I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Honda Fury and had the chance to test ride one yesterday. Last weekend I saw it live and was happy that it looked as good in person as it does in the pictures i’d seen online.  Naturally i had to take some of my own: left side, rear, right side, front.  Yesterday  I was still impressed with the looks; it's a really good looking machine.   I think they nailed chopper look spot on.

The Good

Smooth is the word that keeps coming to mind after riding it at surface and highway speeds.  Shifts smoothly, accelerates smoothly, turns...yep smoothly.  Did a couple of u-turns without a problem and it was my first time on a chopper. It's fuel injected so acceleration was like butter and the engine just purred.  They did a good job of disguising the shaft drive to look like a frame rail.  The suspension smoothed out bumps very nicely and i never felt jarred. The narrow tank and seat don't have you spreading your legs like the grand canyon and the forward controls were comfortably easy to reach.  Brakes are top notch.  And i like how the hide the indicator/dummy lights behind some smoke plastic so you only see them when lit making for a clean instrument panel.  And the price is nice starting out at i think $11500 and going up to $13900 for the limited edition with ABS.  I could be off on the pricing but for sure cheaper than any Harley.

The Neutral

The pipes.  They sound better than most stock pipes but really; that's like comparing vanilla ice cream to french vanilla. I didn't care for the handlebars and thought they either needed to be straighter or more bent and my left arm/hand never got comfortable with them. The clutch seemed to need more pull than other bikes I've ridden and the aftermarket seat was not good for more than short hops though maybe it just needed breaking in.  The tank size is 3.4gal so what contributes to such a great look (hour glass taper) also limits it's capacity.  But the biggest thing was that i really expected more of a kick in the seat from the motor.  I thought it would accelerate harder/faster and it just didn't do it for me.  In fairness, after getting back on my 1100 Shadow, it felt sluggish so clearly the Fury had something going on but i really wanted it grab me hard and tweak my nipples.

At the end of the Day

Riding for me isn't just about being on the road, i want to look good and really have a connection with my bike.  Sometimes that connection happens when you first see the bike and you fall in love or it's after you spend some time with it the connection grows.  I fell in love with the CBR and was done for after riding it knowing i HAD to have one for sure.  With my Shadow Aero 1100 i loved the looks but it's not where i want it to be so i am spending the money to get it looking how i want.  With the Fury, i really expected the ride to grab me more given the aggressive advertising, name and looks.  So i am really torn.  I don't want to write it off because i do love the looks and hey, it's a Honda so you know it's going to be bullet proof.  But at the same time I'm thinking I'll need to install some mini apes, fishtail pipes, new air box, and a power commander to get somewhere close to what i want.  Then I'm in the Harley range and they hold their value nicely so why not get one those.  Always wanted a Harley!  We'll see what tomorrow brings.  I'll go out and do some more test riding till i find the one that grabs me by the heart and balls.