in the time since you watched my video about the honda highness,
Virat Kohli's won us another test series Donald Trump managed to avoid impeachment
and Karthik started dyeing his hair I've also had to start wearing spectacles and in the meantime,
Honda has launched this the CB350 RS Now it's powered by the same engine housed in the same
frame but it does feature a few significant changes if honda is to be believed to find
out just how true that is and what difference these changes make we're going to be riding
it today so we're going to split this into two parts the first is what honda has done
differently as a manufacturer and the second is what difference these changes make to us as riders
To be fair there are quite a few changes on the rs but we're not entirely sure what to make of them
On the one hand honda's giving you a sportier riding stance more blacked out bits a sleeker
tail section which push it into a cafe racer kind of zone But then they've also thrown in a
bash plate and fork gators and off-road rubber which give it a scrambler vibe
the rear wheel is down from 18 to 17 inches and wrapped in a fatter 150 section tyre
but honda snatched away bluetooth connectivity and mobile phone charging other differences include
redesigned side panels and a new tuck and roll seat while the height remains the same at 800 mil
the seat is now slightly wider so shorter riders might just find it a bit more troublesome to get
their feet down the highness's old school heel and toe shifter has made way for a more modern toe
only shifter on the rs if we put on our corporate caps for a moment and think about this from a cost
to company point of view there's less chrome bits which should theoretically make this cheaper for
hunter to manufacture similarly the omission of bluetooth and usb charging should help shave off
some bucks for honda and the more conventional rear wheel should again make it more affordable
but honda says no because at one lakh 96 000 this is about 10 grand more expensive
than the similarly equipped dlx variant of the highness i'm gonna jump on board and find out why
exactly
the ride is actually done more to highlight the similarities than the differences you still get
the same 348 cc motor a little flat at the bottom but then it pulls quite cleanly and strongly it's
just about as quick as its more old-school sibling only half a second separates them to 100 kph
and this is probably down to the two kilos that this bike has lost by virtue of its chopped
fenders and smaller wheels while this engine's laid back power delivery felt quite natural on the
easy-going highness it begins to feel a little lethargic from the sportier saddle of the rs
this feeling is further amplified by the tall gearing that has remained unchanged
from the highness even something as simple as sprocketing changes would have gone a long way
in making the rs seem like a livelier motorcycle better matched to its visual
appeal you also get the same excellent ride quality from the highness but handling is a
bit of a different story honda says that the rs in this name tag stands for road sailing
and sailing sounds about right because that fatter rear tire has made this feel a little
more heavy steering than the highness and don't be fooled by honda's claims about a lower stance
even though the wheel is smaller it's got a tire with a fatter sidewall so the overall
rolling circumference is actually larger here than on the highness
the other biggest change is to the riding posture it's slightly sportier which means the bars are
slightly further forward than slightly lower down the footpegs have been moved by a greater margin
than now more rear set and placed higher up it's definitely not uncomfortable this position you
can live with it on a daily basis it just means that on the longer rides you will start to get
tired out a little bit earlier than the highness we actually wish honda had been a little more
drastic with changes to the ergonomics we would have liked maybe a full-blown cafe racer with
the front drop down and clip-on handlebars that would solve the issue of front-end lightness that
we saw on the highness as well unfortunately it's still quite prevalent even on this bike
so now that we know what honda has done differently and what it's resulted in
from a riding perspective we come to the final piece of the puzzle which is who is this bike
for well it seems to me that the only reason why you or anyone else would buy this over a
highness is because you're a big fan of the way it looks because in terms of riding experience
you could get yourself a very similar perhaps even slightly better riding experience for less money
overall the ara seems like a bit of a missed opportunity from honda because it could have
used the capable foundations of the highness to create a more well-defined motorcycle with
a more unique identity that would appeal to a different set of buyers instead they've taken
this weird middle-of-the-road approach and that's resulted in a sort of confused bike
that we find hard to recommend to people especially considering its price premium
you