dduelin
Site Supporter
I've had every configuration of production Honda engines they made with the exception of the CBX inline six and the V4's were probably my favorite. (VFR800 and ST1300) Smooth as glass, plenty of horsepower, and a deep well of torque to draw on. The Sabre was quite a bike for it's time and Honda's further refinement of the engine into the ST1100 and ST1300 took it very far. Honda put a lot of yen into refining the V4. Soichiro Honda supposedly thought the V4 was the epitome of motorcycle engine designs but inline 4s won the battle in the marketplace.I don't really know my way around such a forum as this, but I'll give it a try. I was riding my 1984 Honda VF-1100S and a Rivian pickup truck sort of thing was behind me. We were at a stop sign and after the stop sign was a very long sweeping turn, so I went first of course and peered in my rear view mirror, and could see the Rivian driver was trying mightily, with all four motors singing their electric song, to close the distance so I twisted the Sabre's wick while in second gear, and left the Rivian like it was standing still.
A few days later I had the Sabre on a very long straight stretch of road, that I, in a previous time, could not get my NC-750X DCT to get to 100 mph, with it topping out at about 98 mph, so I tried to exceed 100 mph with the Sabre, and it was no problem. By the bye the Honda VF-1100S is also known as a V-65 Sabre.
I saw this view many times on the ST1300. Closed course, no traffic, don't try this at home YMMV.