InvisiBill Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Hey all! My buddy recently wrecked his '98 (he only had a few bumps and bruises) and doesn't have a garage at the moment, so I bought it back from insurance with the intention of making it road-worthy again. He bought the bike a couple years ago pretty cheap with high mileage, so it's not worth the $8400 quoted to fix it up to like-new, but it's mostly superficial damage, so we didn't like the idea of throwing it away either. Here's a shot of the worst of the damage. There's a crack and some scrapes on the side fairing due to the fall (along with some marks from POs dropping it), but basically the accident just smashed the front fairing into the back of the gauge cluster. I managed to get most of the broken stuff off the bike, and it doesn't look nearly as bad now. Generally speaking, I hate streetfighters. Most of them look like someone was just too cheap to fix a bike properly. In my case, that's exactly the situation. I could easily spend more than the bike's worth buying replacement OEM parts. Though the damage is basically just a handful of appearance parts, they seem to be the really expensive ones (hence the $8400 repair quote). My plan right now is to spend as little as possible to make it rideable again. I've got a generic Chinese eBay gauge cluster on the way and am working on headlight ideas. I plan to remove the side plastics, as they look a bit funny (and probably don't work too well) without the front, so I figure I'll need to modify the radiator setup a bit. The brake lever is broken, so I plan to order a set of the eBay CNC ones (I'm quite happy with the ones on my Ninja). I'm sure there will be a few odds and ends along the way, but those are the only real parts involved I believe. I'm hoping to have it back on the road for only a few hundred bucks. A big challenge will be not trying to fix every little deficiency. I'm a perfectionist, so I don't like leaving things less than ideal. I've already ordered a MOSFET R/R because I stumbled across a cheap one on eBay. I've been looking at the 929 shock swap stuff, and know the value of getting fork springs of the correct rate, based on experience with the Ninja. I just need to keep reminding myself that my goal is a cheap, just-good-enough bike, not perfection. The Ninja puts out close to 60hp, so it's fine for any riding at legal speeds and I don't really feel like I need more power. However, as soon as I sat on the VFR, I realized how much better the bike fits me as a slightly bigger guy. I don't look like a clown on the Ninja or anything, but it's just a tad too small whereas the VFR seems to be a perfect fit for me. My buddy picked up an '07 anniversary model from a local dealer to finish out the season. He's considering buying a brand new bike next year, and offered to sell me the '07 for whatever the dealer would give him back on trade-in. Depending on how well I like the '98 and how the '07 looks at that time, I might upgrade. It should help me limit my upgrades on the '98 if I know there's a not-busted-up '07 waiting for me. Here's an older pic of my Ninja flanked by the VFR and Mrs. Buddy's Ninja 250. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Dutchy Posted August 19, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted August 19, 2014 Welcome to VFRD from across the pond For some reason, your pictures are not showing.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNRabbit Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Most of the stuff you need is on ebay right now used..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marriedman Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Oh it breaks the heart to see a bike like that. Glad to hear you are going to get her road worthy. I agree with your opinion of most streetfighters too, they look awful much of the time. But there have been some that have turned out sharp. Were the forks bent? If so, you may want to check and see if the frame is OK as well. If the head is tweaked, you may want to stop now before you sink money into a bike that will not be safe later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Duc2V4 Posted August 19, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted August 19, 2014 +1 on what Marriedman said. From what I have seen/read regarding doing the street fighter route, the wiring that usually sits behind the front fairing will be your highest hurdle. You might want to PM some of the guys who have gone the SF route and see if they have any suggestions and tips for you. Other than that, I say Good Luck with your project, make us proud! Oh Yeah, Welcome Aboard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
