Honda VTX

Honda is pretty bullish about its chances. Right from the moment I arrived, Honda staff were getting aggressive. Okay, not with me personally, but with the competition.

The little brother to the VTX1800 is going to hit the showrooms soon, priced at $17,890. That's cheap, they say. You stop for a moment and think about other Jap cruisers, like Suzuki's VL1500 Intruder, which is listed at $16,990. So you say so. The look says it all. Honda isn't competing with the other Japanese cruisers. It's going for the jugular and aiming the VTX1300 fair and square at a certain American rival.

Only one cruiser brand sells big in the Australian market: Harley-Davidson. The Yank is a fish of whale-like proportions in this pond, and everyone else is fighting for the scraps. Honda wants the VTX1300 to stand up to Harley and take the food out of its mouth.

It's pretty big talk, but if anyone has the engineering muscle to do it, it's Honda.

There was a time when bikers looked at Japanese custom bikes the same way Italian restaurateurs look at instant cappuccino. With utter contempt and dismissal. Times change, however.

Thankfully, I've not yet been served a sachet of 'coffee' after a meal, but I have been sat in the seat of a few Oriental custom motorcycles, and every time I have, it's seemed better.

JAPANESE HANDICAPS?
For some reason, Japanese designers never seemed able to get the proportions just right, and major problems arose from bean-counters, encouraging new models to be squeezed out of existing technology. They couldn't see the sense of putting an air-cooled engine in, so they made them water-cooled and added a hulking great radiator. And why build a V-twin when a V-four is so much smoother - and you already have one in your line-up?

Those kinds of thoughts handicapped the Japanese for years, but they've stayed with it. The latest of the breed is the VTX. And it looks good. For starters, it's as long as a car, just as it should be. Then it has those classic-style swoopy mudguards - I mean fenders. But unlike some attempts to copy the American look, these are just right, not too big or too small.

The engine gets the deep-finned, air-cooled look, but in true Japanese style, it's modern and liquid-cooled. The radiator is painted black and is mounted vertically, between the front downtubes of the frame.

Unlike the bigger 1800, this engine is fed by carbs, giving it that extra bit of authenticity... right when Harley's latest model, the V-Rod, came out with fuel injection.

Injection has been touted as the way to meet emissions laws, but Honda says the VTX1300 won't suffer - it's already under the standards due to come into force in the next few years, and doesn't even have a catalytic converter.

Everywhere, the attention to detail shows. The chrome fork slider covers, the swept-back bars, the immense footboards and the heel-and-toe gearshift. All the cockpit instruments are mounted on the tank, and rather than a fuel light, the VTX is equipped with a good old reserve tap. Despite the style, which hints at a traditionally tiny capacity, the VTX takes 18 litres of fuel.

Twin shocks at the back end carry chrome covers like the forks, but where the American bikes go for a belt instead of a chain, Honda has made ownership easier with shaft drive.

Mind you, the time you save not adjusting and lubing a chain you'll spend with polishing cream. There's plenty much chrome on this baby and chances are you'll want to keep it shiny. The paintwork too, is worth a polish, the metallic orange (well, they called it gold, but it looks orange to me) in particular standing out. There's an extensive range of accessories too, which Honda intends to have on sale at the same time as the bike hits the showroom, and that'll have dedicated owners even harder at work with the cleaning gear.

NO WORRIES
When it's time to ride, there's no worries about whether you'll fit. The seat is a low 686mm, and the rest of the bike isn't much higher - it spreads out longways instead. With a claimed dry weight of 300kg, this is no lightweight imitation of American style. It could be hewn from solid steel. Thankfully, the low seat means the weight isn't intrusive, and it feels pretty good at carpark speeds. Like many cruisers, however, the bars want to flop into the turn at those low-speed manoeuvres, but it's manageable. As soon as the speed rises, the steering lightens up. And the footboards hit the ground. In keeping with the style, the boards are pretty low, and the first roundabout or quick turn you come to will have the undersides scraping.

Under the boards, there's a pretty generous amount of extra metal to take the brunt of it, but if you ride even moderately hard you'll wear them away pretty rapidly. Which hints at the way you're supposed to ride.

The word is cruise. Whether that's inner-city posing or out in the country taking in the view, the VTX is aimed at taking a bit more time over your route. The handling is really good - even with the board on the deck in a long, 120kmh turn the bike felt pretty happy.

The suspension is on the soft-ish side, and combined with the length of the beast that means it can wallow over bumpy surfaces, but it always felt controlled.

SMOOTH AND FLEXIBLE
The 1312cc engine isn't a sleeved-down version of the VTX1800. Honda says it's an all-new model, and having had the chance to ride them back-to-back, that's no bad thing.

The 1300 is smoother and feels more flexible. Roll the throttle on from low revs in top gear on the 1800 and it throbs so hard you'd think the tank would fall off. On the 1300, it's much better.

Gear changing is easier than many big twins too. The lever is no lightweight, but the heel shifter is great, making it easy to hammer down the box, though the set-up does limit space for your left boot a bit.

Out of a corner, the V-twin delivers a respectable amount of drive and once you get into the way it likes to swing along a twisty road it's a lot of fun.

When it comes to stopping, there's an awful lot of weight to keep under control. The 1300 runs a conventional brake system, rather than the linked brakes of big brother, and for me that's a bonus. You might fear that the single disc, dual-piston caliper up front would struggle with all the weight, but in normal circumstances it feels up to the job.

Despite seeing my first living 'roo (as opposed to 'road kill') at the side of the road while riding the VTX, thankfully the bugger didn't make a dash in front of me, so I was saved the emergency braking test. Leaving it late for a few corners, though, it still gave enough power to make me feel confident.

PAIN IN THE ARSE?
The Honda attention to detail we've come to expect extends to many areas - the comfy, large diameter grips, the effective mirrors and the easy-to-read speedo. But one area where it's fallen down is the seat. The styling is great, matched perfectly to the rest of the machine, but I found the comfort lacking.

After a few hours in the saddle, it was a noticeable pain in the coccyx. There's plenty of padding (on the saddle, not me), but it felt like the curve of the seat rolled my back too much.

Fortunately, there is room to move around, and it may be different, of course, for different shaped arses. The jury's out until we get a few more AMCN glutes across the 13's saddle.

Freeway work is surprisingly comfortable for this kind of bike. There's simply nothing to deflect the wind on the stock version of the machine, yet at legal speeds the blast feels bearable. Crank it up at bit harder and the strain quickly builds, and by the time you're cracking 160kmh it's getting seriously hard work. The engine is well up to it - it's the rider that won't stay the distance.

However, dialling in that sort of speed is just wrong for this category of bike. Yeah, it can do it, but that doesn't mean you have to. Just let the VTX1300 run along a bit more gently and take in the countryside.

The VTX1300 has enough looks for this kind of machine and it also handles well. You can take it to the limits set by the footboards and feel comfortable. As for the engine, on the basis of this introductory ride I'd choose the 1300 over the $23,390 1800. It felt smoother, responded more cleanly and didn't seem to miss the extra capacity.

Despite the perceived capacity 'disadvantage', at $17,890 the VTX1300 competes pricewise with the likes of Kawasaki's 1500cc Vulcan Classic and Drifter (both $18,290), Suzuki's $16,990 VL1500 Intruder and is within striking distance of Yamaha's $18,999 XV1600 Road Star. The cheapest 1450cc Harley is the $21,250 FXD.

To get out and see some of this wide, brown land, the VTX1300 would do me just fine. As long as I can change the seat - or the shape of my arse...