Honda lost their way a while back IMHO, both bikes & cars. Some say it was the Sunami, but I reckon they lost touch with their public several years before that. This is what you get if you let Accountants take charge of the Asylum in a period of homeland deflation. Now, with the AT & Blade, they seem to be adapting at last.
The simple fact is that these big tourers sell in relatively small numbers, often/usually to repeat customers, so the 'suits' don't reckon on there being much interest for the Public at a Bike Show, or even in your dealers showroom. So the focus is on new models & the low cost high volume stuff. Both the Pan & the Wing need radical updates &, whilst the K1600GT/GTL may no be everyones cup of tea (mine was unreliable) it has brought a superior, more sporty dynamic to the table. Looking forward, I suspect we shall be seeing smaller, lighter big tourers, so the oldies can keep buying for a few more years (rather than downsizing), possibly including Hybrid tech/auto box. Trouble is the pricepoint needs to be kept in check, difficult at low output volumes. Without the US market, now becoming more diverse, who would bother to make niche machines just for us Europeans?
