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In defense of VFR's "weight problem"


GatorGreg

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I did this vid to show off my new tail tidy but I went off course into a rant about why I think the criticism of the VFR's "weight problem" is unfair IMO.  Thought some of you might enjoy it :tongue:

 

 

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Totally agree about the weight. It helps with the touring part of the bike. The vfr feels much more planted on the road than my old street triple which tended to get blown around a bit by trucks and cross winds while the Honda is very stable and rides more comfortably, yet when you take all the excellent luggage off you can have a great time in the twisties, a true sports tourer.

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Tell me you didn't ride that bike any significant distance in those "shoes".

The Labrador sticker is definitely different.

It's amazing how permissive the USA is on modifying (cars and) motorcycles. Spain was never very permissive and is becoming even less so. They won't often allow even known and proven performance improvements like braided steel brake lines or aftermarket discs. Depending on the roadworthy inspection center you happen to go to they can even get fussy about homologated aftermarket exhausts, etc. You can forget about swapping out forks for USD ones. Mostly people have to put all the original parts back before passing inspection and then swap them out again.

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Thanks for the shout-out, Greg, and great video! I'll overlook your mispronunciation of "EnZED Cam" - Kiwi born and raised, Australian-adopted and soon to be married to (though I'm working hard on converting my fiancée to being an All Blacks fan... rumour has it such an outcome may require her to surrender her Australian passport! :tongue: )

 

Weight-wise, the 8th-Gen feels much more lively than the 6th-Gen I owned previously (dropping the twin under-tail exhausts will do that, given the 10kg saved right there), and I don't remember the 5th-Gen being as easy to ride.. As fun, yes, but not as easy. Is it as nimble and bat-shit crazy as a Hypersports class? No. But show me a Hypersports bike that you can ride all day, two-up, or do a 4-day tour on, or commute to work every single day on. Such a unicorn does not exist. Boris from BikeMeTV nailed it when he said that the RC79 was "the incarnation of the YouJayEm;- Universal Japanese Motorcycle... It does most things brilliantly, everything really well, and nothing at all badly."

VFR-800, bitches! For the faithful, there is no substitute.
 

 

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3 hours ago, fink said:

Your missing the rubber bump stop for the centre stand dude.

 

Wow, good eye fink!  Thanks for pointing it out.   I didn't notice it until I got home.  I had used a hose with a pressure nozzle to give my VFR a quick wash in my driveway right before I rode to the lake - must have made it pop off when the hose hit it.  It's back in place now :tongue:

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6 hours ago, Auspanglish said:

Tell me you didn't ride that bike any significant distance in those "shoes".

The Labrador sticker is definitely different.

It's amazing how permissive the USA is on modifying (cars and) motorcycles. Spain was never very permissive and is becoming even less so. They won't often allow even known and proven performance improvements like braided steel brake lines or aftermarket discs. Depending on the roadworthy inspection center you happen to go to they can even get fussy about homologated aftermarket exhausts, etc. You can forget about swapping out forks for USD ones. Mostly people have to put all the original parts back before passing inspection and then swap them out again.

 

That park is part of my subdivision only a 1 or 2 minute ride from my house.   I don't usually wear crocs when I ride but I wore them while washing my VFR and didn't feel like changing them even though I knew I would catch grief from the ATGATT peeps.   I must say that the feeling of the air blowing through those little holes onto your toes while you ride is awesome - you should give it a try at least once!

 

The Labrador sticker is actually a Golden Retriever magnet - I have a collection of about a half dozen magnets I use as tank protectors - I like to be able to switch them out depending on my mood.   My Golden is the best dog ever! :tongue:

 

Sounds like Florida is rather laissez-faire compared to Spain, at least in terms of vehicle inspections.   I'm pretty sure there are no annual vehicle inspection requirements in Florida - and there are definitely none in central Florida where I live.  I think at one point about 20 years ago they had annual inspections in some parts of Florida but I believe it was only in bigger cities like Miami and Tampa for pollution control / tail pipe emissions only - not for sound levels or anything else.   But I think even that was abolished many years ago.

 

IMG_0393.JPG

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6 hours ago, Dustin said:

Damn, the 8th gen is such a great looking bike and I really like it in white. Fun video, GatorGreg!

 

Thanks - I couldn't agree more!

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Great vid, Greg, as always!

