wow… 380k is a great price for the Z750… If that’s what they’re telling you straight in the door, you can be sure that you could get it for 370k at least, licenced, or perhaps 360-365k or less if you play hard and you arrange the plate yourself… Even at 380K that is the best bike for your buck deal I’ve ever seen in Taiwan…
The Hornet was a great bike, now 10 years after it came out it’s just a good bike, it’s long in the tooth and it shows… The '05 re-encarnation sports upside down forks, but that’s it as far as updates go and it’s more than likely the end of the line… I’m almost positive that Honda will be announcing it’s successor in 2006, they have to to keep competetive in the naked middleweight class… For almost a decade the Hornet was the class leader, head and shoulders above the rest, but the times they have a changed…
On paper the Z750 smacks the poor old Hornet all over the playground, but as I keep trying to point out there’s more to it than paper in Taiwan… If the Horent is cheap, very cheap, say in the sub 300k price range, and if it’s an '05 model it’d be worth considering… it’s an got ancient steel backbone frame, carbs, not FI (so you’ll have to re-jet and re needle them to adjust fueling to get the best from it) but this engine from a bygone era has advantages in Taiwan since it’s easy to work on for your average Joe Chen grease monkey… to be worth it it’d have to be the '05 model with USD forks though since the Hornet’s suspension is ultra budget and the forks are notoriously crap on the pre '05 models…
But it’ll almost certainly be discontinued as of 2006 meaning that parts that are already hard to find and insanely overpriced in Taiwan (due to the lack of official importers Honda parts are the most expensive bike items you can buy in Taiwan bar none) will be even harder to come by… Mainly though like I said above it’ll have to be cheap to consider it… When you buy a new bike a big chunk of the price subsidizes the 2 year unlimited milage warranty and service backup and you will not be getting this at all… So it’s only advantage is that it’ll be easy enough for local grease monkeys and/or yourself to service and muck about on but in all other respects it’ll be an inferior machine to the Z750…
The Z750 has a stomping, toque laden engine that would outperform the Hornet’s (which is admittedly a peach, albeit an elderly one) even without it’s significant 150cc capacity advantage… Not only that but the 750’s engine is bomb proof (according to BIKE’s year long long term test) at least on a par with the almighty H and it has the pefect level of power to weight with more grunt and HP than a 600, but without the over the top brute force of a 1000cc… It also has much better passenger accomodations, great grab rails, underseat storage that the Honda’s can all but eliminates, weather and wind protection, easily tweakable and simple Fuel Injection, the complete package which is pretty much where it wins… the Hornet is a hooligan machine, a small tank range blast around, stunt bike… the Z knows all of those tricks but throws everyday practicality into the mix… it’s rider, pasenger and luggage friendly (high hornet can melts luggage and passenger legs and wind blast gets tedious and tiring on trips over 1hour ) for touring, loads of grunt, HP, handling and ground clearance for irresponsible blasting about, increasd tank capacity and fuel efficiency for greater range and cheaper operation and super composed and traffic friendly for commuting (although so is the Hornet on that front)
Basically the Hornet’s the old faithful mutt that does what it does very well, but the pack has moved on and the Z knows all the Hornet’s old tricks and plenty more… it’s the ultimate middleweight allrounder and at that price, with full dealer backup, warranty and cheap easily available parts it comes out head and shoulders ahead of the Hornet… IMHO…