"This thing looks like a big, angry Grom." That was the first thing Matthew McNulty, my friend and fellow photographer, said when I pulled up in front of his house in Scottsdale, Arizona. And you know what, McNulty, you're not wrong...
I hadn't looked at it that way, though, the 2026 Honda CB1000 Hornet SP that's been in my garage for the last few weeks. It's black, mostly, has an alien bug headlight that seems so popular these days, especially on upright naked Japanese bikes, and a giant, almost comically large exhaust.
What I saw was a mixture of top-shelf ingredients—fully adjustable Showa suspension, Brembo brakes, quick-shifter, a CBR1000RR-derived engine—cooked into a stew that could use some salt, and definitely a little more spice. But the Hornet isn't a head-turner. At least it wouldn't snap my neck around if one rode by on the street. It's quiet, the byproduct of that giant canister affixed to the throttle side of the bike. Ao much so that at idle it almost feels like I'm on an electric bike.
