This Eight-Cylinder Cruiser Apes One of Honda’s Most Ambitious Motorcycle Designs

Just a little over two decades ago, Honda rocked the motorcycle world with an eye-catching cruiser called the Rune.

Because of the model’s striking looks, many innovations and expansive footprint, it proved to be an ambitious project and a tough sell. While it was never meant to be a high-volume bike, Honda pulled the model after just two years on the market.

Souo

For this reason, it’s surprising to see that a company has looked to the Rune for inspiration when styling its new cruiser. Will Souo’s LH2000 manage to succeed where Honda’s effort failed? It’s tough to say.

Road to Rune

As reported by Cycle World, Chinese motorcycle manufacturer Souo (a subsidiary of the Great Wall Motors group) is expanding its Goldwing-rivaling eight-cylinder lineup to include a model that looks, well, a lot like the Honda Rune. 

Honda

It’s a peculiar move, especially considering that the Big Red didn’t exactly rush into building the Rune back in the day. Quite the contrary, as Honda initially introduced a similar concept known as the Zodia at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show.

Following the positive response, the brand then developed a series of distinct designs — the T1, T2, T3 and T4 — before exhibiting them to the public in a competition. Out of all the options, attendees showed a resounding preference for the T2. 

Honda

Nevertheless, once Honda introduced the 1,800cc flat-six to the market, the bike was unable to translate the enthusiasm into sales.

At the time of its debut, the Rune retailed for a spendy $24,599, though even that sum put the Big Red in the hole. Most sources speculate that Honda had anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 invested in each example. 

Honda

Unsurprisingly, then, the Rune enjoyed a short production life, and it’s generally estimated that only around 3,000 examples were built in total. So what is it about the various LH2000 models that stands to improve on the concept?

Riffing on the OG

For starters, the engine. In keeping with the S2000CT released last year, Souo’s bike will feature eight cylinders, four camshafts and eight gears, bettering Honda’s own behemoth boxer in every metric. 

Souo

Output for the existing bikes comes to 151 horsepower, making for a sizable improvement on the 118-pony Rune.

What’s more, the LH2000 avoids some of the complications of the Rune (like the trailing link fork) while benefitting from over 20 years’ worth of tech progress. The dash is bound to be far more readable than Honda’s own tank-mounted speedo unit.

Souo

Finally, Souo will offer the cruiser-focused LH2000 in four variants, with two-up seating, windshields and luggage provisions allowing for personalization. 

By contrast, the Rune was a single-seater from the factory. Even with some aftermarket options, this automatically meant that it was more limited in its appeal.

Souo

More to come

At this stage, Souo has yet to announce pricing for the various LH2000 cruisers. However, given that Cycle World reports pricing for the S2000 tourer to start at around $30,000 and climb to in excess of $40,000, retail will likely be similar.

Only time will tell whether Souo’s cruiser manages to capitalize on Honda’s ambitious design, but the possible MSRP certainly seems optimistic considering the innovative failure that was the Rune. 

And that’s not even accounting for the potential for tariffs — Souo has supposedly expressed interest in bringing some of its models Stateside.

Souo

Souo LH2000

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