Honda VF and VFR
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Honda_VFR800_1998_black_1.jpg
The VF and VFR series motorcycle was a breakthrough engine design from Honda resulting in what has come to be generally accepted by magazine reviews, year after year, to be the best all-round street bike built to-date. This stems from a combination of a relaxed riding position, excellent power, minimal vibration, and bulletproof design.
The V-Four engine was very prominent in Honda's early 1980's model line-up, with the Interceptors, Magnas, and Sabres. The V-Four design had only been used a few times in the history of motorcycles, most notably by Matchless. The concept probably came about as a loose derivation from the NR500 oval pistoned V-Four racer. The earliest VF series engine was designated the V45 for its size (45 in³ or 748 cc), was very narrow being only 16 inches (406 mm) wide, and had perfect primary balance making for a smooth, vibration-free engine. A smaller V30 (500 cc) engine and a larger V65 (1100 cc) engine were also available, the latter becoming known as the fastest production bike in its time, and the original competition for the famous Yamaha V-Max.
In 1982, first year of the VF models, reliability problems abounded due to new automated production equipment at Honda's plant in Hamamatsu, Japan [1] (http://www.home.earthlink.net/%7Ewrenchtwister/V4hist.html). Regardless, Honda sold out its first year inventory of Sabres, and the Magnas were not far behind. 1983 was a new year and a new start for the VF series of bikes, seeing the engine revised to correct the problems from the previous model year, and saw the introduction of the V65 and the Interceptor. 1984 was the year the infamous cam problem surfaced, which by the time it was corrected, led to eight cam revisions over the course of one year. The cam chain was later dropped from the VFR in favor of gear driven cams, solving the associated reliability problems.
The RC-30 was the successful racing version, replaced later by the RC-45. In 1998 the VFR 750 was replaced by a re-designed 800 cc version, and in 2002 the VTEC version was released, which dropped the gear driven cams.
VF models
External links
- http://dot.com.ph/uncle/vfrhist.html - a more comprehensive history
- http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~john/vfr/ - another great VFR site
- http://www.sabmag.org - SabMag: the Sabre/Magna site
- http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/%7Erblander/moto_long.html The V4 Files