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Star letter: Honda hits the mark

After much thought and discussion I went for a test ride on a Honda VFR1200 at Newcastle Motorcycles, resulting in the 1200 being added to the remaining BMW and also a ZZR1400 in our garage.

One week later, panniers packed, a two-up, four-day tour of the Scottish Highlands put the VFR up to its first small test. Over the 1150 miles we covered worries about the reported lack of tank size were unfounded, as in ‘real world riding’ we found ourselves with a usable range between breaks to refill our bellies and empty our bladders, with a range of 175 miles. The tank holds only 0.5 litres less than a BMW K1300S after all.

The build quality betters the best days of BMW while the V4 engine has a superb character, sound and power delivery, not to mention the excellent brakes. Most importantly, both my wife and I were impressed by the comfort and handling of the new generation ‘Road Sport’ Honda. But we now have a dilemma – when will we use the other two bikes?

Gordon Oxley,
via email

Hi Gordon, great to hear you’re enjoying your VFR1200 so much. MCM’s group editor Steve Rose loved his long term 1200 so much last year that he also tried out the DCT version for a while too. Have a V2MAL Essentials Touring Pack on us to help out with your future touring. Ed.