It shouldn’t really come as any surprise to hear that the new Hornet is a very good little bike, after all, Honda has been leading the way in the mid-sized naked class for some time. What is genuinely exciting with this bike though, is that it’s a step into a new realm of middleweight bikes, where it joins the likes of the MT-07, newly announced GSX-8S, and even the more expensive, yet still comparable, Tuono 660. Each of them goes about the job of winning people over in a slightly different way, with the Yamaha bringing the fun factor, the Aprilia the technology, and the Suzuki that outlandish styling. The Hornet though is a slightly more mature take on what a mid-weight naked can be, and don’t think by mature I mean boring. This bike is certainly not boring. It’s not got the giggle factor of the MT-07, or the trackday ability of the Tuono, but I have a feeling that in the long term, it might just be the easiest of all of them to live with.