A few comments on the "weight issue". I think when people complain about the VFR's weight, what they actually are complaining about is that the bike is somewhat top-heavy - at least fuelled up. This is indeed quite noticeable and almost caught me by surprise when maneuvering the new bike in the garage.

The actual weight is not so bad, especially when you replace a few parts (please excuse the metric measures):

In a previous review back in 2014, German motorcycle mag MO measured the RC79 at 239kg including fuel.

If you remove the weight of the fuel (21,5l x 0,75kg = 16,125kg) to make the weight comparable to other bikes, you arrive at a total weight of 222,9 kg (rounded). That is already not bad.

If you then replace the original battery with a Lithion Ion battery (minus 3kg) and the heavy end pipe with an aftermarket one (minus 3kg with my DAM muffler), you end up with a weight of 216kg. If you take into account that a V4 is more heavy than other engine concepts, especially inline fours, and the fact that the VFR is built for durability, this is quite good in my view.

My 2c, of course.

Thomas



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1 hour ago, NZCam said:

Thanks for the shout-out, Greg, and great video! I'll overlook your mispronunciation of "EnZED Cam" - Kiwi born and raised, Australian-adopted and soon to be married to (though I'm working hard on converting my fiancée to being an All Blacks fan... rumour has it such an outcome may require her to surrender her Australian passport! :tongue: )

 

Weight-wise, the 8th-Gen feels much more lively than the 6th-Gen I owned previously (dropping the twin under-tail exhausts will do that, given the 10kg saved right there), and I don't remember the 5th-Gen being as easy to ride.. As fun, yes, but not as easy. Is it as nimble and bat-shit crazy as a Hypersports class? No. But show me a Hypersports bike that you can ride all day, two-up, or do a 4-day tour on, or commute to work every single day on. Such a unicorn does not exist. Boris from BikeMeTV nailed it when he said that the RC79 was "the incarnation of the YouJayEm;- Universal Japanese Motorcycle... It does most things brilliantly, everything really well, and nothing at all badly."

VFR-800, bitches! For the faithful, there is no substitute.
 

 

 

Haha sorry about butchering your name Cam!   Sounds like you might actually know that Boris guy?  I'm guessing he's an accountant or something in real life :tongue:.   Thanks again for the tidy and congrats on your pending nuptials!   That's very exciting.    Reminds me of a funny story:   One of my older brothers was getting married (for the 3rd time) and I was put in charge of making arrangements for his batchelor party.  When I contacted one of his best friends to let him know about it he told me to pass along his apologies to my brother for not being able to come but to tell him he would try to make it to the next one :tongue:

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Thanks Tom - excellent point!  Yes I forgot to mention that in my rant - that the VFR has a considerably larger fuel tank (5.6 gallons) to serve its sport-touring mission which means not only does the tank itself weigh more but so does the extra gallon or so of fuel it holds when the bike is measured "wet" by the motorcycle press for their reviews.

 

The new Ducati SuperSport for example (which many in the press compare to the VFR) only has a 4.2 gallon (16 liter) tank!  Even my old Ninja 300 had a 4.5 gallon tank and that got MUCH better mpg than the Ducati could ever dream of getting!  Ducati actually has the gall to say on their website: "long-range 16-litre fuel tank give the SuperSport good touring capability."  And yet the press actually praises it for having such a low weight - go figure! :tongue:

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Well, I know we all are concerned about this but along with the other issues that weight brings with it, like loaded tractor trailers, we're causing excessive roadway wear and tear with our heavy bikes.  The white one's especially since they have to have more pigment in the paint......really, not kidding.......   The girls will like your "tidy tail" GG ; )  Nice scenery in your neck of the woods and always enjoy your vids.  

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3 hours ago, Bent said:

Well, I know we all are concerned about this but along with the other issues that weight brings with it, like loaded tractor trailers, we're causing excessive roadway wear and tear with our heavy bikes.  The white one's especially since they have to have more pigment in the paint......really, not kidding.......   The girls will like your "tidy tail" GG ; )  Nice scenery in your neck of the woods and always enjoy your vids.  

