Talk me into buying a Motorcycle!

Even after your ringing endorsement of the brain buckets ( :wink: ), I’m totally going with the full face enclosure. I already have an (ugly) yellow one ready to go, but I’ll hopefully get something soon that matches the bike a bit closer (while still standing out in traffic).

Again, thanks for all the help and advice. Rest assured, there will be pictures to come.

Well??? C’mon, man – I’m trying to live vicariously, here. What’s the scoop? :smiley:

Hiya mate, how’s it going. :slight_smile:

I am shamelessly hijacking this latest bike thread for my own purposes. See, I got my eye on a nice second hand VFR800 at the moment. We recentely moved to a place with a garage, and frankly, that Divvy’s been boring me for a while now. Plus, it needs a new distribution chain, and I’ll be damned if I pay for that repair on a 1995 bike that’s been sitting outside for all that time.

Did the test ride. Thing’s got 41K on the clock (metric, yeah), but it feels like a friggin’ Mercedes. No rattles, nothing. Response is fantastic throughout, with the usual V-tec charm. ABS works like a charm.

In short, I can’t fault it for sh*t. :slight_smile:

Prices are what they are in the Netherlands, and the VFR is a wanted model. It’s a 2003 with 41K - asking price is about EUR 8800. With a full year’s waranty, since the dealer swears up and down this is a rock solid bike, VFR’s never break down, yadda yadda.

The dude is giving me EUR 1000 on trade in on the Divvy (ironically, with only 30K on it, but boy does it sound old), with the additional comment that it’s going straight to Poland. Gee, thanks. :smiley:

So, in short, what are the achilles heel things on the VFR? I really can’t find any by myself, the damn thing feels like the Rolls Royce of bikes.

Rode the Yammie FJR 1300 too, for a test ride. Damn impressive, but a bit overkill for my Sunday morning rides. Plus, it felt a lot heavier than the VFR. Granted, it’s probably the better choice for a trip to Monaco or the Polar Circle, but when am I gonna do that - much as I’d want to. In addition, FJR’s are hellishly expensive, even second hand. In that respect, the VFR wins as well.

So, what do I look for, what to be weary of. Surely your VFR must have clocked up the kilom- miles by now. Please enlighten me. :slight_smile:

I take it you mean the VTEC version.

If so, it has a couple of niggles.

Underseat storage is, well nil because they changed the exhaust position, but that in turn does allow the footpegs to be lower, means a less cramped riding position.

When it was first brought out, people didn’t like the linked brakes, there are a few specific conditions that make these a problem, these mainly involve braking heavily on wet roads, downhill and especially if it involves having some lean angle, but to be honest this would mean that the rider probably was not looking far enough ahead and planning.
In these conditions the back end can lock up and try to come around, but why would you need to brake so heavily from high speed downhill in the rain anyway ?
This speaks to me of poor riding.

There are kits and people who will unlink the brakes for you at a price.

The exhausts are very expensive if you ever have to replace them, but this being Honda flagship bike, it should be quite some time before this happens.

There is also something about the service intervals too, I can’t remember which, but one particular service is very expensive due to the VTEC cams and stuff having to be checked and maintained, you would be well advised to find out when this is due.

Some people comment that the bike has no character, whatever that means, fact is that this bike is just so polished and competant that everything else is just shoddy in comparision.

Parts are costly, don’t drop it, (this tends to be true of all Honda spares but especially this bike) you would be stongly advised to get crash mushrooms fitted.

This bike is pretty much all you need, it can be tweaked to get huge power, it can have any number of other changes to suspension, wheels etc to improve it, however the stock bike is a good as you will ever want.

Yup, the VTEC one. This particular one, in fact.

I personally like the linked brakes, especially combined with the ABS. Gives one a great feeling of safety. And yeah, if you have to brake hard once into a corner, you were entering it too fast to begin with. :slight_smile:

The maintenance you hint at could be the cam belt service? Don’t recall 100% now, but the dealer said something like “every 60,000 km’s”. Then again, the bike is 4 years old, so perhaps it’s a nice bargaining point to get that done before I buy it.

I’ve heard the “no character” comments too, and I find them puzzling as well. The bike’s just extremely well poised. If character means “needs lots of TLC” to you, get a Ducati. If it means “sounds great but corners like a pig”, get a friggin’ Harley. I personally see nothing wrong with a rock solid bike that rides well, corners sharp, and sounds brilliant. :slight_smile:

If you ask, the answers will come, and here they are!

The bike’s mine, Woo! I’ve had it since Thursday and have put about 50 miles on it so far.

The dealership tried getting out of the sweet-ass deal I had made the day before, but I held firm and got it at the amazing price I wanted…actually, I got it even cheaper, because they accidentally gave me a tax break when they shouldn’t have (but upon discovering the error, let it slide). I made out like a bandit.

Anyway, I had it set up to be delivered to my workplace, as there’s a huge ass parking lot there, which I wanted to use to practice in before taking to the street (remember, my previous bike was a 250cc, this one’s 903cc). Unfortunately, the delivery didn’t get there until 8:30pm. Even worse, there was almost no gas in the tank! I would have been furious had they not only charged me $10 for shipping, $40 less than they had previously said.

So with the sun setting fast, and my gas tank on near empty, I knew I had to cut my practice session short. But the moment I sat down on the bike, I felt right at home. I did a quick loop around the parking lot and knew I was going to be okay. I took to the street, got me some gas, and managed to make it all the way home with nary a problem. I certainly could feel the weight difference though compared to my old bike at low speeds.

I would say the biggest problem I had that night was finding those damn foot pegs! My old bike was a standard, so they were pretty much right below me. They’re quite a bit forward on my new cruiser, so I scared myself a time or two when I couldn’t get my feet on them immediately.

As someone earlier said, I feel damn comfortable on this bike. The much larger seat, wider handle bars, forward foot rests. It’s like I died and went to heaven (well, hopefully that’s not a sign of things to come :wink: I love the nice, low rumble it makes, and it handles like a dream. Plus it just looks damn awesome.

Oh, and pictures! Perhaps the one thing better than kitten pics are pictures of my bike (yea, I may be slightly biased):

View from the Left
View from the Right
And ME sitting on my new bike! Now I just need a girl on the back…

That’s awesome, congrats!

Well, control-z beat me to the congrats, but can I just be the first to say, “Ooooh, shiny!!!” :smiley: You look very much at home on the bike, but that yellow helmet definitely does not go with the lovely blue – time to go shopping again. :wink:

May you have many happy and safe miles with your new pride and joy…and good luck finding your passenger as well. :slight_smile:
Damn - I think I just blew my entire smilie wad for the day in this one post. Ah well…

Nice looking set of wheel there, congrats!

Totally agreed. I feel like I’m insulting the bike every time I sit on it with that damn thing. I’ll have a new one by the weekend at the latest.

Thanks for all the congrats! :slight_smile:

Just wanted to say congrats and Sweeeeeet. Love the blue. I went to a biker bar last night and felt a little “limp” with my 500 so I am jealous of the 900. My helmet is white with pink and blue. It would match your bike fine so next time I am in CA I expect a ride!!