I've got a new bike

[Scott_rider]

I've bought a new bike . A CBF1000 '07 21k miles. First impressions are good. It's a lot different to my old Fazer 1000 as it doesn't the top end rush which is probably good for me as I'm prone to 'warp speed madness' . Seems to be very torquey from low revs which is nice.

[Brenhden]

Very nice that, good colour too. Is it your daily commute or a weekend weapon?

[Scott_rider]

Very nice that, good colour too. Is it your daily commute or a weekend weapon?

Thanks. It's a weekend weapon. I sold the Fazer last year. We're going to Spain again in June and I'm looking forward to riding it there and back. Will be interesting to see how it compares on a long trip.

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

Looks decent...is it a semi-faired Blackbird?

[Scott_rider]

Looks decent...is it a semi-faired Blackbird?

No. It's got the 998cc engine from the '04 Fireblade but in a different state of tune at 100bhp (so there's about 60 bhp less) and about 70 ft.lb of torque lower but lower down the rev range. First impressions are that it feels a bit like my old Suzuki 1200 '05 bandit in terms of how it pulls from nothing in any gear but much smoother .

[daveuprite]

I bought a CBF1000 (2008) when I first moved to France. I sold up all my sports and race bikes in the UK because I didn't want to bother re-registering them here and they were all over the French 106BHP limit anyway.

I walked into a french Honda showroom and bought myself a brand new bike - for only the second time ever. I chose the CBF because I thought it would be the perfect all-rounder for touring and scratching and would therefore be the only road bike I needed. And it seemed like a lot of bike for 7500 Euros brand new.

It's a very good bike in many respects. Strong de-tuned ex-Fireblade engine, quite well-made and v smooth. But it wasn't for me. I sold it 2 years later. I made the mistake of thinking that I was ready to come down from sports bikes and I wasn't. I ground out its pegs, ripped through its chicken strips and rung its neck - all the time looking for the rush of the GSXRs, R1s, Bimotas, Blades and ZXs that I had ridden in the UK. I tied it in knots on mountain passes looking for the handling of a ZX10R that was never going to be there. I was the wrong owner for the right bike.

If you want a bike in the same vein as a VFR800, Bandit, GSX1400, XJR1300, CB1300 etc then it will be just fine, and might even be preferable to those in some respects, although not as good-looking as them. And it would do a European tour comfortably. But it couldn't be my only bike until I'd exorcised those sports bike demons. The final straw came when a Ducati rider asked me if I liked riding my Deauville.

Forget all that though. It's a really sound buy and a pretty capable road bike. I'd recommend one to anybody looking for an all-rounder or someone wanting to put a lid on all that 'warp-speed madness'...

[Scott_rider]

^....I hope I'm going to like it. I've had a GSXR, FireBlade, VFR, big Bandit, Fazer (with the R1 engine) etc. so it's a change but I really do need to slow down. In 2016 I maxed out the Fazer across the Sierra Nevada motorway in Spain...150+ for a solid 10 minutes ...not big and not clever...I know, so I promised myself a 'change' for 2018.

As I said, my initial impressions are good. I did have a brief fling with a 660 Tenere a few years ago which was a great bike but just not 'for me' so I hope this is different .

[daveuprite]

Well it can be rung out to about 135/140mph, and acceleration from low revs is good, so it's not a slouch.

It's not as sporty as MCN would have you think from this glowing review though:

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/bike-revi ... 1000/2006/ - but most of what they say is true.

Obviously it makes a 660 Tenere look like a snail (sluggish... ho ho), but that's comparing chaux et fromage.

I used my CBF1000 to discover parts of France I never knew about when I first moved here and for that it was perfect.

[Scott_rider]

It’s got the infamous CBF bars misalignment that are slightly offset to the right...as missed by quality control at Honda when it was built . The previous owners seem to have lived with it like that for 21k miles but it’s miffed me after 100 miles so I will be straightening up the yokes this weekend .