The end of the road for my beloved VFR

Hey all.

So, first things first, my username here may be a little dated, but I registered with the site not so long after the purchase of my first bike, a (sublime) 3rd gen' VFR750, so it was fitting then, and I'm gonna stick with it!
I will humbly admit that my use of this site has been a little selfish - I've gleaned an awful lot of useful pointers, particularly of the mechanical kind, from those willing to lend a hand, so a very grateful thanks to the guys willing to help.

To the point then...

My 750 was replaced a couple of years ago with a black 5th gen' 800, a glorious machine, and one which I will admit I was very attached to.
On a Sunday evening now just over three weeks ago, I was out for a gentle cruise about, just the sort to end my weekend and clear my head in the way that a little ride on a clear evening can.

So, about a mile from home, coming down a short section of main road between junctions I am confronted by the sight of oncoming headlights (just dark by this point) coming the other way, belonging to a car which has clearly just mounted the verge on their side. The driver (later to be discovered - a girl in her dad's Golf - I think that's a VW Rabbit to you guys in the US... - 18yo, and having passed her test three months previously) swerved to get off the verge and back onto the road, but massively overdid it with the steering input, and came straight across the road and into me and my bike coming the other way.

I won't drag every detail of a deeply unpleasant moment out in too much length, but suffice to say that I came around after what i think was only a moment or two's unconsciousness, to take off my lid and be spitting out pieces of the car's window, along with pieces of my teeth.

My recollection of the minutes directly following are a bit disordered, but I do remember being refused the request to get out of the ambulance to take a couple of pictures of my VFR. I had to hand my phone to the policeman instead so he could go do so. I'm hesitant to post any of them here - they're not pretty!

A night in hospital and repeated trips back there and to the GP's and dentists, and I'm on the mend, but motorcycleless, which brings me to my reason for posting - my gorgeous 800 was thoroughly written off, and is gonna be a hard act to follow, but followed it must be.

After not too much deliberation, I came to the following conclusions:

1: It's gonna have to be a Honda. I ride all year round and do not have a garage, and nobody else builds bikes that will tolerate that like they do.

2: I'm very tempted to just go find myself another decent 5th gen' (black, of course!). They're exceptionally good bikes, and I'm not sure anything else will leave me feeling quite the same pleasure in thumbing the starter, gearing up whilst all that gear-driven-cam-V4-goodness warms up in such a sonically pleasing way, and climbing on to go find the next corner to blast out of.

3: If it's gonna be anything else, it'll probably have to be a blackbird. I've not ridden one, but they of course come with a sound reputation attached, and if there's anything that's gonna be up to the job, there's a good chance that that's it. I would of course have to try one first, but even if it is a substitute for all that V4 soulfulness, I do wonder what I'm gonna do with a 176 odd top end, when I never really used my previous 156mph odd one.

So, your opinions in any form would be welcome. I can't promise I'll agree, but I'll definitely listen!

I know of course that choice of motorcycle is very much personal one, but I'd be happy to hear what you think might hit the spot.

 

I am sorry to hear about your painful and scary wreck. Best wishes on a speedy recovery and it is great to see that you are going to overcome this by moving on to another motorcycle instead of taking up golf. I had a 5th Gen for 4 years and upgraded to a Blackbird and have not looked back. The styling is similar, both have the Honda quality but the Blackbird only weighs another 50 or so pounds but you can't tell it. It handles great and has much more power, even if you stay with the VFR at least give the BB a chance before you decide.
Tom

 

First off, VERY glad to hear that you are ok and on the mend. Having suffered through a similar humiliation a number of years back I can attest to the feelings of anguish, remorse, fear, loathing, etc, etc, etc that you must have experienced. Hopefully life returns to some assemblance of normal in the very near future.

As for the bike situation, I too might suggest a 2014 VFR800 for the best of many worlds. It's NEW, It has a VFR so the visceral exhaust note that we all know and love will be ever present, and it is a HONDA.

Hopefully GreyVF750F might chime in and have an answer for you in regards to the Blackbird. They are indeed nice machines and also have a fanatical following. Grey is a member here and used to ride a VF750F and traded his beloved ride for a Blackbird, and he may have a great deal of insight for you as to the nuances of both machines. For curiosity sake here is a link that Grey posted about some similarities between the VFR750 and the Blackbird. If not maybe send him a PM and see if he can offer you any insight on the Blackbird.

http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/44566-What-does-VFR750-amp-Super-Blackbird-have-in-common

All the best in your search and know that even if you do choose the Blackbird over the VFR, a member now is a member for life. At least, that would be MY take on things. LOL

 

We all have our opinions, but I would trust your gut instinct on which one satisfied you the most, ergonomics, power, handling, sound. If your gut says 800, then shop carefully, if can afford it, get a new one, someone got to be the first! Lot of peace of mind starting new.

 

Holly BADMAN :faint2: I am glad you are here with us and sharing your story :hss:
+1 to the above suggestion. :thumb:
But if $$$$ is limit get a 5th or 6th gen
Good luck and speedy recovery mate.

 

:hss: glad to hear your ok, sad to hear about the bike but comparatively speaking . . . Damn!

My wife it looking at the new 2014 vfr to replace her cbr250r (got her that to learn on instead of my 07 rwb vfr ) as soon as the weather allows im going for a test ride. Might add one to my own collection


Now the insensitive side of zen

Im looking for a useable spare engine with which I can tear into and see where I can liberate some more power, then I need to program a new ecu to run the thing as the stock ecu just sucks. Im not looking for donations, just parts at a reasonable price. Pm me if you're interested.

