Why Do You Own A Vfr?

[Rush2112]

I fell in love with the VFR back in the mid 80's when I first laid eyes on one... read all about them in the mags, used to point them out on the road, "That's the bike I want"... couldn't afford one at the time though, bought a GS550ESF for $750 bucks instead. 25 yrs and 100,000 2 wheeled miles later I told my wife I found my dream bike for $3,500, it's a VFR and it is what I've always wanted...

My wife still finds me out in the garage just staring at my bike... thinking, day-dreaming... ... and yes, I fire her up just to listen to the sound in the Winter, I can't go too long without my V4 aural fix

[JeffInFranklinTN]

How many bike owners go out to the garage when the weather's nasty in the winter, open the door and start their bike - just so they can listen to it?? Only a VFR owner would do that.

So I'm not the only one ;)

I do this with all 4 of my V4's...but mainly just to keep fresh fuel in the carbs.

[emoyer]

I am always researching motorcycles, trying to figure out what might be my next best thing. When I felt it was time to move up from my first bike (a Ninja 250) to a "real motorcycle", the three at the top of my list were the FZ6, the F4i, and the VFR800. There were no F4i's in my price range, and I rode an FZ6 and did not like it at all. Both of those bikes would have cost me half again more to insure than the VFR anyway. I was a little concerned about the weight of the VFR, but everything I read about it, including from folks on this forum, made me more certain that I should look at one.

There was a yellow 99 on CL. When I called about it, the guy said, "You gotta hear this bike!" and started it in his garage so I could hear it over the phone (which didn't do it justice.) When I got there we talked a bit and then he got out another bike and led me on a ride around the back roads of Chester County. At one stop sign he asked how I was doing and I said "I want it!" When we got back to his house he said that if I wanted we could take it out together with him driving, "so, you know, you can see what it's all about." So I climbed on the back and we went out on the twisty 2-laners again, but this time hitting 160kph on most of the straights. That was when I decided it had enough power for me.

So that was over a year ago, and I've put over 10K miles on her, loving her more all the time. She is awesome. And I still research bikes to find "the next one", but I'm starting to realize that, for me, the VFR800 is about as perfect as a bike will ever be. The only thing that might come close, mostly due to more creature comforts, is the R1200RT, but that's a little rich for my blood.

[veequattrorazzo]

Because when I walked into the Honda dealer in May(?) of 2002, I saw a motorcycle that looked different - and more badass - than anything else I had ever seen. After asking the salesman a few questions, I pointed to it and said "I'll take that one!". Twelve years later, I feel the exact same way.

[VFR4Lee]

Because when I walked into the Honda dealer in May(?) of 2002, I saw a motorcycle that looked different - and more badass - than anything else I had ever seen. After asking the salesman a few questions, I pointed to it and said "I'll take that one!". Twelve years later, I feel the exact same way.

Sometimes you need to go with your heart. No need to think too much.

[Parksey]

I've had my 2001 VFR just over a month and I'm in love. Just like with a new girlfriend ( I can just about remember those days) I find excuses to take her out at lunchtime, as well as taking the long way home. I've just got back into bikes after a long absence.

My first bike in 1976 was a '73 XL250 which I rode almost to destruction trying to keep up with friends with PE250s, XRs, KLRs and the like. Landed it so hard a footpeg ripped out of the frame. Moved down country and bought a Suzi GS550 but when friends would eventually leave me behind on their Bol D'Or 900s, no matter how hard I scratched around those corners, I bought a GS1000S. (We were still some way off the pace. We rode with a guy who competed in a national street race series. He was easily the fastest of us but in the street races he came last.) I didn't have the chance to get much better as someone stole my GS thou after just three months. Many years pass. I get knocked off my pushbike cycling to work and decide to buy an old Vespa PX200. My wife is not convinced this is an improvement until I take her for a ride when it appears the budget can also apparently accommodate a much newer GT200 for her.

Upgrade my old Vespa to the last of the new PX200s. I tell myself I'm satisfied with this and for a couple of years I was. They are in the zone around town, they are nimble, quick, require less dedicated apparel and safer, surely. Quite well aware that old fools like me who buy new litre bikes are filling hospital beds again as those bikes are now 30% faster while they are 20% slower. (My wife was able to quote that justification, which I used to buy the Vespa, back to me almost word for word recently).

