DeeKnow’s Grotto

the weather cleared up this arvo and tarmac dried enough for Jamie to escort me again on a quick ride on his bro's VTR1000 Firestorm.

I've been eyeing up the Honda since I first spotted them in Boyd Honda a couple of years back, so it was great to finally get out for a blast on one (apart from my experience riding them on Playstation of course ;-)

The VTR seems physically big when your standing beside the bugger, but it was a pretty comfy for me on-board. Easing off in 1st was pretty straight FWD, the engine chugged away happily despite my dodgy throttle control and off we went.

There's loads of grunt on-tap which I was kinda wary of after a mate told me the other night of his 2nd gear wheel-stand the 1st time he rode one his friends VTR's. But the power seemed to come on in a solid and nicely linear fashion, not peaky, just a nice progressive torquey increase that didn't seem too frightening (for a 50hp weenie like me :-)

The bike was up to speed in no time on the couple of straights where I had the chance to open it up a little. Coz it sounds so smooth under load I was suprised how fast we were cranking along at, maybe it was the coverage of the fairing (which doesnt seem that full, but definately does the job)

Coz of time constraints (damn the job!!!) we didnt do go far, so handling wise I havent really got a handle on it, but I have been riding with Richard and he seems to fling the VTR through corners with ease.

So in a nutshell, I really did like the beast. It felt like a good fit, riding position was comfy, seemed like you could ride it all day without problem. There dont seem to have been any major problems with them technically since their introduction, and the 2nd-hand price is pretty much what I'm aiming at.

Another wicked ride on a 100hp+ machine. Will definately have to organise another longer ride from Boyd's some time. Man, planning the next bike ain't getting any easier. 

Thanx for the ride Richard :-)

4:10:53 PM