New Honda DH bike spotted?

Luke_99

Luke_99

Likes Dirt
Was just looking at the Dirt website and i found this...

This is what it said on Dirt “Long time reader, first time poster. Check this out. Yesterday I was downhilling at the Keystone bike park in Colorado USA and a big Honda bus pulled in and started setting up. A few hours later a Tomac truck pulled in. The Honda guys unloaded what looked like a new version of the Honda bike that Greg Minnaar rode in the World Cups. Three of them spent the rest of the day riding the bike at the park. Is it possible that we could FINALLY see the Honda bike finally come to market with Tomac badging? The bike looks almost production ready, with a really finished looking gear box and a more developed frame. It still looks cooler than any DH bike I have ever seen. Seriously.”

Heaps of people are saying its a prank and it does look a bit odd and also the frame looks the same.
Are they bringing back the Honda DH bikes ?



 
dcrofty

dcrofty

Eats Squid
That's word for word what was posted on Ridemonkey as well,

Interesting that a random stranger was able to walk up to a bike that Honda were normally uber possessive of and take high res photos of it.

Tinfoil hat me says perhaps its the carefully orchestrated start of a marketing campaign.

Cool bike non the less and I hope its released, would be good for the sport I reckon.
 
John U

John U

MTB Precision
Possibly old pics re-released. The Honda has the Formula Oros on it that Greg Minaar was running back then. Just makes me think its a photo of his old Honda bike from back then. If so I don't think that would mean a great deal in relation to Honda releasing their bikes to the general public.

I don't think it's a new bike. If it is why would they be running 4 year old brakes on it (apart from the fact that they were and still are awesome brakes).
 
S

spinner

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Exif data says it was taken 2 days ago FWIW. Also , how long ago were those Tomac frames released ? 3 years maybe ? Means the pic must have been taken since then.

Sorta puts to bed the rumour that Honda had all the frames destroyed when the team was dissolved.
 
heavyp

heavyp

You heard it here first
So strange only the past week or so i have been going through all my dirt mags (as i have been without a computer as APPLE looked at it for a hardrive issue and decided to put a massive dent in the nice ali casing) and today was reading the interveiw on why they (HONDA) pulled the pin on the project.

I was and this is no word of a lie going to do a post on what people thought of honda would they like to see them back in the game and whatnot.

And now this pops up i think im pretty close haha to being psychic (seriously)

I personally think they should and will prob come into the scene again, they stopped it as the price of the bike going into production would just be a loss but with prices going up and the american market being there biggest and now a few good americans getting up there and gwin starting to podium will they take him on and could this be the return!?!
 
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R

RMS116

Likes Dirt
They would never have destroyed all the bikes. They are like memorabilia. They probably got them out of storage, dusted them off and hopefully pick up from where they left off with this one of a kind bike.I wouldn't mind a set of those forks too.
 
evObda2

evObda2

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I believe they were retrieved when some clown in Europe put them on sale on ebay haha
Probably figured how the fark do you ride this thing (with no gearbox being there)..
 
R

racketbear_112

Likes Dirt
to me the pics seam old as the tomac bike have the old boxxers on them. I know that sounds stupid but I think that people who ride or work for tomac would be running new Boxxers or new 40's
 
RiLiZe

RiLiZe

Likes Dirt
racketbear_112 said:
to me the pics seam old as the tomac bike have the old boxxers on them. I know that sounds stupid but I think that people who ride or work for tomac would be running new Boxxers or new 40's
Click to expand...
+1
as what is was going to say.
if they are at an event(world cup) or something then a tomac would not be running the old boxxers and the honda would likely be upgraded abit higher aswell.e.g cranks and rims...
 
zen zen

zen zen

Likes Dirt
RiLiZe said:
+1
as what is was going to say.
if they are at an event(world cup) or something then a tomac would not be running the old boxxers and the honda would likely be upgraded abit higher aswell.e.g cranks and rims...
Click to expand...
They are the new mavic rims on there Look at the picture from fox riders co then back to the first one, The first one has the new graphics and fox's pic has the old one.
 
Luke_99

Luke_99

Likes Dirt
The Photo would have been taken fairly recently because those Mavic 823's on the Honda are the newer model.
The photo cant be that old?
 
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my_bike

my_bike

Likes Dirt
If you look in the background of Fox's pic, it's got new Mavic's but the bike in front has the old ones?
 
Kamikazee ideki

Kamikazee ideki

Likes Dirt
I'm going to have to say that they would be old pics, both the bikes are running older spec, judging by the components on both the bikes I'd say that these pics are from around 2007, despite what the EXIF data suggests. I'd love to be proven wrong though.

Just to clarify, the rims on the Honda are Mavic EX823.
 
Nick53

Nick53

Likes Bikes and Dirt
If anyone knows there cars if you could figure out what year model the 2 cars are on the right in the last picture that could give you an idea of when it was made...could be of no help as well though.

Apart from that I can't really identify any new parts, apart from the newer 823's...
 
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