VFR-Ride Report

VFR-Ride Report submitted to ST-Owners.com

(Extracted from my write up at ST-Owners.com: http://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80761.)

I spent a day with Apple (the VFR1200F named after the Global company of the same name for its having all the technological gloss with limitations you're likely to choose to live with) while Shadowfax was in the Stealers for a 16,000-mile service.



The following is the guts and garters account of the day written purely from the perspective of an ST1300 rider so comparison is the rule of the day in addition to recounting the experience. This isn’t a measure of what’s best – even for me – but more of what the new VFR1200F is about in a language ST owners will likely relate to. Caveat my being a bit of a novice with only just 23-months real riding experience under my belt.

Executive Summary

This is a sports bike; not the replacement for the ST. Its riding position and behaviour are acceptable – in fact, fabulous and exciting - but against the mile-munching ST it’s pretty much chalk and cheese. This is an excellent and well-behaved sports bike that should not go ignored if looking for something new other than the old faithful, the dependable, and always loveable ST.

Weather

It was about 3C and early morning hazy sunlight over dry roads dusted with light salting residues.

First moments and fuelling

I pulled away from Shadowfax at the Stealers on the VFR1200F and immediately had to put my foot down. The steering was vastly different from the ST. For one, the sports position – although not as severe as the CBR1000RR – was sufficiently low and the pegs sufficiently high and rearward of Shadowfax’s ‘normal’ ergonomics that my control of the VFR was pretty obviously shoddy.

We circulated around the car park and I tried another tight turn. Regret was overtaken by terror as it felt like the nose was diving into the tarmac then regret returned as abruptly as my foot had struck the loose gravelly ground. (Did anyone see that I nearly dropped the bugger, and I’m not even off the park?)

To the first junction and I over-leant the light frame to the left and over-corrected back into the right hand lane for the drunken-looking filter right into the filing station. Red lights turned and we gingerly made a further two right turns to the pumps and some relief at dismounting a moment.

The tank took just 12-liters from indicating (flashing on the LCD panel) empty. That’s Shadowfax’s daily ration and he holds 27-liters or more. I hoped it wouldn’t be the sort of bike requiring a pit-stop every few minutes but consciously decided fuel conservation was not going to be the game today; staying upright probably was.



All done, we tip-toed through the fuelling cages and back onto the urban multi-lane system toward the near-by M27 motorway. Steering was taking some getting used to and the foot brake seemed impossible to find. The front brake lever seemed ever-so-slightly too high for a quick grab and already the stop-go traffic was testing our reflexes. The indicator is below the horn – upside down from the ST but no issue as the low handlebar position is such it feels quite natural. In fact, I often hit horn on Shadowfax (:)!) but had no such mishap despite the layout on Apple.

Motorway running (Day time)

We quickly joined the later morning commuter traffic and ran into the 3rd lane to about 80mph and met 5th gear. There was faster traffic approaching from the rear so I pulled into a gap following the similar speed cage in front at about 100m distance. I was all too aware that the motorway was the route of choice given my appalling cornering abilities on Apple and my fear of not reacting quickly to the brakes. A mega-truck pulled suddenly from left to middle lanes in front of the car in front of us; I checked the mirror and saw a blue BMW 3-series barrelling down on us on my right hand side – no escape route. Tyre dust and red brake lights all to our front and grabbing and stomping on both brakes engaged an emergency near-stop straight out of the text books: firm, progressive, and controlled. Well, now that bit of the test was passed we could crack on and find out what this little fiend can get up to.

We pulled hard from the melee now dropping behind us and chased down the BMW within only 4-seconds hanging straight onto his tail. He dropped gas and lurched forward and a little tweak on the accelerator had us back in formation without need to bother on a count – it was instantaneous. I could tell from the BMW’s suspension roll that we were moving – I estimated 95mph. A quick glance at the LCD speedometer gave me a reading of 120mph, which I determined was fast enough in urban confines and so I eased us off back to 90mph and knocked the bike into 6th. No stress. None at all. What a bike!



I decided I’d found out enough about motorway riding for the ‘SToners’ and all they’d do is nag about what the bike is like on the trunk roads and also thought loosing a license was more than I can afford so the back way up to work would be an idea as with my poor control of Apple’s steering we’d be bound to more realistic speeds. We angled to the next junction and wound down onto the A32.

