Reminds me of a thread in alt.motorcycle years ago. The cruiser guys were debating with the sport bike guys which style of bike was a better chick magnet. The argument went on for some time before one astute guy posted, "Have you ever noticed that the really cute chicks are riding Vespas?"
All bikes have different strong points. If I lived in an high density urban environment all of the time, I'd probably own a small scooter.
I'd not looked at
Honda's numbers in some time, so I took a look at them today. The opening photo in the Review of Operations Motorcycle Business is a
Pioneer 1000 four wheeler. North America makes up only 9.8% of their overall motorcycle market in terms of sales revenue and sales are declining. Again in terms of revenue, motorcycles are only 10% as big as financing. Power equipment, which is growing, is 75% the size of motorcycles.
All that is to say in this global economy, Honda execs trying to grow the motorcycle business probably never think "what we need is a new dual sport for the North America market!"