Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

grad ually been eroded - firs t by BMW, but especially by Ducat i recently wit h the new S1'2. Ho nda's reclothing of the VFR75 0 in 1994 w ith NR7 50-inspired styling on ly postponed the day of reckoning. But, jus t like Chrysler wit h the MP V, Ho nda h a s r es p ond ed by re inventi ng the MPM : The mu ltipu rp ose moto rcycle has been born agai n. T here wasn ' t mu ch d oubt of that when the new VFR (no numbers; Honda has recognized that's wh at everyo ne called it anyway) was unveiled at Pari s in September. Ju st readin g th e s pec sheet and eyeballing the show bike had you convinced the best had just gotten better. And riding the new VFR on a press launch on ltalian roads a month later confirmed that im pression, despite (or because of?) the fact that the introduction to the bike was held in pouring rain. The wo rld 's fines t all-around motorcycle - the bike that for the past 'decade you 'd have chosen over all ot hers as a true MPM - has leapfrogged back to the top to set a fresh set of multipu rpose standards, building on its RC45 heritage to add spirit to function. This is now a bike with the capacity to thrill as well as sati sfy. In up rating th e VFR' s performance and sharpening its ro ad skills, Hond a has moved the sport-touring goa l pos ts a lmo s t out of sight o f it s rivals. However, the RC45 isn't the only one in Honda's family of bikes that pla yed a part in this; one year ago, with the debut of the V-tw in VTR1000 sportbike, it was apparent the compa ny had opted to kick off its fo ray int o the territory of what had hitherto heen the almost exclus ive ground of the European manufacturers by building a tw in-cyli nder version of the VFR750, op ting for a practica l, allaround sport twin rather than a superbike wi th lights. Now, a year later, Honda's turned the tables. Conceptwise, the new VFR is a four-cylinder version of the VTR1 000! Like the twin, the VFR now has its ProArm single-sided swin garm pivoti ng in the engine cases, Ducati-sty le, enabling the new tr iple-box-sect ion extrudedalloy twi n-spa r fram e to be 2.2 po unds lig h te r th an th e o ld VFR750' s, while allowing the 16-valve OOH C 90-degree V-four eng ine to act as an integral, fully load -bea ring part of the chassis, further reducin g w eight and bulk. Agai n lik e the VTR, the VFR's twin water rad iators are side-rno u nted , allowing Honda to overco me the inh erent weight-di stribution prob lem of V-fou r motors by positionin g the engine farther forwa rd relative to the axles than it could befo re, so as to increase front -end weight bias . Yet Ho nda engi neers also man aged to reduce the wheelbase by 1.2 inches compared to the old VFR750, and also to use spo rtier s teering geo metry for nimbler ha ndling. However, if Ho nda's new Interceptor owes much of its ov erall chassis layout to the VTR twin, it's to the RC45 super- . bike Wo rld Cha mp ion that it owes its eng ine d es ig n, fo r th is is Joh n Boy' s moto r m ad e over - even d o wn to th e meta l-composit e cy linde r s tee ves (4.4 pounds lighte r than the steel eq uivalents) an d the PGM-A fuel-injection system, w hic h is clo sel y re lated to the RC45's . However, this system turns out, in fact, to be an improvement over the World Champ ion superbike 's EA pac kage, beca use the VFR's is a next-genera- . tion, full y integrated engi ne -ma nagement sys tem incorporating bot h EA and ignition, wh ereas the RC45 has separate fuel-injection and ign ition systems (d ue (Left) Though completely restyled, the VFR look Is stili recogn izable. Passenger grab hand les are made of nylon. (Below) Rid ing the VFR Is a rev elat ion, even on wet ttalian roads. The 781cc V-four provides a broad spread of torque. to having come from two different manufacturers). Compared to the old 70 x 48.6mm VFR750 with its central cam drive, the n ew VFR -rn o t o r is an ups ized 72 x 48mm version of the RC45 , it s 2mmlonger stroke

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