09 bird??

gc33

Hey all, Im in perth Western australia. Recently I shipped my bird to the Isle of man for the TT. Whilst we were there I spoke to a honda rep and I posed the question,when are we gonna see a new bird? His answer was in 09. Since then, I have seen reports of the VFR being boosted to a 1000cc. Could this be a replacement for our bird? I sure as hell hope not as they seem to think that the VTEC will be continued to be used. Yikes!! I pray they dont. There goes the servicing costs,probably doubled and I DO NOT LIKE THOSE V4'S!!!
Im a bit scared on this one. I would like to see our bird boosted to 1200,1300 or even a 1400cc hyper tourer. It has been honda's flagship for 10 years or so,surely they wont kill it off........

X1rider

Guess we will have to wait for the end of September for the Paris show to find out.

redxxrdr

The new XX from Honda is a four wheeler.
It seems that Honda is pulling out of the Hyperbike market.
The good thing is that a 10 year old XX is more reliable than most competitive 2 year old bikes.

FiXXation

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No bugs were harmed in the making of my motorcycle ride memories; they only got the snot knocked out of them.

gc33

Yup and ill go again....awesome!!

gonna take something special to give us something as goodand as reliable as our current birds.

Talk of the VFR1000....scary and I seriously dont like V4's

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PJNXX

That's awesome! Good pics of the statue of Joey and his monument.

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MachVIII

I wouldn't get too excited either way - Honda is only interested in building lawnmowers and generators these days anyhow. Oh yeah, and "new & exciting" variants of the VTX.

As for disliking V4s, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree there - I love 'em.

gc33

I change that i dont dislike them, im just am a bit wary of them. they didnt have the best of history on the old vf's. The current VFR's seem to be a good machine. Europe loves them. They are just not my type of machine. especially with VTEC. I would sooner buy a ducati 1098s. The servicing cost would be less.....
I also have suzuki M109R and found the servicing costs to be reasonable. Probably cos its a twin but hey its a nice change.

John01XX

I can tell you that I have been saying that the Bird would be replaced in 2009 since 2005.
That is what the Honda Euro Reps have been saying all along. They also said that the 2007 would be the last production year with 2008 as a close out year to prepare for the 2009 new release.
They also said that it will either be a V-4 or maybe (fingers crossed) a V-5.

John

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sexyh

Saw in a Japanese magazine an article of a VFR1000 and it sports 5 cylinders. Three infront and two at the rear.

As it was a small article in a thick magazine i thought it might be a replica/ model design. But who knows, ideas are thought out and dreams come alive from these ideas.

Personally i do not really like V blocks. Anyway time will tell.

magley64

I still want to see this one come to life...

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Ðuane

"98% of all Harleys ever sold are still on the road. The other 2% made it all the way home."

Cruzmsl

Rumors of a new XX have literally been circulating for years and one can only hope.....

It would be hard to surpass what has already been done..perhaps a little lighter, a little more horsepower and an adjustable suspension...

Once in a very great while, something rare is created..it may not be recognized by everyone but it is like finding a jewel on a long expanse of deserted beach....you never forget it and you always treasure it.

Long live the XX!

Strek

I had a V 4 with the V65 Sabre. Loved the engine. Torgue from the start and it never let up. That configuration and those on the interceptors seem to make for a tall bike. The Sabre wasn't great in the handling department due to the high center of gravity and the stupid shaft drive they put on the bike. It was a comfy tourer. I'm not big on shaft drives. Lots of V4s have better lower more centralized configurations these days so as long as they do it right it could make for a great bike.

X1rider

CBRXX16 has a nice ring to it....needs to use compact CBR1000RR engineering.

JP7

How ironic it would be that the bike I had always hoped Honda would build - a modern replacement of the old Interceptor 1000 and VF1000R - and the bike that I've come to worship and finally gotten - the XX - would possibly merge into one?
I do love the idea of a big displacement V4, or V5 for that matter, as I've yet to find a bike motor that will pull as effortlessly from 2000 to 11,000 revs like those old lumps did. The bird, ZZR-12, the busa, the C14 and probably a few others are as close as inlines have ever gotten - and certainly outright more powerful - but it ain't quite the same.
The VFR can't do it either, the smaller displacement and 180 degree crank (which does give it a cooler V8 like sound) just can't pull from idle like the old VF.

Now... having said all that, if they really are building this thing the most important matter is that they get the recipe right.
How they did that with the bird is really still a mystery to me. I mean, in the simplest terms on paper, it's really just another big twin spar inline 4 sport bike, and the only goal that seemed to get a lot of press was winning the top speed war. Obviously they wanted to still build an all around enjoyable bike, but did know that they were creating a new category of bike - the hypersport tourer - and what was to be twelve years later still the best example?
OK, I know, we're biased!
But seriously, how easily can this be duplicated?
Did they knowingly target every item on this bike's resume, or was it a happy accident that it can do so many things incredibly well?
Bottom line, yeah, I'd love a V-motored version, but I think it's much more important that they understand what this bike means to its devoted followers, and that they still have some of that majic dust hidden away in a jar in some forgotten closet of the R&D dept. that made this bike so right.

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Ian

zrx1100jim

Cycle News Online

Honda's V-5 GP Motor Shows Rivals Just How Serious It Is

Smaller than the 990cc limit by Moto GP rules, and still makes
200hp. Sign me up.

RodeRash

Typical Honda rep. answer, only the year changes.