VFR1200 on the track

I already have, and it handled great, though it was too stiff.

A few of my comments got deleted on this article... It seems pretty clear that his test bike had a blown shock. He rode 5 laps and declared that the VFR1200 is "terrifying" on the track. What a load.

edit: every single vfr1200 owner that has posted on the enthusiast sites has universally reported that it is overdamped.

He had to have been given one with a busted shock... which is convenient because you can tell he wanted to hate the thing.

Honda could react 2 ways:

1. Never give this clown a loaner bike again

or

2. Give him a new one and ask for a second test.

I'd like to see the second option but I don't think they take this guy seriously enough. Of course, a fixed shock won't change what he said about the brakes being grabby (horseshit) or the engine being underpowered... you've got to be kidding me. It runs the quarter in 10 flat FFS!

It's not a blink speed hypersport. Of course he's going to hate it.

Who is this guy anyway?

Wes Siler is an ex-Jalopnik writer, left the car blog recently to dedicate himself to his 'cycle blog. He's not a bad guy, but methinks he didn't try very hard on this one. Phobe has turned lap times at Grattan within ~10% of AMA pilot times, and his take on the 'trackability' of the bike lines up with what I've read from other writers. It's no CBR, but it's not the total failure that this piece makes it out to be.

Siler is about 170 lbs, IIRC, and I believe he did mess with the setting as he claims, so I doubt the issue is simply lack of setup.

My guess - He got a bum bike, and evidently couldn't bother himself to either verify that or fix it before writing his piece.

Apologists...

It's a nail....fact.

Or did he?

He managed to get someone to actually read and comment on his blog...

He doesn't appear to have any writing chops, so submitting an objective review of a VFR on the track would be a bit of snoozer. Doubtful he would have even had a few paragraphs worthy of a forum post...so he took a different tack, and it was effective.

You make a good point - It will certainly generate site traffic.

Personally, I'd vote for 'Lazy' before ascribing more Machiavellian motives, but I'll admit to a certain level of niavete on these sorts of things.

Getting "real" web traffic, especially from your target audience, can be devilishly hard...it's a hack piece intended to drive hits...

That would be a great feature. I'll throw on the saddlebags and trunk and ride it a couple thousand Kms to a track, lose the bags, change the tires, twiddle some knobs and run 20 or 30 laps. Then I'll ride the big bitch home.

Shamu was an Orca... A killer whale. Big but agile and deadly. Even sharks don't fuck with them... an apex predator.

you ever see that special on the killer whale that attacked and killed the great white that was almost as big as the whale. and the whale did it pretty much just to do it, didn't eat it. That's how you're article should read. You're article should kill his just to do it.

I don't particularly like the idea of giving undeserved attention to "He'll Bend Over for Leather", but that's a pretty cool idea for a story...

Considering that's exactly how most of us old school VFR smellies got started doing track days, I 'm liking the symmetry...

Yeah, in retrospect, could have probably done without the $25 words....

I'd definitely pay to watch.