Just got mine a couple weeks ago in red. Previously owned a GL1500 Interstate. Red definitely looks best with the beautiful metallic paint in the Sun. The blue one for some reason to me, looks like a different bike in person as the radiators/shrouds "seems" more prominent. Plus the chrome accents on the red adds to the visual appeal IMO. The style maybe polarizing, but judge seeing the red in person. This thing looks the $hit like something out of a ZZ-top vid. Looks like an awesome sled is the best way to describe it. Low and mean looking.
Handles great. Plenty of power/torque. Took advantage of the extra year of Honda Care warranty, low financing (1.9%) and $1000 worth of accessories. I just picked up my fog lights, light harness, "boulevard" screen, and rear rack and rack mount kit. The screen is too small. You don't see what it is going to look like on the bike clicking on the Honda accessories link. It does next to nothing to improve the wind in your face at high highway speeds. Only VERY minor improvement. I call it more form than function. At about 80 mph, the wind pushes on your helmet to uncomfortable level with the stock bike and no screen. I am only 5'6" also. The screen was put on this morning (all I had time to install) and was a PITA to get properly lined up and so it does not interfere with the throttle cables. It does look good if that is what you want. The optional tall screen is WAY too tall IMO so I do not want that. I would be looking through it in the rain, which I never want to be doing (been there done that). They should have had one in the middle of too tall and way too small. Suppose I could cut it down, but who wants to spend hundreds just to have to modify it yourself? I intend to install a Givi trunk on the rear rack. Once you get used to having a trunk, you do not want to live without one as I can carry rains, laptop and lunch at once. The rack is nicely finished and heavy, but it is small and I am worried the trunk might have trouble fitting, and I do not want to add an extension to make it work. The trunks are not returnable as they are special order. The one I want has silver (aluminum) accents, I intend to paint to match the red I get from Colorite (you know spend hundreds just to modify it, lol). The fog lamps look like nice units and are very heavy with the bracketry, but they are expensive ($560 with harness), and the instructions for installation are 11 pages long. That should be a huge PITA to install. We'll see. The plastic lamp shrouds look like crap with the "plugs" where the lights should be on the bike as purchased IMHO. The Owners Manual is $hit and worthless so I ordered the Helm Honda Service Manual (not bad at $55 shipped). I hope will give me the information I really want. The bike has a slight baritone drone at highway speeds that sounds good while accelerating, but seems like it would be tiresome on a longer haul with the stock exhausts. Not sure whether I will consider Cobras later. The seat is hard, but am not planning on changing yet until it has some time to perhaps soften up, but the shape is good. I saw the link to the Corbin. Not enamored with the look and it is stupid expensive. Who the hell do they think they are? The SS swingarm and rear wheel looks great to me. Precision shifting is effortless. All in all, very happy I got this, but I will miss my Bandit 1250 when I sell it (best bike I ever owned and there have been a lot of them). Could not even wait to put 1000 miles on her before starting mods. The $1000 "free" accessories sure helped that though, even though mine added up to $1100, lol. Got it all out the door under $18K including everything (prep, ship, docs, tax, tags, blah, blah).
BTW, just turned 51 right after buying (happy b-day present to me!), so not all us geezers think the new Valk is fugly. Make sure you see it in person before you decide (especially red
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-Jim
