G`Day all. I'm sux9000 and I'm a VTRaholic. Well, I'm planning to be.
I've been a rider for only a couple of years. My machines so far, a Honda VTR250 '05 which i just adored (IMO the perfect learner bike) and my current ride, a '99 Kwaka 400cc Vulcan Drifter. You may have heard of the Drifter, "but a 400cc version??" I hear you exclaim. Yes. I am living in Japan, the only place (I think) where 400cc road bikes are really prevalent.

OK enough raving and on to the point. I've basically had enough of this gutless, overweight cruiser and I'm looking to purchase a bigger, shinier ride. I'm tossing up between the 'Storm (cos V-Twins just own!) and a 'Busa (cos well, its a Busa!). Now I've loved the SuperHawk / Firestorm since well, forever. Its a vtwin and it seems a good bike for what I have in mind. But, I was thinking, so does the Busa. I'm not a racer, more of a tourer. And I live in a certain area of Japan famed for its curvy, bike-friendly roads. I'm a big guy too, destroying the scales at 110kgs. (Big, heavy bones, honest.)

Basically, what are the pros/cons of both bikes? I only have limited knowledge (having never ridden either) of the Storm (though I've been reading a lot on this forum in the last couple of days) and pretty much no knowledge of the Busa apart from it's immense power and good touring capabilities.......so if you please, enlighten me.

PS yes I realise, this being a VTR1000 forum the answers may tend to "lean" a certain way, but hey, go for it! Convince me the Storm is the right bike for me!

What a massive first post. sorry bout that!
s9k

 

Welcome aboard!

The VTR is going to lack the range that you want for touring. Did Japan get the larger fuel tank? Even so, it's only 19L. Other than the fuel range, the VTR trumps the Busa in handling. It's lighter and has more "character" than the Uglybus.

 

It's more flickable than a Wee-Storm, front forks are crap, but the bike is still doing good in the twisties, fron fork mods would be the greatest mod that could be done to the VTR, the busa is quite heavy for the tight twisites, all those hp become useless and raise the consumption (you guys pay the gas), I'm not biased toward the hawk since I'm ready to part with it (liscencing rates up by 400 %). In Europe, a guy with a supermoto passed me, I started to chase him in very tight curvy roads and to my surprise, never in hell I could keep up with him, his bike was too light, I think it was a Husqvarna. Check this avenue too if you goal is an absolute blast in the twisties.

 

Thanks for the replies, guys. I think I have been denying what I know to be true. That I really do want a Firestorm! Since the bike is a reverse import (Honda don't offer this model directly to the bike buying public in Japan, so you have to get it through a third-party dealer) I can get basically any OS spec bike. So, a few q's?
What should I be looking for/at on a prospective purchase?
Are there any differences between the various countries' VTRs?
I know about the slightly limited fuel range of the US version, and the different meter layout from '03 on, but apart from that and the name, oh and possibly colour choices, are they all the same? Should I be looking at a more recent model or doesn't that matter?
Probably cheaper to get an earlier one maybe... More money to use on speccing it up

Oh yeah, not too worried about fuel range here, cos its pretty much impossible to go from one end of this country to the other without running into some form of service area every hour or so.

 

The VTR did not change except for the gauges and, for non-US bikes (or is that UK-only?), the larger fuel tank. So, buy the bike that is in the best condition you can find.

As you have probably already read, CCTs and R/Rs are prone to failure, but there are easy solutions to those problems.

Japan, huh? Perhaps you could send US some of those gray-market bikes!

 

Cheers for the infos,　marmaladedad. Ive looked at a couple of em now, at two different branches of a great bike store called Red Baron! Both were in that awesome blue that I love, both were '03s, one was from UK or Aus at 650,000yen (about $5500 US) and the other, a US branded SuperHawk at 880,000 ($7500 US). they both looked pristine, but I was only in drool mode. Didn't have a real discerning eye at the time.

Apart from those, I haven't seen many others for sale and only a few on the roads here. I might try some private trader ads, but with the problems I've been having on my current bike, I've made some friends in the service dept of my local Red Baron store so I believe they'll look after me. I'm thinking of cheap servicing or some discount trick gear !

hehe I should start a bit of a OS trading scheme: FRESH PICKED BIKES DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR or somesuch bull.