Dammit! Honda's going to do it, hopefully. - I've asked myself for years why there's no bikemaker innovative enough to build a V5, or a V3, for that matter. If conservative car makers like Daimler Benz or VW employ unorthodox inline or VR 5-cylinder engines, which obviously have their benefits, why don't MC makers do it? VW's narrow-angle VR engines are compact and powerful, just what we need in a bike. I've suggested years ago that Porsche should work on that idea and build a bike with a 1000cc V5; BMW should have done it, after the inventive "flying brick" K-series dead-ended, instead of just another inline-4 "new" K engine. DUCATI came out with a V4; how would a V3 (two cylinders in the front to get weight on the front wheel, one cylinder back like before) sounded and performed? - There may be technical reasons for that, but I'm afraid the beancounters and risk-avoiding managers are to blame. - I would have guessed that Yamaha would have taken that step, they're the ones who built the SR500, the XS650, the 750 and 850 triples, the 850/900cc parallel twins, the first V engine, Virago and other "unusual" engines, while Honda always went more mainstream, except for the 6-cylinder Gold Wing.
