My Current VTR

Late last year I was on the lookout for a bike to commute on, since my journey time had doubled within a couple of months. At the same time, Del was doing some work on a storm for someone, replacing the engine, selling off some of the trick bits and returning it to semi-standard so he could sell it. After all this was done, the guy's buyer didn't come up with the money, so I stepped in and made an offer.

It was the perfect workhorse and ideal for commuting and the odd weekend blast. I went down to London a couple of weeks later to collect it.

The first thing I did was to pay a visit to Roger Ditchfield at Revolution Racing. Roger really is a guru for all things VTR, and has been racing and tuning bikes since before I was born. His suspension tuning work is held in very high esteem especially amongst VTR owners, where the standard bike falls particularly short in many areas. Anyhow, Roger had already worked his magic on the forks with a complete revalve and resprung, but somewhere along the line the previous owner had twiddled with the settings and the handling wasn't all it should be as a result. Within a short while Roger had the settings dialled back in, with the exception of the rear preload collar which was siezed (I will get round to it, honest!).

I can't say enough good things about the engine either. I've rode my fair share of firestorms in my time but the engine on this one is a stonker. It just pulls and pulls and pulls. The balanced crank has a lot to do with that. Whereas a standard storm will tick over at maybe 900-1000rpm with the occasional stall, this baby can tick over as low as 500-600rpm. It will cruise in any gear as low as 1600rpm with no jolting or snatching, just smooth power, and it revs much easier than a standard bike. It also seems to pull harder to the redline than any other VTR I can remember riding.

The PFMs are another favourite of mine. Combined with the fork tune they really do give demon stopping power. It's a shame really that they rarely get used for anything other than the daily commute. Every time I've used them in anger though, they've proved to be more than up to the job.

The titanium slip-ons sound fantastic, but they may have to go in the future. They're a bit too loud for me to be firing them up at 7.30 each morning I suppose. Having said that, until the local plod do something about the boy racers at the local McD's, bollocks to em - they can stay on!

Here's the spec:

98-S 50th Anniversary VTR
Dynamically-balanced crank
PFM 6-Pot calipers with PFM discs
Braided hoses all round
Renegade Titanium slip-ons
Revolution revalved/resprung forks
K&N Air filter
Dynojet
Iridium screen
Powerbronze fairing lower
Baglux tank cover
Carbon fender (not in picture)
Carbon hugger
Carbon undertray
Iridium Screen


Serious brakes!!!...



...at Revolution Racing getting the suspension set up...



alternative mounting near the clocks...