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BACKGROUND
"Gee, Bones, where are you?"
Killington, Vermont.
"Is
that a hotel in the background?"
Indeed it is. This is a
plush resort. I’ve been to nicer hotels but not when I’ve arrived on two
wheels.
"What's
up with the Honda trailer?"
The Honda trailer is
huge, spotless, and has a side tent three times as wide as the trailer
itself. It also has a trophy class 750 Interceptor parked behind it. “Gear
Driven Cams” for those who recall.
"Are
you going to ride that Interceptor?"
Doubtful, but I will be
riding a VFR1200F with the dual clutch transmission.
"How
did you end up there?" 
American Honda hired the
folks who organize Americade to assemble a group of riders from the Northeast
with an interest in sport touring for a product launch of the VFR1200F DCT in
Killington. A second DCT launch was held for left coasters in Santa Barbara,
California. It seems Honda is interested in what members of online motorcycle
forums have to say and the organizers contacted our own Mellow to recommend a
“very influential motorcyclist in New England” for the event. Joe suggested
me. (I’m still chuckling at that label, but I won’t turn
in down!) A couple weeks later I was interviewed on the phone by the
organizers and a few days later I was notified by email that Honda wanted me
to attend. I bet all of you reading would jump at this opportunity, too. Joe, thank you for
pointing Honda in my direction.
"So
what's going to happen?"
My fellow testers and I
are in the cushy Killington Grand resort for two nights. Honda execs
schmoozed us and gave a dog and pony show on the VFR1200F DCT. Dinner tonight
included Maine lobster; I had two. There was no pie but I will not let the
otherwise exceptional menu affect my objectivity. Tomorrow we get the keys
to standard clutch and dual clutch VFRs to flog, um, I mean compare on
Vermont twisties.
"Anyone
else there we know?"
Probably. I met Ken
Condon, who writes "Proficient Motorcycling" in Motorcycle
Consumer News and operates "Riding in the Zone." We live
about an hour from each other...who knew? (I didn't!) There are riding
instructors, active and retired racers, tour organizers, moto business owners,
and regular motorcycle enthusiasts. Judging by the bikes in the parking lot
it's far from an all-Honda crowd. The Honda staff are great, all motorcycle
guys (and a couple girls) like us. One Honda guy bought his ST1300 from Honda
corporate, rode it, and then sold it to Shane Smith who rode it to victory in
the 2005 Iron Butt Rally. Company people, to be sure, but it's easy to tell
they truly love motorcycles.
"What's
the catch?"
None that I can
identify. I’ve been assured that all Honda wants in return from those
attending is our opinions. They are genuinely interested to learn what
consumers, as opposed to the moto press, have to say about the bike. I expect
they’re also counting on us to share our experience with others. If you know
me you know that I could not possibly resist doing that with the ST universe,
so count on it.
"What
about the new ST?"
I can tell you a couple
things. (1) Honda employees who divulge information about new products before
their official release are fired – boom, you're gone. (2) When I asked about
a new ST I was told that the "technology introduced in the VFR will
definitely find its way into other products." Wink wink, nudge nudge.
"You
already rode a VFR1200F, right?"
Yes, I rode a standard
clutch model last summer. (That’s me below in high viz…you
can’t see the smile on my face!) I
loved the motor, the gearbox, the brakes, the handling, the power, and the
design. Fit and finish were top shelf. I didn't love the riding position (too
aggressive), the seat (not kind to my bony backside) and the small
windshield. I can say that the OEM adjustable laminar lip looks like it would
ably address the airflow issue. Seats can be adjusted or replaced. Riding
position can be addressed to some extent with bar risers, but I'd be happier
with a more upright posture.
"Wow,
Bones...what an opportunity. Have fun and keep us posted!"
Will do. I'll take
pictures tomorrow. Thanks again, Joe, for connected me with Honda.
MORNING IN KILLINGTON
 This
plate is on an ST1100 in the parking lot. Awesome! Anyone know who this RIDE
belongs to? There was a different group here that started Thursday and leaves
this morning, so it could be one of them.
Other bikes I saw parked
here included: Connie 14, FJR, GL1800, Fury, R1200GS, R1150RT, Ducati
Monster, Buell Lightning, that early 80's VFR, and more. One of our
participants has 38 bikes and we may be able to go check out his collection
if timing allows.
Here’s something to chew
on: the Honda guys are a bit flummoxed over the VFR being pitched and
evaluated in the media as a sport touring bike. They say that's not the right
category. It's listed among sport bikes on the USA website, but they tell me
that's not even right. In Europe, where the bike was developed and where they
see the largest market potential, there is a category called road sport.
