VTR Firestorms

Originally Posted by suzukigt380paul

looks to me if you must have a vtr with all its problems then best go for the sp2 with 137hp and 170mph as the one your looking at is to put it bluntly is a bit short on the hp front and for a sports 1000 has less power than my vfr800,although the claimed 100hp will still go fast enough,never owned one but the last person i talked to who owned one had got through 2 camchain tensioners had the cam chain jump a tooth both times before he had time to stop engine and had to get spare engine off evilbay to replace nackered head/topend this rather put me off ever looking at one

Why would I want to be able to do 170mph? I dont use the bike on the track.

By my reckoning the VFR800 makes 110bhp and the standard VTR mk2 makes 109bhp. Not that much difference But the VTR has quite a lot more torque...

I know well of the camchain tensioner issues, and if you bother to research there are loads of fixes available.

Originally Posted by flak monkey

Why would I want to be able to do 170mph? I dont use the bike on the track.

By my reckoning the VFR800 makes 110bhp and the standard VTR mk2 makes 109bhp. Not that much difference But the VTR has quite a lot more torque...

I know well of the camchain tensioner issues, and if you bother to research there are loads of fixes available.

this may or maynot be true mcn give the firestorm upto 2005 97hp and the vfr800 108hp,and by your reckoning we all should be rideing 125s cos the speedlimit is 70mph why do we need something that will do more mph,only kidding,but ive got a fireblade that may well do a 170 mph never been that fast but its the way it gets to the speed you want to get to,and that will easily return 55mpg at 100mph allday long, with about 140/160bhp depending whos figures you believe,mind you the vfr only does about 35mpg pos 40mpg on a long run,but anycase getting back to the subject i allways considered the vtr as a sports bike but with out a sports bike performance seems like a old 600 fazer got more hp thats why i said get a sp2 coz thats what the firestorm should have been right from the start

[yorkie_chris]

Well he bought one, so it must have been right somehow. It's not a sportsbike, it kinda fits into the ST category. All you are saying is it does not fit your categories.*

Though I dunno about the mpg there, a mate of mine has one, he's a good, smooth, experienced rider and gets terrible mileage. Then again no idea how you get 35-40 on SV regularly, I find I've got to take some serious liberties to get it to 35. You sure it was healthy?



*They don't float my boat either, but they sold a lot of them so they must have floated someone's.

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

I find I've got to take some serious liberties to get it to 35. .

like that sentence, but does seem very low.

Saw a black vtr with aftermarket cans the other day, sounded fantastic, can see the attraction of one.

[maviczap]

If only they'd made them with gear driven cams like the VFR, then it would have been almost perfect

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by leebex

like that sentence, but does seem very low.

I had written it down somewhere but worst I've ever managed is 20 or so. Average I see high 40's.

[stormingjoe]

The storm not about horses(110), its about twisty stuff, and they have it in spades from 1500 rpm up and strong from 2500, try that on an inline or v4, firestorm a sporting/tourer the sp1/2 are focused sports machines, faults are cct's can fail, renew every couple of years or fit manual ones have been known to do mega miles, 150000 +. Front forks soft, get rebuilt as per sv650. Rear abit to stiff easily sorted, mods on the firestorm similar to sv 650 and quite easy to fit a single swinger on the back end. I have rejetted mine, got k&n air, noisey pipes been shortened after an encounter with a roundabout(cold tyres), fully adjustable pro flex shock on rear with + 5 mill ride height 350(345 standard), forks at standard height but with modified internals, courtesy of k-tech. now tyres, been messing of late got 190/50 rear which aint to bad giving extra side wall as 180/55 ran off edge of tyre, front tyre just trying 120/60 aka sv tyre, fast turn in, not happy though, running out of edge and felt like front was washing out(understeering) on fast bends, will change back to a 120/70 was stable with this tyre but heavy to turn in. I get between 110 thrashing and 160 miles steady to a tank filling up 14.5 ltrs or so, sv 140 and 230 miles filling up 16.5 ltrs do doubt accruacy of speedo on sv though!!

[stormingjoe]

forgot to mention got ebc discs and pads up front.

[kaivalagi]

I say big v-twins are cool no matter what If you know the faults and get them sorted whats the biggy....the KTM LC8 kicks ar$e btw Only down as 115bhp but it gathers revs reeeeeal good

The SV speedo is definitely 10% higher than actual on most if not all models - 77mph when 70mph, 66 when 60, 55 when 50 etc..several of us tested with GPS and got the same results

Originally Posted by suzukigt380paul

this may or maynot be true mcn give getting back to the subject i allways considered the vtr as a sports bike but with out a sports bike performance seems like a old 600 fazer got more hp thats why i said get a sp2 coz thats what the firestorm should have been right from the start

The VTR isnt a sports bike and wasn't designed to be, which I why I ended up with one. I dont like the riding position on a sports bike at all. The SP1/2 is a sports bike. Basically 1 bike underneath, but 2 markets....clever Honda...

I don't do any town riding at all, so that probably helps with the MPG quite a lot.