2014–2016 · Tourer · Buyer's Guide
Smooth V4, Surprisingly Low
The CTX 1300 takes the touring problem from an unusual angle. Honda dropped a liquid-cooled 1261 cc V4 low in the frame, tuned it for midrange rather than headline numbers, and hung a shaft drive off the back. You get 84 hp and 78 lb-ft, delivered with the kind of turbine calm that a V4 does better than almost any other layout. Seat height sits at 28.9 in, the mass carries low, and a 723 lb wet bike behaves far smaller than the number suggests. Honda CBS ties the brakes together. It is a full tourer wearing cruiser proportions, and it makes sense the moment the road stops being interesting.
Ride it the way it wants to be ridden and it ages into a friend. Steady throttle, big miles, weather rolling past the fairing, the V4 spinning without ever raising its voice. Reliability and high-speed stability are where this bike scores hardest, and easy maintenance plus shaft drive means the ownership math stays boring in the best way. It is genuinely for the rider who measures a good day in states crossed, not corners conquered. The honest caveat: 84 hp moving 723 lb never feels urgent, the gearbox has five speeds and no more, and cruise control was never fitted. If you want the engine to entertain you, look elsewhere.
Spec sheets don't ride bikes, but they set the baseline.
| Power | 84 hp (62 kW) |
|---|---|
| Torque | 78 lb-ft (106 Nm) |
| Displacement | 1261 cc |
| Engine | V4 |
| Cooling | Liquid-cooled |
| Gearbox | 5-speed |
| Final drive | Shaft |
| Fork | Upside-down (USD) |
| Front brake | 310 mm |
| Front tire | 130/70R18 |
| Rear tire | 200/50R17 |
| Seat height | 28.9 in (735 mm) |
| Wet weight | 723 lb (328 kg) |
| Fuel capacity | 5.2 gal (19.5 L) |
| Top speed | 120 mph (193 km/h) |
| Fuel economy | 40 mpg (US) |
Equipment check
Comfort
Connectivity
Lighting
Safety
The named systems that set this bike apart — and what each one does for you.
Braking
The first thing you notice is what you don't feel. Pull away, settle into the seat, and the V4 goes almost silent through the bars and pegs. No buzz in the mirrors at 70 mph, no numb hands after two hours. The riding position is low and open, feet slightly forward, wrists relaxed, and the reach to the bars asks nothing of your shoulders. Swinging a leg over at 28.9 in is a non-event even in boots and rain gear. At real road pace the bike settles into a long, planted line and stays there while the fairing pushes the worst of the wind over your chest. The soundtrack is a muted V4 hum you stop hearing after twenty minutes. That silence is the whole point.
What follows is not a road test. It is what Nils has picked up over years of owner correspondence, messages riders send him directly, and long conversations with people who have lived with this Honda well past the first season. Line that chatter up and the pattern holds steady: real respect for how the CTX1300 carries a rider, sitting next to a persistent wish that it gave back a little more.
The engine leads the praise, and not for what it produces. Riders describe the longitudinally mounted 1261cc V4 as almost free of vibration, a refinement they say colors every mile aboard. Comfort is the next thread. Owners point to the flat seat and the relaxed set of the controls, and report that fatigue never arrives the way they expect it to over a full day in the saddle. Running costs sit quietly behind both. Shaft final drive and 8,000-mile service intervals leave maintenance as something owners rarely find themselves thinking about, and that shows up in how casually they talk about upkeep. Handling gets a more surprised kind of approval. Nobody claims the bike is light, but fuel carried under the seat keeps the mass down low, and riders say the CTX moves with more ease than they braced themselves for.
The engine that earns the loudest praise also draws the sharpest complaint. Riders call the delivery flat and muted, and many say the bike feels short on power and shorter still on character, measured against what its touring bloodline led them to expect. At walking pace the weight reasserts itself, and owners describe real effort moving the CTX by hand over uneven ground, though they agree the sensation vanishes once the wheels are turning. Vibration through the handlebars comes up too often to wave off, with several riders reporting numb hands after a long stint. The twin rear shocks take steady criticism for limited travel, harshness, and wear that shows up early, all of it worse with a passenger aboard. Two smaller irritations recur: mirrors set too low to show much of anything behind, which plenty of owners simply swap out, and plastic bodywork tabs that break and leave visible gaps.
Rear shock premature wear
Owners report leaking seals and degraded damping performance as early as 15,000 km, particularly under heavier riders or two-up touring.
Battery cover tab breakage
The tab holding the battery cover (and similar middle cowl tabs) cracks or snaps, leaving a visible gap. Occurs across many bikes, often without warning.
Where this Honda CTX 1300 pulls ahead of — or falls behind — its rivals on the numbers, and the typical bike in its class on character.
Power
Torque
Displacement
Wet weight
Top speed
Seat height
Forget spec-sheet bragging. Here's who the CTX 1300 is actually built for.
This is your bike's natural habitat. It'll carry you and a passenger over Beartooth and Going-to-the-Sun without a single vibration in your hands, though you'll be working the throttle yourself the whole way.
Made for Beartooth Highway · Blue Ridge Parkway · Going-to-the-Sun Road
It fits your 300-mile days and it never wants to go bagger-slow. Just know that 84 hp and 723 lb means you enjoy the scenery at your own pace, not anyone else's.
Made for Black Hills · Blue Ridge Parkway · Cherohala Skyway
Wrong bike. The low center of gravity hides the weight better than you'd expect, but nothing about the CTX rewards repeated hard laps of the Dragon. Buy it for the ride there, not the road itself.
Made for Back of the Dragon · Blue Ridge Parkway · Cherohala Skyway
If this one isn't quite the fit, these are the bikes worth riding back-to-back against it.
Any price note compares both bikes at the same age — the youngest age both have on the used market — against this Honda CTX 1300. “cheaper/pricier” is what that bike costs second-hand, not how worn it is.