Cross Country

The A32 is a notorious route I’ve been travelling for just over 10-years but tends to catch many drivers unawares in the twisties and the verges and hedgerows are littered with the lasting scars of sliding cages past. For bikes it’s a near dream. Plenty of twisties, great sweeping curves, and long passing areas to drop an ST into 3rd for and smile all the way while doing it. I feared I’d have a bit of a handful here – memories of taking the CBR1000RR up here are still etched into my kidneys. That little Hooligan nearly left me behind!

Time to check out the controls. The heated grip switch is a pressure switch right up against the hand grip guard so you can’t quite get it with the thumb alone; it needs a twist of the hand to reach it (for me). The mechanic had said to press it a number of times and it’d flash, or something. Well, how do you know its flashing if you have your thumb over it, and worse, without LOOKING at it while rapidly approaching the rear end of a slow-driven Nissan Micra?!



Overtaking is a blast. I had no idea what gears I was in other than they made the acceleration rapid or brutal, which were both fun in equal measure. It’s got low down grunt and Apple complained as Shadowfax will if you take to high a gear too early but still just gets on with the job and quickly catches up while turning on the power. Only, Apple does this more smoothly. Honestly.

Speed was difficult to read off the instruments at times with the sky reflecting off the speedometer screen so I roughly gave up trying to take account and rode by the seat of my pants – generally I’m within 5mph of a guestimate on Shadowfax up to about 100mph. On Apple, maybe this was only up to 80mph before I got confused but you get the picture. It wasn’t always occluded, and the LCD is plenty big enough; just an annoyance on such a modern bike. Mind you, I’m not the tallest and on experimenting with my head and body position I reckon anyone over 6-feet tall won’t notice the reflection at all.

The screen is split like my old Dilbert Deauville’s MRA screen and looks like it can be adjusted at a halt. It was pretty darn brilliant. Shadowfax’s screen (sadly jamming at the moment) can adjust on the fly but always gives a good buffeting in cross winds. The VFR’s screen just worked unobtrusively – I had no buffeting, but I was aware of more air entering the helmet than usual, which on a cold morning brought a tear to my eye. Bless.

Over the first really worn pieces of tarmac I thought Apple handled the road really well – you can’t really fault its handling for my riding style, anyway. However, as the trip wore on so the jolting of the forks started to rattle me a bit right through the shoulders and on occasion, it knocked the stuffing from my stomach. It’s not rock hard in a disconcerting way – only in a sporting way but my shoulders were already feeling more strain than I’m used to and the firm ride only exacerbated this. I’d reckon on getting used to it though as it was rock steady on its line besides this.

The seat is really firm but more comfy than I’d expected. It’s also well shaped for gripping with the legs. On the CBR1000RR hooligan I really wanted my backside in the stopper just to stay on board but any braking or cornering interrupted this reassuring contact. The VFR, for all its violence on tap gave nothing but confidence in my bottom position at any speed, or across any surface. I don’t know how it works, it just does. Shadowfax for all his comfort can cause a strain on my knees from constantly re-positioning at speed through a wind or long fast corner.

Gear changing

The clutch is really nice – really light and easy to time a quick squeeze and release in time to the shift of gears and beat of the engine. That said, I missed a few 3rd – 4th changes (in particular), which left me without drive where I’d prefer not to have been. I’m not used to this but would be lying if I declared it hadn’t occurred with Shadowfax.

On the whole the gears were forgiving and long-ranging enough to make a comfortable experience – only the need to shift my weight to change gear was unusual but I’m guessing this is a positional thing I’d get used to, which I was near handing the Apple back. I didn’t find the knee position a chore, but it didn’t fit my gear, which rucked up under the small of my left knee and caused possibly the only discomfort in addition to my shoulders.

This bike rocks! Frome 80mph to 90mph is less than a blink no matter what. This useful acceleration really helped in keeping up momentum through the twisties and low-end grunt meant near faultless progress even while getting used to the new bike. The best way to describe the gears / drive combination is, “free”.

There were moments I’d question though. A number of times a real transmission-feeling slap would jolt the ride in 2nd gear particularly, which would really irritate me if I’d just squeezed 11.5K on it.

Letting rip

A clear stretch of road in front is a red flag to a buol on this beastie. I defy any one of you not to be lulled into the temptation of seeing what the little fruit cake can put together for you. Sure, the ST is almost as quick but it takes effort. This machine just goes fly-by-wire from a near standing start to obscene miles per hour in so few joyful seconds that even after experiencing it 6 times you know you need a fix from more.