 

Thanks!  See, this is precisely why I have to wear extremely light weight crocs when I ride - it helps to offset the extra weight of the Pearl White paint :tongue:.  As far as girls go, yes they do like the VFR!   In fact just as I parked at this location there was a group of 3 teenage girls (in bikinis!) that had parked in the lot just to the left who went out of their way to come check out my bike before they headed down to the beach to get in a boat.  Turns out they know my son GG Jr. from high school - they said I was a "cool dad" for riding such a "fast" bike - LOL

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5 hours ago, GatorGreg said:

 

Thanks!  See, this is precisely why I have to wear extremely light weight crocs when I ride - it helps to offset the extra weight of the Pearl White paint :tongue:.  As far as girls go, yes they do like the VFR!   In fact just as I parked at this location there was a group of 3 teenage girls (in bikinis!) that had parked in the lot just to the left who went out of their way to come check out my bike before they headed down to the beach to get in a boat.  Turns out they know my son GG Jr. from high school - they said I was a "cool dad" for riding such a "fast" bike - LOL

 

If it looks fast, it is fast.....sometimes, maybe....; )

 

What never ceases to amaze me is when I'm in the middle of nowhere riding the twisties, need gas while with all the ATGATT stuff on and the local yokels just love to talk with me and are so friendly at the gas stations.  I guess I should give mankind more credit.  On the other hand, they probably aren't as stressed out people given they choose to live away from the stresses of traffic, idiots on cell phones while smoking and "driving" at the same time (who really has their hands on the wheel?), and all the other crap city dwellers tolerate and do.  These "country folks" probably can hear birds chirp and actually talk to one another about things other than politics.  

 

What's this have to do with a VFR?  I can get around these non-contentious, chilled out people with a VFR, either very quickly or not so quickly as I enjoy being alone and actually seeing green things called plants.  I knew there was a reason I don't ever ride in the city.  Tomorrow I go try out those new hi-tech Angels.  They don't appear to have any different profile than any other ST tire.  They can't ride any harsher than a Bstone....I hope.    

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7 hours ago, Pjcliffo said:

He is called gator Greg because he always wears crocs!

 

Don't let him fool you.  I sense he's a predator using that white VFR and cool videos to draw in unsuspecting bike owners for his next victim and meal.  

 

Speaking of predators, on a 160 mile ride in very rural counties yesterday, what is it with people crossing the double yellow when there is no cell phone reception (so that's not an excuse)?  I had on a yellow hi-viz jacket (I know, geeky) and had to flash my high beams to wake them up!!!!  That old saying, "ride like every cage is out to kill you" has some basis.  How do people get that dumb?  I know, they just don't care who they kill.....    

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29 minutes ago, Bent said:

what is it with people crossing the double yellow when there is no cell phone reception (so that's not an excuse)? 

I didn't know this was a thing.  So anytime you lose service, you decide to drive on the other side of the road?  What a bizarre and completely unpredictable method for determining on which side of the road one should drive. 

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On 6/26/2017 at 7:40 AM, 01ragtop said:

I didn't know this was a thing.  So anytime you lose service, you decide to drive on the other side of the road?  What a bizarre and completely unpredictable method for determining on which side of the road one should drive. 

It is very bizarre.  I'm trying to find the logic where there is none.  It's a futile effort I've concluded.  I also concluded that mine and another person's belief that riding like every cage is out to kill me works well.....so far.  

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I'm convinced that the world is becoming more ignorant and selfish everyday. After all of the news reports, videos on YouTube and social media sites about how texting and driving or even using a cell phone while driving is dangerous and often times deadly, people continue to do it! In California and other states I'm sure, there is "hands free" law, meaning, to use a cell phone you have to either have a headset or speaker phone on to use the cell phone while driving. To this day I still see people using their phones, both texting and/or holding it to their ear.

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14 minutes ago, Duc2V4 said:

I'm convinced that the world is becoming more ignorant and selfish everyday. After all of the news reports, videos on YouTube and social media sites about how texting and driving or even using a cell phone while driving is dangerous and often times deadly, people continue to do it! In California and other states I'm sure, there is "hands free" law, meaning, to use a cell phone you have to either have a headset or speaker phone on to use the cell phone while driving. To this day I still see people using their phones, both texting and/or holding it to their ear.

 

The one that makes me chuckle is the 1 handed speaker-phone conversations. Like that makes any difference. 

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7 minutes ago, thtanner said:

 

The one that makes me chuckle is the 1 handed speaker-phone conversations. Like that makes any difference. 

Right, let me hold the phone up to my mouth and not my ear!

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