V4 motorcycles: Honda VFR 750 F and Honda 1200 F

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V4 motorcycles: Honda VFR 750 F and Honda 1200 F
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VFR 750 F and 1200 F in comparison

Honda’s V4 machines

Sports and touring have been bringing Honda’s VFRs together for a quarter of a century. Exclusively with a beguiling V4 engine, recently with a cardan. What else has changed and remained, except for well over 50 percent increase in displacement and performance?

Honda! One name, one promise. It stands for the pursuit of success and perfection, for the highest level of reliability and enormous will to assert yourself. All of Japan bundled in one brand. Everything shaped by the company’s founder Soichiro Honda. He began producing motorized bicycles in 1948 and gave his war-torn country back mobility. Only eleven years later, in 1959, he brought his racing team to the Tourist Trophy on 125cc dohc parallel wins (!). There European producers still laughed at the “slit eyes”. That would soon pass them by: In 1961 a certain Mike Hailwood won on a 125cc Honda at the Isle of Man.

The Honda myth, it’s not one, it’s hundreds. From the world’s largest engine and motorcycle manufacturer, which now builds almost 18 million motorized two-wheelers per year, in Asia, America and Europe. Including the most built vehicle on the planet, the Super Cub with all its offshoots. The CB 750 Four became a legend, with its in-line four-cylinder engine, which reinvented the motorcycle that had already been believed dead in 1969 – as a hobby and leisure device, as an escape from the world of Opel Rekord and VW Beetle. This fame will cling to the CB 750 forever. But the formative inline four-cylinder was also discovered by the other three remaining Japanese manufacturers, the Zs, Bandits and XJs.

A.Honda has exclusively developed one engine and has been maintaining it for around 30 years: the four-stroke V4. With the NR 500 as the first V4 racer, Honda returned to GP racing in 1979 after years of abstinence. Since then, Honda has cultivated this construction principle in many engines like no other manufacturer. The series began in 1982 with the naked VF 750 S, the first Honda with a 90 degree cylinder angle. Further milestones from Honda’s V4 history: VF 750 F and VFR 750 R (RC 30), VF 500 F, NR 750 with oval pistons, RVF 400 and 750 (RC 45), RC212V. In addition, with a lengthways crankshaft Pan European 1100 and 1300.

But it was precisely the VFR 750 F (RC 24/1) that initiated the great success of this engine concept in 1986. The construction and concept were innovative to ingenious. With the “V-Four Road”, handling, workmanship and durability were right from the start. Hundreds of thousand (e) trouble-free kilometers are not uncommon within 25 years.

Timeless elegance characterizes the first of all sports tourers. Although it was still called touring athlete in 1986. VFR fan and MOTORRAD editor Gerhard Eirich translates the abbreviation as “Reliable, stable travel bike”. Or with “Versatile, nimble racer”.

How to prove Markus Tisch with his 750 to the meeting with the current VFR 1200 F. Pah, what are 400 kilometers for a VFR and its driver? Because the sportsman for the country road was fully suitable for touring right from the start, even with two people. To date, only a few motorcycles integrate their riders so well. Long distance or the Nordschleife, anything goes with this seating position. With just the right amount of tension on the backbone, with considerable protection from the wind. Welcome Home.

And then this famous engine! Elaborate, different, a fine mechanical masterpiece. And yet beautifully narrow. The 100 hp V4 engine still grumbles discreetly when idling. This is mixed in with the happy singing of the gears for the camshaft drive. As the engine speed increases, the sound from the black four-in-two exhaust system changes into throaty, growling roaring. Wonderful, this VFR seduction. In addition, there is the unique, velvety smooth running of the engine. It pulsates meditatively. You can feel it running smoothly, never disturbing. The 750 can be fully loaded in sixth gear after 2000 tours. It turns freely in every gear, noticeably increasing it again at 6000, 7000 tours. The V4 boarded easily and without complaint at 11,000 rpm without roaring. Regardless of the speed range, it just makes you want to pull on the cable. The 750 with the 16-inch front wheel steers lightly, but also a bit strange. It is not without reason that all VFRs have been wearing 17-inch models since 1988.

The current, completely newly developed 1200 series is no exception. Your 173 hp unit with 1237 cm3 offers plenty of power. But it doesn’t serve them as harmoniously as the ancestor from 1986: First there is too little, then too much. An annoying, deep torque hole lurks at 3000 rpm. You plop into this on the country road in fifth and sixth gear, preferring to stay in fourth with the bolide. A lot of stirring in impeccable gear is the order of the day. Especially since Dr. Jekyll transformed into Mr. Hyde at 5500 rpm.


