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
on the footpegs are removed the fun . way), and comes with a well-padded seat that you can envisage being comfy enough for a mile-eating day in the saddle on a weekend trip. • Better be sure you can pack everything you need for that pair of away days (or longer, even) in a tankbag or backpack, though: The one major fault of the VTR's quite well-designed bodywork, which gives good protection at speed and looks much better in daylight than in photos or on a show stand (in Europe, the VT comes in three different color schemes but the U.s. version just one - red, the exact same tint as the VFR) is that there's nowhere to strap on some luggage or even a throwover bag. There are tabs to clip a bungee to on the exhaust brackets, but really the back end of the bike is more of a triumph of styling over function that doesn't entirely make sense, given that most people who'll buy this kind of everyday sport tourer - and that's what the VTR really is - will want to strap on some luggage someplace, sometime, somehow. VTR customers won't only ride the bike on Sunday mornings and summer evenings, which makes Honda's lack of provision for some kind of aftermarket . hard luggage system, or even a soft throwover bag, all the more unfortunate. However, that's about the only ball they've dropped on this bike, which by some way is the best all-around sport twin I've yet ridden, outpowering the 907 and TRX, for example, yet matching performance with practicality. Just don't expect to simply pump up the tires and go racing with it, that's all. Remember, this is a real-world ri4e, not a race replica - as the business with the hero-tabs on the footpegs illustrates. Try to ride it like a 916 Ducati, and you'll be disappointed. Treat it as a real-world roadster with the indefinable charm of a 90degree V-twin, and you won't be. The engine is abou t as linear in its power delivery as an' electric motor, with peak power of 110 horsepower delivered at 9,000 rpm.. While heavier than a fuel-injected bike, throttle action of the CV carbs is smooth and acceptably light, in spite of the pair of 48mm carb slides and all the suction that 98mm pistons breathing through soupplate 38mm paired intake valves inevitably deliver. But twist the wrist wide open in top gear at just 2,000 rpm, and the V-twin motor accelerates with scarcely a hiccup right up to your appointment with the soft rev limiter at 10,300 rpm. There's a slight roughness around 4,000 revs which you feel as vibration through the footrests, but it's only for a moment and sooh after the Honda starts storming toward the redline. The only downside about this is that four grand on the very legible neo-Veglia white-faced tachometer equates to (Above) Wide-throat 48mm carbs nestle between the pair of SOOCc cylinders. (Right) No surprises here: Honda brakes, as usual, are excellent. The front fork is adjustable for preload and rebound damping. (Below) The bike on the left was what Honda's designers in America thought it should be; the bike on the right is' what we got. just over 60 mph in top gear on the road, and since that's a favorite revenue-eaming speed limit for traffic cops around the world, it's actually likely to cause some inconvenience coupled with pecuniary loss; tha t is, if you don't yank it down a gear for cruising at that speed, and treat top on the six-speed gearbox as an overdrive, which with just 600 rpm between it and fifth, it essentially is. In faCt, the six-speed gearbox is as unnecessary on the VTR-F as it is on most big-bore sport twins - five would do just as well thanks to tha t mile-wide powerband and flat mega-torque curve. But changing gears is a real pleasure, with a precise, quick change that is typically Honda and invites c1utchless upward shifts, and a light clutch action for downward. The light, precise clutch makes in-town work especially easy and it's light years removed from anything made in Bologna. I've ridden just a few 90-degree Vtwins in my time, which makes it all the more inexcusable that 1 of all people should have been caught out by the Honda's lazy-sounding engine note, which is a bit overmuffled to make sure it keeps the sound-gestapo happy all over the world - nothing that a pair of carbon-canned Terrnignonis won't fix, though. Guess what should be on top of every Storm trooper's want list after the fitted luggage! But the lazy, quiet, offbeat lilt of the 90-degree V-engine note is deceptively unexciting, and doesn't really tell you that this bike is surely motoring, until you happen to sneak a look at the rather less-legible Speedo. What felt like 75 mph on the clock actually turned out to be 95 - that screen really does give good protection - and flat out on the banked Tochigi test oval equated to an indicated 154 mph on nine grand. This may be a jack-of-all-trades allrounder, but it's also a bloody fast one. VTR1000 project leader Naoyuki Saito isn't averse to the suggestion that Honda started out aiming at the Ducati 900SS level of sport twin, but raised its sights when the VTR1000 started delivering 916-level performance, though he says he prefers Honda's objective to be stamped as aimed at" creating a new type of twin-cylinder sports package that combines Japanese quality and practicality with the brio of a European bike. rd say they succeeded. Because the one thing that comes over you when you ride the Honda is a sense of everything fitting together in a quality package. This doesn't have the bland feel of a mass-production model, nor does it present the flawed idiosyncrasies of life aboard la moto italiana, where success is usually measured by how much the high points make up for the low ones. . The best way 1 can define this is by saying that the VTR1000 feels like the sort of twin I imagine Triumph would (will?) make, complete with practicality, character, quality and robustness. It's not as sharp-steering or as nimble as you ""might hope for around tighter turrs - street bike rather than sportbike, in fact - but that's surely a function of the relatively conservative steering geometry and fairly long wheelbase: 56.3 inches is quite rangy for a sportbike·stride. The payoff of this longish wheelbase comes when you hit a series of bumps cranked over at 100-mph-plus around the Tochigi banking apron, which features a host of different types of broken road surfaces for you to play on. The VTR1000 shrugs these off with scorn. Ride quality is not only excellent, but the bike is also very stable at high speeds even when you hit ripples or ridges cranked over: good Isle of Man bike! . Low-speed damping was initially less assured, but that's because the standard settings on the 41 mm cartridge forks are somewhat oft, and without any compression-damping adjustment at either end - presumably on grounds of cost - you have to work on the fork preload and crank it up a couple of 13