Honda XL1000V Varadero / ABS
Honda XL1000V Varadero / ABS | |
Manufacturer | |
---|---|
Production | 2004-05 |
Class | Dual-purpose |
Engine | Four stroke, 90°V-twin cylinder, DOHC, 4 valve per cylinder. |
Compression ratio | 9.8:1 |
Top Speed | 201.6 km/h |
Transmission | 5 Speed |
Frame | Steel, twin spar |
Suspension | Front: 43mm telescopic fork Rear: Pro-Link with spring preload damper, rebound damping adjustable |
Brakes | Front: 2x 296mm discs 3 piston calipers Rear: Single 256mm disc 3 piston caliper |
Front Tire | 110/80 R19 |
Rear Tire | 150/70 R17 |
Wheelbase | 1560 mm / 61.4 in |
Seat Height | 838 mm / 33.0 in |
Weight | 235 kg / 518 lbs - ABS 241 kg / 531 lbs (dry), 269 kg / 593 lbs - ABS 277 kg / 610 lbs (wet) |
Recommended Oil | Honda GN4 10W-40 |
Fuel Capacity | 25 Liters / 8.6 US gal |
Manuals | Service Manual |
It could reach a top speed of 201.6 km/h.
Engine[edit | edit source]
The engine was a Liquid cooled cooled Four stroke, 90°V-twin cylinder, DOHC, 4 valve per cylinder.. The engine featured a 9.8:1 compression ratio.
Drive[edit | edit source]
Power was moderated via the Wet, multiplate with coil springs.
Chassis[edit | edit source]
It came with a 110/80 R19 front tire and a 150/70 R17 rear tire. Stopping was achieved via 2x 296mm discs 3 piston calipers in the front and a Single 256mm disc 3 piston caliper in the rear. The front suspension was a 43mm telescopic fork while the rear was equipped with a Pro-Link with spring preload damper, rebound damping adjustable. The XL1000V Varadero / ABS was fitted with a 25 Liters / 8.6 US gal fuel tank. The bike weighed just 235 kg / 518 lbs - ABS 241 kg / 531 lbs. The wheelbase was 1560 mm / 61.4 in long.
Photos[edit | edit source]
Overview[edit | edit source]
Honda XL 1000V Varadero / ABS
Bikes like this
can be deceiving. They look big and heavy, but turn out not to be. They look
comfortable but transpire to be medieval torture devices on wheels. They have
big, well regarded vee twin engines but are actually gutless. And they have huge
fuel tanks but short range.
Some bikes like this may deceive, but the Varadero does not.
It looks big and heavy, and it is positively enormous. In its defence, it isn't
as heavy as it appears, though. It looks comfortable but it is, in fact,
sublime. The 1000cc vee twin delivers a very sprightly urge and the huge fuel
tank gives intercontinental range.
That may be the shortest review I
have ever written, so perhaps I should elaborate.
Collecting the Varadero from Honda I was surprised and just a little intimidated
by its sheer size. Although I am sure that it actually compares pretty well with
similar offerings from other companies, the color and style seem to conspire to
increase the impression of size. Loading it onto a trailer to get home showed
that although there is a lot of bike to handle, it is quite handleable. Which is
handy, because dropping a press bike off the trailer in front of the workshop is
considered bad form. It was obvious that my normal route would not be enough -
slightly below 100 miles was hardly going to be an endurance test after all - so
I grabbed my camera and some bits and pieces, chucked them in a bag on the back
and headed for the coast. First gold star for the Varadero. Very easy to
securely strap a bag to the back using a cargo net.
The game plan was simple. Ride until my bum
got sore, then find a good place to take some pictures, grab something to eat
and go on from there. Easy peasy. Except for one small problem. When I hit the
coast, some 80 miles later, I was still comfortable, warm and relaxed. Best I
press on, then. The first reason for stopping was hunger. Grab a sandwich and
keep going. All in all, I did just under 300 miles that day, without a single
twinge, ache or grumble. That's impressive.
What's also quite something is the fact that I didn't need to
put any fuel in for 260 miles. And I wasn't hanging about. In fact, I was making
the most of another attribute that the Varadero is blessed with. That engine is
related reasonably closely to the SP-2 that took Colin Edwards to the 2002 WSB
championship. OK, so it may be in a slightly milder state of tune here, but it's
still a peach.
