Red Rolls
Red Rolls
HONDA 2002
Honda hits the road
MARK HOYER
A VFR800 WITH VTEC VALVETRAIN AND OPTIONAL HARD BAGS? A lighter, more powerful CBR954RR? The long-awaited ST 1300 sport-tourer? The Honda Naked Bike missing link, one powered by a 919cc Four plucked from the old CBR900RR? A heavily massaged RC51? Updated fuel-injection on all these, plus a couple of new VTXs, the beginning of a new line of CRF playbikes, a 600cc, 100-mph scooter, a new flagship ATV and a 165horsepower, four-cylinder, four-stroke turbocharged watercraft?
Welcome to Honda’s 2002 model-year dealer show in Las Vegas, replete with supercross track, Miguel Duhamel dressed up in a Woody Woodpecker suit, newly signed SX/MX champ Ricky Carmichael and a reiteration of all the tough, conquer-theworld talk Honda busted out three years ago at its New Orleans convention.
At that time, Honda’s motorcycle Veep Ray Blank proclaimed Honda had initiated a three-year crusade to achieve total market domination.
This year, he vowed Honda was fulfilling that promise with the rollout of 2002 and early-release 2003 models.
As images of a great locomotive flashed on giant video screens behind him, Blank said, “We’ve got tremendous momentum, and no one is going to stop us.” Eruption of applause.
On the one hand, it’s the rah-rah posturing one expects at such an affair. On the other, well, he may have a point. While Yamaha isn’t exactly rolling over and playing dead with its fuel-injected YZF-R1,
Warrior power cruiser and its very own fourstroke watercraft, Kawasaki and Suzuki recently announced a partnership agreement to share R&D costs, and neither company offered anything in the way of really new product for the coming model year. Honda, meanwhile, has moved forward with all-new or significantly revised versions of important “franchise” models, several of which have been Cycle World Ten Best Bikes winners in the past. Not the least of these is the new VFR800 Interceptor. Versions of the VFR have made this magazine’s Ten Best list a whopping 12 times! That’s a strong history.
When we last tested the bike (July, 2000), though, its age was showing. We asked for more displacement, more torque and wondered where the heck the optional hard saddlebags were. Well, the bags are here, maybe even a rear trunk, too, color-matched and integrated into the edgy new styling. We wish we had a picture of the luggage to show you, but none were provided by American Honda.
As for a bigger engine, who says there’s no replacement for displacement? While the engine remains a 781cc VFour, it is fitted with chain(instead of gear-) driven cams, and VTEC valvetrain hocus-pocus that increases bottom-end and midrange torque, all in the face of a similarly sizzling top-end hit. This is achieved by operating only two valves per cylinder below 7000 rpm, which improves intake velocity and thus cylinder filling at lower engine speeds. The other pair of valves is brought online hydraulically as the revs rise to unleash full top-end potential. This has been used on Japanese models before (a similar system was used on a 400 way back in ’83), but this is the first “world” model to receive this technology. No horsepower claims were made in U.S. press materials, though European sources indicate 107 horsepower and 59 foot-pounds of torque are on tap at their respective peaks, up slightly from the previous model. Expect the real gains in low-to-midrange torque.
Rake and trail are unchanged, although a new .75-inch longer Pro-Arm single-sided swingarm is used (provides room for the “center-up” exhaust system), which makes the wheelbase 57.4 inches. Beefier, 43mm fork tubes grace the front, while the rear is still suspended by a single shock with seven-position spring preload and rebound damping adjustment.
Latest-version linked brakes are used, with ABS available as an option. Opting for the latter also nets you a remote preload-adjustment knob for the shock, similar to the convenient setup found on BMWs.
Claimed weight has gone up from 463 pounds to 470,. mostly due to the strengthened rear subframe that now has to support the dual under-seat silencers and optional luggage. Add about 10 more pounds for the ABS model.
A larger, 5.8-gallon fuel tank is well-integrated into the crisp new lines of the VFR, with Honda’s trademark red returning as the only available color. From certain front angles there are hints of the new four-stroke Grand Prix bike, the RC21IV, and the abbreviated tailsection bears a certain resemblance to the old oval-piston NR750’s. Coming or going, the angular look is cool. Honda expects the bike in showrooms by January, priced at $9999. Add $1000 for the anti-lock brakes.
Makes us wonder if 2002 will be the beginning of another decade run for the VFR as a Ten Bester.
Maybe, but with the optional saddlebags it might run up against its totally redone V-Four stablemate, the new-for’03 ST 1300 sport-tourer.
Where to start on a bike that’s had everything changed?
The aluminum frame and swingarm, the more compact, more powerful, longitudinally mounted motor, the “notquite X-Wing” styling?
Let’s go straight to that new 1261cc engine. The dualcounterbalanced powerplant features a 20mm lower crankshaft (for a lower overall center of gravity and improved handling) while the engine has been shortened front-to-rear by some 2 inches, thanks in part to a new chain drive (formerly belt) for the dual overhead cams, while a shorter, lower-geared five-speed transmission is also fitted. Both bore and stroke were bumped, the new dimensions 78 x 66mm. onda tossed the old CV carbs for an auto-choke PGM-FI engine-management system with 12hole injectors. Claimed power is now 116 bhp and 85 footpounds of torque.
