We may best know Honda for their motorcycles and cars, but now they’re coming back to pedal power with this all-new full carbon, full-power RN0 eMTB. Yet unlike their innovative gearbox DH racing bike from the turn of the millennium, this new RN0 is an all-mountain ebike, geared for the masses and paired with an electronic Shimano Di2 shifting setup.
Check out the full Honda ebike details, and my first ride impressions of the dramatically Y-shaped, single-pivot eMTB, below.
Oh, and did I mention that it’s also the first ebike to debut Shimano’s all-new version of their EP8 motor?
2027 Honda RN0, a Y-frame moto-inspired ebike
Back at Sea Otter Europe in Girona a month ago, we got a pretty good sneak peek at motoring icon Honda’s return to bikes. It wasn’t even the first time we’d seen the concept. That was more than 3 years earlier at the Tokyo Motor Show.
But now we know a lot more.
The RN0 is a new mullet-wheeled eMTB with obvious motorcycle-inspired designs. It features a large Y-shaped carbon monocoque front end with a 720Wh battery inside, paired with a massive carbon ‘Gull Arm’ swingarm. The RN0 matches 160mm of fork travel with 145mm of linkage-driven single-pivot rear wheel travel. And there’s a Shimano EP8 motor at the heart of it all.
And yet still, like a lot of you readers, once we saw it, we were scratching our heads with a bunch of questions.
A lot of questions
- Why doesn’t it have a gearbox?
- Is there a functional reason for the unconventional frame shaping (which seems to ignore a bottle cage)?
- Why’s it branded Rotwild, even though it’s clearly nothing like any of their eMTBs?
- Why doesn’t it get a proper Honda logo on it, or even their signature red?
- Really, where does this fit in the Honda two-wheeler line-up?
- And most importantly, who is Honda hoping will buy the new RN0?
Then, I sat down with some Honda engineers, and their PR team, to ask those questions. Next, I got a chance to test ride it over a couple days on some familiar, sometimes gnarly trails. And I started to better understand where Honda is going with the RN0.
Explaining the RN0 R&D choices
No gearbox required
The first answer was the shortest, if not the most satisfying. With how Shimano’s ebike motors have been developed to work together with Shimano Di2 electronic shifting systems – remember FreeShift & AutoShift – Honda didn’t see any need to develop a gearbox for their new ebike. Plus, this new EP8 promises a new level of “True Auto” potential, combining Auto Shift and Auto Assist to seamlessly work in the background, letting the ebike just pedal and enjoy the ride.
And frankly, no current ebike motor + gearbox solution is up to the performance levels needed for modern full-power eMTBs. Hopefully that will change more in the future, as there’s a lot of ongoing combined motor and gearbox development in the works.
Optimized monocoque flex & stiffness
Of course Honda took design cues from their popular motorcycles for the Y-shaped frame design. But they explained the massive carbon monocoque design is really about delivering a smoother flex and stiffness characteristic front-to-back. They explain that more uniform overall lateral flex delivers more predictable handling, and thus better cornering. While increased ‘front triangle’ stiffness better distributes braking and impact forces, decreasing stress on any one section of the frame and allowing the suspension to move more smoothly.
All-in-all, much like on their motorcycles, this balanced flex and stiffness is said to be a Honda hallmark, delivering a “user-friendly and reassuring ‘at home’ feeling” on the ebike. “Comfortable to ride – therefore easy to ride fast“
And yes, it is missing a conventional water bottle placement. They figure that most ebikers will ride with a hip or backpack. But it does still include a set of bosses on top of the toptube where you could mount a bottle cage. We’d probably suggest a Fidlock to not get in the way when not in use, and safely ejected out-of-the-way in any significant crash.
Why Rotwild & ADP Engineering?
Honda may be a global engineering and manufacturing powerhouse, but ebikes are still not in their wheelhouse. And light carbon frames are also something new, for the most part. So they worked with Rotwild ebikes’ parent company ADP Engineering to refine the concept e-bike we saw 3 years ago, and turn it into something real.
ADP tweaked Honda’s monocoque designs to suit carbon bike manufacturing by hand in Taiwan, and modern all-mountain performance. They dictated capable geometry to handle any trail. And created the linkage layout to optimize ride feel and suspension kinematics. Plus, ADP/Rotwild helped Honda settle on a capable component spec, custom suspension tunes, and will actually assemble all of the Honda RN0 eMTBs in Germany before they get sent to Honda dealers.
Positioning the RN0 in the Honda ecosystem
And that brings us back to where this sits. The RN0 isn’t red and there’s no wing logo, because this isn’t a motorcycle. Instead, the RN0 fits in the Honda two-wheeled eco-mobility family – next to e-scooters to e-motos. RN for Ride Natural, and 0 for the lowest EV (electric vehicle) power level.
That also suggests who this is for and where you’re likely to find it.
