FromMaine

Holy Macaroni Tony is that a nice looking 5th gen.! Eight spoke, white rims, Highmount, seat cowl, and a blacked out belly pan. One of the reasons I really like the looks of my 4th Gen is the black belly pan against the Pure Pearl red bodywork and of course the white wheels. Much as I like white rims with red bodywork, I do.have an open mind, I'm curious to see what Captain has for a Bronze rims bike. He does have some good looking bikes in his Garage.

My 86. 90. 97, and 01 all have white wheels, so you know what side of the fence I am on. Personally, I think MBranes polished aluminum or Mello's silver would be the next best choice. If it has to be Black or Bronze. I would go with a high gloss black. I am still waiting to see a bike with Bronze wheels that I think the wheels and whatever color the bike is doesn't look mis matched. But, its an opinion.🙂

Sorry to hear about the medical issue. and yes you are lucky, I almost got taken out in my first month living in the UK in a traffic circle. As far as the minor scratches go, I think your fairing would be Honda R334, Victory Red. You could look for someone who supplies paint pens in the UK or Europe. I certainly saw lots of VFR's in both, I would assume they are available. The link is for a US company, but will give you an idea of what I mean. Honda VFR800F Touch Up Paint & Paint Color Codes Probably the same is available for the Crankcase cover, but my newest VFR is a 2001, so I have no idea what the color code is. Sure someone here will be able to offer some info. Lastly, I have put my manhood in my back pocket and marched into a large stores Cosmetic section with a motorcycle bit and color matched to nail polish. This doesn't last forever colorwise if left outside, but holds up well if the bike is covered or stored inside, and its as tough as nails. Just a thought. Good luck mate.

Well got side tracked. Will try to finish this up. It had rained the night before and was a steady drizzle at 38F as I pulled pulled out onto rt 132. Almost immediately i saw the construction sign and stop sign. Not sure how to describe it, but I was at the crest of a blind hill, no tarmac just gravel and could not see more than maybe 100-150 ft before, well nothing. Found out later this hill is a 17% grade, yikes. One of the workers walked up towards me. Monsiuer, Attention, Frais! then kicked into the gravel to show it was indeed fresh, unpacked gravel, then waved me on. It was steep enough I used a bit of throttle to start out, then just kinda coasted and just used my clutch to slow when needed. It was just about a kilometer like this and I was painfully slow. The car behind me was far enough behind to clearly show its not "if" this guy dumps it, but "when". As I came up to the end of the gravel, all I saw was mud, about 1" on the road. Of course rain, fresh gravel, 17% grade will do that. No gas, bumped onto the tarmac and was fine for a second or 2, then the rear started to come around to the right, so a little gas, and kinda got straight for a second or two, then repeat until clear. To be perfectly honest, I am that guy who on a nice sunny day, in a perfectly level and maintained parking lot has dumped his bike. I really have no idea how I did not that morning. A whole 2 kms after turning onto 132, I wanted a break.🙂 No where to pull off so keep going. Ran into more constructionup near the town of Gaspe and stopped to chat briefly with a Mountie. Who confirmed, yes there is more on 132. So looking g at my map, I decided to cut the corner of the peninsula and take 198, a long lonely road I was last on maybe 20 years ago. Things hadn't changed much as I saw the signs, no services next 85 km, in fact there is only one town, Murdochville before you reach 132 again. About 50 kms in I still the only person on the road when I saw the construction sign. There was a car in front of me, he had been there a while. I was obvious the were improving the sightlines on the road by cutting back abot 50 ft either side. This involve cutting about half a billion trees it seems. Eventually just shy of 50 minutes later we were on our way, behind an escort vehicle, it took a while. I stopped for gas at Cap-Chat. The road between the junction of 132/198 and there is beautiful. My hands were so numb by then, I stepped in side this 2 pump station to warm them up and dry my hands so I could put a different pair of gloves on. I came out to see a school bus oariently parked behind my bike waiting to get to the sole diesel pump. I made a quick apology the thr driver and headed off. There was more rain, construction, cold, a bit of highway, occasional nice views, then I finally made it to my destination, Riviere du Loup, which my schoolboy French says is Wolf River. My motel was old school one story, but I could not find where to check in, in the dark. The was a St.Hubert restaurant directly attached to it so I parked outside and walked in to enquire. The restaurant was paced at a bit after 7:00, they were a sit down with a bar and was about to go ask a hostess where to check in when I looked straight in front of me, the register to my right said take out orders, to the left said motel reception. Well thar was a first. Finally in front of my room, I put the kickstand down over 10 hours after leaving Perce, and the door next to mine opened. He was Tom, an older guy from Nova Scotia, started asking questions and telling me about his Harley and FJR. He eventually noticed my CAF look and said, you must be ready for a hot shower. He was right. After getting cleaned up and warm I walked across the road to a Normandin restaurant. I ordered a bowl of soup, Burger and a beer as big as my head. Finished with the food and nursing my beer, I reach fir my phone. It wasn't there. I tried to remember when I would have lost it till it dawned on me, it was still in my tank bag in a plastic bag where I put it this am. It was one of those days. The old saying is, "pics or it didn't happen" Guess i have to say this time, "It happened, therefore no pics" 😁

Wow, duly noted.🤐

My word. Non oem hose clamps everywhere. Crud like you read about, corrosion on an epic scale. My personal Restoration of the year award is yours. Take it, you need it.😁

All my bikes have long levers except my 2001. I have a genetic issue with my hands, they are failing for lack of a better explanation. I need all the leverage I can get. I can certainly see why many guys would want shorty levers though as braking systems get better and better.

