This time next year Momma gets the VFR800

Daddy gets an R1

(Gotta gave goals right?)

 

Do it now. They don't call it Spring for no reason.

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Im working at a hospital next to a bike dealer,..

I sat on the R6 and the R1 at lunch,.. OMG that R6,.. either waaaay more that i would ever use to its potential,.. but hell the VFR already is LOL!

 

My track bike is a CBR 1000 but I get to ride a friends R1 sometimes, awesome track bike. I have tracked R6's before, very nimble but you have to ring their necks, your hardly ever below 10k rpm's.

 

If the R6 is not than you can use, the R1 will be way beyond that.

 

Yes but not gaving to shift anything near as much is sure nice,..

The RF900 i had would eat this 800's lunch and in so many ways was more bike than i could handle, but boy was it nice not "having" to grab a gear or two, hell in fifth it would just giddie up and go,..

Thats the only reason i would ever look at a liter bike,.. ease of operation/ laziness in gear selection,.. bike weights anymore are very very similar 600's to 1,000's

The thread was a stir the pot exercise hell i was looking for someone to say "your going to let her ride your VFR?" But no takers,.. impressed

And one day it will be hers too,.. lol, better start her on a wrecked 250 or Grom etc first though LOL.

 

Ahh yes, the good ol' RF9. Typical Suzuki parts bin piece. Had one. Certainly quick enough. NO cooling issues with those things, given the massive radiator they had (and shared with the 600s, BTW). Heavy, though, with the steel twin spar frame - which they also shared with the 600. And the seat/peg ergos? Horrendous. I actually still had my RF900 when I flew interstate to pick up the first 5th Gen VFR I owned. Rode that bike back (500-odd kms day 1, 700 day 2), and could not believe how much better the ergos were. By contrast, when I bought the RF, I picked it up from a place ~650 kms from where I live and rode it back. By the time I got home, I almost fell off the bike, I was that sore!

Definitely a quicker thing than the VFR...but the VFR is a MUCH better all-round bike...esp. with a few well chosen "enhancements"

 

I SORELY miss the RF900RS2, i wish i had both

Both great bikes

 

Have a guy at work that rides an R1 M1 and has every farkle on the market. His exhaust sounds like a Motogp bike— sets off every alarm he rides by



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Farkle, i gotta use that now

 

I owned this one from new in 96 to 2014 and ran up nearly 60,000km. A good solid and fast bike, but not user friendly and characterful like a 5G. I added an Ohlins, Supertrapp muffler, Racetech parts up front and a Factory Pro jet kit and advancer. Added Helibars and the Corbin seat, then some Buell pegs, so not too uncomfortable. Had a to get 2nd gear fixed up and replace the emulsion tubes, but other than that it never gave me a moments trouble. And once showed over 260km/hr on a closed road....

 

Did you clip the pink wire under the seat that retarded the timing in first and second?,.. I didn't i was too scared it was PLENTY fast as is.

 

IIRC that pink wire was never connected from new. These purple bikes were leftovers from Canada I think, our local Suzuki importer is a dab hand at finding surplus stock elsewhere and bringing them here to sell for a good price.

I spent quite a bit of time riding with a good friend with a similar age CBR900RR, and there was nothing that the CBR could do that I couldn't match on the RF, but with a lot more stability and comfort. The RF was also a good match for another friend's ZZR1100, which had plenty of motor but pretty average suspension.

Having said that, if I was given the choice between buying another RF or a CBR to restore/treasure, that wouldn't be a difficult choice.

 

This was the one I had. Bought in '05, replaced with the Viffer in late '06. The RFs were definitely an oddball bike. What with the painted frames (The whole "one colour" thing on some of them didn't do it for me), and what I once heard described as a "Starship Enterprise rear end", they were certainly "out there". Like I said earlier, take a decent mix of GSXR11 bits, put them in a 937cc well-carbed mill, and wrap the whole thing in a twin-spar frame (albeit steel), and you've got the basics of a decent ZX9R and 'Blade competitor. It's telling, though, that Suzuki stopped making them after (4?) years, whereas the Blades and ZX9rs continued to flourish into the noughties...

One other thing with the RFs is that back then, the whole "cheap Chinese aftermarket knock-off" thing hadn't really gotten going, and I suspect that then - and now - there wasn't a whole heap of aftermarket gear for them. As an example, I'd hate to be trying to find plastics for one these days...

Would I buy another one? Maybe. But I suspect that there are a few other bikes I'd look at buying first...