Honda plans to put the RN0 out to market via the e-mobility side of their motorcycle dealers. They sold over 20 million motorcycles last year. 475,000 in Europe where they are the clear leader, with more than 20% of the EU moto market. And that’s where they want to first position the new RN0, as an eMTB stepping stone for their loyal Honda moto customers.
2027 Honda RN0 eMTB – Options & availability
The all-new Honda RN0 eMTB comes in three stock sizes (S-L), one ‘Pearl Moon Ash’ gray color, and just one stock build.
You get Fox 36 & Float Evol Factory suspension, a Shimano XT Di2 12-speed drivetrain and 4-piston brakes, Shimano’s next-gen EP8 motor with 720Wh internal battery, e13 chainguide, Crankbrothers Highline dropper, Rotwild alloy cockpit, and a 29/27.5mullet DT Swiss H1900 hybrid alloy wheels wrapped in Schwalbe Albert Radial tires.
The new RN0 will be first available in a selection of Honda’s European motorcycle shops, starting in 2027. Then, it might move beyond to car, boat, and global Honda dealers based on demand.
What about that new Shimano EP8 motor?
Maybe even more important to cycling as a whole – and specifically the ebike market – it’s big news that Shimano has finally revamped their flagship EP8 motor system. Well… almost. It seems we’ll have to wait a bit longer to officially learn all of the remaining details directly from Shimano.
But I have ridden it, and I’ve got a pretty good sense of what’s new?
Its name may be the same. But with more power, more control, a more compact design, and lighter weight, the EP8 moniker is pretty much the only detail unchanged.
Let’s start with the simple stats. The new EP8 cranks out 100Nm of max torque, up 17.6%. Its peak power now tops 750W, up 25%. And it shifts to a higher 43V system, compared to 36V of the prior EP-801 generation (and most other premium ebikes). Plus, the magnesium-cased motor now weighs 2.3kg, a 14.8% weight savings. No, that’s not the most torquey or most powerful ebike system. But, it might just be the lightest full-power eMTB motor. What difference does 300-400g make on a 24kg ebike? I guess we’ll have to wait for Shimano to explain that one.
What is important to know, though for now, is that the new EP8 feels much more powerful than the previous generation. And it had no problem pedal-assisting the new Honda RN0 eMTB up a lot of steep hills and technical climbs.
So how does it all ride?
First Rides: Honda RN0 eMTB…
My first rides on the new Honda RN0 pretty much came to two main conclusions.
- The RN0 is a reasonably capable eMTB that should make Honda fans happy, but likely isn’t going to win over a lot of hardcore eMTB or e-enduro enthusiasts.
- And the new Shimano EP8 motor is plenty powerful, but also not going to please those looking for power-maxing.
The first thing I noticed riding the big monocoque carbon RN0 is that it amplifies noises. Hit a square-edged bump and a ‘thunk’ resonates through the frame. The same for transmitting ‘clunks’ from the ebike motor. It’s not really loud, but it’s obvious. At first I thought it would annoy me, but soon enough it didn’t bother me any more than the sound of tires on the ground. With that said, riders who want a perfectly quiet ride will not find it on the RN0.
As for the eMTB’s ride, the Honda RN0 felt shorter and steeper than its geo table would suggest, with a feeling that a lot of its 24kg claimed weight was behind me. Part of that is that it looks quite aggressive (think: e-enduro), but is really more of a trail ebike targeted at less technical riders. The feel could also easily be addressed by sizing up. And, the RN0 features an angle-adjust headset if you feel the need to go slacker.
The ebike also features a quite progressive single-pivot suspension, which to me felt harsh near its bottom out. I think it would benefit from a coil shock for more aggressive riding, or simply more time tweaking sag & compression damping settings to tailor its feel towards the end user, something I didn’t have enough time to fiddle with.
…and with new Shimano EP8
As for the next-gen Shimano EP8 motor? It offered plenty of power for all-round trail riding. 100Nm is really plenty of torque to get an eMTB moving. And 750W doesn’t sound like a tone when we see eMTBs claiming 2x that much these days. But riding with a group of other riders on the same motor, I didn’t feel like it was ever lacking.
In fact, Shimano’s new Trail+ mode, which automatically adjusts assist power based on your own pedal input, now feels much more natural than the previous generation. Boost mode feels like plenty of power, without the feeling that it was ever out of control or hard to put the power to the ground. And it certainly got me up some seriously steep rock slab climbs.
My first impression was that the newly longer (max) overrun felt like too much, and I was happier dialing it back to something more reasonable (and controllable). But that’s a real issue I’ve seen with most full-power ebikes these days. They all seem to try to max out, straight out of the box to show off. But thankfully, the end user gets tons of power control customization these days. And Shimano looks to have really progressed in giving the rider more control, both through an upgraded toptube display and a new app that I didn’t have much time to play with yet.
The new EP8 is certainly not the most powerful ebike powertrain on the market. But it does seem quite light. So, first impressions seem hopeful. And I look forward to getting to try it more, ideally on some home trails where I can better benchmark it against other eMTB drive systems. And where I can experiment with power level customization and the True Auto possibilities.
