Honda VF 500F2

The VF sports a sixteen valve, DOHC, V-four water-cooled motor of hugely over-square dimensions and hefty 11:1 compression. It has a full fairing, sixteen inch front wheel, anti -dive, Pro - link rear suspension, a hydraulic clutch, and enough styling pizzazz to frustrate the most ardent boy-racer customizer.

On the track, I found it to be a delightful 'point and squirt' type of bike — just one of several typically two stroke expressions that fitted the bike so well.

With a very high redline, a six speed transmission and relatively low weight, the little bike was soon being run flat out around Kyalami and distinguished itself by not giving anyone any hairy moments in either the handling or braking departments.

When I fetched the bike from Midmacor, it was still wearing the standard tyres, which had been flogged to death on the track. Or rather, the tread edges were dead, but the centre treads were fine — that would fox them at a roadwor-thy check, I'll bet. Now the track is a completely different place to the well oiled roads of the reef, so I became Oscar Conservative when riding the bike about.

For a while, anyway.

Once out of a nervous Richardson's sight, (the bike is the only one of it's type in the country), I gave it a fistful up Sauer Street, and was surprised at how the bike blurred the scenery — it's acceleration was definitely going to take some getting used to.

Over the Queen Elizabeth bridge towards the slippery bends near the University, and the bike never flinched, although I could smell diesel everywhere. Storming down towards the intersection with Empire road, and the half-expected mentally disconnected vegetable in a box turns right, across the flashy Honda's path. Oh well, I have to test the brakes anyway, so I may as well do it here. With a tight rein on the front lever, and just a light touch on the rear pedal, the Honda slowed down as if a large hand had just been put in the way  at this time, our cabbage brained friend starts to reverse, hoping to get a grandstand seat as yet another biker ploughs along the road. Even with the brakes on tight and just short of locking up, the VF allowed me to change direction and swerve around spinach-head as if nothing were amiss.

After a close encounter of the tarmac kind like that, I slowed the VF a little, until we had left the town behind, and swung onto the freeway. On the track, I hadn't been able to get the speedo past the 120 mph point, although the bike felt willing enough — with an empty piece of road, I wrung the little bike to just over 125 mph, which is the 200 kph that I was sure the bike was capable of.

With just my right hand on the bars, left tucked into the fairing in true Bonneville tradition, chin on the tank and tucked in so close I was under the paint, the VF was as stable as if I were tootling along at the legal limit.

Subsequently front wheel lockups showed the front tyre to have an unusually wide footprint, which is probably the cause for this satisfying high speed straight line stability.

The VF is a little bike, at a touch over 5ft 9in, Tm about an inch too big for it, my knees not quite fitting into the cut-outs in the tank, although the saddle held enough room for a passenger. Although the machine is pure sports, back seat comfort is good, aided by the unobtrusive grabrail and well-placed pegs.

Honda's new mid-range model is deceptive in it's power output, feeling distinctly slow off the line. To check this, I challenged a few bikes to stoplight duels  the results astounded me, not to mention the owners of a Suz GSX1100 and a Kawa Z1000  the little Honda was right in there, through to fourth or fifth gear — the VF has six, keeping it's front wheel glued on the ground while the big Suz mono-wheeled right beside me. So much for slow!

On the high-way, it would cruise happily at 80-90 mph in top gear up hill and down dale, having enough oomph to get around dithering motorists with ease. In fact, the only time I found a hole in it's power was when, two-up it was asked to slow on a hill, and then without a down-shift, to accelerate back to cruise velocity again. Kick back two cogs, and it was again willing, so we were being unfair in asking the VF to cope with a load that many bigger bikes would have baulked at.

As I mentioned in the track impressions, the VF has a healthy thirst for 93 Octane — wild grip-twisting got comsumption up to about 16 km/I, although more sedate cruising saw closer to 22 km/I, which, while being acceptable, is not going to win any economy runs.

The skimpy fairing worked surprisingly well, although it didn't rain during the test so I couldn't evaluate it's weather deflection abilities. Wind pressure on the rider was greatly reduced, although my helmet stuck up out of the 'still' air. The fairing does have it's drawbacks of course, in that access to the motor is severly limited, and when it does rain, cleaning the mill is going to be a major headache.

On the other hand, the fairing really makes the bike, styling wise, and a amazing number of Hillbrow late-night bikers mistook the baby VF for it's bigger brother, the VF1000R.

This motorcycle is not really aimed at South Africa, it is aimed at the lucky Europeans, where a 500 is still a big bike, in view of their small distances and traffic congestion. For local conditions, the motorcycle handles and stops so well that it will be ridden progressively faster until the little engine simply runs out of puff. Initially, Richardson told me that we probably wouldn't be getting the bike because it would be so damned expensive — over six grand was not impossible. How ever, by fiddling the figures, it looks like we will get the bike after all, albeit the naked, unfaired version, with the fairing offered as an extra.

If and when it does get here, at whatever price, it will certainly be in contention as the top five hundred ceecee sports bike available, if only because it's so versatile.

As I mentioned during the track session, all the watercooled Hondas seemed to have a problem in the heat dissapation field; on the track they all ran very hot, and their thermostatically controlled fans were in almost constant use, although only the bigger bikes insisted on dumping their coolant on to the road.

On the street, the VF ran at an even temperature whilst cruising, or during mild suburban use, but the needle went up it's scale dramatically when the bike was stationary during rush-hour traffic. When the machine was used in serious contests, however, the fan kicked in and stayed on for an awfully long time, further reinforcing my conviction that the bike would suit the colder European climate better. I would imagine that the VF would have a tough time in Durban on a hot and sticky afternoon.

Hot starting was also poor, presumably as a result of the fuel in the carbs (contained inside the V of the cylinders) evaporating. On occasions, nearly a full minute of cranking the starter motor with a generous thottle was needed to light up the engine. The swichqear and instrumentation was the usual high standard that we have come to take for granted, although the indicators are not self cancelling. This is a feature that I would expect on a machine of this price. Neither was an automatic fuel shut-off device fitted, another minor ommission that is at odds with the generous price tag.

On the other hand, vibration was at an absolute minimum, and the mirrors gave a clear and unrestricted view that was free from blurring no matter what revs were being used.

Did I like the Honda? Sure I did, but then I like this sort of bike — small, compact, blisteringly quick, and looking like million bucks. So, I suspect, do lots of other people. Whether they are prepared to pay the price for such an attractive package remains to be seen.