Date:         Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:23:37 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Technology evolves...( Honda V-4 moto no van content... Friday)
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  Always been something of a Moto-head since my first Honda Scrambler 250 in
my high school years.   I recently  revived my '88 Honda Hawk, a very nimble
mid-sized V-twin that I built as a track bike a while back and then stored
away.  I'd forgotten how much fun motorbikes are, both to ride and to mess
around with.   After much fussing with the exotic Keihin race carbs on the
Hawk, I got it running right again.  I rode it out to a new road racing
track that was recently built nearby.  Wanted to go for a test ride and to
see what was going on with this new road course venue.  I put the bike on a
dyno at the track, to get the HP, torque and Air/Fuel ratio readings from
the semi-race motor we'd built but never final-tuned or quantified.  As I
waited for my turn on the rollers, I watched the tech and the bike owner
tuning an almost new  V-4 1200cc Honda Interceptor....and gain 15% hp in 30
minutes with just a laptop.(and the dyno, of course)

   I have always been intrigued by that particular motor, which Honda has
been building for many years(since the '80s) and using in various bikes, in
many different forms..  This V-4 has a very unique sound....I recall seeing
a video of one racing at the Isle of Mann TT with four megaphones for
pipes.....Awesome!   (sorry for the overused adjective, but no other word
comes to mind to adequately describe that 4 open megaphones-sound
at14,000rpms, racing over hilly country lanes in the British Isles)

  Cutting to the chase: After researching the subject, I went to Craigslist
and found one, well used (65k miles, not excessive for a VFR) but in good
shape for <$2k.   A much more 'civilized' bike than my edgy little Honda
Hawk...more 'grown up' and quite sophisticated for a 12yr old motorcycle (I
bought the 2000 VFR 800 'Interceptor')

  The "new" bike is what's called a "sport-touring" bike.  They are designed
to pack the rider and some gear on longer highway trips and yet still be
fun to ride.  The injected V-4 motor is wonderful.  It delivers gobs of
power right to it's ~12,000rpm(!) rev limiter and sounds so sweet!  Unlike
some of those "other" bikes you see so many of... sylin' along in big
bunches,  saying..... "potato..potatoe...potatoe.."  as they cruise down the
freeway at low speeds and high decibles, this one has a smooth sound.  The
power comes everywhere.  These motors are said to 'last forever' also.  My
model year has gear-driven camshafts and lots of valves ..  The output is
right at 100hp, limited there due to licensing regulations elsewhere in the
world.  There are "six generations" of this bike.  It is now being built
with a 1200cc option.  Here in the USA...we like em big, I guess.

   There is a very popular plug and play ~$300 after market engine
controller called a 'Power Commander' that plugs in to this and many other
fuel injected motorcycles.  Dynojet dyno operators everywhere  have programs
that work with this little black box and can totally custom map the whole
engine with a laptop.  You can go online and free-download complete engine
maps right into the bike, or save them to files,  for most every possible
aftermarket modification you could imagine....Sure beats tuning my
carburetted Honda Hawk, where a single jet change takes about 2hrs and
included total removal of the tank, the linkages and both carbs..
.
  Pretty cool new (to me) project/toy.  About the same HP as a Vanagon but
at 450lbs instead of 4500lbs.  ~Same HP but at .8liters instead of 1.9l.  Of
course, you can't sleep in it, cook in it or carry 20sheets of sheetrock...

Below are some links to see what I was going on about.  The upper link is to
Picassa with a cool motor drawing.  The lower is some pics of my other
bike...the Honda Hawk track bike....now for sale, by the way...

  Don Hanson


https://picasaweb.google.com/112899774170781374478/RecentlyUpdated?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-u7-mE_7XQSA

https://picasaweb.google.com/112899774170781374478/HawkPicsAug11?authkey=Gv1sRgCIOz5vaYqZH9NQ