It was disappointing when Honda dropped the Fury from the line-up in Canada. It was arguably the best looking metric cruiser on the market even though it was one of the only big displacement metric cruisers remaining on the market. It was easy to be the king of that category although the Fury held the title due to its great looks rather than its longevity. The Honda cruisers were dropping fast as the market moved away from the segment until all that was left was the Rebels. (Read : Requiem to Honda Cruisers ).
It was ironic that the first big displacement metric cruiser to be launched after the Fury’s demise was the Rebel 1100 which is about as far in the opposite direction in terms of styling from the Fury while still remaining in the cruiser segment. But at least it was a cruiser and the fact that it borrowed an engine from a big ADV machine was a good thing – light, powerful and narrow. But the styling, it was tough to get over the styling which verges on a post-modern anti-styling motif especially when looking back on the many, many Honda cruisers introduced since the 1980s. Some of those bikes most certainly copied traditional American cruiser styling themes but others defined their own niche admirably. Think what you like about the Rune – too big, too over-the-top – but every styling element on that bike motorcycle related to some other element of the bike to create a unified chrome behemoth. Going back further, the Honda Magna played a huge in creating the template for the power cruiser back in the 1980s. Even now that bike still looks good with a compact muscular appearance to match the V4 motor stuffed into the frame.
We aren’t going to suggest things fell apart in the Honda styling department with the arrival of the Rebel. The Rebel 300 and 500 perfectly fit the niche they were intended to fill. Looking a little industrial, a slightly cobbled together with the discordant style playing to the purposeful, inexpensive riding option the bike would become. The styling didn’t work as well when the price tag went beyond $12,000. Beyond styling, other questions arose for the big Rebel. How many riders want a chain drive on a big cruiser?
The good news is that Honda is bringing back the Fury as a 2022 model. The bad news is that Honda is not bringing it to Canada. The Fury turned up on the Honda USA website with an MSRP of $11,499 in a bright yellow as the only colour available. That price is $2100 more than the 2022 Rebel 1100. Good looks don’t come cheap.
Interestingly there are a couple of other old favourites besides the Honda Fury listed on the Honda US site that we are also not getting – the Shadow Phantom and the Shadow Aero.
An interesting question comes to mind. None of these bikes look any different than they did for the past decade (changes in colour aside). What is the origin of their existence? Did Honda start a line back up? Did they have a stockpile of the Fury’s big Twin sitting in storage?
To be fair, the market for the 2022 Fury is going to be small, perhaps even too small to warrant bringing the bike back to Canada. As it is rare to see a Fury on the street, they must have sold in limited numbers when one could be picked up from a Canadian dealer.
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