I’m not the greatest cornerer in the World, or rider in general for that matter but I appreciated Apple’s approach to cornering more than most. There was no lurch or sudden drop (as the CBR1000R seemed to have) but a gentle reassurance that whatever I asked he’d do. We tripped over the median line once but it was me being cautious and new; no sooner were we out there than Apple brought us back out of the mistake and back immediately onto line across the bumpy white lining and air-inducing cat’s eyes – it wasn’t my skill but his capability. That said, he’s a long wheel base and wasn’t as pin-sharp on slow corners as I’d expect. Speed equalled things up, I expect.

Bouncy bumpy corners gave little issue either, other than the firm ride doing for my shoulders.

The more we attacked the bendy stretches the more rewarding Apple became – even nipping out for an overtake off line seemed to just happen with little more than a thought. We were very much plugged in to one another with only 35-miles behind us.

Did I mention the brakes? Fantastic! They’re what goofing off is all about? With brakes like that you’ll attack anything at near twice your normal speed…the front disks dig right in and the rear brakes drop anchors over the side. The bar positions are then perfect for an abrupt loss of speed. Accelerate, decelerate; I don’t know – they’re both fun on this thing.

Filtering / Lane splitting

After yet another law-eroding blast of dual-carriageway with growing confidence and bravado egged on by the machine’s smooth revs we decelerated into the M4 / M33 junction road works tailbacks.

Actually, we cannoned through the centre of the two lanes of stationary traffic until the mid-section choke point needing a little more caution and deft care dancing between bike-un-aware cagers wrapped in their Radio 4 Morning Program cocoons.

Now, Shadowfax and I are pretty deft at this slow riding and filtering malarkey, and we can make best of any gap the mirrors will fit between but Apple stumbled on a problem here. He’s technically and visually less broad than the St yet his mirrors seemed positioned at a height bound to clash with modern middle-aged cars and vans – and clash we did on the left hand side, even if it was at foot-down pace and the blue-rinse woman deserved the wake up call. Wonderfully, the mirror gave way, flipped, and returned exactly from where it had come.



Slow speed riding was without limits right up to a halt. It’s a superbly balanced machine. Yes, the St does this, too but can carry its inertia unwelcomed in a tight corner. The Apple is so much lighter.

Of course, while wallowing in self-congratulation at how great a slow rider I was and how easily I had mastered the VFR we stalled. A quick dip of that lovely clutch, press of starter, and off we went – I doubt anyone noticed so I decided not to be embarrassed. Like so much with this bike it just wasn’t a big deal.

One thing of note was when the fans came on – they’re noisy. (I wear ear plugs).

Parking

The tall tank prevents tight cornering at slow speeds. Parking has to be achieved by planning out the wide line and then adjusting as it all goes horribly wrong. Buyer beware! This baby slow-corners like an oil tanker.

Curb appeal

I took a couple of colleagues out for a look-see. It’s a pig-ugly bike in the photos but it’s front ¾ view grew on me and rear ¾ ain’t bad, either. But why, oh why those silly front 1980’s sci-fi cowl details (even if they do work aerodynamically – very well)?



On a personal level, the parking the CBR1000RR was an embarrassment – all spotty teenager with troublesome puberty issues. The VFR1200F is at home in the corporate car park and holds great credence for the middle-aged (me) and I don’t doubt will help any ugly teenager get laid too, t’boot.

That exhaust though – it’s a hospital bed pan: perhaps a place for when you’ve all togged up, got going, and get a prod in the kidneys from the dickey old bladder. I mean, its so convenient – if an invitation to scald your Johnston.



Now, here’s the fright – having recently lost a mirror cowl I look over the left side of the machine and, where a side black cowl should be, there’s a gaping hole through to the top of the drive shaft! ****! I explete’, wondering how such a sizable cover could drop / blow off without me at least feeling it against my calf. It’s only after Google imaging the model I see there is no cowl.



Ugly! Why not? Leaving that bitsy detail on view just seems so, well; it’s an omission!

The journey Home

Boy! Was I looking forward to the journey home! Well, until home time then I was just too knackered to bother.

