My Sports Bike

I owned this 1998 Honda VTR1000 Firestorm from new. It was immaculate, had a wonderful torquey engine and as far as I'm concerned was plenty fast enough and handled well enough for me in all situations. The only downside was, it  wasn't brilliant for touring! I used it around the UK, and always took it to the TT races, and it's taken me out to the French Alps as well. It's comfy enough for the long haul, it will cruise at whatever speed takes my fancy, I've got soft luggage which fits it well enough - but..... It's horrendous on fuel consumption! I only get 25-30mpg which is pretty poor. It's a problem - not just the expense, but with a small tank (16L I think), the poor range is a real worry in France, where petrol stations can be 40-50 miles apart, and virtually all of them are shut on Sundays. The petrol stations on motorways remain open, but if they are 40 miles apart I can easily overshoot one, and my fuel warning light has been known to come on after just 80 miles. I need fuel every 90-100 miles on the VTR. A bit of a pain really, so I don't use it anymore on the Alps trips, even though it's a storming bike once up on those mountain passes! Perhaps I'll fit a larger capacity tank, then start touring on it again. Perhaps I won't. I traded it in on 28th June 04 against a new Fazer 1000 from Granby Motors.   I loved my Firestorm, but it just couldn't cut it as a tourer, particularly if I'm responsible for others on a tour.  I cannot afford to run out of petrol as Tour Leader!

Went Live : Tue 15th February 2005

Author : Bill