Terry

Stoshmonster (VFRD member) has an Australian cousin... http://vfrworld.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/25365/title/another-pair-of-oddities/cat/503

Yes the sidestand fairing is original but as you say, not common. IIRC only the VFR750 and the NS250/400 strokers had them.

Thanks to my digital squirrel tendencies, I had a copy of this stashed away in Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lkc7dmwyi509h0b/vfr750f RC36 service.pdf?dl=0 Hope that helps.

Well I might be being a little hard on the ST. It has such a heavy crank that it never seems to accelerate that hard, but certainly has a good turn of speed. I don't think I'd get it to 155 mph without a cliff being involved, but it certainly gets up to 130 mph without a lot of drama. I do love the low CG and stable 18" wheel steering, and the ride position.

I like the idea of owning an RC51 at some point (it has all that HRC goodness baked in!), but it looks like even more of a rack to ride than my VTR. I'll go out on a limb and suggest that the VTR is probably the better road bike however. Seems like a shame that Honda did not do more with the VTR engine and update the bike at some point, as it really is a good basic machine. The engine did get used in the Varaduro (I think that is correct) with FI added, but the basic VTR got little more than a bigger fuel tank, different bars and digital instruments in around 2000 and that was it. They do have a bad reputation for loosing camchain tension suddenly and with bad results for the valves and pistons, hence those in the know fit manual tensioners.

Yes I'm half tempted to modify the VTR ergonomics so that it is similar to the VFR, the pegs especially seem crazy-high. Strangely however I don't find the VTR to be uncomfortable over a tank of fuel, I think the wind protection is probably better/smoother and the engine is certainly a peach when cruising.

You're right there Dutchy. This photo is from 1984 I think, taken by a bike-riding girlfriend, just up the road from my parents' house. I was working part time at a Honda dealer and borrowed this 750 one evening with the intention of trying and maybe buying it. I managed to lock up the front end when I discovered how much more powerful the 750 twin discs were than the single inboard disc on my VF400, and threw the bike down the road at a horrendous speed. The dealer invited me to either pay his insurance excess, or to buy the bike and parts at cost. I did the latter and enjoyed the bike for a year, but reliability concerns (camshafts and tensioners) put me off and I sold it. Still a beautiful bike, and I loved the gold wheels. Thanks for featuring this Miguel.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/syf7mrjghcbchvb/VFR800-VTEC-2002.pdf?dl=0 This a dropbox link to the file that I downloaded from this very website last year.

Wowser! What a cracking paint job on an awesome bike. I'm in love! That is very, very nice.