That's where the VFR fits in. Others in the category include the K1300S,
which they said is the bike they have their crosshairs on with the VFR.
So, my friends, Honda
does not view the VFR1200F as a replacement for the ST1300 and we shouldn't
either. And, for what it's worth, more than one of the Honda guys has offered
me carefully worded statements that technology such as seen on the new VFR
and other bar-raising technology will soon find its way onto other models
that I am sure to like riding. Wink implied.
One of the Honda guys,
Jon, asked me if I was buying a bike available today what would I get? I said
one bike on my short list is the Triumph Sprint GT. It has a great triple
motor, it's a lot lighter than an ST, and there's a good range of factory
accessories. Triumph has been getting great reliability reviews. Oh, and it's
WAY cheaper than the VFR, especially if you opt for the VFR's factory bags
(which on the VFR are on the small side but nicely made). Yes, it’s chain drive;
no I don’t think that matters.
Jon asked me what I'd
like to see in a new ST. Let's see, I mentioned less weight, better airflow,
a seat you can ride on all day without adding a sheepskin or getting it
modified or replacing it outright, single sided swing arm to make rear tire
changes easier, heated grips with a properly placed switch (not one down low
on the left fairing which is hard to feel through gloves let alone see),
power ports (two please), and a factory supplied means of attaching RAM
mounts and making easy electrical connections for the gadget hounds among us.
I like the VFR's linked brake setup where the lever actuates the front brake
only and the pedal controls the rear brake and one pot on the front. I think
that would be good for the ST, too. I didn't mention height adjustable bars,
but I think I'll toss that one out there this morning.
For more proof that
American Honda doesn't consider the VFR a sport touring bike, it has a one
year warranty, like Honda’s sport bikes. I expressed my disappointment with
that during the group session and heard from the Honda guys that the extended
factory warranty "is a good value." (Ho-hum.)
For the color happy
among us, I asked why Honda only gives North American ST customers (and now
VFR customers) one color choice a year. The reply, "Low sales
volume." One of my new buddies got the room in stitches when he said,
"Maybe you'd sell more if you brought over more colors."
AFTERNOON WAIT
Just finished lunch.
Honda gets points for pie which was served for dessert at lunch today. (I
pledge to remain objective, even in the presence of pie.)
The guy with the RIDE license plate is Tom Wright
who wrote an informative article in Motorcycle
Consumer New (September 2010 issue) on getting pulled over by the police.
Read the story if you haven't. Great guy.
So far I am impressed with how much Honda appears
to care about our $.02. Jon and Keith both have sought me out regarding what
ST riders look for and how and where we ride together. They asked if I knew
about Honda Riders Club and I said yes but we ST people organize our own
events across North America and in other countries around the world.
“Really?” Apparently Honda lawyers request that Honda employees keep at an
arm's length regarding our site and sites like it because we use their
trademarks without permission. The Honda guys here don't think that makes
sense. Keith in particular says Honda should be embracing our community and
love of the product, but the lawyers have their say about such matters. They
need to justify their salaries, no doubt, and there are likely issues I don't
pretend to know about since I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last
night. (I stayed at the Killington Grand Resort, though, which I recommend on
Honda's dime.) 
The early wave of riders has gone out and come
back. I haven’t seen any frowns on faces of people who’ve returned, but I’ve
been trying to not hang too close to those riders since I want to form my own
opinions. The second wave is heading out now. I’m in the third wave. Looks
like two hours and change, with each rider getting a standard clutch for one
half and a DCT for one half.
I asked and got a chance to go inside the Honda
tractor trailer. It’s one slick rig. They pack 18 bikes into the trailer in
two levels. The upper level bikes go up there on a gate lift. The trailer
travels across the country with different bikes for different events. Inside
the trailer there’s a small shop with tools (the compressor came in handy for
the Connie14 rider who got a screw in his back tire and had a flat this
morning) as well as an office workstation. Alongside the trailer is a huge
tent under which tables and chairs are set up. The floor is all black and red
rubber mats. Everything is amazingly clean.
The second wave is rolling back in
and my ride slot is next. Time to suit up.
POST-RIDE EVALUATION
I’m back. Had a fun
ride, half on a VFR1200F with a standard clutch and half on a VFR1200F DCT
with a dual clutch. Weather was just about perfect for my mid-afternoon
departure: sunny and low 60s (F), calm wind. Leaves haven’t turned much up
here yet, so there weren’t leaf-peepers out clogging the roads. My group of
seven (Honda leader, five testers, and Honda sweep) rode out along VT 100 and
Tyson Road to VT 106, then reversed course for a total of 70 miles. Ride time
was an hour and 40 minutes including a brief stop half way out to switch
bikes.