Climbing aboard
is easier than it might at first appear, although there is no disguising the
fact that this is a very large motorbike. However, despite being no more than
average height, I didn't find it a stretch to reach the ground and the low
centre of gravity made it easy to hold the bike up. Starting is as
straightforward as you like, this being a Honda and all, and the light clutch
and easy gearbox make pulling away and getting moving equally fuss free. The
wide bars give huge leverage for cornering, and although at low speed the front
feels a little vague, no doubt as a result of the long forks and plush
springing, town behaviour ir both predictable and safe. Full lock, feet up
u-turns are possible although I really wouldn't want to try and catch the beast
in the event of it going wrong as once a varadero starts to fall over I suspect
that there is little this side of The Incredible Hulk that will stop it.
Now of course, you take a bike this size, stick 25 liters
of
fuel in it, give it giant-trailie geometry and tires and then pop a motor in
producing the best part of 100bhp and you are inevitably going to get a few
handling foibles. In fact, to be honest, a bike like this is unlikely to be much
fun on the twisties and may, in fact, be positively scary. Which goes no way at
all towards explaining why I could happily scrape the footpegs on roundabouts,
attack twisty roads as hard as I would on most bikes and utterly fail to tie the
thing in knots under hard acceleration. Bizarre.
So what makes the Varadero work?
There seem to be lots of features which, in isolation, would at best be
pointless and at worst look daft. The motocross style handguards, for example,
should seem silly on a bike that nobody in their right mind would take off road,
while the rather odd looking half fairing doesn't look big enough to make much
difference. But between them I was able to wear summer gloves and a light jacket
on a pretty chilly autumn day. And they kept the last of the bugs off my visor
as well. The old fashioned analogue clocks look as though they should be hard to
read while the high-tech LCD panel above promises information overload. But no -
the clocks are clear and easy, and the LCD tells you exactly what you want to
know, no more, no less. Unless you really don't want to know the time, of
course, in which case you will hate the fact that the clock is displayed, large
and clear, all the time. Those skinny, throwback mirrors may look like something
off a 1980 Superdream but they give a clear, vibe-free picture of the road
behind. So the Varadero is rather more than just the sum of its parts.
I'm not saying that the Varadero is above criticism. Personally, although I found linked brakes to work well on the VFR we tested before, on something this size and weight I found them to be slightly lacking in bite. I'm sure that's really down to my braking technique, but it was a little disconcerting nonetheless. I also feel that the total lack of underseat storage as a result of the fashionable high level exhausts was a bit of a disappointment for an otherwise utterly practical bike. But overall, to say I was impressed with the Varadero would be a masterpiece of understatement. As far as out of the box usability is concerned, this is one of the best bikes I have ever ridden. Don't let the looks or the size out you off. You can't see it from the saddle, and as any man will tell you it's not the size that matters...
Source
Make Model | Honda XL 1000V Varadero / ABS |
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Year | 2004-05 |
Engine Type | Four stroke, 90°V-twin cylinder, DOHC, 4 valve per cylinder. |
Displacement | 996 cc / 78 cu-in |
Bore X Stroke | 98 x 66 mm |
Cooling System | Liquid cooled |
Compression | 9.8:1 |
Induction | PGM-FI electronic fuel injection. 42mm Throttle Bore |
Starting | Electric |
Max Power | 94 hp / 69 kW @ 8000 rpm (86.1 hp @ 8000 rpm) |
Max Torque | 99 Nm / 73.0 ft.lbs @ 6000 rpm |
Clutch | Wet, multiplate with coil springs |
Transmission | 5 Speed |
Final Drive | Chain |
Gear Ratio | 1; 2.571 (14/36), 2; 1.684 (19/32), 3; 1.292 (24/31), 4; 1.100 (30/33), 5; 0.969 (32/31), 6; 0.853 (34/29) |
Frame | Steel, twin spar |
Front Suspension | 43mm telescopic fork |
Rear Suspension | Pro-Link with spring preload damper, rebound damping adjustable |
Front Brakes | 2x 296mm discs 3 piston calipers |
Rear Brakes | Single 256mm disc 3 piston caliper |
Front Tire | 110/80 R19 |
Rear Tire | 150/70 R17 |
Trail | 110 mm / 4.3 in |
Dimensions | Height 1,465 mm / 57.7 in Length 2,300 mm / 90.6 in Width 930 mm / 36.6 in |
Wheelbase | 1560 mm / 61.4 in |
Seat Height | 838 mm / 33.0 in |
Ground Clearance | 185 mm / 7.2 in |
Dry Weight | 235 kg / 518 lbs - ABS 241 kg / 531 lbs |
Wet Weight | 269 kg / 593 lbs - ABS 277 kg / 610 lbs |
Fuel Capacity | 25 Liters / 8.6 US gal |
Consumption Average | 16.4 km/lit |
Standing ¼ Mile | 11.8 sec / 177 km/h |
Top Speed | 201.6 km/h |