At its centre was the well known V-four engine. Infamous for blow-ups in earlier incarnations by the time the VFR made the showroom all the valve hassles were a thing of the past. V-fours make similar power to straight fours but have a lot of the torque of a V-twin. A heady mixture of kicks result in the particular case of the VFR... one of my favourite pastimes was to rumble along in top at 50-60mph, then whack open the throttle. With no hesitation whatsoever, the Honda hurtled forward fast enough to have my stomach in my mouth. I always had to hold the bike back because it was all too easy to ride straight into some careering cage or end up trawling along at 130mph without a care in the world. Except for the cops, of course. Everyone who rode the bike came back with the same exclamation. Brilliant roll-ons, marvellous engine. The price paid for the mix of V-four power and torque was massive complexity.
Not an engine to approach unless you know what you're doing. Even changing a spark plug was a major hassle - remove the plastic, poke around in all the junk and pray like hell that the thing isn't going to cross-thread when replaced. Just when you're breathing a sigh of relief, you discover that the fairing's impossible to replace unless you have six pairs of hands, surgeon skill and priestly patience. I know one poseur who was so embarrassed and enraged by having to replace the spark plug at the roadside that he promptly sold his bike! I was charged £250 for a full service every 10000 miles (which is when they are needed, not the recommended interval) which includes, yes, a new set of spark plugs!
This sounds a bit nasty but on the upside the Honda did 87000 miles without any failures whatsoever. Would have done more if it hadn't been nicked last year. Regular servicing (and even more frequent oil changes) are definitely necessary. A despatch riding friend acquired a newish, low mileage VFR, proceeded to ride it into the ground over the next year. With 52000 miles on the clock, the knocking noise of shot main bearings reverberated inside the fairing. Amazingly, despite never being cleaned, when jet-washed it looked pretty damn good. New thick oil and some chemical substance in the sump subsumed the knocking noise long enough to get shot of the VFR to a born-again biker.
As the bike had never even had an oil change, I suppose it does say something about the basic toughness of the mill. There are loads of good ones that have only suffered the mildest of owners - the race replica crowd tended to look elsewhere because of its excessive mass. And the way the relatively soft suspension stopped it from scratching at ten-tenths. When | bought my machine, the suspension was a reasonable compromise between firmness and softness but by 20000 miles the rear shock was shot and the forks a bit floppy.
Handling wasn't terrible if a bit of restraint was applied. Mild weaves rather than speed wobbles. The tighter, bumpier stuff had the bike all over the place, though, and I had a few brown underpant experiences. Bad enough to have me buying a new shock and hefty fork brace. Better than new, though a certain element of plushness on motorway cruises was missing entirely. Can't win them all.
One area that didn't amuse was the lack of range not much better than 130 miles before some desperate searching for petrol was needed. This often coincided with the seat going uncomfortable, although I could have survived for longer with a bit of squirming around. As the seat's part of the styling it's not something that can be easily replaced. The other element that intrudes on fast rides is the way the wind is funnelled off the top of the fairing's screen. Helmet buffeting and visor shaking unless I got my head down which then caused a bit of neck strain. It was only really bad above 135mph, by the time 155mph came up it was quite dire.
Another minor complaint was the front brake. quite spongy after 15000 miles, the twin discs never quite had the edge to match the replicas in the stopping game. Goodridge hose and new fluid brought back a semblance of decent braking. I squirted WD40 into the calipers from time to time, stopped the squeaking. On the good side, absent was the disappearing disc syndrome (a Honda specially) and pads lasted for well over 15000 miles.
Ridden with a little restraint, but by no means slowly, Pirelli tyres could be pushed to as much as 6000 miles. My crazier friends managed half that from Metzelers and OE Bridgestones are even worse, going quite nasty in their last days. A full chain and sprocket set lasts for around 20,000 miles from the OE stuff, but replacements only manage 15-16000 miles. Oil consumption is negligible, fuel 40-45mpg. Add all these things up, it comes out as cheaper than the replicas but involves quite heavy costs when high mileage touring's involved. Depends how rich you are - I never really noticed a huge drain on my resources. Much more apparent was the sheer buzz of riding the VFR. After all, nothing in life comes free, does it?
The most memorable trip was three weeks in the South of France in autumn. Brilliant blue skies every day, a nice young lady on the back and roads to ride and ride. Did a few 500 mile days but nothing too outrageous. It was much more fun to find a nice hotel for some R and R, rather than trying to stretch the limits of human endurance. Usually, cruising speed was 90 to 100mph, the wide roads Ideally sulted to the VFR's handling characteristics. At times, I strung the bike out to 150mph, two-up the suspension feeling a touch queasy and the woman frantically digging me in the ribs. I was often overwhelmed with a feeling of power and invincibility but a glance at the way the tarmac was speeding past underneath us brought me back to reality.
The worst time I had on the VFR was camping in Scotland for two weeks. It rained heavily for most of the time; twice the tent collapsed on top of me when its fixings were washed away by the rivers of water! As I always sleep in the nude, it provided no end of amusement for my neighbours. I was pestered all the time by one (married) neighbour after she clocked me naked. As she was BIG, I only got out of it by moving on - not ideal on a bike in a thunderstorm. The VFR has an excess of plastic but doesn't provide that much protection in heavy rain. More's the pity, but the last thing I want is a full touring rig Goldwing.
Not absolutely perfect but I've just had my insurance payment and have stumped up for a new shadow import VFR. That says it all, really.
Duncan O'Hare