this is the honda rebel 1100 and we've been wanting to get our hands on this bike for a
long time now and finally we have this is the dct model so with the double clutch transmission
and we've recently i've just ridden the honda rebel 500 so it'd be interesting to compare the
two while it's still fresh in my mind and also compare it to my own bike the harley-davidson
soft tail street bob or standard which i like to call the street bob so yeah let's get into it
now the rebel 1100 is really nice to ride i must say it's very good it's very fast and if you want
to you can get some serious speed on this and it handles nicely it takes the corners nicely
so as far as cruisers go it will out handle a lot of the heavier uh type of cruisers on the market
um the handlebars you've got the uh controls on this for the dct uh there's different buttons and
things and you have to scroll through loads of different things on the screen and when you're
changing the modes uh you press the mode button but then you've got to go to the select button
above it to scroll through so it's quite fiddly i'm not a mad keen on that sort of thing so
it would be nice if for as far as i'm concerned if it just had a mode button and you just press it
once press it again and it changes and that's it i don't think it's necessary to have user settings
um when you set up your own talk and your various bits and pieces
it's too much you don't need it keep it simple but a lot of people like that too it'll appeal to you
if you're a gadget kind of person the engine in the 1100 is the same engine that you get
in the honda africa twin and it's a lovely engine very smooth it's got plenty of torque load down
it's 98 newton meters of torque which comes in at 4750 rpm which is not as much as a harley produces
so comparing that to the milwaukee 8 which is about 145 newton meters of torque which is at 3250
rpm so low down this hasn't got as much torque as a harley davidson does it does like to be revved
a bit more so it is a slightly sportier engine and it produces 85 horsepower at 7000 rpm so yeah this
engine is pretty good and it does feel probably faster than the harley-davidson that may also
be down to the double clutch transmission which makes the gear changes lightning fast so you know
compared to doing it manually you are saving a few seconds on your naught 60 time there for sure
now um storage you wouldn't think it but there's storage under the seat here
you've got a little seat on the back we'll demonstrate that in a minute i'm sure you
can buy accessory racks for this if you want to strap stuff to it but if you press the key in
for your journey and that's great the rebel 1100 costs 9099 pounds in the uk and you can
get it in two colors we've got it in the brown color here but you can also get it in black
i didn't think i'd like this brown but it looks really nice it's got a kind of metallic
pearlescent flake to it especially when the sun's on it which looks really nice and it's a lot of
bright for the money tell you that it's definitely a step up from the 500 model no doubt about it
when you're riding it does feel like a proper cruiser i like the fact your arms are stretched
out your feet are in the right position the knee bend is nice it's not back here i can't
bear backs where your legs are back there so they've got it all right on that the pegs stick
out a long way so when you're shunting it about backwards you can hit your shins on the pegs
once you know that's going to happen then you're more careful so that's not a problem
the mirrors look nice they're small but i can only see a quarter of the row behind me so
i would need them sticking out further and maybe a bit higher up but then if you're shorter and
narrower that's not a problem i say that on every video but it's the same on every bike so sometimes
we are repetitive because we're looking at motorbikes and you've got two wheels a tank seat
and an engine and a lot of things are going to be the same but that is a fact so we have to say it
the exhaust note is really nice on the rebel it's got a deep tone very grumbly but it's not got as
much character as a v-twin like a um you know like a harley-davidson it's a more sporty refined sound
i do really like the sound of this i think with an aftermarket exhaust this could sound fantastic
to try and summarize what this honda rebel is like for you it's the sort of rebel that
wears a suit in the week and a shirt and tie in shiny shoes but goes out at the weekend in
a leather jacket and an open shirt it's that kind of rebel it's very good it's very refined
everything works well it's extremely good it's very fast gear change is good i think the manual
would be better the thing about dct it does all the blipping and all that stuff for you and it
sounds good but you're not doing it you're just doing that whereas if you've got a manual bike
with a clutch and a gear shifter you're doing the blipping the throttle you're more involved in it
so that's something to bear in mind so you can get the manual version of this bike
but it looks good sounds good and it doesn't quite have the character of the harleys the indians the
bmw r18 in that it doesn't uh sort of shake it doesn't have that guttural raw that you get with a
