1800F w/ Cobra Pipes and Fi2000

I_]ONDAVTX1SOOF
oE V-Twttl KABooM
irs 110 cuBIC TNCHES
pushingit, Honda'sVTX1800Fmovesdown
the road quite smartly,thank you. But you know
how we motorcyclistsare when it comesto performance:
Enoughis...well, neverenough.We alwaysyearnfor more
expense,easy
especiallyifgetting it involvesreasonable
installationand immediateresults.So,when we decided
to give our testVTX-F a bit moreurge.we took a route
thai promisedto deliverthoseeasy,immediateresults.We
swappedthe stock exhaustfor one that breathesa little more
freeiy,andcoercedthe fuel-injectionsysteminto beingmore
generouswith its distributionof deaddinosaurs.
Fortunately,we were ableto obtainthe equipmentneeded
for both tasksfrom the samesource:CobraEngineertng
(7 14I 692-8 |80; www.cobrausa.com).At the time,-Cobrawas
the only companyselling an aftermarketexhaustfor the F($579)'which feature
modelVTX: the drag-styleSpeedsters
that
full-lengthheatshieldsanda cleverlyhiddencrossover
connectsthe two pipesright at the front ofthe straightsections.We alsosnaggedoneof Cobra'sFi2000Digital Fuel
($200)tojuice up the Honda'sEFI.
Processors
and
lnstallationof thesepieceswas straightforward
The entirestockexhaustcameoff as a
absentany surprises.
unit in iessthanfive minutes,andboltingup the Speedsters
requiredj ust short of a half-hour-much of which was spent
fiddling with the hoseclampsthat hold the heatshields
in place.Installingthe Fi2000is anotherno-brainerthat
n.rostpeopleshouldbe ableto accomplishin minutes.It
involvesvelcroingthe unit to the top of the EFI blackbox
underthe seat,andconnectingfour wiresusingthe provided
F12000box is
unobtrusive,fits
easryunderthe seat
SpeedsterpiPesare
availablein three
aptly namedstyres;
the Slashdowns
(seen here),the
longer Longsand
the shorterShorts.
/ ,, ,1".
Scotchlokconnectors.
We werepleasantlysur100
prisedat the results.Stock,
90
the F-modelchurnedout 83.5
80
70
horsepowerat 5 100rpm and
60
97.0foot-poundsoftorque at
50
3700.The pipe andFi2000
z
40
u
bumpedthosenumbersuP
to 88.6hp at 4900 and 104.1
$ c n
of6
ft.-1b.at 3400-increases
,"
E
and 8 percent,respectivelY.
o
o
From idle to around2700
2
3
4
5
6
RPMx1000
rpm, the torquecurve didn't
83.5@ 5100RPM
-'--slocK g7,0@3700RPM
changemuch; in fact, between
2000and2700,1fwasa foot88.6 @ 4900 RPM
^^--.
uuum
i04.7 @ 34oo RPM
pound or threelower. DesPite
that, throttle responseright
off idle was noticeablymorecrisp,andthe torquelncrease
from 2700up to redlinewas significantlygreaterthanstock.
Indeed,at around4100rpm, the torqueoutputwas almost
9 ft.-lb. higher.
We per-eivedthe biggestimprovementwhen rolling the
throttleopenat 3000rpm and above,andwhenrunningup
the
throughthe gearswide-open.In thcsecircumstances,
noticeablyharderandwas much more
VTX accelerated
willing to rev. And becauseboth the horsepowerandtorque
peaksoccurredat slightly lower rpm, that addedperformancewasmoreeasilyaccessible.
Creditmuchof this improvementto the crossoverin the
would likely have
exhaustsystem.Without it, the Speedsters
behavedlike most other straightpipesand pokeda sizable
hole in the powerband,probablyin that 2000-to-2700-tpm
range.But the crossovergiveseachcylinder'sexhaustpulses
accessto thetotalvolumeof bothpipes,broadeningthe
system'seffectivetuningrange.So,it allowsthe pipesto be
tunedfor higher-rpmperformancewithout greatlypenal-
videdby the Fi2000.When checkedwith an
exhaust-gasanalyzer,the modified VTX
maintaineda near-idealair-fuelratio of
all theway
i" ,-'r-1" between74.2:1to 14.5:l
throughthe rpm range,whereasin stock
form, it wasmuch leanerat low andmid
three
rpm. The Fi2000incorporates
richening screwsunder its flip-uP
lid, but the mixture was PerfectlY
dialed-in as delivered, so we
neverhad to touch them.
F o r j u s t o v e r $ 7 5 0 ,t h e n ,
practically anyonecan
bump the performanceof
their VTX1800F enoughto
get rewardingresults.All
they need are a few basrc
tools and a burning destrefor
M
more kaboom.
':.: ''1'"':" ""
""
"'
' i
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