Torque of the town, this Honda is the biggest of the cruisers with a massive 1795 cc V-twin engine. Its commanding looks just cannot be ignored, and grabs your attention, no matter which style of bike is your preference. Intimidating to even the hardest of men, a good workout in the gym might be required before saddling and trying to tame this beast.
Possibly creating a new class of motorcycle – the performance cruiser – a contradiction in terms, but it is the second largest production motorcycle ever, only beaten into second place by its brother the GL1800 at 1832cc.
It will allegedly out-gun a Valkyrie in a roll on test, but its best quality has to be it’s addictive torque, it will have you praying for the lights to turn red, just so you can start all over again.
Brand new for 2001, the VTX1800 has a liquid cooled, fuel injected, V-twin engine with a claimed 103hp and 117 ft-lbs of arm wrenching torque. The massive crankshaft, weighing in at around 20kgs, is counterbalanced by dual shafts and only spins at 3,500 rpm when maximum torque is reached. Engine is rubber mounted to cut down on vibration. A single overhead camshaft opens the 3 valves in each head. The engine has a dry sump oil system, with the oil tank living inside the gearbox allowing for a lower engine height and lowering the overall height of the bike.
The electronic fuel injection has a cold start feature that manages without increasing the engine revs on first starting the machine. Electric starter, of course, can you imagine to trying to kick-start this beast? Would be like trying to kick a jumbo jet into life! The power goes to the rear wheel via a 5-speed gearbox and shaft drive.
Front suspension forks are inverted 45mm cartridge type. Rear has conventional twin dampers with 5 position preload.
Brakes are Honda’s controversial combined braking system with two 3-piston calipers working on 296mm discs at the front. The rear has a 316mm disc and 3-pot caliper.
Wheels are cast aluminium affairs and look a bit sporty for a cruiser, in fact, the whole front end with upside down forks etc. looks as if it has just come off a GSXCBR something or other!
The speedo is mounted on the bars, with the rest of the instruments on the fuel tank, including the indicator and low fuel idiot lights, both of which could be flashing away merrily, unnoticed by the rider who is having far too good a time looking elsewhere! All the bits and bobs are held together in a tubular steel cradle frame and has a dry weight of 320kg (705lbs), seat height is 693mm (27.3 inches) and with an overall length of nearly 2.5 metres it can only be described as huge!
It has more chrome than a shiny thing, especially on the engine and exhaust, which has twin pipes going into one huge silencer on the right hand side that could easily double as a place to crawl into when it rains!
Top speed is a claimed 220kph and fuel consumption at between 11-14 Km/litre. Fuel tank holds 17 litres.
The only downside to this machine, is that having ridden one, would you want to back to a piddly wee 1100/1500cc? Available in the UK now. Pricing should be around £10,000.
What else can I say? Join the queue behind me!!
A smaller VTX1300 version is due for 2003, not quite sure which markets it is destined for yet. Will be available in Australia from August 2002. No price available yet. Any information on this model you would like to see included you can send it here
Last updated 15/05/02
