springerhockeychristian

BB9550 WingDing33 Knoxville

So I made it there and after a bit of walking around and buying boots and so forth, I actually got to demo the VFR-1200. They had the DFT model and the 6-speed manual, both with shaft drive, I rode the manual version. Which is not bad. Took a bit of getting used to, tends to precess slightly at highway speeds especially in the buffetting behind trucks (imagine the bike "folding" left, then right, then left again, then right again in a cycle...partially because there's so much weight on the handlebars)...borderline stable and a bit top-heavy like the original Interceptor 1000 but not bad. Doesn't have that "you're sitting on a stick between two pogo-sticks" feel of the R1 & R6, but handles nowhere as well as the R1. What I did not like was the throttle-response, it tends to lug below 4k then come on like a sonic-boom...and it has a 2k rpm gap between 1st and 2nd and is way way overgeared for US roads. It was lugging in 5th at 75mph and still had another gear. It was less docile than the R1 certainly didn't handle as well, only slightly-less "racy" position-wise and the brake was only slightly less touchy on position 4 from 1-7 (a nice engineering touch with an adjustment on the brake lever, as it was it was maybe FZ8-touchy, one finger braking but not lethal like the R1), comfort-wise it was somewhat cooler but not a whole lot more so (around R6 with the GTX? pipe definitely not the 2009 R1 with the underseat twin pipes but with a lot of heat coming up from under the tank) , had a loud electric fan that kicked-in when the bike came to a stop (admittedly it was a hot and sunny day in Knoxville, though very nice humidity, about 40%) and I didn't even inquire about the price, I'm sure it's in the $12k range.

I didn't really notice any "shaft-surge" but I definitely noticed a throttle surge. It was as sensitive as a light-switch. But once you got used to the chugging below 4k (it does make some power at the low end above 3k or so, but it chugs also) and the sudden onset of power above 4500 with the slightest twitch of the throttle (a lot of power, the thing will easily jump out from under you if you're not careful), it was ok. Given the choice between lugging it a gear high and batting it back and forth in "the right gear", I had to choose running a gear high and trying not to wince, and there the power was adequate, the throttle response somewhat muted...but you knew what was going to happen if you just ran it up a little more. Overall it was clearly not nearly as refined as the R1 and certainly not as fun to ride...again I preferred my FJ1200. My old Yamaha doesn't have quite the power of the VFR1200 but it comes on a LOT smoother and earlier (it makes decent power down to 2k) never bogs and handles better, really. I know one thing given the choice between the two in riding in the "snot" that I had to ride in early this morning, between 2am and 5am, on I-81 in the mountains north of Roanoke, with the front wheel sliding (no not handlebar-wobble, I'm talking wind-induced oscillation about the long axis on a slick road, like sticking your arm and handout and rotating your hand about your arm) left-right-left under me on that slick-ass road in the thick, wet fog trying to pass trucks, I'd choose my FJ1200 *easily* over the VFR1200. Before that the fog was patchy mostly fun, sort of a challenge to see through, making me a bit nervous but it wasn't outright dangerous, but then I hit a point where it was sodden thick spongy wet fog on concrete, the road was soaked and everything was leaving a track on the road as it passed, clearly there was a buildup of near-icy water on the road and the bike started to slip left-right-left in the turbulence behind trucks. There are a lot of trucks on US81, or I81 whatever. You're constantly either passing trucks or getting passed by a truck, even at 3am. So *then* I got a bit scared, like, "this is fucking crazy and I could seriously get killed" scared. But it was either going to go down or not and it didn't go down and it was a bad place to stop so I kept riding and luckily the "fog" cleared in a mile or so. So I have to chalk that up to the FJ1200: nothing builds confidence like repeated success in stressful conditions. And I'd say, "sure, give me a track suit with full pads and I'll go out and try that ride up from Christiansburg VA to just north of I64 on I81 at 3am on a midsummer night again on an VFR1200, no problem" [there's no fucking WAY that I would try that on an R6]. But I know that I can do it on my FJ1200 and survive. Plus it has a realistic seating-position and just lighter, quicker handling overall, without crossing the line into instability (and when I say the 20 year old FJ1200 handles both lighter and better than last years' VFR1200 that's saying something). I might take the front-brake but that's it.

Apparently they don't bring the C

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