I immerged a tired and dishevelled shell of my morning self and trudged across the car park to the VFR1200F (Apple). It all seemed too much bother – I knew it’d be back onto a ‘stranger’ and straight into city traffic and I didn’t fancy the country route home that tired, so already resigned us to the motorway: not my favourite. In fact, a chore.

I turned on the ignition and on came the headlamp just like you State-side types are used to. Yeah, okay. It saves me looking for the switch. Select neutral and fire him up. Not exactly a show stopper. I’d enjoyed the CBR1000RR’s notes but this was, well…average, I guess.




Apple’s instruments lit up rather brightly. I looked for a dimmer but couldn’t see it. Then it was to the heated grip control. Press and hold.



It flashes then holds steady. No time to work out how hot it’d be and it was cold, so let’s hope its hot enough for the trip.



A quick walk around to check the lights and indicators. Hey, there’s LED white positioning lights in the mirror stalks. Neat (Fugly, but neat). And that all-too-small rear red lamp? Yeah, it’s bright, but all too small.



I donned the back pack and took time to adjust it ready for that riding position. I don’t like back packs and if ever I missed luggage it’s now. I‘ve seen the one in the Stealers with luggage fitted. It’s no ST and looks very like the kit fitted to the CBRs: better than nothing but nothing like Shadowfax’s side panniers – never mind the top-box when we fit it as a back support for pillions.

Loaded up, fired up, and mounted up we reminded ourselves how monumentally wide the turning circle is and discovered pushing back such a light bike is easy compared to the beloved and sorely missed ST. We joined the evening traffic, took a deep breath, and prepared for the aggressiveness required to progress through the evening rush hour.

Timing is everything

Shadowfax’s record home run via motorway and cross country is 1 hour 7 minutes. I think a clear road may give the odd minute back but speeds for that timing are beyond the wit of law as it is and I don’t think I have gall enough to push much harder. I value my license – it allows me to work and to enjoy riding, of course. I didn’t expect to be pushing too hard on the Apple but traffic was flowing really well and his narrow girth and my getting used to the riding position made light work of filtering and quick work of any blasts of open road between stop lights.

Once out on the dual carriage way it was obvious Apple is no HID fiend. A dimpsey dull but sharply outlined strip of light touched both verges and extended as far ad legal distant; like riding in letter box (16:9). So, adequate if not modern stunning as I’d hoped. As I looked to the instruments it was shocking how beyond 100mph we were gunning and still climbing. The engine wasn’t giving me much notice of ground speed in 6th and the lack of architecture up front gave little reference to the passage of the road or to gauge its rate of passing.

Ordinarily, Officer, I’d put a restraint on proceedings but here I am with privilege enough to be riding a bike I know so many ST owners would fancy a blast on, and it would be plainly discourteous not to face the ride manly like, and tell the masses what it’s like. Bloomin’ great fun is what it’s like. Wahoooooo!

All too soon the 3-mile stretch enters a roundabout and converges to single lane. Car hopping along here is dodgy across the high relief of the median lines and poor state of repair following the winter’s frosty excavation of pot holes. Apple just “did” it. There was little fuss except an occasional wince as my right bursar impacted in the shoulder, but even with limited lighting making short work of the route was a blast.

Entering Basingstoke and the road opens out into urban dual-carriageways and a sequence of roundabouts that can be linked quickly if brave enough to command the road and bully the locals. Shadowfax has all his visibility for this particular 2-mile run of the route – it’s where the majority of our near-misses with dozy cagers happens, and where speed will most likely put you in trouble with someone pulling out on you. The front LED positioning lamps (and my high-viz retroreflective jacket) weren’t sufficient to bolster my id to the point of racing through, but the agility of the bike was difficult not to be romanced by. We made short work of it together though and reached the M3 on-ramp with a fixed grin; ear to ear.

The on-ramp needs care in negotiating its bends before the runway onto the motorway it self. A BMW something tried hard to over-cut us on the transition from roundabout right to exit left by hanging out in the right hand lane but was left standing as fly-by-wire thought to action propelled us south-bound and left him seemingly standing.

A quick death-check right and we traversed the 3-lanes into the 90mph stream of traffic leaving Greater London. The Mercedes in front has spirit and forces a path to treble figures: we follow. Even in turbulence left by vehicles at these speeds is completely dampened by this VFR – I have every respect for this, and still that little front cowl wind-splitter kept my head far more stable than Shadowfax would in a cross-wind. I was very impressed and celebrated with a jubilant twist of throttle.