The route was mediocre.
We passed roads that are better than Tyson Road which was choppy in sections.
It gave us all the opportunity to zig and zag to avoid bumps, but if you’re
listening, Honda, next time invest more effort in route selection. The people
you invited to evaluate these bikes could have been a tremendous resource for
you in identifying roads that would have let us appreciate the machines more
than we did. At least there wasn’t much traffic.
The out ride found me on
a standard clutch VFR, same as I had test ridden last summer. I found it much
the same: fabulously fast, light on its feet, wonderfully refined. Ken
Condon, who rode a VFR800 for years, observed that it felt just like an older
VFR with a more powerful engine.
The switch gear snicks
as it should and everything is where I think it should be, except for the
horn and turn signal switch being reversed (the horn is above turn
signal…more on that later). Having a digital gear indicator is handy although
as usual I found myself working to be in the right gear for the circumstance irrespective of what number it’s
assigned. (“Oh, look…3rd.”) The
brakes are phenomenal with good bite and a progressive lever. The linked
brake system is setup so the foot pedal actuates the rear brake plus one
piston on one caliper in front. With the hand lever you get all front brake.
The dual clutch system
works really well. I’m sure there are some purists out there who will dismiss
it out of hand. While that’s your prerogative I also think it would be your
loss. I had a whole bunch of fun playing with the transmission and riding
that bike. It’s
very intuitive. When the motor is off the bike is in neutral, so there is a
parking brake. A cable linkage actuates a separate brake caliper on the rear
rotor. There’s a parking brake lever inboard of the left handlebar switch pod
and you just tug it to engage before you get off the bike. It falls to your
hand naturally. When you want to move forward you toggle the drive selector
with your right thumb and you’re in gear. You can feel the shift. When you’re
ready to go, twist the throttle and hang on.
It takes next to no time
to master the system. There’s a trigger for your left finger for upshifts and
paddle for your left thumb for downshifts. You don’t have to move your hand
along the grip, just move your finger or thumb. I bet on a cold day those
digits might get cold if you kept taking them off the heated grip to shift.
BTW, the turn signal switch and horn are reversed on this bike so the horn
isn’t mistaken for the downshift paddle. Several testers including your humble scribe
hit the horn instead of the turn signal switch.
If you want automatic
mode, pick either drive (which shifts as soon as the engine can manage the
load) or sport (which keeps revs high). One thing that is cool is when you’re
in either auto mode, if you don’t like the gear you’re in you just toggle up
or down and you change gears and enter manual mode. Easy. If you want to go
from auto to manual without changing the gear you’re in, there’s an AT/MT
toggle for your right forefinger. So no matter which mode or gear you’re in
and which mode or gear you want to be in, it’s simple to get there.
The drive mode would be
fine for highway, long stretches of easy two-lane, or when you’re stuck in
slow moving traffic. It is smooth and simple. When you come to a stop the
bike goes to first gear by itself and idles. Interesting: you cannot rev the
engine unless the bike is stopped and in neutral. (Honda, can you please
license this technology to Harley-Davidson?)
The sport mode did not
impress me as much as I thought it would. If the bike had only manual shift
that would be enough and if I was going to pick one automatic mode it would
be drive, not sport. Once I decide I feel like getting into the ride I want
to pick my own gear. I raised this with the Honda guys and they pointed out
that the speeds we were able to achieve on this route (citation territory but
not felonious) were not high enough or sustained enough for the sport mode to
do its thing as designed. I’m not in a position to disagree since I didn’t
ride it in such conditions. The Honda guys said on the route we took they’d
have chosen manual shifting as well. Once again, if Honda invested more time
in route selection this could have been addressed.
The manual shift mode
works like an electronic Valentino Rossi. Pull my finger (um…yeah) to upshift, push my thumb to
downshift. That’s it. Yes, there is less mechanical movement of my body to
accomplish a shift than with a standard clutch, but I’m not uninvolved. I
can’t possibly shift as fast or smooth on a standard clutch bike. I like it.
YMMV, but don’t decide you don’t like it until you try it because it is well
thought out and it works. 
There are some things
you need to do differently and I figured these out pretty quickly. One is you
don’t roll off the throttle when you upshift or blip the throttle when you
downshift. Just toggle to the next gear. It’s pretty cool setting up for a
turn, up on the balls of your feet, and not having to slide your left foot
down to trip the shifter. Just stay up on your feet, press into the turn,
toggle down (or not…this motor is a torque monster) and roll on through the
turn. The bike rolls off or blips the throttle automatically as needed.
