Comments on: Production Honda Crossrunner Debuts in Milan Alongside a “Concept” Adventure Touring Heavyweight (Bike Reports) (News)

By: speedfoot

speedfoot — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 10:21:08 +0000

i find the new releases from honda, in general, to be a great letdown. for years i’ve been waiting for them to deliver. the superhawk (vtr 1000) is easily twice the bike that the vfr 800 is. great website ,though.

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By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:57:42 +0000

I looked at a used VFR Interceptor but I couldn’t get comfortable on it. It definitely needed taller bars and a larger windscreen. I ended up with a BMW F800ST. There is a large selection of windscreens to mount for this bike which Honda doesn’t have. I probably won’t buy another Honda after owning my BMW.

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By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 20:27:40 +0000

Roads arent perfect anymore and never will be,
If you ever owned a Trans Alp you will understand this bike!!!

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By: Breeze

Breeze — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:06:12 +0000

I like it. It looks comfortable, has a decent sized gas tank, and should be able to perform a variety of functions very well. Commuter, tourer, weekend corner carver. I like a versatile bike. Also Honda has bags for the VFR800, I hope they will be offered for this bike. Bringing some of the technology forward from the VFR should help to keep the price at least in the “reasonable” category.

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By: Cranky Bob

Cranky Bob — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:16:24 +0000

Nearly everyone agrees that V-TEC is not an asset on this motorcycle (or any other for that matter). So why does HONDA keep offering V-TEC to us? Don’t they ever listen to actual riders of their motorcycles? I think that HONDA has so much pride that they are even willing to take a loss in sales to prevent saying that they produced a blunder when they decided to put V-TEC on a motorcycle.

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By: Cranky Bob

Cranky Bob — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:04:48 +0000

And the current VFR is a sad testimony to the fact that Honda has even lost touch with the class that they created!

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By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:42:59 +0000

ROXX says:
November 4, 2010 at 11:26 amHummmm…
“A VFR800 with a higher center of gravity.
Did anyone want this?

Come on Honda! How about a 420 pound 800cc V4 supersport?
Get back to greatness”
What do you mean a higher center of gravity? The only thing higher is the riders upper torso which is a good thing. No more numb throttle hand after an hour but all the other greatness the VFR has to offer.

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By: Tom Barber

Tom Barber — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:17:50 +0000

Unless the distributor/importer has a special program to provide demo bikes and related assistance to the dealership, it is left up to the dealership. The dealership usually relies on financing to buy the bikes in their inventory, whether through a local bank or a national bank or some special source of capital or financing provided by the distributor/importer. But no matter the means the dealership uses to buy the bikes, they own the bikes, and are ordinarily required by the financing source to insure the inventory against damage of every sort. The dealer will usually try to get by with the cheapest possible insurance, which means high deductible, and this gives them motivation to minimize the amount of demo rides that do not lead to a purchase. In most cases of purchase the buyer has a grace period for returning the bike, albeit with restrictions on mileage and time. Some states have laws requiring this for cars and sometimes for motorcycles and sometimes for anything. As such, one way to get a demo ride on a bike that you are serious about buying is to first check with your state laws and make certain that you understand the applicable grace period and then go in and buy the bike. Some dealers that discourage demo rides will change their tune immediately if you ask about the down payment and then write a check, although do not do this unless you are serious about buying the bike or unless you trust the dealer and you both have a clear understanding that the check is not actually to buy the bike but is just to demonstrate that you are serious. Be very careful here about the understanding and anything that is not in writing, because once you write a check, there is always the possibility that no matter what you thought the understanding was, the dealer will decide that you were never serious and were just taking advantage, and will keep the check, leaving it for you to try and recover in small claims court. You can of course call the bank and stop payment on the check, but courts consider this the same as writing a bad check and you could be visited by the sheriff and find it necessary to defend your actions in court.

That all said, there is the possibility that some distributors such as BMW have some sort of cooperative arrangement with the dealership to assist them with the cost of offering demo rides. But it does not seem that BMW simply provides the dealerships with demo bikes, because the policy differs from one BMW dealership to the next.

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By: Tom Barber

Tom Barber — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:01:44 +0000

That gave me a chuckle. But if it had looked worse than the Diavel …

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By: Tom Barber

Tom Barber — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:59:59 +0000

I agree that the muffler placement on the Crossrunner is better than on the VFR800, both functionally and aesthetically. The footpeg placement is an important consideration. It might be possible to fit a taller screen to the Crossrunner without undue difficulty, but this assumes that the supporting brackets are adequately sturdy, and they might not be. The load that has to be supported can change to next to nothing for a small screen to something several times greater for a larger screen.

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