Honda Fury First Impression

3 downloads 40523 Views 25MB Size Report
your average Top Fuel dragster; überdisplacement, jackhammer motors, open ... V-twin that Honda designed for the VTX1300, but updated by replacing the VTX ...
First Impression Honda’s 2009 Fury A mean street custom from the nicest people

by Scott Rousseau photos by Kevin Wing

Product Planning. “A core market for us has always been the mid-size cruiser. Plus, we wanted to combine the best style possible with a good feel, and the 1300 lends itself better to the design of the Fury. The 1800 is a larger engine [physically], and to use it we would’ve had to incorporate a larger airbox and other larger components. Also, the 1300’s single-pin crank has a sound that fits this bike best.” Honda also felt that shaft drive fit the Fury best even though it’s easy to argue that a belt or chain would be more popular with the DIY customizer crowd, as aftermarket wheels become readily available by virtue of the more universal nature of chain or belt drive. But in keeping with its directive to give the Fury a badass custom chopper exterior with more polite, maintenance-free inner workings, the shaft didn’t get the shaft.

Chassis, Suspension & Brakes

L

OOK AROUND AND you’d be hard-pressed to find a category of streetbike that is more narrowly focused than the chopper. Borne out of the post-WWII practice of bobbing or “chopping” extraneous items off one’s motorcycle in order to make it lighter, faster and create an individual look, the chopper craze began in earnest in the ’60s, when rebellious and artistic types took the genre a step further by radically stretching and raking chassis to almost ridiculous proportions in an effort to create some of the wildest motorcycles imaginable. Most notably associated with outlaw biker gangs such as the Hell’s Angels, the street chopper scene was considered unfashionable by mainstream motorcycling then, the domain of the so-called “great unwashed.” Chopper culture headed underground in the late ’70s, only to reemerge 20 years later, glamorized by the creations of modern-day custom bike icons such as Jesse James, Arlen and Cory Ness, and those embattled Teutuls—Paul Sr. and Jr. Nowadays the chopper is more mainstream than ever, which makes Honda’s decision to enter the custom chopper market with the Honda Fury less surprising than it might be otherwise. Except that we are, after all, talking about Honda here. Of course, as most MCN readers know, modern boutique-built choppers, like their forerunners, most often combine their eyepopping styling with the driveability and long-term reliability of your average Top Fuel dragster; überdisplacement, jackhammer motors, open belt-driven dry clutches, limousine-length forks and hardtail chassis are hardly a blueprint for civility. With the Fury, however, Honda is hoping to prove you can have a motorcycle that blends the custom chopper look with a dependable platform that won’t numb both skull and bum if your favorite watering holes are more than a half hour apart.

Engine & Drivetrain The Fury’s rumble is supplied by the liquid-cooled, 52º, 1312cc V-twin that Honda designed for the VTX1300, but updated by replacing the VTX carburetor with a PGM-FI that features a single 38mm throttle body with an automatic enricher circuit, and also a new exhaust system. So, why not use the company’s flagship VTX1800? Glad you asked. “There are a lot of different reasons,” said Dan Hallada, American Honda Senior Research Analyst, 28

MAY 2009



MOTORCYCLE CONSUMER NEWS

The Fury’s chassis is definitely uncharted territory for Honda. Boasting the longest motorcycle wheelbase in company history, it measures a whopping 71.24" with a steering head rake of 38º and features a high-mount steering head that adds to the chopper aesthetic by creating a gap at the front of the Fury’s stretched teardrop fuel tank. The longish 45mm-diameter front forks belie the fact that the Fury only has 4" of travel up front. The fork is non-adjustable, but the single rear shock, which boasts a mere 3.7", is adjustable for rebound damping and also features five-position spring preload adjustability. In keeping with its chopper theme, the Fury sports a rather scrawny 90/90-21 Dunlop front tire mounted on a nine-spoke alloy rim paired with a 200/50-18 Dunlop on the seven-spoker in the rear. A semi-floating single 336mm front brake rotor is clamped by a rather smallish-appearing two-piston caliper, while the rear brake features a 296mm rear rotor and single-piston caliper. Unfortunately, our First Impression did not include any seat time on the ABS-equipped version of the Fury which, incidentally, will be available only in the black color scheme with the blacked-out, redpinstriped wheels. Honda did tell us that the ABS features a revised functionality in that it is only linked from rear to front, and not both ways, as found on the Gold Wing, ST1300 and Interceptor.

