Honda VTR1000 Firestorm 998 Review

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Honda VTR1000 Firestorm 998
4.4 stars
Average rating for this product is: 4.4 out of 5

From 25 ratings and 44 reviews

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yellowstorm's Review of Honda VTR1000 Firestorm 998 Sports Bike

19th Oct 2008

Overall Rating

4.5 stars
  • Value for money
    5 stars
  • Length of ownership
    1 year
  • Reliability
    5 stars
  • Year Manufactured
    1997
  • Build quality
    4.5 stars
Good Points

Superb engine. Smooth and responsive. Suits experienced and new riders alike. The styling doesn't seem to age, certainly a modern classic. Pretty comfortable. Sounds superb with race cans. Great build quality with no nasty v-twin vibration.


Bad Points

Handlebar position, a lot of weight on the wrists for slower riding. Appalling tank range. About 95 miles during town riding. Known weak points: Cam Chain tensioner (CCT) springs break, allowing the cam chain to jump on the cam sprockets wrecking the engine. CCT's are cheap and easy to replace so do so as a matter of course. Rear shock lower linkage is so close to the rear exhaust down pipe that the grease dries out and knackers the bearing. In extreme cases the linkage has cracked and the suspension collapsed. Best to remove, re-grease and while it ' s off have a freeze nipple tapped into the linkage. Poor headlight, easily upgraded with high power bulb. Paint finish on wheels is a bit poor, so expect it to be flaking off, it ' s quite normal.


General Comments

A fantastic bike which can be had for a bargain. £1200 - £1500 will get you a clean example of this superb 1000cc v-twin. The bike is a joy to ride. Smooth and predictable engine and handling means that it's unlikely to spit you off like its much harsher rival, the TL1000. It's not the fastest bike around and will be trounced by may modern 600's in straight line performance. That's not what the bikes about though. This means it's unlikely to have been owned by a nutter, so most examples are clean and well maintained. The maturity of most owners reflects in the insurance. At 33 years old with Nil NCD (Had three years away from bikes) TPFT is just £130.
This really is a Honda with a character. Buy one and enjoy.

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