I believe vfrcapn is probably correct. If memory serves, the US only got red in 98-99. A quick look at the speedo is in order, if it reads in kph, its most likely a Canadian import. If that's the case the 54,300 on the odometer would actually be 33,740 miles. I imported a 1990 vfr750 a couple of years back from Canada. Importing it myself was fairly easy as it was over 25 years old so DOT and EPA requirements did not apply. I did have to have a quiet talk with the Maine BMV about the difference between kms and miles, and they kindly made the adjustment on my registration. Looking at the photo, I see an aftermarket seat, aftermarket exhaust, looks like a DB windscreen, 00-01 mirrors instead of the condoms that were oem, and nice SS bar ends, which might be Throttlemeister? All in all someone who owned it looked after the details, and you benefited from it. Good find.

I have used both clip and rivets on my chains, never had any problems in 49 years. I have a DID rivet tool that flares the rivet without being able to flare it to the point it kinks the chain, so I tend to use that. I will say a clip does make it easier to remove the chain when its service life is over though. A yes, Louis Motorrad, great motorcycle store. I did 2, 6 month stints in Kiel Germany in the late 2000's. The shipyard closed at noon on Fridays, so often I would tool over to the shop and hang around before heading back to the apartment. Good group of guys. Their in house brand of riding gear is surprisingly good, still wearing the leather riding pants and winter gloves I bought there 18-20 years ago.

On that note. If you manage to lose the lug nuts that hold your rear rim onto the Swingarm, your CRV lugnuts you use when you swap out summer tires for snow tires are the same. Part number is different because of the finish, but got me by for a summer about 4 years ago until I finally found my VFR's under my lift.😁

20+ years ago I bought a 1985 VF1100S Sabre in boxes, the frame, engine, etc fit comfortably into the back of my Ford Taurus station wagon. Took me 18 months to sort it out, and eventually I took my daughter cross country on it. I thought that was an accomplishment. What you are doing is, well, a whole different level. As a fellow 2001 owner all I can say is Good on ya mate. Keep the updates coming.

Tuesday I was up a 6am, but waited a bit for the temps to rise. Finally around 8 ish I got on the bike and headed the mile to the border crossing. The old border crossing was replaced by a new very flashy one last year and I had not used it yet. It took me a full 10 minutes to figure out where I needed to be to get on the bridge to cross the river to Edmundston, there was no traffic, just me. I finally arrived about 0830 and formalities finished, chatted with the Customs guy for about 8-9 minutes as there was still no traffic. Madawaska isn't exactly the most happening place, but I had never seen the border crossing with zero traffic in both direction like today. I headed out along rt. 144 instead of rt. 2 to rt. 17. It's a one lane each way with a rather low speed limit, and no breakdown lane whatsoever. The few locals out on the road were clocking 1.5 times the limit, so I did also. Finally got to the head of the Baie des Chaleur and entered Quebec. Rt 132 is the only option. but its nice enough, and the drivers as everywhere in Atlantic Canada, are courteous. Around Carleton I ran into construction. One lane each way. This was to happen about 10-11 times again before I reached Perce. It slowed things down considerably, but to be honest they did a good enough job to keep it to maybe a 8-10 min. delay at each stop. Finally pulled into Perce and found my hotel was on the other side. I knew it was on a hill, but was not prepared for how big the hill was nor the final driveway. I stopped at the bottom and had a look. Finally I just walked up to the hotel as the gravel did not look promising. As I was speaking to the girl at check in, the owner came over. He mentioned they had just had the driveway covered in new gravel, and he was a bit miffed as it was not pea gravel, but more marshmallow size, and it was laid on to thick. I had confirmed this on my walk up, so I left the bike at the bottom and in the end just carried my saddlebags up. I have to say this is one of the nicest motels I have ever stayed in. The owner, staff, view, and room were all top notch. The driveway was just a minor inconvenience. Took a walk into town, about a mile. Lots of places closed, but managed to find a meal, and bought a few beers for the room. I was out by about 9ish. 1. Just inside Quebec at the head of the Baie des Chaleur. 2. Rt 132. Baie des Chaler. 3. Ditto 4 Perce Rock. 5. Le driveway. The spot at the bottom on the left is my bike. 6. View from the room. 7. Halfway back to the motel after walking into town.

The tax disc came off my 91 VFR I had in Falmouth in 2015. The 8 spoke seen was on the same bike, so they're like siblings. 🙂 I took both when I sold the bike on. The new owner understood the tax disc as I think it was discontinued the year I sold the bike. Still don't think he understands why I had to have the rim.......