Riding Impression There isn’t an excessive amount of “fury” in the Fury’s fuelinjected V-twin, just enough to get the job done. Its torque won’t snap your neck as you run from gear to gear, but by the same token it does not impart the rubbery feel of mid- and smaller-displacement cruisers or those with less torque low in the rev range. The Fury’s power output is far less muted than its exhaust, which imparts a soulful rumble that is barely audible above normal windblast. The engine gets all of the Fury’s claimed 663 lbs. moving in a hurry and will smartly run from gear to gear, although the engine could do with just a tad more overrev than its rev limiter allows. We occasionally found ourselves bumping into the rev limiter just before making the shift to second gear when pulling through first from a dead stop; better to short-shift the Fury than to try and wring its neck. Loping along in any gear is a pleasant experience, the Fury’s dual balancers quelling a substantial amount of unwanted shake from the engine. However, on freeway jaunts we did notice some

lacks strong stopping power. Using the buzz through the bars once the speedometer rear brake in concert with the front topped 60 mph, a feeling substantiated by is recommended. the distorted vehicles and other objects in One gripe that we do have is not with the rearview mirrors. the ride but with the cosmetics. The weldBut from stoplight to stoplight, the Fury ing quality on the chassis is hideous and is more congenial than a chopper has the detracts from an otherwise attractive packright to be. Clutch lever action is silky but age like a scar on the cheek of a superseems to engage and disengage the Fury’s model. Honda officials confirmed that clutch very early in the lever throw—you’ll our test bike was a production line unit spend minimal time in the friction zone— and that word had already been sent to and the bike’s five-speed transmission shifts Japan to try and improve the appearance of equally as smoothly. the welds. The long wheelbase and rakish front end of the Fury make it freight-train stable in a straight line, and yet its low-speed turning Final Thoughts prowess is commendable; dropping in and With the Fury, Honda has taken a out of turns is practically effortless despite decades-old motorcycle concept and the 38º fork angle. The same basically holds “Honda-ized” it, infusing the traditional true at higher speeds, although scraping the chopper’s hardnosed styling with functionfeelers on the forward-mounted foot conality and reliability to create a civil motortrols happens long before any sketchy feelcycle with an outlaw look. As such, like ing is encountered at the handlebar. those bankers and lawyers who can’t wait Ergonomically speaking, the Fury’s 26.7" The Fury turns well, but it doesn’t take for the weekend to break out their do-rags, seat height combines with a seat/bar/peg much lean angle to scrape the feelers leather jackets, and temporary tattoos, it is relationship that appears to favor shorter on its forward-mounted controls. likely to be dismissed—and maybe even riders. Some testers over 5'8" complained resented—by real hard-core custom-bike that the Fury’s airbox forced their right leg out away from the types, even those who have come to favor a metric cruiser brand motorcycle, an uncomfortable situation. Another source of disover one made in America. And that would be too bad because, comfort could be found in the heat that radiates through the for any other motorcyclist interested in radical custom chopbulging clutch cover on the right side of the Fury’s engine, pers, all it would take is one ride on the Fury to realize what they something you’ll notice when you put your foot down at a stopare missing. light. On the plus side, the sweep of the Fury’s drag-style handlebar is very comfortable. Also, we noticed while on the freeway that the instrument pod does a pretty good job of deflecting air up and over the rider’s helmet, reducing helmet buffeting and the dreaded “mainsail effect.” Riding at a relaxedpace, a Fury pilot could probably drain the bike’s 3.4-gal fuel tank without feeling whipped from the trip. The fork and shock work well when the Fury is used for its intended purpose, short-distance cruising. However, during our ride aboard the bike we encountered a long series of square-edged bumps in the pavement while riding at about 60 mph. The resulting shockwaves through the seat and the bars were tolerable, but we were happy when that part of the ride was behind us. Overall, we’d give the suspension passing marks for functionality. Coming down from speed exposes a vice, though. When applied by itself, the front brake is high-effort at the lever and Visit us at WWW.MCNEWS.COM



MAY 2009

29