The more compact powerplant has allowed the engine to > be moved forward in the chassis, which in turn has permitted the rider to be moved forward relative to the headstock for improved steering feel and better handling. It’s also allowed the wheelbase to shrink 2.2 inches, down to 59.
A bigger, 45mm cartridge fork is fitted (formerly 41 or 43mm, depending on model), while the rear is a singleshock setup with remote preload adjustment. Rake and trail are a quicker-steering 26 degrees/3.9 inches. Claimed dry weight is down a considerable 33 pounds to 610.
Redone (and adjustable) ergonomics complement the striking “Aero-Elipse” styling. A three-position seat moves both up and rearward-1.2 inches of range vertically and 1 inch horizontally. An ABS-equipped model is available, also fitted with an electrically adjustable windscreen similar to the units found on Yamaha’s Europe-only FJR1300 and BMW’s RI 150RT. The Honda system offers 7.4 inches of height and 13 degrees of rake adjustment. If that’s not enough, an additional 2.3 inches is available via different mounting holes, which is your only screen-moving option if you go with the base model, as the electrics aren’t fitted. Helmet-swallowing detachable hard bags of the same
capacity as the old ST 1100 are standard equipment.
Sporty-sized radial tires are mounted front and rear on lighter, three-spoke cast wheels, the rear using a wider 170mm Z-rated tire. Both the standard and ABS models get the latest version of Honda’s LBS linked brakes.
With release of the new ST 1300 not coming until next summer, price is not yet known. Expect something more than the ST1100 ABS II’s $14,399.
While the ST 1300 will no doubt rip, it ain’t gonna wail like Honda’s new liter-class missile, the CBR954RR.
“Balance” has been the watchword for the entire RR series, which is one reason Honda says it didn’t go for a CBR1200RR or some other mega-power GSX-R 1000-crusher. Rather, Big Red wants to achieve a more broadly accessible, easier-to-ride package that still produces blistering acceleration, razor-sharp handling and blazing lap times.
As its designation
implies, the dohc fuelinjected powerplant has had its displacement bumped 25cc. The extra cubes come courtesy of a 1mm larger bore, for new cylinder dimensions of 75 x 54mm. Lighter pistons and wristpins are fit-
ted for quicker revs, lower engine stress and decreased vibration, while compression is up to help augment lowend and midrange power. New 42mm throttle bodies are fitted and take their fuel dose from a quartet of 12-point injectors. Peak power is increased 4 ponies to 154 bhp at 11,250 rpm, with the rev-limiter set at 12,150 rpm. In addition to being more powerful, the engine is smarter, too, thanks to a faster-processing ECU with more advanced fuel-injection mapping.
The twin-spar aluminum “pivotless” chassis got its share of tweaks, as well, in the form of a different headstock casting (10 percent more rigid torsionally) while a larger-yet-lighter swingarm graces the rear. A reshaped fuel tank carries the same 4.8-gallon capacity lower in the chassis for improved mass-centralization while placing the rider closer to the front of the bike for improved handling and steering feel.
It needed better steering feel!? We’ll take it anyway.
Dry weight is down 5 pounds to a claimed 370, with ounces shaved from myriad places, including the wheels, shock, new Ti silencer, valve springs, the starter motor and more. Hope is that balance and usability will be maintained in the face of heightened performance. Price climbs to $10,599, with bikes expected in showrooms this February.
Ever since CW built our Project “Yellow Peril” CBR900RR-based naked bike seven years ago, we’ve been wishing Honda would do the same. It has:
Witness the new 919 (say Nine-One-Nine, please), Honda’s nude 900! Okay, so strictly speaking it isn’t a stripped CBR900RR-note the absence of a twin-spar aluminum frame. But the 919 did get the old-style 919cc liquid-cooled powerhouse, now with fuel-injection. It’s
been retuned for bottom-end and midrange power and features a 9500-rpm redline, down on the deceased Openclasser’s original limit. Hey, stomping midrange is what the class is all about anyway, right? Well, that and profiling around like a badass.
That’s probably what Honda was going for when it spec’d the matte-black Asphalt color scheme-but “Asphalt Peril” just doesn’t have the same ring. Still, some of the visual riffs are way cool, such as the twin silencers tucked tightly under the pointed tailsection. The overall visual statement is tidy and purposeful. With the “mono-backbone” steel frame using the sixspeed powerplant as a stressed member, the engine becomes the 919’s center of power in more ways than one. The design also helps keep the dry weight down to 427 pounds, which is quite competitive for its class. Hooligan types watch out, the Hierarchy of Thugdom may be in for a shakeup.
In fact, with a lineup like this, Honda may be shaking things up on all fronts. Of course, there’s lots of comparison testing to be done before any new class kings are determined. With bikes like these in the pipeline, you can bet we’re looking forward to it. □
