British "BIKE" magazine (April) comparo VFR800 vs. '87 VFR750

Staffers travel in Spain and compare a VFR800 with a 800 pound(sterling) '87 VFR750. Good reading !

 

No linky??

 

Sorry, not so easy with my computer or skillz.

 

Are you fucking kidding, guy? Let me google that for you

 

:

Hey there Rainbow7 give it to him straight !!

Don't beat around the bush ??? ::canada::canada: :laugh::laugh:

 

What he said!!!

 

I cant find it on google... the exact article, to be exact...

 

I don't trust my computer after it slowed down alot in the past 6 weeks, sometimes now changing pages as slowly as 1 minute that used to take only 15 seconds, or maybe it's my 54kb dial-up speed ??

No high-speed anything 'round 'ere, digitally challenged, no cable, all i can afford now. The digital iron-age.

 

56k? damn man... im at like 10000x that here I cant find this anywhere

 

Oh shit ound:

 

Impress me with your google skills, I want to see said magazine article that I can actually read, not just 2-3 forum posts about it

 

Is your Google-Fu failing you?

 

C'mon rainbow you impaired slug, whereTF is it already?

:bug:

 

GOOGLE STILL failing. plz halp

 

I dont have a apple iOS but here is a link for those who do and wish to purchase in I tunes........ 3.99 for the april issue

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/bike-magazine/id564741988?mt=8

 

So anywho....how much are these lukey bastards in Australia payin fer there new VFR's ?
Hijack..haha

 

Sure hope it is available in the US... I will try when I get home

 

Just read the article... Very good read!


I will try to type as much as I can of it...


"I look at Bruce. Bruce looks at me. We both look at two V4 Hondas, parked in a Portuguese motorway petrol station, glowing thanks to a pine-filtered sunset in Faro, in the south, near the sea.


The red VFR800 VTEC is brand new, barely run-in when we rolled off the Bilbao ferry yesterday. It's the culmination of 27 years of VFR development and ought to be the best middleweight sports tourer the world's biggest motorcycle manufacturer can build. Soichiro and his team have had plenty of time to nail technology, hone ergonomics and polish rough edges into a seamless operator. Should be perfect.


The spindly blue antique hails from the opposite end of VFR history. It's the first VFR, a 1986 missing link between the primordial, unreliable VF750 of the early 1980s and the NR750-lite VFRs that dominated sports touring from the turn of the 1990s. It has skimpy tyres, guesswork steering and damping that cost puts the pension in suspension. It cost Bike 800 euros from the small ads a year ago but has since sponged another few hundred: battery; bearings; chain and sprockets; brake discs and pads; wleded radiator and exhaust; throttle cable; oil change; air filter; etc. The clocks say 24,000 miles, but must be on the second lap. it looks raggedy-ass."


I am going to truncate, as it is a 10 page feature...


"We can't imagine any outcome other than the VFR800 proving superior to the 750. I plug into the 750's fresh battery, envying my co-pilot on the 800. The new bike has better rubber thanks to a pair of modern 17-inch rims with modern Metzeler ME4s, while the 750 has Avon Roadriders - a 16-inch at the front and an 18-inch at the rear. As we ride out of the car park, I sense their tread pattern ignoring the tarmac." .... "At least I'm not wrestling the 750 against its will. It's light and nimble, basically a pushbike with an engine, and its steering avoids the overweight tug-of-war oldies suffer from. But crude forks skitter off bumps and tyres chase mastic strips like a pair of bloodhounds on different scents. It makes plotting a direction slightly random.


The engne is wonderful. It's a lovely, growling, droning unit, channelling Joey Dunlop at Sulby thanks partly to free-flowing (i.e. rotten) Motad silencers. It sounds and feels like engineering genius right there, between your knees, and no other engine configuration can match it. And even though you can't tell the cams are driven by gears, not a camchain, the mere knowledge is mechanically satisfying. It's not a massively potentmotor by today's standards, but it runs like clockwork, lazily smearing out its 84bhp across a broad rev range without significant peaks or troughs."


They said the vfr750 got better MPG than the 800, which I don't believe lol. 38.5MPG for the 800 and 42.8MPG for the 750. Maybe because of the jet kit I have i get barely 35mpg on my 750! anyway...


"Bruce and I swap (bikes). The 800 feels as new as it is. The suspension takes the load gracefully, the steering is direct and I can feel tyre grip. The bike has steady, sports tourer handling, but its riding position is more on-top than the 750 so the screen is lower and my head gets a bettering from the wind. And my legs and feet, free of heated clothing, feel the cold more on the 800. I look down at the new bike's faired-in lowers and I can't see the engine. The 750 has an old fashioned, lose-fitting fairing, wide enough to proect from cold. And the older bike's seat is comfier too - within 80 miles on the new bike I'm shifting about on its softer perch, relieving pressure points." .... "Neither Bruce nor I can believe the old VFR has so much going for it... on motorways. It's comfy, frugal, warm, and hasn't fallen to pieces."


They are now cornering on dry roads "Smiles break out behind visors and speed increases. But not too much. The VFR740 is too elderly to pursue whatever sporting credentials it might once have had. Yet the current VFR800 is no sportsbike either. It's too heavy - some 25kg more than the 750 - and suffers from minor irritations that build, like grit in a gearbox, to a grinding paste of annoyance. The finicky fuelling and linked brakes were troublesome in the snow, and they're still a bother on dry roads. And now they're joined by VTEC switching from 2 to 4 valves at 7k RPM gives a nice top end boost, but leaves the midrange and bottom end feeling flat as a prairie. It feels like pointless meddling. "


"As a package the 800 easily overwhelms the 750 on twisty roads, but if we spent a fraction of the 800s price difference on uprating the 750's suspension, tyres, and breaks the outcome would be much much closer"


"'Sorry, say that again.'

'Errr, which one do you want to ride home?' asks Bruce.

We're in the petrol station necking Red Bull at the end of a bleary-eyed blast in search of sun. The bikes are stained, coated in high speed, long distance grime. Journey ove,r Bruce wants to know what bike I'd do the reverse trip on."


Heres the money shot


"I pause to consider the VFR800's lineage, the many thousands of man-hours and billions of Yen poured into its shiny paint, fresh engine and chassis. I rewind the last 800 miles, through wind, rain, snow and,yes, through su, over mountains. Probably the 800...


...but would I? Sure, its handling and performance are on a different plane to the 750. But I think the 750 is more comfy, has better MPG, a better fairing, and I really, really love its chirpy, charismatic engine. As transport the 800 is better than the 750, but not by as much as its price and age would suggest.


And bikes are as much about the innner, metaphysical journey as they are about the physical ride. If you're talking about transport for the soul, I would take the VFR750"



my hands hurt :\

 

Their comparo should have been run with an '86 in much better condition than the tired old slapper they used. The steering issues were likely due to poor fork maintenance, weak springs, tired oil, cuz mine steers very sharp.........until it hits bumps.

 

I agree. The guy was "hesitant" into corners... I keep up easy with my fellow 600 riders on my VFR *shrug*