Yeah, I was looking at the VFR1200 for Kym and I.
I owned VFRs for years in the mid and late 90's. The '99 VFR800 that I owned was pretty much the best VFR ever made - and a beautiful, silky, sexy red.
I put 30,000 miles on that bike before planting it under a car that made an unscheduled left in front of me.
The insurance company totaled the bike out (this was in 2000), and I bought a CBR1100XX '99 "leftover" for a smokin' deal. That bike was everything that the VFRs were always hoping to be, but better. By far, that was the silkiest, smoothest, nicest bike I've ever had. I thought I would miss the V4 engine, but with almost 1200cc's in the twin-counterbalanced XX's engine, there was more torque everywhere, plus the top end of an inline four.
At altitude in Arizona, the XX's superior fuel injection system, fully-automated fuel enrichening system, and ignition and fuel maps were so much better than anything else on the market that, bone stock, the XX was faster, smoother, and more predictable than even the "newcomer" - the '99 Hayabusa. All of the magazines were saying how much faster the new 'Busa was (which quickly developed a following that continues to this day), but the bottom line is that it wasn't... But I had to spank a lot of 'Busa owners before they'd put any credibility in the notion.
At sea level, the Busa would take my XX occassionally, so I spent some time with full exhaust systems and working with Dynojet in Vegas to improve the XX's engine when equipped with a freer-flowing exhaust. They did most of this work for free, since the XX was a relatively unusual bike and prior to working on mine, they didn't have a map for the XX.
I also began to play with the bike's weight - changing some suspension components (to get a fully adjustable ride) and removing things here and there to lighten her up. In effect, I was able to cut her overall dry weight by about 60 or 70 pounds, while keeping her amazing geometry and incredible power. She got sexier, too... Losing weight and getting narrower and lighter-looking always seems to do that.
Not long before I sold her I installed a Whipplecharger - a sort of rotary supercharger. The charger had two boost settings, which were constant across the rpm range, unlike a turbocharger. The higher boost settings required that the bike run on aviation fuel (104-107 octane), but the lower setting would allow you to run high-test gasoline, which is what I did.
In Daytona Beach, 2000, my XX dynoed 202hp at the rear wheel on gasoline, and 247hp at the rear wheel on aviation fuel... Consistently, perfectly, like a stock motor.
The bike consistently ran 9.2's and 9.5's in the quarter mile - and once set a world speed record at Black Rock at 207 mph. That was BEFORE the Whipplecharger.
I rode her home - the record was set with headlights and blinkers in place and with street tires on the bike.
What's even more amazing is that "home" was in Tucson - about 650 miles away. She made as comfortable a highway bike as she did a desert screamer.
Let me tell you how amazing the Joshua Forest (desert) in Arizona looks at a leisurely 170 mph cruise at night... With the Milky Way galaxy lighting the sky up like it was daytime. Ahhhhh... So relaxing!
Alas, my 'Bird, too, bit the dust... This time on a racetrack in Savannah, where I was racing it one weekend. I replaced her with a Hayabusa, which I kept bone-stock. Yeah, the bike was fast, too, but not nearly as fast as a modded 'Bird, and totally missing all of the fit and finish that is the hallmark of Honda. Effectively, I traded my XX for a slower, rougher, less-quality machine that was a lot less comfortable to ride. My 'Bird had 64,000 miles on it in just under 3 years - I had gone through 17 rear tires and 9 front tires in that amount of time.
The 'Busa? Well, I seriously considered modding it, too, but it seemed that no matter what I could do to it, someone else had me topped, and... Well... I just wasn't into that scene. I just wanted to go faster.
Anyway... My point is that I am a HUGE shoe-in for the VFR1200... For a decade now, I have waited for Honda to "up the ante" and make a CBR1300 or CBR1400 to match the Hayabusa's massive motor. In fact, I was waiting for it in '99 when the 'Busa was first introduced. Even then, there were rumors of a single-sided swingarm CBR1300XX with radical aerodynamics set to once again set new speed records. Even now, I'd be first in line at the stealerships for one of those bikes.