But part of me still thinks I'll own another proper motorbike one day. A guy at work buys a 900 Hornet and tells me to stop just talking about it. I find myself reading about other bikes. A section of motorway on the commute to work proves faster, so start riding the wife's (faster) weekend toy to work. Idly think if I get a bike it should be one with a fairing, after seeing what a great job the Vespa's legshield does.Think about Ducatis. Always loved 750 SS. But even the modern alternatives are too sports oriented. Need something more like 'a gentlemen's express'. Maybe a Triumph Sprint? Work with engineers. See VFRs are very popular with engineers, who appreciate their great build quality and that legendary gear driven cam. And if you want one bike that does it all, everyone says this is it.Some say this bike has a pipe and slippers image, which is reassuring if anything, but its clearly still pretty damn sporty and I remember the impact Honda's V4s made in the '80s.

See a fifth gen (which I've decided is the bike for my day-dreaming purposes) for sale in the South Island with just 29,000ks on it. Hum and har. Talk to wife. She rightly says with the house renovation imminent, it's just not the right time. Let it go. Months pass. Guy at work buys one in near perfect condition, with just 18,000km on it. Gah! Now have to look at one every day.

And hear it.The bike appealed intellectually but that sound, with an after market pipe, is pure visceral excitement. Twice as good a v-twin. And it makes a V8 sound soft. There's little remaining doubt this is some kind of pinnacle of motorcycle development. Unreal build quality, performance, handling and stonking character. Go for a ride on it. Hmm. Maybe it is still too fast. All cells in my body have been exchanged several times since I last rode a big bike. Muscle memory appears to have Alzheimer's. Maybe I should just forget it.

Summer arrives. Guy at work takes his VFR on three week North Island tour and reluctantly concludes his chosen bike for life just doesn't work for him. Fused spine just doesn't handle the riding position even with Genmars, or Helibars and Sargent seat. He's going for a BM for its more upright stance. Do I want the VFR? He wants it to go to someone who would appreciate it. A fifth gen with 21,000km on it, in red, a box load of goodies. This time, I can't resist. I buy it. Wife is not impressed (though caught her smiling when she heard it rev). However I agree readily to do a born again bikers course. Still found the bike a bit intimidating for the first couple of weeks. Maybe I should also have gone the BM route?

However another couple of weeks have passed since then and I love it more with each passing day. It's the real thing. My bike for life.

[mwebb66]

Grew up on a Honda TL 125! it took me everywhere in the back roads around our house near Conifer, Colo. Best friend bought a brand new XL185 in 83 he let me ride it quite a bit, but I could always climb steep trails on the TL much better!. Then he bought a VFR in 1984.......I rode on the back a LOT as we cruised colfax, hit the 3.2 bars, chicks digged us! I did buy my first bike in 86, a Yamaha Radian which worked well but the VFR was always in the back of my mind. In 2001 i bought a brand new one, red, but financial disaster led to its sale in 2005. Replaced again this time with a brand new 2009 (actually bought it in 2012) black bike and it will not be sold until they pry it out my hands. GPR exhaust, GIVI side cases, ready for some distance trips this summer. Other bikes came and went, the Radian, a Yamaha Fazer, a Ninja ZX10, Nighthawk S (honorable mention, almost forgot!)...........VFR all time best bike and ageless even though we are not?

[CornerCarver]

I like 'em.

[Grayv3]

