Difference between revisions of "Honda VTR1000F"

The '''Honda VTR1000F''' is a [[motorcycle]] manufactured by [[Honda]].

In 1997 Honda began producing a street-oriented twin cylinder GT motorcycle using a historically important name: Superhawk.  The previous (60's) Superhawk was a parallel twin motorcycle that [[Robert M. Pirsig]] rode in "[[Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]]". The original Superhawk was a commercial success, hence the name being recycled.  Outside the United States the motorcycle was named the "Firestorm" . The new Superhawk was introduced after the [[Ducati 916]] made [[V-twin]] sportbikes popular again. The new Superhawk uses an all new 90 degree V-twin. The bike introduced several new design concepts such as the "pivotless frame", side [[radiator]]s, single casting [[engine]] case, [[connecting rod]]s with cap [[screw]]s instead of [[nut (hardware)|nut]]s, and the largest [[carburetor]]s Honda ever put on a motorcycle. "Pivotless frame" meant that engine was a stressed member with the [[swingarm]] bolted directly to the engine.  The bike was released in 1997 as an early release 1998 [[model year]].  One motorcycle magazine suggested (circa 2000) that this bike was the fastest 0-60 mph production bike at the time.  A [[racing]] version of the bike was expected from Honda.  Honda produced in 2000 the [[Honda RC51|RVT1000R]] ([[Honda RC51|RC51]]) known outside the [[United States]] as the [[Honda RC51|VTR1000SP]], though the bike had only four engine parts in common with the modern Superhawk.  The [[Honda RC51|RC51]] was an entirely new V-twin racing platform that won the World [[superbike racing|Superbike]] championship its first year racing with [[Colin Edwards]] and the [[Castrol]] team.

Early models suffered from early failure of the cush drive, probably due to the power pulses of the big V-twin engine, but Honda soon rectified this with improved material. The remaining weak point of the motorcycle is cam chain tensioner (CCT) failure. The only good thing about this failure is that it rarely results in engine damage and simply requires the CCT to be replaced. Of the two tensioners, it is the front which is more likely to fail and it is, unfortunately, the more awkward of the two to replace. Replacement is comfortably within the capabilities of the competent home mechanic, but the valve timing must also be checked after CCT failure.

 

[[ja:ホンダ・VTR1000F]]