Hi, everyone! I recently bought a 2012 VFR1200F manual trans with less than 5,000 miles on it. I did quite a bit of study on bikes before I decided to go with this one. A lot of that study came from this forum. I have had two other motorcycles. The first was a 1983 Yamaha Virago 750 which I bought around 1990. That one was lost to an accident which also beat me up a little as well. In around 2000 I bought a 1988 Honda Hawk NT650. I was always in love with the VFR's though. Between another buddy and me the VFR's were kind of our holy grail motorcycle. I especially liked the 6th generation with the underseat tail pipes. I'm a designer (landscaping mostly) and appreciate symmetry. Alas, after the housing crash when I lost so much, I decided to give away my Honda Hawk to a friend. That was around 2010. That was a 22 year old motorcycle that looked new but had about 40,000 miles on it. I gave it away as a spiritual practice of opening my hand to receive the next thing. In my case at that time my hand was E M P T Y! I have about 50,000 miles of motorcycle miles, most of them on mountain roads or traveling. I lived in Idyllwild, California for many years and it had three great mountain roads leaving town. I love sport riding but I also like going places. The Virago was a simple and cheap bike for me to get into. It wasn't the best at doing things though. Plus, it was my only mode of transport until the accident. I came to the Hawk because it was interesting. The Hawk was pretty good on the mountain roads but way underpowered. It was so detuned that with just a pipe and jet kit I think I upped the power about 25%. Even then it always felt weak at anything over 40mph. There was a lot of hype for the introduction of the VFR1200. I thought Honda was going to create the ultimate V4 sportbike but with Honda conservatism. I was also one of the people disappointed with the offering. Over time I've warmed back up to it for kind of the same reasons that I liked the Hawk - it's interesting. I started another thread with my project list for the recent VFR acquisition. I did, by the way, find a rear carrier. I will respond to my own thread with the story, which was kind of convoluted. Here is a picture of the bike in my garage. I live in Bend, in Central Oregon and it is April so, you know, it's still winter here. Bend is cold most of the time. I'm in the landscape business and we work only about 7 months of the year. So the poor VFR is still a race horse in the stables. So sad... Thanks for reading! Mark
Congrats on the VFR and welcome. By the way, I own 2 Hawks (modded) along with my VFRs. They seem to complement each other nicely.
