jmdonald

I have no problem spending a little extra for higher end components with that well engineered fit and finish thrown in. When you look at the real weight difference between the new VFR and the Sprint (a bike I also admire) it's not that much more. The dual clutch technology is very appealing. Good input from all contributors. You all provide an excellent sanity check.

__________________
Secede.

jsh1120

The VFR has always been the motorcycle version of Honda's Prelude, a test bed for new technology in the real world. Sometimes successful, sometimes not. The VFR1200 maintains that standard. And while I have one bike with carbs, not efi, and another with a half century old V-Twin pushrod engine design, I applaud Honda's efforts.

rsser

?? It always has been, since its 750cc days.

__________________
Cheers, Ern
Melbourne, Australia

sarnali2

That's because the Sprint is what we call a "real " motorcycle, warts and all. You look at a Sprint and it says c'mon lets go, it's assembled by a bunch of Brits who probably had kippers for breakfast with their tea to settle thier stomachs after the 3 or 4 pints they had last night. They probably rode in to work on a few year old Sprint despite the fact that it's supposed to rain this afternoon and they have their eye on that bint who puts headlights on Street Triples thew next line over...

As opposed to Robot number 339-026 who assembled component AD87-2 on Motorcycle 887-9664/VFR . When I buy a TV or Washing machine I don't care who or what built it. When I buy a bike I want it hand built by someone who shares the same passion as me for motorcycles.Honda will never have that, the only Japanese motorcycle that comes close to the Euro or American level of passion is Suzuki, you know, the ones in front of every race here....

__________________
"Carpe` Throttelum -Loud Suits Save Lives"

"He said he's farting because of his medication"...

rsser

LOL.

I had an '04 Sprint and the finish was pretty ordinary and the reliability pretty poor. Enough failures in the first 30,000 km to sideline the bike in a way that happily you rarely see with Mr Honda's output.

Most of the Trumpy's parts are made in Thailand now by the way. Not kippers but carp for brekkie

__________________
Cheers, Ern
Melbourne, Australia

Kevin_Duke

The same ones whose sales are sucking so bad they just laid off their PR dept. Nothing against Suzi, tho, as this recession has hit the bike industry hard.

BTW, I saw Hondas being built last week. Real people. Probably related to other Honda employees who concocted and built the 250-Six GP bike, the 750 Four and the RC30.

rvfrules

+1. You might want to edit your opening graf that states, "The obvious competitors are the big sport-touring machines we compared in our 2009 Sport-Touring Shootout: the ST1300, Yamaha FJR1300, Kawasaki Concours 14 and BMW K1300GT." Why start a decent review off on the wrong foot...

Kenneth_Moore

I'll take the robot any day for predetermined, repetitive tasks like vehicle manufacturing. I understand the romantic appeal of having Old World Craftmanship applied to your bike, but I owned enough '60's and '70's British sports cars to be over it.

__________________
www.kennethmoore.org

sarnali2

My own experiance has been the exact opposite. The VFR and V65 Sabre I owned were plagued with electrical problems, both left me sitting on the side of the road a number of times. The Hinkley Triumphs I owned on the other hand were virtually bullet proof, the Trophy 1200 broke a speedo cable after about 40k and the T100 had no issues at all.

I agree the "old world craftsmanship" thing is over rated and realistically motorcycles are just machines anyway so I suppose it doesn't matter how they're built but I just don't feel the same connection to Japanese bikes, other than my Bandits that I do with my BMW's, Triumphs and Harleys. Who knows, it's difficult to find fault with Japanese products over all. Korean either for that matter..

__________________
"Carpe` Throttelum -Loud Suits Save Lives"

"He said he's farting because of his medication"...

seruzawa

There's nothing quite like having a Honda suck an intake valve while you are cruising at 75 to put a bit of a damper on the "Hondas are the best" attitude.

__________________
"Make no mistake, Communism lost a big argument - one we know today as the 20th century."