I was looking forward to seeing the 919, because Kim has had a crush on it and its smaller sibling, the UK Hornet 600, for quite a while. I was somewhat turned off by the stylized gas tank -- the over-enunciated ridge didn't really do it for me, but that's a niggle, and I had no other complaints with the styling of the bike. The choice to call the color "asphalt" is a rather interesting one, but it's effective in that it's catchy. It was a nice color; almost a Ducati Monster-like matte, but more grey than black. I thought it was pretty attractive.

My thoughts from the saddle: Frankly, I was surprised at how tall it felt. For some reason, I'd been picturing a cute little standard, 900cc but still attainable. But no, this sucker was tall, and the stock seat was wide. The reach to the bars was much more reasonable for me, but the width of the seat made the 919 feel as tall as the VFR (in fact, it felt taller....let's see. Spec sheets on the VFR puts the seat height at 31.7", and the 919's at 31.5"). For comparison, I'd always felt that my SV650S had a wide stock seat, but it also has a seat height of 31.7" and doesn't feel nearly as tall as the 919. Other than that, though, the ergonomics were fairly comfortable. The idiot lights on the instrument panel were really small. No doubt that it's a cute little bike, though.

Honda's spec sheet