You could argue (and I
heard some testers do so) that you don’t have to use certain skills you spent
years refining so it makes you less involved in the ride. On the other hand
you just can focus on piloting the bike down the road, making perfect gear
shifts at will.
Now for the $64,000
question: is a dual clutch necessary?
Honestly, I do not think it is. How many riders have you heard ask you for a
motorcycle (a sport bike in particular) with automatic shifting? I can count
the ones who asked me on exactly zero fingers. If only the shift-it-yourself
mode was included, it would make more sense for a sport bike.
One of my fellow testers
concludes that Honda is making it because they can. Clever folks at Honda,
they’re able to do a lot of neat things. I wonder if it would work better on
a Gold Wing. Perhaps Honda decided to bring it to market on a sport bike
first (on the VFR in particular which has long been Honda’s technology
showcase) because it would be easier to migrate the technology from a sport
bike to a touring bike, than to start with a touring bike and migrate to a
sport bike. ("I don't want any
touring bike transmission on my sport bike," said Mr. Testosterone.)
There was some talk around the bar about having a dual clutch tranny on a
middle weight bike, like a 599. There was also concern that putting such a
tranny on a beginner bike could dumb down the skill set needed to operate a
motorcycle well. Interesting banter.
I figured some of you
hooligan types would want to know whether you can do a wheelie on a dual
clutch VFR. I dropped it down to first doing about 25 and grabbed a ton of
throttle – and all it did was launch me forward. (“Go strap yourself in. I’m going to make the jump to light speed.”)
When I got back I asked a couple of the Honda guys if the dual clutch bike
can wheelie and they said yes, it can.
There are some nits to
pick. The ergos are a bit aggressive for me. In particular the pegs are high
and I’m neither tall nor long of leg. They could be lower without sacrificing
lean angle as far as I can tell. The front suspension preload and rebound on
the out route (standard clutch bike) were dialed in for someone who weighs a
lot more than your 140-pound tester. It was jarring for much of the ride. The
suspension was set up much better on the back route (dual clutch bike). I
understand that everything was supposed to be at factory settings, but
another rider played with the suspension settings on the standard clutch bike
I rode. Also, some testers thought the throttle was abrupt, but not all
agreed.
Overall, the VFR1200F
DCT is a well thought out and well executed machine – a gentleman’s sport
bike as opposed to a replica racer sport bike. There is a lot to like and I’d
like it even more if I could sit more upright.
If any of you have
questions I’ll try to answer them after dinner…filet mignon anyone?
THE MORNING AFTER
I spent much of the ride
home thinking about the new VFR. One thing I thought of repeatedly was how
much fun it would have been to ride it on roads like the ones I was choosing
instead of the ones Honda led us down. I also reminded myself that I'm not a
sport bike buyer. Yes, they're fun to ride but they don’t suit my style of
riding or preferred posture on a bike. I wouldn't buy one as my only
bike...maybe as a third or fourth bike, but I’m unlikely to go beyond a two-bike
stable any time soon. I would not likely be a VFR1200F buyer.
That said, I genuinely
enjoyed the dual clutch system. If Honda offered just manual paddle shifting
and did away with the drive and sport auto shift modes that would be fine
with me. Shifting is ridiculously fast and smooth – better than me on my best
day – but it's still engaging and fun to shift through gears. My gut feeling
is that Honda’s dual clutch transmission is a great system that needs a more
appropriate home. I think it would be better suited to a Gold Wing than a
VFR. I would even consider buying a DCT-equipped ST. I'd want to ride a model
with and one without and then make up my mind. At $1500, it's a pretty pricey
option.
One more thing I learned
is Honda knows how to put on an event. We were treated very well, start to
finish. Lobster, filet, top-shelf open bar (after bikes were parked for the
day), plush resort, interesting people to meet and hang with, and cool bikes
to try out. Go have fun and thanks for coming. Honda clearly wants our
business, but this event was much more about wanting our opinions. The Honda
guys sought me out, asked me about my involvement in riding forums, asked me
about the feature articles I write about riding, asked me what my buddies
ride, asked me what I'd like to see in the next ST. I gave them an earful every time.
So they didn't sell me
the VFR DCT, but they got me thinking the technology it introduces might end
up on a bike I'd buy in the future.
Blogger: Scott “Bones”
Williams on www.st-owners.com
Reader
Feedback:
I've
no doubt Honda got a complete earful of things we'd like them to know. Bones
is great at ferreting out stuff and talking to everyone, plus he's an
outstanding rider, completely capable of giving an experienced rider's
perspective.
Carl Toboika
Kingston, New York
The
opinions expressed in this article are those of its author.
The author is not affiliated with the businesses
described herein nor with their owners, managers, or
employees.
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