“Revolutionary” is a buzzword that gets thrown around far too often, but I have to say that after riding Honda’s brand-new 2010 VFR1200F V-Four at the Sugo Circuit outside of Sendai, Japan, as well as on public roads nearby, this bike truly defines that expression.
Only 12 months after showing its V4 Concept model at the Intermot show in Germany in 2008, Honda has brought to market this radical new machine. Among its many innovative features and designs, the most exceptional is that it offers as an option the motorcycle industry’s first automatic dual-clutch transmission. Honda gave us the opportunity to ride the DCT and standard versions on the racetrack and on the street. Despite being identical motorcycles aside from their transmissions and related components, these bikes are completely different animals. If we were only discussing the standard model, we would say that Honda made some interesting technological changes to the VFR’s V-Four powerplant; but the DCTequipped model takes innovation to an entirely new level.
First, let’s get into the basic architecture shared by both models. At the core is a brand-new, liquid-cooled, 76-degree, 1237cc V-Four engine with CRF450R-inspired Unicam four-valve heads. The two front cylinders are located wide on the ends of the crankshaft while the rear two are side-byside closer to crank center. This combination allows the engine to be very narrow between the rider’s knees. No balance shaft is necessary as the crankshaft uses 28-degree-offset throws to allow perfect primary balance. Instead of trying to figure out how to equalize exhaust-header length between the front and rear cylinders, Honda’s engineers–led by project manager Yosuke
Hasegawa–decided to allow the two banks of cylinders to make their own unique power characteristics. According to Hasegawa-san, the combined effect is that of a paired set of parallel-Twins sharing a common crankshaft, the front two cylinders and their longer exhaust headers providing ample bottom-end torque and the rear pairing with much shorter headers producing good top-end power.Only 12 months after showing its V4 Concept model at the Intermot show in Germany in 2008, Honda has brought to market this radical new machine. Among its many innovative features and designs, the most exceptional is that it offers as an option the motorcycle industry’s first automatic dual-clutch transmission. Honda gave us the opportunity to ride the DCT and standard versions on the racetrack and on the street. Despite being identical motorcycles aside from their transmissions and related components, these bikes are completely different animals. If we were only discussing the standard model, we would say that Honda made some interesting technological changes to the VFR’s V-Four powerplant; but the DCTequipped model takes innovation to an entirely new level.
First, let’s get into the basic architecture shared by both models. At the core is a brand-new, liquid-cooled, 76-degree, 1237cc V-Four engine with CRF450R-inspired Unicam four-valve heads. The two front cylinders are located wide on the ends of the crankshaft while the rear two are side-byside closer to crank center. This combination allows the engine to be very narrow between the rider’s knees. No balance shaft is necessary as the crankshaft uses 28-degree-offset throws to allow perfect primary balance. Instead of trying to figure out how to equalize exhaust-header length between the front and rear cylinders, Honda’s engineers–led by project manager Yosuke
Power output is excellent. In fact, on the racetrack, the bike easily spun the sport-touring-oriented Dunlop rear tire exiting slower corners. Strong acceleration is available from as low as 4000 rpm, where Honda claims 90 percent of available torque is already present, and the engine pulls hard to its 10,000-rpm redline.
After the DCT or standard six-speed trans (with slippe clutch), both lead to a new shaft-drive system and singlesided swingarm, featuring a sliding CV joint to counter the changing arc of the rear wheel through its travel.
