It goes without saying that the 1980s was a weird and wonderful time for motorcycles. Many people would say that the '80s marked an era of experimentation for motorcycles, with a lot of strange new bikes hitting the scene. Indeed, some of the world's most iconic bikes were born in this decade, and would go on to set the standard even for motorcycles of today.
Machines like the Kawasaki GPZ900R, BMW K1, and the Honda XRV 750 Africa Twin would all go down in history as bikes greatly influenced machines of today – but not the Honda Ascot. The Honda VT 500FT was a strange and quirky machine that saw a rather short production run from 1983 to 1985. Named after the famed Ascot Park, the bike had flat-track racing in its very DNA. That being said, the VT 500FT wasn't really a flat-tracker. Neither was it a scrambler, nor a cruiser. So, what was it, really?
Ryan from one of my favorite YouTube channels FortNine went into great depth in one of his most recent videos about the Honda Ascot, and even went as far as stating that it was the worst motorcycle of the 1980s. Apart from all its extremely odd features, such as a useless horn cover, a nearly inaccessible key, and the fuse box housed on the bars, the engine didn't make much sense, either.
It was powered by a 491cc V-twin engine with a short stroke and a big bore. A 71-millimeter bore mated to a 62-millimeter stroke meant that it didn't get the torque known for a burly V-twin. Sure, it could rev much higher, but this is where yet another design quirk came into play: shaft drive.
As Ryan explained it, shaft-driven motorcycles can suffer as much as 25 percent power loss at high RPMs in exchange for smoothness and a virtually maintenance-free experience. While this is all well and good in a bike like the BMW R 1250 GS with more than 130 horsepower on tap, on a bike like the Ascot, well, its supposed 50 horsepower output could drop to about 37, right when you need it most. Worst of all, the Ascot suffered from what Ryan explained as shaft jacking, wherein the swingwarm get jacked up upon heavy deceleration, thereby causing you to lose traction when entering corners.
All that being said, it can be easy to wonder what exactly was going on in the heads of Honda's engineers when they were designing this bike back in the '80s. Indeed, the Ascot, as explained by FortNine, was a bike that was bad at everything. Unsurprisingly, it sold very poorly in the US, with Honda resorting to axing its price, and eventually discontinuing it.
