It’s always fun to play with hypothetical money and guess what current models will be future classics. The seller of this bike actually backed up his guess with a not-hypothetical investment. He bought two examples of Honda’s VRF1200F, one to ride and one to collect. In his words, “I recognize the technology investment made by Honda, I fell in love with this model (I appreciate what Honda did for Moto-GP with their V4 engines), and decided to buy it as a time capsule for possible future use.” He’s since decided that he would rather enjoy the open seas as a sailor, so he’s selling off everything, including this potential investment.
It’s easy to criticize someone else’s decision, though it does seem like a mistake to buy a 2013 model as a collector when the bike was introduced in 2010 (and updated with more torque and traction control in 2012). What the owner probably could not have predicted was how mellow the marketplace would react to a new big VFR. As Cycle World summed it up in their long term review:
“We concluded that the VFR suffers from an identity crisis. It’s too big (60.8-inch wheelbase) and heavy (613 pounds dry) to attract hardcore sport riders, and it only becomes a viable sport-tourer after the addition of the nice-looking but smallish—and expensive—accessory bags.
Similar comments appeared in the VFR’s logbook: “This is a deeply conflicted bike,” noted contributing editor Marc Cook. “In the VFR, Honda seems to be saying it can hit multiple spots and be more bike to more riders. Instead, the result is a bike that’s not as good at any one thing and downright unsuitable for several.””
This example has just 2.4 miles, and that’s pretty much all there is to say about it. The seller has a walkaround video in which he first the motor up:
Find this basically new VRF for sale here on Craigslist for $13,995 in Yelm, Washington. The seller ends his listing by saying, “I don’t expect to sell this for $14k, so make me a serious offer and we can talk.”