Colin Chapman, the legendary designer whose Lotus cars transformed Grand Prix racing in the Fifties and Sixties at the hands of drivers like Graham Hill and Stirling Moss, was once asked his secret.
“Simplify, then add lightness,” he said.
He didn’t apply it to himself, since his nickname in the pits was Chunky, although never to his face – but Honda has taken a leaf out of his book with the CB750 Hornet.
For a start, it hasn’t got anything it doesn’t need, and secondly, it weighs a piffling 190kg fully fuelled.
Just to put that into context, it’s about five Victoria Beckhams, or half a plus-size influencer.
I suspect Honda did it by filling the tyres with helium, but with that parallel twin engine producing 90bhp, a power-to-weight ratio like that promised exciting times at the launch in southern Spain.
It certainly looks like a lovely little machine, and feels like it when you climb aboard, with the nicely sculpted seat a low 795mm, slightly rear-set footpegs and wide bars making for a riding position which is compact but comfortable, and just slightly on the sporty side of neutral, allowing your pinkies to rest lightly on the bars, which is always a harbinger of effortless cornering ahead – especially combined with low and light weight, wide bars, a short wheelbase and a relatively steep fork rake.
The mirrors are OK but not great, and the 5in TFT screen is clear and instantly informative, giving you all the main info at a glance, including speed, revs, gear and riding mode.
There are four of these – Rain, Standard, Sport and User for inveterate tweakers, who can delve into sub-menus to change everything from power delivery and traction control to the levels of ABS intervention and engine braking.
Slightly less geeky types can change the look of the screen, and the rest of us can just change the riding modes at the touch of a button on the left bar.
I started in Standard, and as expected, with 90bhp shifting a mere 190kg of bike, progress is gloriously lusty.
My biking buddies who know more than I do said that short-stroke oversquare engines like this usually get most exciting at very high revs, but thanks to a very flat torque curve, the Hornet’s pulls cleanly all the way from about 2,500rpm all the way to the redline at 10,000.
The only slight hiccup was slightly snatchy fuelling off a closed throttle, but you can blame the emissions strangulation of Eurocrats for that, not Honda.
The bikes we were riding were fitted with the £240 optional quickshifter, which was slightly clunky in first and second gear, as quickshifters tend to be, but otherwise slick and efficient.
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Mind you, the clutch was as light as the shadow of a small feather, so using it was hardly a hardship, and with the engine pulling so enthusiastically through the rev range, most of the day on curvy mountain roads was spent happily bombing along in third and fourth.
Not to mention enjoying the exquisite symphony from the exhaust, which has been tuned to produce high frequencies from one outlet, and low from another, which means you can have endless fun playing tunes by covering one then the other with your glove. Very silly, but such a very Japanese attention to detail.
After all, this is a country which had an entire team fine-tuning the exhaust note on the Mazda MX-5. I used to have one, and what a great little car.
Back on the bike, meanwhile, and an even bigger joy than the engine is the beautifully agile, precise and instinctive handling, which is the best on any bike I’ve ridden this year. Or possibly ever.
The brakes are also brilliant, with progressive bite and feel, including the rear, making even tight downhill hairpins a doddle to swish around trailing the back brake to keep the bike stable.
Right, time to try Sport mode, which wasn’t hugely different, apart from an even bigger rush of whoosh at the top end of the rev counter, although I did notice the steering feeling a little light at very high speeds. Dear Mr Spanish policeman, please ignore that bit.
There’s an A2 conversion kit available, which means newbie riders could have loads of fun on this, then even more when they can derestrict it after two years or when they hit 24.
Some people criticise Hondas as being reliable, but bland and unexciting, to which the reply is: “Yeah, right. Like John McGuinness winning the TT on a Fireblade, you mean?”
But this great little bike has a raw, aggressive feel to it which will silence even those naysayers, who I suspect may never have actually ridden a Honda.
I loved it. What a fabulous machine, especially at that price.
