Not been around much recently as a) I no longer live in London and b) at the moment I don’t work in London either and c) haven’t had a bike for a bit. But now that c) was rectified a few weeks ago I thought I’d post a pic of the new one. Big grin not fading yet. 
picture doesn’t load
Don’t know why that is.
Maybe this will work…
Yay!
Nice.
Yes, but I gotta do something about that fugly can!
Have you ridden the old VFR800VTEC? How does it compare?
Hi Kevsta, yes, my previous bike was a VTEC which I had for 4 years and 55,000 miles up till this August so I reckon I can make a pretty fair comparison. The two bikes are very similar to ride but the new one is smaller, lighter, handles better, performs about the same but uses less gas doing it. I think the new one looks better and I find the slightly lower riding position more comfortable but those are personal opinions. The LED headlamps are brighter but the beam pattern is weird so I prefer the old bike’s quad H7s on main beam, and I would cheerfully lose the self-cancelling indicators. I also used to like the underseat cans, not having anything getting in the way of taking the back wheel out was great but I guess having just one can lower down helps with weight reduction and distribution so nothing to be done about that. Honda’s own-brand heated grips are brilliant, like the new Tokico front brakes which are awesome. ABS and traction control do their job.
The old one…
Sadly, it seems to me, almost all new bikes come with fugly cans.
I predict a sales growth in aftermarket stuff that is in good taste.
(Nice looking bike. Aint it a bummer being without two wheels?)
excellent choice 
Nice and nice
Thats to comply with the latest sound and emissions Euro Motor Vehicle Regulations, it all started in 2007 and hasn’t stopped yet. Soon mo’cycles will be required to have a twin wheel rear axle to carry the extra weight :w00t:
I work tirelessly to combat this regulation 
Are there any major differences in the service schedule? And how you finding the day to day running costs?
No difference in the 16000-miles between major valve-check services but the 4000-mile service is now gone and the oil/filter etc service is now at 8000-mile intervals instead. I’ve only done a couple of thousand miles on the new one so far but day to day the only thing I’ve noticed is a definite improvement in fuel consumption. The silver one averaged about 47.5 mpg and its best ever on a tankful was 53 but that was in June when the air was warm. In winter the ECU would use more fuel to compensate for the colder air coming through the intakes and so I very seldom saw more than 45-47 on a tankful. The new bike, even in the temperatures we have at the moment, is returning 52-53 mpg regularly.
Otherwise I haven’t spent anything on it except to replace the OE Dunlop D222 Roadsmart look-alikes before they were worn out with my preferred Michelin Pilot Road 4s and that’s no different from the VTEC.