The 919 Ok since every other e-mail I get is about various aspects of the 919 let me see if I can build a page to accurately convey my thoughts. This will be another one of my attempts to take what started out as a post on a forum & convert it into & one size fits all article about the 919's potential & purpose as I see it. In other words it's my opinion. I base this on the fact that I've been riding sportbikes long enough & can push one much closer to its limits (& in some cases beyond) than the common joe. No, I'm not trying to brag that I am a riding deity as there is always someone faster, but generally whether riding the track or the country backroads that someone faster is usually me at the front of the pack. I know the difference between a good handling bike & a poor handling one as I've got over twenty years of riding experience & have ridden all manner of streetbikes/racebikes in various states of tune & suspension work from bone stock to re-worked forks & even in a few cases all the way up to pure works unobtanium superbike parts. I am very astute in my riding as I have a tendency to notice very small details & nuances that most riders don't even recognize let alone have a chance to dismiss. Whether that means you should listen to me or not remains to be seen, but most of the experienced riders do tend to agree with my statements when it comes to such topics. |
| The 919 is a
budget based sportbike built by Honda to get a piece of
the naked bike market that is quickly becoming popular
here in the States. The popularity of this bike comes
from many different angles. The basic premise is it is a
cheap bike to buy & a cheap bike to insure, however
others see it as an updated reminder of days gone by
& still others like myself find it a fun alternative
to the more narrowly focused current sportbikes wrapped
in plastic that are most commonly seen in bright flashy
colors with riders weaving in & out of traffic at
usually high rates of speed... The 919 is quite subdued
compared to those bikes & generally attracts a more
mature rider with less desire to be the king of the
canyon or local racetrack in that same scope comes the
fact that the 919 has just enough suspension underneath
of it to keep it on the road & no real amenities to
speak of. Honda
took a bulletproof 900RR motor, detuned it & in the
process gave it a 100% user friendly spread of managable
power delivery, added an aesthetically pleasing
"hidden" frame just barely capable of handling
the motors output & threw on a barebones suspension
just adequate to get the power to the ground. They saved
a bundle on costs & are undoubtedly making an
excellent profit margin on a bike they didn't think would
sell well in the US market. Pretty much a win-win
situation for Honda whereas they could have gone all out
& created a naked monster power machine that costs
more to manufacture & ultimately would appeal to a
smaller group of potential buyers. Just from reading the
various 919 message boards it's clear that most 919
owners have exactly what they are looking for in that the
919 is a fun bike & perfect for most riders just
looking for a sporty ride/weekend tourer/grocery getter
etc... Very few actually want to up the horsepower of the
919 & those that do look at it as a novelty type
gimmick simply due to how it limits the focus of the bike
& tend to drop the idea when it's pointed out that
after spending the cash it takes to get the power up,
then sorting the suspension/frame that they will still
have a bike that would get its ass handed to it by any of
the current bone stock 600 sportbikes. I do support
anyone's right to do whatever mods to their bike that
they want. However more power from the motor from
internal mods is a point of diminishing returns as the
frame & suspension are already overtaxed. The normal
every day rider doesn't use the performance that the bike
offers now & those that can ride the bike to its
potential & beyond know that the motor is not the
limiting factor but rather the chassis. Now don't misconstrue, better suspension in the form of reworked stock forks (or reworked F4i USD forks would be an even better alternative) & a quality aftermarket shock will definitely increase the 919's potential, but only marginally as you still have to contend with the swingarm & chassis flex among other things like the lack of a progressive type linkage. BTW take what you read from most sportbike owners (especially 919 owners) with a grain of salt. I mean no offense to anyone, but purely as an example, this summer I rode with a couple of guys that had swapped their front forks to F4i forks & just raved about how good they were & how much better the handling & feedback was. I rode with them a bit & even though my 919 was loaded down with saddle bags & a cooler & I have completely stock suspension they couldn't even keep me in site past a couple of corners & I had to wait about 3 minutes at the end of each road for them to catch up... These guys were professing how much better the new forks were when they couldn't ride worth a damn to begin with & simply lacked the experience to add any validity to their claims. Anywho, back to the topic put those same quality suspension parts on a full-on sportbike & the return on investment will be much greater. I may ultimately end up doing the suspension thing too as I am a huge advocate of doing suspension work before anything else on my bikes, but so far I have not been able to bring myself to spend the money needed in light of the bikes inherent weaknesses. On the 919 I ride circles around bigger bikes all the time & they all say that it looks like I am intentionally sliding the rear or backing it in, but in truth I am just floggin it & holding on, hoping it sticks. The ass end is all over the place & the front end feedback is vague at best. Still I just ride the bike as it is & smile the entire time as it is extremely flickable & I feel agile, mobile & hostile everytime I throw a leg over it. If you have the money & just want to throw an Ohlins shock on it or get the forks re-worked I say go for it as you will no doubt be pleased with how much more compliant the 919 will become in all road conditions & it can be a great confidence builder to be able to feel the bike on the road so much better. Just be advised that the money you are spending on suspension parts would ultimately be much better spent on a track day or riding school as the rider makes more difference than the bike & the 919 can be made to do some fairly impressive things, but you have to be a smooth rider to be fast on it. |
The last
thing I want to touch on is just how easy this bike is to
ride. I don't think I have ever owned a bike that was
this inviting to ride quickly. At anything up to an
aggressive pace on the backroads the 919 just lets you
throw it around at will & it stays for the most part
composed. The suspension that feels rough & tight in
the city limits starts to really come in & work for
you at elevated speeds. Now when you get up to something
close to 7/10 then the bike starts to protest & the
rear end starts getting very loose & the shock
damping gets worse as the lean angles increase. I do not
pretend to understand why this is, but I have learned to
just ride through the corners when the rear end starts
bobbing up & down or hunting for grip as letting off
the gas or braking simply aggravates the condition. You
HAVE to trust the bike & again smooth is the key to
making this bike work as it is & any ham fisted
throttle jockey or brake happy rider will find himself
either getting passed or in the ditch. You don't have the
horsepower to make up time on corner exit so you have to
keep up your corner speed or the other guys will just
motor away from you. The one thing the 919 has in its
favor that the more race oriented sportbikes don't is
front end stability. This usually means it is hard to
steer, but the 919 has a very neutral feel to it even on
tight fast left/right transitions. Some of this I am sure
is in part to the wide handlebars increasing leverage on
steering inputs, but overall the lazy geometry numbers of
the 919 make it a very stable bike that rarely induces
headshake & invites you to push harder through the
twisties. The rake/trail & wheelbase numbers of the
bike pretty much preclude the need for a steering damper
as the front end recovers instantly from just about
anything you can throw at it from cresting hills while
the front wheel goes light to crossed up wheelies landed
just a little too early  Naturally if a steering damper
makes you feel better & gives you more confidence
then by all means do what you need to do, but as you
become more & more intimate with the bike you will
discover that it is by all accounts one of the best
mannered front ends on the road today even if the
feedback is lacking & you really have to do something
stupid to get it to shake its head at you.I'll probably add more to this at a later date & as other common issues come up, but for now it's after midnight & I've had a long day.
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