The Honda RN0 is a carbon mountain bike with an electric motor, and Honda does not plan to sell it in a bike shop. The RN0 goes on sale through selected Honda motorcycle dealerships in Europe, parked next to Africa Twins and Fireblades, for people who already buy their two-wheeled machines from Honda. It is the company’s first high-end electric mountain bike, built with German e-MTB maker ROTWILD.
This is a serious machine wearing a familiar badge. The frame is a proprietary carbon monocoque with a gull-arm swingarm, the motor is Shimano’s new EP810, good for 100 Nm of torque and 750 W at peak, and the whole bike weighs about 24 kg. Honda designed the chassis like a motorcycle chassis, then handed the bicycle hardware to companies that already make the best of it.
Price: TBD
Where to buy: Honda
Sold where Honda sells motorcycles
Bike brands fight for floor space in specialist shops. Honda is skipping that fight. The launch plan puts the RN0 in selected Honda motorcycle dealerships in Europe starting in 2027, with organized test rides and a handover, and the dealer stays the point of contact after the sale, backed by trained service partners. Wider Honda networks may follow later. At launch, the pitch is simpler: the customer who already trusts Honda with a motorcycle gets offered a mountain bike on the way out.
That changes the buyer. A specialist shop sells to riders who know what a mullet wheel setup does. A Honda showroom sells to a larger group that knows the badge and has never thought about shock leverage ratios. The RN0 is specced for the second group, and nearly every decision on the bike serves it.
A motorcycle chassis, built from carbon
The frame is the one part Honda insisted on doing its own way. The carbon monocoque runs a structural line from the head tube to the rear axle, a layout borrowed from motorcycle chassis design, shaped for straight-line stability with engineered flex that helps the tires stay planted in corners. The gull-arm swingarm works through a single-pivot linkage layout, tuned to pedal cleanly and still absorb hits.
The geometry is all-mountain, not downhill: a 65-degree head angle, a 76.5-degree seat tube angle, and reach figures of 430, 455, and 480 mm across sizes S, M, and L. It’s built to feel stable and predictable for a rider stepping off a motorcycle, not to win arguments among enduro racers.
The RN01 name is doing real work
RN0 is a heritage play with receipts. In the 2000s, Honda’s RN01 downhill program ended with Team G Cross Honda winning the overall UCI Downhill World Cup title in 2005. Honda never sold a mountain bike after that program. The new name, Ride Natural and Reach New Peaks in Honda’s expansion, borrows that credibility on purpose: the badge has to convince motorcycle buyers Honda knows mountain bikes, and the RN01 title is the proof.
The development lead helps. Yusuke Muto, the RN0’s large project leader, has raced cross-country, downhill, and BMX since the 1990s. This is not a badge exercise; a rider is running the program.
Shimano’s EP810 does the shifting for you
Honda builds engines for a living, which makes the drivetrain the telling decision on the bike: there is no Honda motor. Power comes from Shimano’s new EP810 drive unit, 2.3 kg behind a magnesium cover, making 100 Nm of torque and up to 750 W of peak output, fed by a 720 Wh battery that swings out from the underside of the down tube. Assist keeps working up to 160 rpm of pedaling cadence, up from 120 rpm on the unit it replaces.
The software is the point: AUTO ASSIST reads gradient and pedaling effort and meters power on its own. AUTO SHIFT changes gears to hold cadence, FREE SHIFT lets the system shift while you coast, and Assist Carry Over keeps the drive pushing briefly after you stop pedaling, so the bike holds its momentum over roots and rocks. For the rider Honda is courting, that is the whole product. Experienced riders manage gears and power themselves because they want to; an automatic bike asks them to hand that over. Honda is betting its showroom buyers would rather hand it over.
The parts Honda did not build
The rest of the spec sheet reads like a premium e-MTB catalog, because it is one. A Fox 36 Float Factory fork with 160 mm of travel works up front, and a Fox Float X Factory shock drives 145 mm at the rear. DT Swiss H1900 wheels run in a mullet setup, 29-inch at the front and 27.5-inch at the rear, on Schwalbe Albert Evo tires. Shimano’s Deore XT Di2 drivetrain shifts wirelessly, and XT four-piston brakes clamp 203 mm rotors at both ends.
The cockpit tech will feel familiar to a motorcycle buyer. A 2.2-inch color display sits inside the top tube next to a USB-C port that charges a phone, and Shimano’s app doubles as a smart key: power the bike down and it locks itself.
No price yet, and the estimate is not Honda’s
Honda has announced no price, no delivery date beyond the 2027 model year, and no US plan. Industry estimates circulating since the debut put the bike between $9,000 and $12,000. That range is an estimate, not a Honda figure, and the specification Honda has published is marked provisional, so treat the fine details as launch-spec rather than final. What is fixed: one build, three sizes, and a two-tone Pearl Moon Ash Gray and Mat Ballistic Black Metallic finish.
Price: TBD
Where to buy: Honda
As a mountain bike, the RN0 is a well-specced machine with an automatic drivetrain that will divide riders. As a Honda product, it’s a bigger play. The world’s largest motorcycle maker is using its showrooms to sell its customers a new category, with a World Cup nameplate for credibility and Shimano, Fox, and ROTWILD covering hardware Honda doesn’t make. Whether that rewrites e-MTB retail depends on how many motorcyclists want a bicycle. Honda doesn’t need many of them to say yes.