checksix Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Hate to see a "hello" post like that, but welcome. Did the front wheel take a hit or was it just the upper cowl? As others have mentioned, before you invest a lot of money, you might want to carefully eyeball the forks to see if they're straight and look at the fork turn-stops to see if they show any indication that the front took a sideways hit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InvisiBill Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 For some reason, your pictures are not showing.... Not sure why that is. Here are the direct links to the pics (I'm not used to this forum software, so maybe the URLs are already easily available via the pics some other way)... http://www.invisibill.net/vfr800/images/damage1.jpg http://www.invisibill.net/vfr800/images/damagepieces1.jpg http://www.invisibill.net/vfr800/images/stripped1.jpg Were the forks bent? If so, you may want to check and see if the frame is OK as well. If the head is tweaked, you may want to stop now before you sink money into a bike that will not be safe later. Did the front wheel take a hit or was it just the upper cowl? As others have mentioned, before you invest a lot of money, you might want to carefully eyeball the forks to see if they're straight and look at the fork turn-stops to see if they show any indication that the front took a sideways hit. From what I can tell, the wheel and forks are completely untouched. The fairing stay was bent up pretty good and the relay/etc. mounting bar was completely broken off it, but the tabs on the head tube are still fine (I've read that it's fairly common to break those off). The bike's functional parts seem to have made it out unscathed, unlike the cosmetic parts. The plastic dash plugs on the harness were broken a little bit (plus it looks like something broke one of the turn signal wires in the harness), so a new harness was quoted, but I believe they're still usable even in this condition. The broken parts are quite expensive to replace, but it looks like the "necessary" parts all managed to avoid damage. As others have said, it hurts to see a bike in this condition, but I think I can at least get it back on the road with a few cheap, generic parts to replace the broken stuff. I don't really expect it to turn out as one of the best streetfighters anyone's seen, but hopefully it'll at least be decent and functional without dropping a ton of cash. If I can get it fixed cheap enough, I can sell it a little cheaper later, so maybe some n00b who insists on starting on a big bike will ruin this beater instead of a nice VFR. Though I'm not sure how many n00bs seek out VFRs to start on anyway - they're not RR's, ya know. Most of the stuff you need is on ebay right now used..... I've seen some of the stuff, but the cost of the front fairing, fairing stay, headlight, and gauge cluster would almost certainly exceed what I paid for the bike, not counting all the miscellaneous trim pieces and other bits I'd need. The left side fairing is a little broken, and if I was going that far, I'd want to replace the right side too. As much as I hate doing it, this is more about getting a bike back on road in a basic form, rather than a full restoration of a bike that I have a strong attachment to. I think the more I put into it, the harder it'll be to get my money back out of it later. I even considered parting it out, but with the amount of the bike that was undamaged, I figured I could make a ridable bike for minimal cost, and it would be easier to sell later. I didn't really want to deal with the effort of tearing it apart and selling/shipping a bunch of parts individually (and still having a bunch of junk left over after all the desirable stuff sells). From what I have seen/read regarding doing the street fighter route, the wiring that usually sits behind the front fairing will be your highest hurdle. You might want to PM some of the guys who have gone the SF route and see if they have any suggestions and tips for you. Yeah, I noticed as I tore into it that there was a lot more wiring up there than I'm used to from my Ninja and Vulcan experience. Since the harness is already damaged, I may just trim back what I don't need. The Boy Scout section of my brain might even convince me to use metri-pack connectors to do the splice, so I could add some connectors to the trimmed bits and plug them back in, just in case I might ever want to go back. I'll have to see how things come together once I figure out what sort of headlight/screen setup I want. Oddly enough, the windscreen looks like the car's tire skidded across it (probably just the bumper hitting it or something). What looks like a shadow in the pics is actually black marks across it. However, as far as I can tell, not a single bit of it is actually broken off. I just found that a little amusing, considering the amount of damage to the fairing and the markings on the screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VFR4Lee Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Considering the market value of a 98 in decent shape, I assume the busted plastics one was cheap. Can understand the Chinese plastics might not be worth the money. Show us what you build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veefer800Canuck Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Ebay That is my best suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 For some reason, your pictures are not showing.... Not sure why that is. Here are the direct links to the pics (I'm not used to this forum software, so maybe the URLs are already easily available via the pics some other way)... http://www.invisibill.net/vfr800/images/damage1.jpg http://www.invisibill.net/vfr800/images/damagepieces1.jpg http://www.invisibill.net/vfr800/images/stripped1.jpg Welcome. My employers IT system is blocking your pic links as possible malware... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squidzilla Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 So what every happened with this project? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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