HONDA VTR1000F FIRESTORM

Bertie Simmonds had a mixed relatioship with the Honda VTR100F FireStorm. Join us for a trip back in time, mind out for the Muntjac!

Honda’s stab at a sporting 1990s V-twin

As morning commutes go, it wasn’t the best. Riding along the A605 towards Peterborough I’d just overtaken an articulated lorry and was accelerating gently away when Mr. Muntjac Deer decided to cross the road.

I did everything right: I didn’t look at ‘him’ but instead I looked to my escape route as he was doubling back to his side of the road. To get past the prospective collision, I opened the throttle so the Honda Firestorm’s bark grew louder through those twin Remus pipes. Now, loud pipes may well save lives, but they didn’t for Mr. M, who decided (on hearing that 90-degree V-twin howl through those glorious cans) to turn back around and (literally) run through my front wheel. End result was one dead deer and a grand total of £1321.68 worth of damage. Oh, and a broken hand and a re-bent pin in my left arm that required some serious surgery.

As Mr. M took me down, I recall two things: as the bike slid down the road leaving a trail of sparks, I said to myself: “I really loved that bike…” Then I realised I needed to get up sharpish, which I did before I was run over by the (friendly) lorry driver.

That morning was full of new friends, including the posh doctor who took me to Peterborough General Hospital in his Morse-mobile Jag. He realised by my attire that I was a motorcycle journalist. He said he knew some colleagues of mine, so I guessed he was a fracture clinic specialist. Turns out he was a specialist in sexually transmitted diseases and he’d ‘treated’ a few friends of mine on their return from the Macau Grand Prix, but back to the bike…