2021 PCX Long Term Review

When Honda discontinued the Silver Wing we didn't really know what we were going to go to. When our 2013's reached end of life, Honda had the Forza, but that was also discontinued. The Silver Wing has been out of production now for better than 10 years and it became obvious that Honda was answering market demand  - build what sells and the Silver Wing was a slow seller. When they came out with the upgraded PCX in 2021 we went with those. The only problem was getting a pair of them. Ordered in February '21 they didn't get here until September.

They haven't changed anything on the 2024's except for the color. But they aren't any easier to come by in the U.S. now than they were when the upgraded model first came out in 2021 - the overseas market gets first priority.

This is my little long-term video review up the upgraded PCX.

Thanks for the long term review. This should help others that might be considering a switch. There are some neat innovations to be sure but my feeling is that for touring, I will stick to the Silver Wing! My Forza 300cc is a great bike but going against wind or uphill the power is lacking, and I am guessing the 160cc PCX would be similar.

Nice review of the PCX, there's currently 141 new and used PCX's for sale online here in the UK.

Strange as it may seem, my Forza is fine in headwinds, atrocious weather, and at prolonged motorway speeds. Hills are no problem either as I've ridden the Forza up Hardknott Pass in Cumbria, and Rosedale Chimney Bank in North Yorkshire, and they're the two steepest roads in England with gradients of 1 in 3, or 33%.

There's a lot of advantages to downsizing to one of the newer tech laden 300 to 400cc maxi scooters, especially if you're not lugging a passenger about. I've formed the opinion over the years that very few members on here are.

The PCX 160 has amazing power, it is not lacking like the PCX150 was. Hills and wind don't bother it at freeway speed. It's aerodynamically cleaner than the Silver Wing, and while it can't reach the same top speed as the Silver Wing, that's not really necessary anyway. It's also quite a bit lighter. If I recall, the Silver Wing was over 500 lbs curb weight and something like 485 lbs dry weight. The PCX's curb weight is 285 so it's not wasting as much power just moving mass down the highway and when going up hills.

Amazingly, the PCX's single-cylinder engine is also smoother than the Silver Wing's parallel twin. The PCX is virtually vibration-free. The Silver Wing had a sort of "shudder" when taking off from low speed that would make the dash rattle, which the PCX doesn't have. A lot of people modify their sliders and variators in the SW, which I've never seen the need to do with the PCX.

We probably would've bought Forza's if Honda would've continued offering them in the U.S. But by the time we were ready to trade, the Forza had been discontinued in 2017. There was some used ones available, but we didn't want used bikes - we wanted new. I started reading the reviews of the new PCX and we decided to try them.

What was disappointing was ordering them in February of 2021, expecting to have them here by May. They never came until September when the riding season was just about over here. Even the 2022's didn't make it to U.S. dealers until July '22. And now in 2024 there is a few in dealer showrooms, but there's also a lot of new 2023's that dealers ordered, but they got here too late in the 2023 season for the dealer to sell them during the peak of motorcycle sales in the spring. We were at our local dealer yesterday and asked about trading for a pair of 2024's - they said they don't have them in stock and ordering one from Honda will be end of the season before it shows up.

Meanwhile the dealer in New Richmond has a new 2023, but they only got one in stock:
https://www.stcroixpowersports.com/inventory/2023-honda-pcx-new-richmond-wi-54017-12094971i

So, basically, the U.S. market for maxi-scooters is barely existing and Honda doesn't consider it important. The last six of the VIN is the sequence of when they were built. You see the VIN on that 2023 is 100024, ours are 000457 and 000458, they are the 457th and 458th of the new series PCX's that were built, the build date on both of them 05/21. Honda has built over 100,000 of them in three model years up to when that 2023 was built.

What is ridiculous is considering that ours were ordered in February, built in May and then sat someplace for four months before they were shipped. So in the future, if Honda wants to keep us as customers they're going to have to do better than that.