However sometimes, only sometimes, one of the few of these bikes which were privately imported come up for sale. In fact, right at this very minute, one is sitting in a used motorcycle showroom in Leicester. Sitting and waiting for her next gleeful owner to arrive, to drool and to buy.
Seeing a one in the flesh, or chrome, was what prompted me to write this piece in fact. It's not often that a bike stops me in my tracks these days and when they do I can almost guarantee they are hand-crafted custom builds. But the Valkyrie Rune is like nothing else on earth. What an aptly named machine. After all Valkyrie's fly don't they? And so does Joe Dredd's Lawbringer in 2000AD.
There you go then. I'm presenting you with a once in a lifetime opportunity here. Go take a trip to Leicester and have a look at a Honda Rune and see what I mean. And then if you have thirteen grand ready to spend I wouldn't think you mad if you did. I certainly would if I had it.
It's the look of the thing that first grabs your attention. It's huge, it curves elegantly everywhere and there's just *so* much chrome! This is one Cruiser that knows which target audience it's aiming at. Big, brash and glittering it shouts 'look at me' with every beat of that throbbing exhaust note.
It's not just a big bike though, it's a heavy bike. It weighs in at about 350kg but the engineers at Honda have done an excellent job of keeping all the really heavy parts down low in the frame which makes her feel balanced and poised when you ride her. She could so easily have been heavy and sluggish but she's certainly not.
The engine purrs and then kicks like a donkey. Turn into a bend and she digs and growls, shooting out of the apex and leaping down the road for more. I'm not saying she's a road racer you understand, but this is a cruiser through and through. The engine is so smooth and the saddle so comfortable you could stay sitting on this dream of a bike for hour after hour. And enjoy every minute.
So why doesn't everyone have one then? Because Honda designed and built them for Americans, who as we know only ride Harleys (or mopeds), and didn't think there was market for them in the UK or Europe. So we have to either import one by ourselves - if we can find one - or hope that they come up for sale and then catch them before they are gone again.
However sometimes, only sometimes, one of the few of these bikes which were privately imported come up for sale. In fact, right at this very minute, one is sitting in a used motorcycle showroom in Leicester. Sitting and waiting for her next gleeful owner to arrive, to drool and to buy.
Seeing a one in the flesh, or chrome, was what prompted me to write this piece in fact. It's not often that a bike stops me in my tracks these days and when they do I can almost guarantee they are hand-crafted custom builds. But the Valkyrie Rune is like nothing else on earth. What an aptly named machine. After all Valkyrie's fly don't they? And so does Joe Dredd's Lawbringer in 2000AD.
There you go then. I'm presenting you with a once in a lifetime opportunity here. Go take a trip to Leicester and have a look at a Honda Rune and see what I mean. And then if you have thirteen grand ready to spend I wouldn't think you mad if you did. I certainly would if I had it.
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