For me I've always wanted a motorcycle & loved when my dad would take me for rides on his 87 ninja 600. When I graduated high school I went shopping but found nothing that made me bite the bullet & I had no clue about all the different types. The dealers had nothing but sportbikes & I felt uncomfortable & large atop a 600 not to mention I thought I'd kill myself. 3 years later, 2006, Michelle & I were looking to start riding & I was considering the ninja 650 but felt too small for me. During that time she got me a subscription to Rider Magazine & I was learning about all the different types of bikes. Then I read a sport touring comparision they did & there it was, a white 6th gen with oem luggage. I fell in love! ? the next day I had some time & ran to nearest dealer to see it & sit on it. It fit like a glove! I was comfortable, not hunched over & love how the cluster layout was finished & not just bolted on like a super sport. It was a classy machine with looks to kill! So while I know I had a slim chance of getting it I applied for the loan & was denied. Fast forward to 2011. I've gotten married, bought a house & had our first child, Faith. I needed to get a helmet for drag racing my s4 so I went to my local motorcycle dealer & alas, a 08 vfr marked down with a sale tag! Of course I gravitated towards it & all those feeling rushed back that I needed this bike but the timing wasn't right. A year later I was told I could look for a bike for better mpg's with my 120mi commute at the time. Again I was looking at the ninja 650 but it really wasn't everything I wanted. It looked good but I didn't lust for it plus it was more money for the payment & insurance. Then I remembered they had the vfr! So I inquirerd & honda gave me the loan with a much lower payment & rate & the insurance was also less! So after years of reading on & off about the vfr & lots of credit to this site, 4 days after my son, Grason IV, was born I brought home another baby, a 4yr old 0 mi 08 vfr!!! Took the msf course a month later, passed with flying colors & started enjoying this awesome creation & joined this great community. It was quite intimidating at first due to the weight but the power never concerned me since I was now grown & mature enough to control myself having a great, young family to come home to. This march makes 2 full years of riding & almost 10k miles later I still feel the same as when I first read that article in Rider. I know some don't agree with a payment for a motorcycle but it's a check I write with a smile & have no regrets about.

[zoomzoom]

Which came first, buying a VFR or finding VFRD. Before I bought my VFR I had ridden one that belonged to a friend. All of my bikes have been Honda's so another Honda seemed to make sense and then I found this site. Honestly, it was the helpful nature and friendly members on this site that clinched the deal. Had I not found this site, the people on it, and the overall joy everyone expressed for their machines I might have bought something other than a VFR.

I have now owned 4 VFR's and doubt I could ever switch to another kind of bike. And it is all the fault of VFRD............. :)

[Switchblade]

One day in 2008 I was riding 129 had pull over at Calderwood Dam pull and bunch of dudes on VFR's(TMac 2008) pull in and started talking to me and one ask me if I had check in yet and I had no idea what they were talking about. But anyway VFRD came up and then I figured it out. One of them asked if I wanted to ride along and I said sure. 100 miles later I was in Franklin and had to go back to Knoxville 125 miles back. It was a awesome day ...

[Switchblade]

Good people ride VFR's ..

[Rush2112]

Good people ride VFR's ..

I've heard you meet the nicest people on a Honda...

[keef]

I got my Vfr because of the way it sounded.

Like a lot of you, I've had a fair few bikes, started with virago 250, CBR 250, then TRX 850, 996, vfr 400 ( great little bike, 220kph on the clock on a track day, speedo on the stop but the revs kept rising) gsxr 600 srad, and while I had that, built my gsxr 711 streetfighter. When I broke that, gsxr 600 srad again, speed triple. I was bored with the triple, and my wife said I should sell it and get a bike to commute on, and another streetfighter project. I got a drz400 SM to commute on.

One of the other guys on the Aussie streetfighters forum had just done a fightered Vfr 750, coolest sounding bike I'd heard, so I started looking and found a 5th gen to start on. I didn't care how it looked, or handled or went, I wanted the sound.

The drzSM was traded for a KTM 640 SM, and the. My boss bought me a company bike (Versys 650) when the KTM motor needed a rebuild as all big singles do.

The KTM got sold, I have the Versys for everyday, but it isn't mine.

But the sound of the VFR is something special.

[Mikesmini080877]

All round ability has lead me to owning 4 vfr's over the years. 1997 vfr750, 1997 vfr800, 1999 vfr800 and the current 2001 vfr800. I remember being in England travelling in 1998 and seeing a vfr800 in a honda dealership and loving the styling of it even though others thought it looked too angular. I've owned everything from 2 stroke dirt bikes, kawasaki zxr750L1, yzf600 thundercats, kawasaki zx6r, kawasaki zzr1100 ( fun in a straight line), various 250's, highly modified 10/2009 mag wheel triumph bonneville ( great fun bike actually) and more that I can't remember at this moment but I always come back to a vfr for the bikes all round great ability and the awesome sounding engine. What engine sounds this great apart from something on a motogp or WSBK grid. Vfr owners know that the bike is coming before seeing it just from the engine noise. You can chase down sportsbikes on them and then do 1000km days all for not much money due to there age. What would make the bike perfect would be a 1000cc V4 version with at least 140-150hp and 110nm of torque in a 5th generation bike and then I'll be totally satisfied.