Total Complaints
3 filings
HONDA HONDA MOTORCYCLE · model year
3 NHTSA complaints for this specific cohort.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 1997HONDAHONDA MOTORCYCLE carries 3 consumer safety complaints in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 0 crashes, 0 fires, 0 injuries, and 0 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
Component-level analysis is where model-year complaints become actionable: the top complaint category for the 1997 HONDA MOTORCYCLE is tires with 1 filings, followed by unknown or other (1) and electrical system:alternator/generator/regulator (1). Concentration in one or two component groups is the classic signature of a systemic defect; a flat distribution usually reflects normal aging, warranty complaints, or isolated build-plant variability.
NHTSA currently has 77 investigation files overlapping the 1997 HONDA MOTORCYCLE, and 9 remain open. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should pair the counters above with the complaint-by-year trend on the parent model page — a spike in a single year often tracks to a platform refresh, a new transmission supplier, or an updated ECU calibration. Use the related-complaint feed below to read raw owner narratives before deciding whether any pattern here affects your specific use case.
Total Complaints
3 filings
Crashes Reported
0 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| TIRES | 1 |
| UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 1 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:ALTERNATOR/GENERATOR/REGULATOR | 1 |
COMPLETE AND UNEXPECTED FAILURE OF ELECTRICAL POWER. TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. THIS IS DUE TO FAULTY DESIGN OF VOLTAGE REGULATOR. A WEB SEARCH TURNED UP DOZENS OF INCIDENTS OF THIS TYPE; THE DEFECTIVE PART HAS BEEN IN USE SINCE AT LEAST 1991.(HONDA VFR750F). *JB
Mileage: 14,003
SPEEDOMETER UNDER-REPORTS ACTUAL SPEED. SPEEDOMETER ON 1997 HONDA, PC 800, REPORTS VEHICLE SPEED AS 50 MPH, WHEN VEHICLE IS ACTUALLY TRAVELING AT 55 MPH. SPEEDOMETER UNDER-REPORTS ALL SPEEDS BY 10%. (NOTE: VEHICLE TIRES ARE SIZES SPECIFIED BY OWNER'S MANUAL, AND ARE PROPERLY INFLATED. *NLM
Mileage: 22,000
BRIDGE STONE TIRE BLEW OUT FROM A NAIL PUNCTURE, OWNER FEELS TIRE SHOULD HAVE SURVIVED THIS TYPE OF PUNCTURE.
Inaccurate Rear Passenger Seat Belt Warning Status
Loss of Motive Power
Inadvertent Deployment of Side Air Bags
Engine failure
No Restart After Auto Start/Stop Engages
Data as of 2025. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.