After an upgrade last year, Honda has more plans for the now-midsize Rebel. There is now a 2021 Honda Rebel 500 ABS—an accessorized version of the standard Rebel 500 ABS. It’s time to take a look at what gets added to the plain wrap Rebel 500 to turn it into an SE.
The goal of the 2021 SE is to further the blacked-out look of the parallel-twin cruiser. Here is what Honda adds to the platform:
Black headlight cowl
Black fork boots
Black fork tube cover (between triple clamps)
Black diamond-stitch seat
2021 Honda Rebel 500 ABS SE
All of these blacked-out parts contribute a bit of a menace to the basically friendly platform. Honda class the look “Born Rebel”. Of course, we all know you meet the nicest people on a Honda. Regardless, it is a good look.
Honda asks just a $200 premium for the 2021 Honda Rebel 500 ABS SE over the standard ABS model. That brings the MSRP of the SE to $6799. The standard Honda Rebel 500 without ABS is available for $6299, with the addition of ABS adding $300 to the price. We recently tested the standard Rebel 500 ABS.
The SE comes in one color: Matte Gray Metallic.
Your local Honda dealer will have the SE in the showroom in January.
2021 Honda Rebel 500 ABS SE SpecsENGINE
Type: Parallel twin
Bore x stroke: 67.0 x 66.8mm
Displacement: 471cc
Compression ratio: 10.7:1
Valvetrain: DOHC; four valves per cylinder
Fueling: EFI w/ 34mm throttle bodies
Transmission: Six-speed
Final drive: Chain
CHASSIS
Front suspension; travel: Non-adjustable 41mm fork; 4.8 inches
Hello everyone and welcome once again to Motos and Friends, the weekly podcast brought to you by Ultimate Motorcycling. My name is Arthur Coldwells.
Motos and Friends is brought to you by Yamaha. You can check out the amazing YZF-R7 at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com. The YZF-R7 is an amazing supersport machine that is comfortable too!
In this week’s first segment, Editor Don Williams takes the smallest BMW ADV bike on an urban adventure in Los Angeles. The BMW G 310 GS is a full size motorcycle with a modest engine, so of course we wonder if it is a little too underpowered and might struggle. Don put it through its paces and gives us his take.
In the second segment, Neale Bayly and Kiran Ridley have returned from the Ukraine to Paris where Kiran is based.
Kiran is an award winning photojournalist, and as an accomplished documentarian, he has covered stories as diverse as drug smuggling around the Mexican border, to the devastation of the Australian Bush Fires, to the tragedy of the Mediterranean migration crisis. Neale and Kiran reminisce about their motorcycle adventure in the Ukraine, and their observations and experiences with the incredibly resilient people of Ukraine, who have been put through such brutal hardship.