Celebrities Who Ride Honda Motorcycles

Who chose a Shadow over the Street Glide?

Not all celebrities prefer Harley Davidsons.

Yes, many celebs love their intimidating American-made choppers, but there are also a handful who prefer Honda Motorcycles.

Most movie stars who are into motorcycles are after cruiser-types like Harley Davidson. While Honda makes cruiser motorcycles as well, they don’t focus on them as exclusively as other brands so they don’t have the same concentrated American biker image that celebrities want. Honda is famous for making all types and sizes of motorcycles all the way down to 50cc. 

One of their tiny bikes is the top-selling motorcycle of all time with over 110,000,000 units produced worldwide. Honda also is famous for making big, touring cycles. With optional heated seats, airbags, and a reverse gear, their Gold Wing offers the ultimate in comfortable highway driving, but you aren’t likely to see an image-conscious Hollywood star driving one of these bikes with oversized plastic saddlebags.

Honda does make the Shadow – a solid line of cruisers aiming to rival Harley Davidsons. But if a celebrity is into Honda motorcycles it’s more likely that they’re either into the convenience and quality of their everyday motorcycles or the speed of their supersport line of bikes.

The quality, power, and style of Honda motorcycles has won a legion of fans. And when you see a celebrity prefer Honda, you know it’s not just posturing. It’s not about the label. These celebrities actually love their Hondas:

Michael Fassbender

Motorcycles are made mostly of metal, so you’d expect the actor who played Magneto in the X-men first class series, and an android in Prometheus would know a thing or two about them. Michael went to Honda Ron Haslam Race School learning how to ride track motorcycles. Michael was humbled by the quality of the bike he rode “The CBR600RR is great and is more bike than my ability. It’s well-balanced and forgiving.”*

*https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2014/july/fassbender-takes-to-the-track/

Hugh Laurie  

He was a badass doctor in the House television series and a badass motorcyclist in real life. On his show he also rode a Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade Repsol in the show. There was even a promotion where you could win House’s custom Honda. In real life, he’s more likely to be found on a CBR600RR. Like many celebrities, he finds riding a motorcycle puts him at ease and is much more relaxing than working as an actor. “Riding my motorcycle around L.A. is like my own video game.” 

Richard Hammond 

The star presenter of BBC shows about cars –  Top Gear and Grand Tour – has a soft spot for Honda motorcycles. He grew up riding Hondas, starting with a MTX50 before graduating to a XL100 and then eventually a Honda NSR125R, which he was obsessed with so much, he carried a picture of it for a month before buying it! His first big bike was a CBX750F and he still has Hondas on his wishlist including an original 1992 Fireblade and a CBX1000.  

Queen Latifah  

As she was rising to fame in the early 90’s as a rapper/singer/actor, she lost her brother in a motorcycling accident. She continues to ride herself, keeping the keys to her brother’s bike around her neck. She drives a bright purple and yellow CBR. 

Katee Sackoff  

She’s famous for piloting fighter ships on the Battlestar Galactica TV show and she’s moved on to Honda motorcycles. She prefers Hondas so much she has two custom versions one XL600R and one XR650L nicknamed the KT600 and KT675.

Brian Wilson

One of the lead singer/songwriters of the Beach Boys forever memorialized his love of the Honda Super Cub in his song “Little Honda”. With lyrics like“It’s not a big motorcycle,

Just a groovy little motorbike.”, it’s clear Wilson was aware that Hondas were doing something different when it came to two-wheeled transportation.

Christian Bale

Yes, the actor who played Batman likes to drive motorcycles in real-life though he’s cut back a bunch since he had a crash while racing and had a daughter. He has been known to drive a CBR600RR bike. 

Part of riding motorcycles is having dings and scratches even if you’re Batman. Repair your rig yourself and keep it looking sharp enough for Magneto’s standards by using guaranteed-to-match Honda touch up paint.