I am going to stick with my popularity rule here, and agree that the bike is a polarizing bike, either you like it or you can't figure it out. But the more people see this bike, and consider mine looks like a routing bike with the tall windshield and top-box, it draws attention.
I have owned Harley's that didn't have this type of attention! My Street Glide was given a custom look, but I have never had the bike parked in the driveway and someone driving by stop, park the car on the street, and walk over to have a look at it...the CTX managed that.
Baggers are the market for bikes right now, a bagger is a more practical bike than a custom, but it isn't a full blown touring bike. That is the market, that is what the buyers are looking for, and Honda blew it with the marketing and dealer training. When I first saw the CTX, the dealer sort of watched me sit on the bike, didn't really know what it was but that it had the ST1300 engine/transmission, and couldn't tell me about the bike.
Once you know how to sell benefits and features...which is what it is all about, I think more people would be intrigued by the bike.
Honda Worldwide | CTX | Comfort Technology Revealed
Someone made the comment about a price point, and I agree that Honda didn't get that part right, as now with the $3,000 rebates, seems like the bike is flying off the shelf. My question is why did the CTX 700 sell ok then? That may be the angle, since most dealers don't know the road to the sale. How does that work?
But the more the bike is on the road, people want to know what it is and I think these types will visit the showroom and want one. The bike DOES fit the niche, is very comfortable, and is a practical bike. I think there have been a few bikers who have read the reviews on-line, went to the dealer, and they didn't have one so they purchased a comparable cruiser.
A perfect example is my college roomate. He is IN the market for a bike, and I sent him some links about the CTX 1300. We went to the dealer...not one on display, so he is taken over to the Victory lineup. He ended up ordering an Indian Dark Horse, but I took him to the airport hanger a few days later and showed him my CTX 1300. The guy was going Ape-nuts over the bike, especially after he sat on it and felt the COMFORT of the bike. His Indian is $16,900 without bags, windshield, no radio, etc....in fact, he has to buy a rear seat for the bike.
I sold him the CTX in less than 5 minutes, but it was too late, he already had a nonrefundable $1,000 deposit on his Indian. This is a 51 year old ex-BMW K1200Gt owner, his previous bike was a Yamaha V-Max.