And don’t they know it? It’s four years since Honda revealed that a new VFR was in the pipeline. This isn’t just any new bike: it’s a new Honda VFR.
It’s more than 20 years since the company’s original VFR750 first hit our showrooms in 1987. The 100bhp, 230kg machine was created to salvage Honda’s dire V4 reliability record, after it almost shipwrecked itself with the disastrously unreliable VF750. The all-new motor, with gear-driven-camshafts, reinstated the brand, setting new standards for engine reliability and performance.
Rain pain in Spain
So, here we are in not-so-sunny Southern Spain for the European launch of the VFR1200F. Honda has planned a 200-mile route for us to test the new machine: 60 miles of motorway, around 80 miles of fast A-roads, a healthy dose of rush-hour traffic and a potentially orgasmic blast along the ‘Ronda road’ – a 70-mile stretch of some of the most awesome motorcycling tarmac in Europe. Pity the weather’s not on our side.
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