 

Simple, get another 5th gen. Not that it matters what I say but get another VFR. I'm sure a Blackbird is a nice bike but it's not a VFR. The VFR is a better bike. VFR's look good. VFR's sound gooooood. I don't hear anybody talking about Blackbirds. Everybody is talking about the VFR. Everybody likes to look at a VFR. Did I mention the VFR? Buy two VFR's. If you wait to long you might not find another VFR. Or, you could just get a black Blackbird. #redvfr

 

Glad that you survived that one.

Might I suggest, whichever bike you choose, make sure that you get a good full-face helmet to go with it. I'm sure you don't want to be going through that dental work again.

Ride on.

 

Speedy recovery Newb. Look in the 6th gen section, a member "fishouttawater" posted his 2006 for sale that sounds awesome for $6950, it has a list of frarkles as long as your arm. Wonder what shipping from the states would cost. Good luck with everything.
John

 

Good luck in your recovery, and you're search for a new bike.

 

I would not buy anything new-you lose too much money that way, sounds like a 2006 and up vfr with abs would the best bike, that's is what I went with cost me $5300 with shipping and it has 4600 miles on it. That's morte than half off a new bike. Save the rest of the money and slowly fix it up your way! I think ,I would not ride if I got into such a bad accident, I only fall down once in a while at very low speed LOL! The faster you go =the more pain you feel if you screw up!:brick:

 

Wow spring time has it out for us VFR riders. Speedy recovery man.

 

Wow - glad you are on the mend!

As for the bike go with whatever your heart says is right. For me the choice of an ABS equipped bike has already proved a life saver - turning an certain head on, into a scary near miss on a mountain road. So from now on I would always look for a bike with combined and linked ABS brakes. Yes there are a few expert riders who can outperform an infernal Japanese CPU but I am not one. I know that when faced with an imminent collision my response was simply to apply a full death grip on the front brake (totally forget about the rear) but thanks to Mr Honda's Combined ABS system I somehow managed to slow the bike without any fuss just enough to steer the VFR through the rapidly closing gap between an overtaking vehicle (on my side of the road) and a rock-face a couple of feet from the road edge. When you get a second chance I guess its worth learning from what happened.

Take care and get well soon.





SkiMad

 

If you go with a BB, not to be confused with Bad-Billy ; ) I would go for a carbureted one.

I used to want one until I had to take it apart, there was enough tupperware (body work for you guys across the pond.) to cover an entire work table.

One BB comes to mind, high mileage unit, 100,000 replaced wheel bearings, (don't know why.) Aired up tyres and cruised that bitch oot in the everglades at 165 mph. It did'nt fit me as well as my viffer, it had a longer reach to the bars and was generally just a larger motorcycle. One clip on vibrated but it was a fairly ok ride considering the mileage.

Why not consider a Hayabusa>? more modern bike with tons of parts around, that influences my decissions. Good luck and glad you came oot of it ok...

 

Thanks for all the good will, it's much appreciated.
The fixing is frustratingly slow, but I'm getting there. And at least am back on two wheels in the interim! Courtesy of the loan-bike to tide me over... A very useable but also very ordinary Suzi 1250 bandit.

tinkerinWstuff, and the many others that gave a nod towards the new 800 - Yep, I'd love to. I've done a little looking at the spec and the pics, and it does indeed look like a tasty piece of kit, although I still feel it's a shame not to return to gear-driven cam, I guess maybe those days are gone.
Unfortunately, my meager budget does not stretch to a new bike, so I'll have to leave the job of an informed review of that one to another member.

ZEN biker, fill us in on how it performs when you get to have a play with it. Mine is being returned from the insurance-bastards (man I hate insurance companies) to me shortly, but if I end up with another 5th gen' I'm not yet sure how much of it I may still find use for, plus there are an awful lotta miles between here and there, so I'm not sure I'm your best source for a donor engine, but I'll let you know if it ends up going spare.

KizerSosay, hehehe! I see you feel the same way about yours as I did about mine. Points duly noted, they are indeed the best of the breed (cue angry retorts from owners of others :wink

karazy, that's sound advise indeed, but you're preaching to the choir. I was wearing one. In fact I've never worn anything but. My visor was open as it almost always is, which accounts perhaps for the broken nose, but as for the teeth I suspect the impact was with the inside of my helmet rather than the outside of her car, although if I'm honest I really can't be certain.

I'm 6'6", and have found few bikes short of those of the variety designed for the *Ahem* older gentleman (read "adventure bike"), that are as accommodating as a VFR, so perhaps I will see if I can find myself a little testride of a BB, and see how it stacks up. TBH though, if I found a decent 5th gen' close enough to myself, It'd be hard to resist...

 

WOW! That accident must have been horrible!! Glad to see you are on the mend and have a great frame of mind.

Now about a new soulfull bike. I know it is not the best tourer and the fit is much different. I have never riden a Blackbird but the deepest soul with gear driven cams is the RC51....period. Not the fastest, not the easiest to ride and a pretty bad tourer but boy did it have history and SOUL!

 

Looks like another rider was saved by abs brakes. If I had to think of anything that can save a accident it would have to be powerfull brakes and being able to use them real fast-that's where abs takes the thinking out and stops faster. I have yet to see them really work,but this summer I certainly will. I would think being in a accident would make you not want a super fast bike ,but a really safe ride like a abs vfr.:scared:

 

Who cares about the bike! Front the sounds of it, you're lucky to be alive!