Quick Ride: Honda's Fury

Style, sound and feel. When Honda engineers sat down with pen and paper to design the Fury, they did so with those three things in mind. Did they hit the mark? And perhaps more importantly, who will buy it?

For starters, it's hard to argue that the bike doesn't look good. If you're into that sort of look. And it sounds pretty good for a stock cruiser. If that's the sort of sound that you're into. Ditto for the feel of the bike. We rode it for 60 or so miles down the coast of north San Diego County yesterday and it felt pretty good. If that's the feel you like in your motorcycles.

You see, the Fury comes with a lot of ifs, ands and buts. And the most important butt to Honda is exactly who is going to be putting their derrières on the seats of the Fury. That, after all, will be the true test of if they hit the mark or not.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to sample the Fury firsthand at Honda's launch of the new "chopper" in the coastal town of Carlsbad, California. And the day started with Honda explaining to us who the customer for the Fury will be. Turns out it's the Baby Boomer, mixed with some Gen Y with a bit of Gen X thrown in. Isn't that just about everybody?

The way I see it is the Fury is for the guy/gal looking to be cool but not financially insane enough to throw down $40,000 for a custom chopper. The Fury is sort of Honda's economic stimulus package: It allows you to go out and spend $13,000 on a motorcycle and still have $27,000 as a down payment on the four-bedroom house that's now in foreclosure down the street.

So while your poser value might be a little less than the guy with the custom, at least you'll have a garage to park yours in.

Like it or not, Honda's first attempt at a chopper will hit dealerships in April with an ABS version (which will be available in the black color only) of the bike slated to come in the fall. The Fury will sell for $12,999 with the Matte Silver Metallic version carrying an MSRP of $13,499 with the ABS model set to go for $13,999.

The bike with the longest wheelbase of any Honda ever made (71.24 inches) uses the 1312cc, 52-degree V-twin powerplant found in the VTX range - with fuel injection. Why they chose the 1300 over their bigger 1800cc V-twin is something that's open for discussion and Honda reps told us yesterday it was really down to the fact that the smaller motor lent itself better to the design of the bike. They also said the 1300 offered a better, chopper-like sound with a better pulse because of its single-pin crankshaft.

Once you get over the shock of seeing a Honda with a raked-out front end, the second thing you notice is the complete lack of Honda signage on the bike. According to the Honda reps, this wasn't done to "hide Honda," but to better accentuate and not take away from the stylish tank design. There is a Honda logo on the bike, but it's small and on the rear fender. They also said that with chopper customs, people don't tend to ask about the brand because they concentrate more on questions of fabrication. It's the "chopper-idiom," they said.

Methinks that the guy/gal who buys the Fury might be doing so because of the brand. Or at least because they want a "chopper" that starts every time they hit the ignition switch. But maybe that's just me.

But back to the bike. It's very chopper-like with its kicked-out front end, 21-inch front wheel and fat 18-inch rear tire.

And it's chopper-like in its feel. You sit low with the Fury's 26.7-inch seat height and even at 5-foot, 8-inches, I was fully flat-footed with bent knees at every stop. It's also chopper-like in that you feel every bump, though the back can be adjusted to bring a bit more cush from the single shock. The fork offers up four inches of travel, though I hit some bumps that normally wouldn't have registered - but on the Fury it kept my mind from wandering and my eyes from staring at the surf off the coast. But when I got off the bike, a glance at the fork showed that I'd used about two inches of the bike's travel. Hmmm. Funny how a telescopic fork just doesn't work so well when it's kicked out to the point that bumps strike the wheel at an angle that don't allow them to get soaked up.

But with bikes like this, it's all about the look. And the look of the bike is definitely very un-Honda. One area of the bike you can't help but notice is the welds on the frame. While the frames on the rest of the Honda lineup gets the precision welding of a machine, the Fury is hand welded in an effort to give it that custom look. Trouble is, there are good welders and bad welders, and there must be one tired lad at the Honda factory doing all the welds. After all, there's no way you could possibly find two people in that factory capable of welding this bad. Not to beat a dead horse, but the stoned kid you were scared to go near in ninth-grade metal shop didn't weld this poorly.

The rest of the bike features your typical Honda fit and finish. In other words, there's quality in abundance. The sort of quality we're used to in Honda products - even though this is like no Honda product we've ever seen before.

So did I like it? For the sort of riding we did on the bike, yes. I cruised down Pacific Coast Highway on a nice, sunny day and sort of drifted into coolness for a few hours. It wasn't as cool on the freeway ride back, because... well, because we were on the freeway and something less cool probably would have been cooler, if you get my drift.

Is there a buyer for a Honda chopper? Probably so... but for that we'll have to wait and see.

Helmet: Courtesy of Arai

Jacket: Courtesy of Shift

Gloves: Courtesy of Shift

Jeans: Purchased at the Gap at Mission Viejo Mall

Boots: Purchased at the Doc Marten store in London (circa 1998)