My God! Is there no end to this power delivery?! The figures passed by like cartoon characters; 80-90-100-108-119-12…..something and back to a controlled engine brake into the 90mph stream. Oh yeah, I reminded myself, breathe.

And so we flew in mid 90s just proud of the faster stream of traffic until the slow Winchester stretch and content with lower 80s. The mirrors are pretty cool – I love the ST’s positioning and vision, but these, for their size, were adequate for quick-fire left/right filtering. They’re not as good as Shadowfax’s rear view – not as reassuring in close and fast traffic – but pretty good enough. And steady. That bloody hooligan CBR1000RR tried to hide its mirror inadequacies by vibrating uselessly anything above 80mph (if you could hang on at that speed) so these VFR things seem pretty darn good to me by comparison a sports bike? They’re wide enough to se past your shoulders, too. Useful if the road rozzers want a word, I expect. The CBR1000RR would give an impression of wanting to run because you just wouldn’t see anything but your own arms in them.

Switching onto the M27 things go dark a while and the cross winds always give Shadowfax and I a battle: slipping on his comfy seat, straining in the pegs to regain position, and fighting the air currents around trucks and equally paced cars. Apple just ate the whole experience up. 90mph was near impossible to keep to because he just so wanted to show more again. Restraint. Maturity. I don’t have much and this difficulty to stay sensible will be a lasting impression of this bike and major contribution should I fall into sufficient money to purchase one.

High beam is uninspiring. It’s just a little more light up front and top. I think it’s from its own light source as the low beam remained unchanged. What’s this, Honda? Could do better. Again though, it didn’t slow us up but I wasn’t against the constant flow of oncoming white light the back way would have given so I can’t consider this their best test summary. Sorry.

Getting the off ramp right is like landing a plane; throttle down for the flip off the main carriageway and then gentle deceleration to the lefty-bend and lights at the top before swooping around a very undulating roundabout bend to further lights and a switch back to a long left with an outer apex just begging you to trip over if you over-do it. “Zoom – zoom – brake – zoom”. Done. Nice

Through the town traffic and back onto rough terrain with a nip here, and blast there. Into my neighbourhood and watching the speed carefully indicate left and right and must note, at night the indicators light up part of the cockpit. Now, one or two of you may like this to remind you to turn them off but I think its a little shoddy, like one aspect was designed out with thought of the other. They’re bright enough, and all that, but this isn’t to my own preference.




Home, turn in missing the bin ambush but misjudging the garden wall with that turn circle of a tin leviathan, so stop; push back and adjust. Engine burbles. Engine stops.

The Wife
“You’re smiling like when you brought Shadowfax home”, she said.
“Yes. Kids, come look at the bike!”
(“Nice Dad. Spongebob’s on!”)
“You’re still smiling, Hon’”.
“Yep. That’s what that bike’s all about.“ I said reverently to the clock in the hall. All records have just been not only been broken but smashed.
Verdict.

A touring version may win me over but it won’t be an ST. I love Shadowfax for the job he does and times he helps me out. Apple is tempting though. Darn quick, light, and fun.

That easy motorway run home made me wonder if I COULD do 130-miles a day on him and not whine about my back; my knees; my neck. Shadowfax makes me ache enough as it is over a week. Would the ‘fun’ of Apple compensate more? But then, as I said to the bloke in the shop on handover, I can jump on Shadowfax and ride 250-miles to have tea with a pal. You can't do that on the Apple.

A real seduction has taken place here. Yes, I’d have one if I was given one. It could replace Shadowfax on the commute for a while but over all I’d pine for Shadowfax’s strengths, his comfortable power, and reassuring presence.

Apple would tempt me too far to a dark side from which I’d emerge unable to ride anything thanks to a judge only protecting the innocent.

Welcome home Shadowfax

Shadowfax, fresh from his 16,000 mile servicing emerged onto the M27 and demonstrated again why we love our STs; 60-70-80-90...in almost just as quick a real time as the CBR1000RR or VFR1200F but in luxurious sit back comfort.



We took the back route to work and happily ran the gauntlet of traffic trains up the Meon valley and steadily left them all behind. The sun was shining and the air fresh. Yes, I can look back at Apple with fondness and a wry smile but I know where my heart is.