v-twin or the um boxer twin the outlook up front in front of you on the handlebars
it's all very functional and very good but it's not it's not art if you know what i mean i'm very
much interested in the visual side of things and the design of things and i do find that an issue
in my mind it's not initially in most people's mind i know that i think like i like things to
be styled beautifully if it's going to be there it might as well be beautiful and artistic
uh as well as functional looks wise i really like the look of this bike um it's got a nice
beefiness to it um the forks look quite wide and these got this quite chunky tires on it so
it definitely looks a lot beefier than the 500 version it's got some retro hints to it like the
like the mud guards which are metal everything's good quality on a honda
you can't really go wrong with them and it's kind of brings a modernness to the cruiser market um i
suppose you could say the same about the sportster s but we haven't reviewed that yet um and this is
a lot cheaper than sports tourists but yeah looks wise it looks great and this tank is definitely
bigger than the 500 version as well and i like the shape of that as well it looks really nice
now the turning circle on this
isn't very good so if you're turning around the lock to lock isn't very much so you can just about
three point turn it in a normal size road but on a very narrow road it's a four or five point
i am six foot one and this is what i look like on the bike so the riding position
is really nice your arms are nice and stretched out
your feet are in a good position i think the riding position is similar
to the likes of the harley-davidson low rider s maybe not as roomy as that we've got mid controls
the bars are quite wide so you've got this kind of aggressive stance so yeah very comfortable to ride
i think if you're a bit shorter you might find yourself leaning forward if you've got short arms
but yeah for me it feels perfect to be honest with you now of course you can have a pillion
on the back here and you've got your pillion pegs either side um any pillions around ah here's one
so jump on let's see what it looks like on the back i don't think you'd want to go very far
on the back um yeah so it'll be all right for short journeys
but you wouldn't want to go like 100 miles on it would you no seats rock hard as well yeah so
uh yeah fine for a quick quick ride but not for a long one
now adding on to the point about the turning circle um this is just a little thing about
the tests we have to do to pass your test and ride a motorcycle you have to do on your mod 1
u-turn in a tight little space and that space isn't changed or made wider depending on what bike
you're riding i did my test on my harley-davidson which also doesn't have a very good turning circle
at all and is very heavy so when you're doing that same turn that you would do on a 650 sports bike
with a really sharp turning circle that's very light and upright it's much more difficult so the
test is much harder depending on what bike you're doing it on so i really think they should change
the rules depending on what bike you are riding also adding on to that point about the riding test
um they don't allow you to put your feet down at all during that u-turn um which to me doesn't
really make much sense because um if it's actually safer to put your foot down and stop the bike
tipping over especially when it's a big heavy bike so yeah i think the tests we do are ridiculous
so
one thing i've noticed is we went for a little ride through the country lanes
and when you're not really going for it all the time getting lots of air into it
it obviously heats up so the fans are quite loud so when you turn the engine off you do notice them
quite a lot they sound like a like a ps4 and it's been on for an hour um so if you've got
a ps4 you know what i'm talking about um or a little jet engine or something but it only
stays on for about a minute and then it goes off again but when you show up somewhere the
fans will be making quite a lot of noise we've got single disc brakes on the front and the rear
i found the stopping power oh i didn't find it stopping power's really
something power's really good on this um yeah i haven't ridden it but
uh yeah the stopping power is fantastic
a lot better than my harley davidson i think the brakes on my harley are absolutely rubbish
well they're not rubbish but they're not great not confidence inspiring but these were so yeah really
like the brakes on these and i'm not thinking oh i need double discs these are perfectly good enough
so
now we've been comparing this bike a lot in this video to other bikes like harley davidsons
the r18s indians and all of those bikes are a lot more expensive than this honda this
honda's only just over nine thousand pounds most harley-davidson's uh you know 15 grand or more
um 20 grand for an r18 so that just shows you how good this bike really is because
it's a lot cheaper it's a great price point and you get a lot for your money
now please like and subscribe if you've enjoyed the video and helps us out massively leave your
comments below what you think of the rebel 1100 we really enjoyed it and it's definitely a big
step up from the 500 so if you're thinking of upgrading definitely go out and test ride one they
you