Honda Vfr750

HONDA VFR750

QUICK RIDE

Why change what doesn't need changing?

OH, YAWN. ANOTHER "new" VFR750, just like last year's, which was just like the one offered the previous year, which was just like the one offered the year before that. Sure, this one is white, last year’s was black, and previous versions were red— with gold wheels one year and white ones another. But mostly, this bike is unchanged, and therefore, old news. Isn’t it?

Guess again. Never mind the white paint job, which is saved by a touch of metallic from being the same shade as a

kitchen sink. Take one ride on this bike, and all you’ll think of is how incredibly competent it is. And excellence is always, well, excellent.

It’s no accident the VFR has lasted into its fourth year without major changes. It would be very difficult to improve this bike. Would you start with the motor, a super-smooth, dohc, 748cc V-Four tuned to pull like a gorilla over a wide rpm range? Nah, this engine is firstcousin to that which powers the RC30, and while future itera-

tions of it probably will be smaller and lighter, it’s hard to imagine that they could work very much better.

Well, how ’bout we change the bike’s chassis? Too late. Honda did that last year, adding preload adjustment to an already excellent fork, and rebound-damping adjustability to an already terrific shock, which had preload adjustment to begin with. That shock, by the way, works with a component that more than any other helps identify this machine as something special, as a flagship of Honda’s vision. That would be the single-sided swingarm. Nobody really needs a single-sided swingarm, unless he’s running in endurance racing, where the ability to make a quick tire change is critical. But the VR750’s is a beautifully sculpted piece, and is, as much as anything else, a signal of the sort of all-encompassing we-can-do-anything excellence Honda’s engineers packed into this bike.

You sense it from the moment you view the bike’s instruments, sited within an automotive-type dash. You sense it when you move any of its controls, all of which feel as though they move on oiled brass fittings. And you certainly sense it when you settle onto the bike’s comfortable saddle, and orient yourself to its intelligently placed bars, pegs and controls.

When you ride the VFR, you’ll find that though there are faster 750s, and more nimble ones, and lighter ones, and less expensive ones, there isn’t another motorcycle-not in this class, and maybe not in any other class-that works as well as an all-round, do-everything ride.

Change is inevitable, in life and in motorcycling, so it’s likely that sooner or later the VFR750 will be revised and upgraded. If you’re in the market for a bike like this, don’t wait for that to happen. The VFR750 is a great motorcycle just the way it is.

-Jon F. Thompson