Honda VF750F

The Honda Motorcycle Company, now the largest producer of bikes in the world, dropped out of World class racing for a number of years, but began again in 1979 with entry in the 500cc World Championship Road races. Their entry was the NR500 4 stroke V 4 cylinder racing machine. The majority of bikes in this class were two stroke machines and Honda did not fare well with their entry so in 1982 they entered the NS500 2 stroke bike. Even though Honda was not sucessful with the four stroke machine they gathered much technical knowledge that has later been used by them in the production of their newly designed and released VF series bikes. All of Honda's "Supersport" bikes have had multi cylinder engines installed such as their parallel 4 and 6 cylinder bikes, however; in April 1982, they begin to release the V format engine bikes such as the VF750 and VT250 in touring versions. Many motorcycle fans prefer the Super sport versions as they are pretty much copied from their racing counterparts. The VF750F is such a bike. Engine layout is the same as that in the touring bikes, but internally the engine is quite different. It is a DOHC 16 valve, four cylinder water cooled unit of 748cc in a 90 degree "V" format. It is red lined at 10,500RPM and the domestic and export versions have a 72hp and 84hp output. They have utilized a newly developed clutch system of a back torque limiting type so that down shifting at high speeds will not cause the rear wheel hopping due to the sudden slowing of engine braking. Engine is rigid mounted in a double cradle square tube frame of light, but very hard metal pipe, which had been proven on the race tracks of Europe. Rear suspension is the Honda Pro-Link system and the front is normal telescopic with the left fork having TRAC anti nose dive suppression. Honda started its climb to fame with the CB750 in 1969 and continues the climb with the VF750F in 1982.