The VFR1200? It kills me to say it, but Honda went the wrong direction on the bike. ABS/Linked brakes is about as "techy" as we need. Kill the digital gauges, too... They're overdone, too "Tron-ish" and difficult to read when you're traveling the length of a football field in less than a second. The single-sided swingarm is cool, but unnecessary. The shaft drive - with perfected geometry - is awesome, and totally a move in the right direction.
...But the style of the bike - historically, the most important part of selling any motorcycle - is horrible. Boy, did they miss the mark on this one. What needs to happen now is Honda needs to hire Boyd Coddington for a styling makeover. This bike needs to be low, simple, wide, and just dripping with paint and speed. She needs to be the hotrod of sportbikes, and she needs to do it with grace and poise and simplicity than no other bike has. Look no further than the Hayabusa customizers to see the direction that the bike needs to go - we don't need, and have never needed, automatic transmissions, bikes 150 pounds overweight, stock exhaust pipes that look like a board room designer's nightmare, and variable intakes, # of cylinders running, VTEC, or any other whiz-bangery. We do not care that the bike gets 45 mpg instead of 35 mpg... Both of those numbers are so much better than the 12 mpg we're getting in our trucks that we simply don't care.
...What we do care about is the sheer performance available in the bike, and that can be interpreted as acceleration, top end, or flickability... The latter being the most popular with most motorcyclists (but not with me!). We also care about the fact that the bike positively DRIPS with sexy, sultry lines. The visuals of the bike are Ducati's and MV's only reason for existence, after all (why else would anyone pay two or three times the amount for a bike that breaks down two or three times as often?).
In fact, I would go so far as to say that the looks is probably the only reason why the R1 took off like it did. Well, that and the fact that the magazines totally loved the machine. It's like they couldn't get enough of it. But what makes the R1 such a great track machine makes it a horrible street bike, which explains why a lot of them today never earn more than 2,000 or 3,000 miles. They're horrible to ride every day, and that's all there is to it. After 40 minutes on the "torture rack" (as we used to call any street-legal open classer), people were begging us to ride our "couches" - the XX's and the 'Busas - which were longer, faster, smoother, more powerful, and yes, more comfortable. Why buzz along at 70 mph when you could "fly high" and set the throttle lock at 120 mph? All without a buzz, a head shake, or any drama at all. It was like gliding in space.
Anyway, yeah, all Honda needed to do was grab a Blackbird, hand it to Boyd Coddington for style, and up the cc's to about 1500 (set a new bar). It would have been a bonus if the bike came with shaft drive (not totally necessary), and a VFR800-inspired single-sided swingarm would have been nice.
Is the new VFR1200 what I've described above? Well... The drivetrain is... But the rest completely missed the mark. Clearly, Honda has no idea what this market segment wants in a bike.
...And they need to DEFINE the class - I get tired of hearing them called "sport tourers." An ST1300 is a "sport tourer." This is called a "GT" bike - in effect, a really large sportbike, for really large roads.
It kills me that my beloved Honda clearly made a bike that would be "right up my alley"... Clearly, made just for me... But they missed the mark completely.
I'm seriously disappointed.
And I've waited a decade!
Honda: Give Boyd Coddington a '99XX and an 1800cc Gold Wing motor. Tell him that you want something half "Route 66" and half "Cafe Racer" - a sort of American version of the European Cafe Racers. Tell him that it's got to be fully faired, a sportbike (please, no cruisers - we're all cruisered out) and designed to run from 'Vegas to LA and back as quickly as possible. It should be light, long, gorgeous, simple, and powerful... And set a new performance bar that's so significant that the bike will be an instant legend.
I want GPS (with GPS speedo - no need to have a mechanical speedo) and a built-in mp3 player. Just give me an SD card slot and a 3mm headphone jack, and I'm good to go (please, no speakers or communications systems on the bike). It'd be nice if the bike had a little storage, too - no bags, but maybe a couple of cubic inches of space hidden in the bike like some Waverunners have in them. Now make the thing hit 250 mph and sell it for about $13k or $14k, and you'll have reinvented the concept of motorcycling.
