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New member from Bowmanville Ontario bought an 85 vf500


Charles13

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Hello from the north,

 

I collect old bikes and have always had a soft spot for the 1st gen Interceptors, my friend who used to race for Honda, his brother and I bought the 1st 3 Interceptors brought into Canada via preorder. I got hit by a guy running a stop sign a year later and wrote mine off, it was by far one of my favourite bikes and 40 years later I finally found one I couldn’t pass up; it’s an 85 vf500 with 2 extra parts bikesD05B2460-D0FB-4C11-BF77-333534456FD0.thumb.jpeg.430d83a16621f55b6187f793fda376f8.jpeg

Ive been avidly reading up on these little baby ceptors and already spent over $600 on eBay parts to upgrade the running gear. I plan on using it as my daily rider as that is what my 83 was. I will start a thread documenting my progress with the bike but it won’t start until next year as we are entering winter up here and, I’m building a house and, I’m homeless atm so the bike went straight into a storage unit. 

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Welcome Charles...
Before Mr.RC45 I had a love affair with my 86 VF500F Interceptor
bought new from Golden Gate Cycles... I modified it extensively...
Dymags... Billet Clutch basket... Exhaust and even converted the chain
to belt... This became famous Belt-0-Ceptor... I racked up 98,000
trouble free miles... I sold it to my Air Force buddy up in White City
Oregon...

ce5BVi3.jpg

gallery_3131_51_14630.jpg

Home made Billet Clutch Basket
gallery_3131_51_1687.jpg

My custom dash with Oh Shit warning...
gallery_3131_51_36605.jpg


Sometimes being the littlest bike among the Big-Bad-Motors of Death
can be a recipe for bruised egos...
qBUdODI.jpg

 

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10 hours ago, Wald said:

Nice bike and welcome from CT!

Thanks I lived in CT for a summer and rode every weekend from NY to MA to the southern tip of CT , fortunately a lot of those old roads where not built in a straight line, a lot of fun and good memories. 

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8 hours ago, BusyLittleShop said:

Welcome Charles...
Before Mr.RC45 I had a love affair with my 86 VF500F Interceptor
bought new from Golden Gate Cycles... I modified it extensively...
Dymags... Billet Clutch basket... Exhaust and even converted the chain
to belt... This became famous Belt-0-Ceptor... I racked up 98,000
trouble free miles... I sold it to my Air Force buddy up in White City
Oregon...

ce5BVi3.jpg

gallery_3131_51_14630.jpg

Home made Billet Clutch Basket
gallery_3131_51_1687.jpg

My custom dash with Oh Shit warning...
gallery_3131_51_36605.jpg


Sometimes being the littlest bike among the Big-Bad-Motors of Death
can be a recipe for bruised egos...
qBUdODI.jpg

 

Wow, those period mods bring back fond memories; the Dymags (18”)? Building billet baskets with heavy springs, I grew up around the racing scene; my best friend was a 2 time Canadian Superbike champion. I certainly fall into the “not quite sport touring riders” category which is why I’m going from a r1m to a good handling vintage bike, the fines up here easily morph into the $40k range in an instant if your caught speeding 80mph on a back road. 
I plan on concentrating just on handling mods for this bike. 

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Welcome to VFRD from across the pond :laugh:

 

 

Bought my 1986 back in 2015, sold her this year with 100k+ km on it. 60k+ of which by me

Used as commuter and long trips alike.

I keep a blog here of my VF500 (and other bikes), so have a loooong scroll...

 

Before spending any more sheckels, lift the cam covers and inspect the cam lobes and followers.  You had a VF500 before, so you know Honda upgraded the 86 (bigger oil pump, line bored cam journals) after their initial VF750 etc failures.

 

But, if your has survived running so far, good chance itsa good one. 

 

No fan of the paint scheme on yours, but you it looking at the fireplace while poking the fire eh?

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13 hours ago, Charles13 said:

Thanks I lived in CT for a summer and rode every weekend from NY to MA to the southern tip of CT , fortunately a lot of those old roads where not built in a straight line, a lot of fun and good memories. 

...and I found few of these roads where I can practice my old skills and memory for speed!

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Memore for speed...

 

No matter what I tried, on a flat road, no taliwind, she would simply refuse to go over 200KMH (on GPS). 196 and that was it :laugh:

VFR750 246

RC51 285

1953 Gilera  91

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On 11/1/2023 at 1:58 PM, Dutchy said:

Welcome to VFRD from across the pond :laugh:

 

 

Bought my 1986 back in 2015, sold her this year with 100k+ km on it. 60k+ of which by me

Used as commuter and long trips alike.

I keep a blog here of my VF500 (and other bikes), so have a loooong scroll...

 

Before spending any more sheckels, lift the cam covers and inspect the cam lobes and followers.  You had a VF500 before, so you know Honda upgraded the 86 (bigger oil pump, line bored cam journals) after their initial VF750 etc failures.

 

But, if your has survived running so far, good chance itsa good one. 

 

No fan of the paint scheme on yours, but you it looking at the fireplace while poking the fire eh?

I had a 750 before, this is my first 500. I actually got 2 more bikes with this deal: an 85 and an 86. 
I really like your bike and may just leave this one as is because, aside from the tank that needs fixing it’s in really good shape. The other 85 is also in really good shape so I could go through the 86 motor (valve job hone and rings), put it in the 85 along with the f3 forks, f2 wheels, VFR front calipers, a new shock, some bits and bobs then give it a nice 86 paint job like yours (I’m building a new paint booth in my new shop) and have 2 nice baby ceptors. 
I did go through your thread and many others on here before I bought the forks, wheels and brakes so I kind of had a plan, you just influenced it more in the 86 restomod direction, which is a good thing!

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14 hours ago, Dutchy said:

Memore for speed...

 

No matter what I tried, on a flat road, no taliwind, she would simply refuse to go over 200KMH (on GPS). 196 and that was it :laugh:

VFR750 246

RC51 285

1953 Gilera  91

It’s my plan to keep it slow on the straights and push real hard in the corners with this little bike. My idea of a fun little commuter bike. I’m retired so it’s all about the cheap thrills at this point in my life. 

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Am at a used mc/spares fair in Italy this weekend.

99.8% Italian mc but I spotted this dog...

 

20231104_160752.thumb.jpg.13286409256822bba7fc9906e735c6d2.jpg

 

 

20231104_160813.thumb.jpg.48473348ffb1d577bf3a09b92ba845ec.jpg

 

 

20231104_160828.thumb.jpg.abc45cf9b6127cb19b536414f58ea7ef.jpg

 

 

20231104_160845.thumb.jpg.1f34b52d48b54b16bd2eea5c0903df41.jpg

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On 11/4/2023 at 9:15 AM, RLoibl said:

I'm in Brighton, Ontario! My 2015 is put away for the winter. Let's hope spring comes quickly!

received_1391503008307316.jpeg

She’s a beauty! and your local, they have certainly evolved from the first generation, I may be in for a bit of culture shock. 

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