Undesirable but reasonable motorcycles

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Just undesirable

My local shop had o e as a demonstrator, it was an excellent bike to ride, really good fun.

[Gimlet]

Winner!

Agreed. The TDM was going to be my nomination too. Never recovered from its "Tedium" press moniker and got unfairly written off as bland commuter. In fact it's still a very capable bike with rock solid reliability and was built with a very high standard of finish. Arguably better than any of the current MT range.

[Taff]

The humble ZZR600

MrsTaff had one for a while and I really quite enjoyed riding it. One of these would probably be perfect for the commuting that I do now

[demographic]

A mate had a TDM900, I liked it.
Very capable bike for the lake districts bumpy roads with high (ish) walls.
Surprisingly fast and tractable.
On my 750 Slingshot I was up and down the gears like a bare footed firewalker and he hardly changed gears.

Oh, the headlights were shite on the TDM though, he used to ask me to ride behind him with mine on main beam so he had a better beam spread.

[Gimlet]

Honda VFR 1200.
OK it's heavy and not a looker but the engine is immense and you get huge reliability and superb build quality.
You can have a premium quality fast, comfortable, well handling sports tourer with a genuine 170 bhp at only seven or eight years old for under 5 grand. And it'll have FSH and will have been owned by someone who has 40 years of no claims bonus and a shadow board for his tool kit on the garage wall.
Some considered farkling and an aftermarket exhaust system greatly improves the looks.

Honda-VFR1200F-5.jpg (96.24 KiB) Viewed 1086 times

[Trogladyte]

No, no, NO!

Horrid bike.

Like many couriers, I thought about one of these but compared with the CX (I could do a full service in 30 minutes), they offered very little extra and were harder and costlier to service - four plugs for example. The electrics were a bit iffy too - alternator / ignition problems.

I bought an XBR500 instead. That should be in the list

Maybe I was lucky, but I loved mine. It wasnt the most exciting of bikes, but it was extremely reliable, and a faithful workhorse until I embedded it in the drivers side door of a Fiat in South Lambeth Road.

[Doc]

For me the racer was built for well defined good reasons, but the roadbike? Naah.

Didn't there have to be a certain number of road versions produced to homologate the bikes for racing? Like the Norton F1, the road bike wasn't a patch on the racer.

[Yorick]

For me the racer was built for well defined good reasons, but the roadbike? Naah.

Didn't there have to be a certain number of road versions produced to homologate the bikes for racing? Like the Norton F1, the road bike wasn't a patch on the racer.

No. The NR500 was developed for GP racing. The NR750 was a spin off for the road.

[demographic]

No. The NR500 was developed for GP racing. The NR750 was a spin off for the road.

Close but there was an NR 750 racer as well. It raced at Le Mans after a very fast qualifying then retired due to big end problems.
I read about it in my very first PB mag thats I bought and read on my train journey to Taunton railway station when he lived in Devon.


More info here. https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model ... 50_87.html

I have huge respect for the people who came up with such an innovative way around the racing rules but those rules never existed on the road so a V8 would have likely been a much better bike.

[Mr. Dazzle]

IIRC its actually just the Honda NR, not NR750. Such a brief name gives a clue as to its intended role, its a halo product not ever supposed to be "logical" as much an exercise in what you can do with no restrictions. Its willy waving to a certain extent, but then so is racing!

Makes about as much sense on the road as a Desmosedici or Honda's own RC213.

[cheb]

I'd still like one.

Willy waving? That'd be most road bikes over 250cc then.

[The Spin Doctor]

The humble ZZR600

MrsTaff had one for a while and I really quite enjoyed riding it. One of these would probably be perfect for the commuting that I do now

I've had one for 12 years. Got it for peanuts and its proven to be a dead reliable do everything bike and cheap to run.
The engine's docile under 7K and hilarious when you wring its neck and with the addition of a Nitron shock and better fork springs / oil it handles surprisingly well. The calipers had been swapped for some Nissins off a CBR before I got it.

Its no great looker but I really struggle to find something to replace it, maybe a VFR but most other things fall short in some area or other.

John Reynolds IIRC raced one very successfully!

[Whysub]

Honda VFR 1200.
OK it's heavy and not a looker but the engine is immense and you get huge reliability and superb build quality.
You can have a premium quality fast, comfortable, well handling sports tourer with a genuine 170 bhp at only seven or eight years old for under 5 grand. And it'll have FSH and will have been owned by someone who has 40 years of no claims bonus and a shadow board for his tool kit on the garage wall.
Some considered farkling and an aftermarket exhaust system greatly improves the looks.
Honda-VFR1200F-5.jpg

Had a couple of these at work when they first came out (2010). Lots of issues with the brakes seizing on at the slightest hint of moisture in the air. And I mean really seized, full burnouts possible without having to hold the front brake lever.

Rear shocks seized (on both) and the handling was awful, scarily so. You never thought you were going to make a bend as the bike wanted to go straight on. Force it over a bit more and it felt like the front was going to washout. Horrible.
One seized its engine at 3000 miles because of a Honda machining error. Plus o sliced my finger wide open when cleaning the exhaust (the heatshield is razor sharp at the bottom).

The later ones we had could have been better, but no one wanted to ride them as lost confidence in them. All three were sold at 2 years old with less than 4000 miles on them.

[Bigjawa]

I must admit to a liking for these things, when the tank was swapped for a bigger aftermarket one, they were quite the useful courier tool.

[Supermofo]

Honda VFR 1200.
OK it's heavy and not a looker but the engine is immense and you get huge reliability and superb build quality.
You can have a premium quality fast, comfortable, well handling sports tourer with a genuine 170 bhp at only seven or eight years old for under 5 grand. And it'll have FSH and will have been owned by someone who has 40 years of no claims bonus and a shadow board for his tool kit on the garage wall.
Some considered farkling and an aftermarket exhaust system greatly improves the looks.
Honda-VFR1200F-5.jpg

My mate must have missed that memo. One careful owner

20140625_173646 by Graham Vincent, on Flickr

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I must admit to a liking for these things, when the tank was swapped for a bigger aftermarket one, they were quite the useful courier tool.

I had a black one, they're alright, but they're a bit big and long for a trail bike, they don't handle well off road.

[Beancounter]

Oh, the headlights were shite on the TDM though, he used to ask me to ride behind him with mine on main beam so he had a better beam spread.

Even with HID the headlights were shite. I loved my first mkII, felt like you could filter through the narrowest of gaps and nobody expected anything of you because you were on a TDM. Shame my second was such an unreliable pup.

[Taipan]

I had a ZX9r and a (919) blade. The Ninja was a better bike everywhere!

[KungFooBob]

I had a 98 RRW (918) Blade and had use of a ZX9R. The Blade was a better bike everywhere!

(except the ZX9R hit an indicated 180mph on the M180 and left my mate on my Blade for dead, the ZX9 was a bus in the twisties in comparison tho')

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I had a 98 R1 - kicked the ZX9's and Fireblade's arses everywhere (apart from comfort - the seat was agony after 500 miles)