Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127824
FIRST RIDE (Left) A British rider on a Japanese bike modeled on the best Italy has to offer. How is the VTRl000? Awesome. (Below) The lovely tall section hides a passenger seat. By Alan Cat!lcart Photos by Koichi Ohtani 12 irst Harley, now Ducati. Two years after debuting the VTll00c Shadow ACE cruiser, aimed at carving itself'a share of the lucrative Hog trough complete with designed-in vibration and Route 66 styling, Honda has now turned its attention to that irritating little company in Italy whose desmo darlings keep depriving Honda of the World Superbike crown it's had its eye on regaining for the past three years-. Hence the VTRl000F, aka FireStorm in Europe (good excuse to paint it redJ), launched at the Cologne Show and now entering production, whose 90-degree V-twin archi tecture and crankcasemounted swingarm inevitably stamp it as following in Ducati's tire tracks - just like Honda's surprise Japanese rival for sport twin supremacy, Suzuki's TUOOO, whose deadheat debut has stirred Honda management and R&D staff up more than just a little. In fact, the TU 000 was one of the primary motivating factors in the decision to advance the VTRI000's world press launch by several weeks to just before Christmas, on what turned out to be a (Right) The VTRl000 is a potent al!-around sportblke In the spirit of Honda's excellent VFR750. fortunately sunny Japanese winter day at Honda's Tochigi R&D test track north of Tokyo - normally locked up tight, off limits from prying journo eyes. Except that these are in fact two completely distinct motorcycles, aimed at very different potential markets, with quite disparate performance and character: As far removed from each other as, say, the Suzuki GSXR750 is from the Honda VFR750. Because that's what the VTR really is, a V-twin version of Honda's aU-time greatest V-four all-rounder, the motorcycle that defines the term multipurpose, or polyvalent in Euro-speak. Unlike most other bikes that try to be all things to all riders, the VFR750 does most of them well, some of them brilliantly and none of them bad. The VTRIOOO fits the same description. So the first thing you learn within a couple of laps of the Tochigi so-caJJed "handling course" is that the VTR isn't a balls-out badass twin like the Suzuki or 916 Ducati, but a real-world roadster that happens to have just two cylinders and is as easy to ride around tight, twisty streets at low rpm as on racer road at max revs. My mate who gives us the desmo wakeup call each day riding his 9005S Ducati to work past our house - well, when it's not off the road waiting for the spare-parts stagecoach to arrive from Bologna - would die for the VTR. The bike seems very compact and slim (thanks doubtless to those sidemounted radiators), and a lot narrower than the Suzuki which feels almost as bulky and tall as a four-cylinder superbike. The Honda has an extremely rational riding position (with not too much body weight on the forearms . thanks to the highish bars, but just enough to load up the front end ill turns), an amazing steering lock that most mopeds can't match, footpegs low enough to give space for a 6-footer withou t impeding ground clearance (well, once the stupidly long hero tab