Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be — it’s better. Retro is back with a bang. Take clothing. Only the other day my old mate Paddy Minne, the Franco-Belgian motorcycle mechanic with whom I’d ridden from Delhi to Belfast, each of us on a Royal Enfield, called by wearing a Fred Perry tennis shirt exactly the same as the one I’d saved my summer earnings as a grocery delivery boy in the Seventies to buy.
“Here, is that fashionable?” I asked, only to be greeted with a look of pure Gallic scorn.
“Good God! Do you think I would be wearing it otherwise?” he said. Not only that, but you can walk into any high-street shoe shop and pick up a pair of Onitsuka Tiger trainers of the kind I lusted after so much in my early twenties that when I finally got a pair I wore them to bed. I know, it’s very sad, so don’t tell a soul.
As well as that, everyone in Britain under the age of 30 is running around in Superdry gear that wouldn’t have looked out of place in my wardrobe in Los Angeles when I played semi-pro volleyball there in the Eighties.
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And then, funnily enough, there are motorbikes. I’m not long back from three months of riding a Triumph Tiger around Australia for my next book and a TV documentary, and in the cities it seemed every other bike was a Triumph Bonneville, Thruxton or Scrambler, being ridden by someone who’d only just started shaving.
The great thing about retro bikes, of course, is that you get the classic look with modern running gear, so you can actually spend your time riding the thing rather than standing by the roadside in a puddle of oil and disintegrated tappets waiting patiently for the man from the AA or RAC.
These days retro riders are spoilt for choice, with not only the aforementioned trio from Triumph, but Harleys such as the Forty-Eight and Cross Bones, and Enfields such as the Clubman, Woodsman and Bullet.
And now, to that select company, you can add the classy Honda VT750S, the stripped-down latest incarnation of the Japanese company’s Shadow range. Dating back to 1983 and ranging in size from 125cc to 1100cc, they’ve all been cruisers. Until now.
Honda has pulled the front wheel and footpegs back and raised the bars slightly to create a more comfortable riding position and make the VT750S attractive to a wider range of riders.
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And attractive it is, with a beautifully understated classic look in lustrous metallic graphite, which is the only colour available but suits the bike perfectly, set off to a T by wire-spoked wheels and just the right amount of chrome picking out details such as the cylinder fins, air filter and twin exhausts.
Climb aboard, and the seating position is perfectly neutral, with everything falling nicely to hand — except for the pegs, which I kept getting my feet tangled in every time I tried to put them on the ground.
“For heaven’s sake,” I moaned into my helmet, “why on earth has Honda put the pegs exactly where you want to put your feet? I realised that’s precisely where the pegs should be. D’oh.
As for the instruments, they are as understated and classy as the rest of the machine. An analogue speedo with five lights keeps you informed of everything including the fuel level — a welcome improvement from older Shadows, in which you switched over to reserve when the main tank ran dry. With that system a complete idiot could forget he was on reserve and run out of petrol entirely. I speak from experience.
I glanced down as I prepared to pull away, and my gaze fell on the only ugly part of the entire bike: a side stand that on previous models was an elegant sweep of polished steel but is now a truncated black tube apparently sawn off an Albanian coffee table circa 1970.
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New, steeper forks make low-speed handling — always vague and woolly in previous Shadows — much more precise. Handling is easier, too, aided by increased ground clearance, which means that unlike with my wife’s Shadow 650, on which I’m regularly accused of grinding the pegs, there’s plenty of opportunity to lean into turns without coming into contact with the tarmac. Before long, I was winding through bends feeling as though I’d been on this bike all my life.
Does that make it boringly perfect — a curious criticism that has been levelled at Hondas in the past?
Not this time, for several reasons. First, the VT750S looks fabulous; second, it rides like a dream; and, third, the glorious threnody of a V-twin gives any bike charisma.
As you’d expect from a 750cc lump producing a modest 43bhp, acceleration is eager but not breathtaking, although it’s still more than enough to beat virtually anything on four wheels away from the lights.
Faults? Only that horror of a side stand, and rear suspension travel that was short enough to bottom out twice over one stretch of road that had been dug up more than the Valley of the Kings.
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That’s probably why I ended up with a numb bum after a couple of hours, a problem I’d encountered with the firm seat of previous Shadows.
To be fair, though, the rear suspension is adjustable enough to cope with most road conditions and riding styles.
So if you fancy a classy retro machine, but don’t have a hankering for a Harley or a romantic attachment to British bikes and love the gutsy throb of a V-twin, this is a Honda you could fall in love with.