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Gentleman athletes: In 1986, after years of “faster, higher, further”, the RC 24 deliberately refrained from using shrill war paint.

Then a flap in the huge, funnel-shaped silencer opens. The V4 now changes pitch and character, catapults man and machine forward roaring wildly like a berserk, like a bull whose balls are being hit. Wow how that goes. Crazy, this thrust. This is highly addictive. But the 1200 runs mechanically harder and vibrates more strongly than the “small” VFR. When the throttle is opened and closed in the lower gears, the cardan drive cannot hide significant load change reactions.

The 1200s do not quite match the balance of earlier VFR generations. Their consumption is too high and their range is low thanks to the small 18.5 liter tank. The motorcycle looks over-designed, stripping the two-layer fairing is a case for experienced mechanics. On Bridgestone BT 021 the big VFR drives nervously and wobbly. On the plus side, there are long maintenance intervals and the easy-care cardan single-sided swing arm.

The 750 turns on more, types from 1988 to 1997 are hot used tips. All 750s together found almost 90,000 buyers in Europe. Plus almost 80,000 800. Of the € 15,000 1200 VFR, only 688 copies were registered in Germany in the first nine months of 2011, 433 of them to dealers or the importer.

technology


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Honda VFR 1200 F 2011.

Honda VFR 750 F engine
The reputation of Honda’s newly established V4 engines in 1982 was battered early on. Breaking crankshafts on the 500s, camshaft damage and cylinder headaches on the 750s and 1000s, things like that didn’t go well with Honda. For the 1986 season, the company fled to the front: with the completely redesigned VFR 750 F, model code RC24 / 1. Its supporting engine had a cylinder angle of 90 degrees as usual. And like the previous VF 750 F 70 piston with a 48.6 millimeter stroke. Otherwise everything was new. The design borrowed from the RFV 750, the victorious endurance factory machine from 1985. A 180 degree crank pin offset (previously: zero degrees) changed the firing order and sound. Technically grandiose: camshaft drive via gear wheels, goodbye timing chains! As with the VF 1000 R, a total of nine gears drove the four camshafts with high precision in two cascades. For the first time, single rocker arms with ball bearings actuated the 16 valves and two oil pumps were used.

Honda VFR 1200 F engine
The cylinder angle of the V4 engine with 1237 cm3 is, in favor of a compact design, an unconventional 76 degrees like in Honda’s current MotoGP racing machines. A novelty of this VFR: the cylinders of the rear bench are moved closer together for a tight knee fit despite a larger bore. You sit between the two in front. The connecting rods of the front and rear cylinders do not run on a crank pin, but offset by 28 degrees. This is supposed to increase the running smoothness of this “fake” V-engine, which has no balancer shaft. The four throttle valves are operated electronically by servomotors, no longer directly from the throttle grip.

In order to save construction height in view of the narrow cylinder angle, the Unicam cylinder heads only have one camshaft driven by tooth chains: bucket tappets with shims actuate the intake valves directly. In contrast, forked roller rocker arms with adjusting screws control the exhaust valves (small photo). Valve clearance checks are due every 24,000 kilometers, the service intervals are long 12,000 kilometers. The 1200 is the first VFR with a clean cardan as the final drive. And for a surcharge, the first motorcycle with a dual clutch transmission. It enables shifting without clutching and without interrupting the tractive effort.

Technical specifications


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The first VFR has long been a classic. The current 1200 is still looking for its way to success.

Honda VFR 750 F (1986) Honda VFR 1200 F. Type of engine Water-cooled
Four cylinder four stroke 90 degree V engine		 Water-cooled
Four cylinder four stroke 76 degree V engine
Mixture preparation Constant pressure carburetor, Ø 31.6 mm Injection, Ø 44 mm
coupling Multi-disc oil bath clutch, hydraulic Multi-disc oil bath clutch, hydraulic
transmission Six-speed Six-speed
Secondary drive Chain Cardan
Bore x stroke 70.0 x 48.6 mm 81.0 x 60.0 mm
Displacement 748 cm3 1237 cm3
compression 10.5: 1 12.0: 1
power 74.0 kW (100 PS) at 10,500 rpm 127.0 kW (173 hp) at 10,000 rpm
Torque 70.5 Nm at 8500 rpm 129 Nm at 8750 rpm
Weight with a full tank 230 kg 268 kg
Top speed 235 km / h 250 km / h
price 12,243 marks (1986) 14 900 euros (plus additional costs)

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