Time for an overdue update:
The week before last, I cleaned the bike up and rode around looking for some interesting places to take some glamor shots:
Then last week I (finally) had a mount for my GPS fabbed up and I hit the road with my cousin for a little Toronto-Montreal trip via the beautiful backroads around Peterborough-Calabogie/Ottawa. One day to get there, an excessive & exuberant night out, and then a semi-cold and very wet ride home just pounding out miles on the superslab (first time in hours of rain far from home since I picked up the bike).
Here we are in Montreal, Team Honda enjoying our last few moments of not being soaking wet.
Each of these bikes, when new, represented the pinnacle of Honda's engineering. My cousin has had that 1999 VFR800 for just over 11 years now, and he swears he's never going to let it go. He seems to love it more every year, and to be honest I think I do too. That's the last generation before the ugly undertail exhaust and (IMO) inappropriate V-TEC, and the new 1200 seems to be a replacement for the ST1300 rather than a successor to the mighty Interceptor. I have a hard time right now imagining Honda ever making a bike as awesome as the 5th gen VFR800 again, but I really hope I'm wrong.
Things I learned from this trip:
1. The suspension as currently set up is a bit better than I thought/feared it would be, but it is still absolutely awful. I plan to have it all replaced over the winter, so on one hand I don't want to spend anything on fixing/tuning the current config, but on the other hand the combination of harshness (front and rear) and bottoming out (rear) makes it dangerous unless ridden with great care and foresight.
2. The ergos are a bit too punishing - my knees suck and I think I'm going to have to lower the pegs an inch or so. I hate to lose the cornering clearance but if I'm honest with myself, I can accept that I was never gonna use that last inch on the street anyhow. Also, I'll gain some back when I get the suspension sorted and have consistently better sag #'s.
3. Despite being more than 100 pounds heavier than I think a bike should be, it is really fun to ride. I'll never be one of those people who say "once it's moving the weight disappears" - I suspect that those people have never ridden something like a Ducati Monster or a KTM Duke. When I go back and forth between the CBX and my wife's Monster it's like a whole different world. When she still had her CBR125R, it was like a different dimension.
Still, it's gratifying and fun to try to hustle it around a bit, and it's pretty decent on the highway.
4. I can not park this thing in any lot anywhere without someone coming up to me and saying how nice it is, how they always wanted one, how their brother in law had one, how they had a CB750 back in the day, asking me if carb work is expensive, etc. etc. etc. It is without fail a dude in his 40's-60's with a bit of a gut. I have no expectations of it ever being a cutie-pie in her 20's, but my god that would be a refreshing change! I have to admit, though, that it's gratifying to roll into the Ducati dealership and have guys with $25k bikes snapping pics of my old beast.
5. My carbs still need some work in order to be dialed in. They are good but not great, and I would like it if they'd be great. My main concern is part-throttle driveability under 4k, but I sure wouldn't mind an improvement in mileage, too. This bike goes through a lot of gas, requires a stop every 200km, and the expensive ethanol-free gas means that this is the first bike I've had where my gasoline spending on a trip exceeds my beer spending!
6. The more I look at it, the more I like it. I also like the feeling of being connected to something really iconic and historical. It is gratifying to go out riding on something that people respond to so much and that I personally like so much. Once all of the wrinkles are ironed out, it's gonna be a very special machine.
