Captain 80s

It looks like it belongs there, but with a FH0020A I'd much rather have a temp gauge in my line of sight. If you had the inner cowl panels you could flush mount it in one. Then you could choose one of the other Hondaline Gauges for the other side. I sold the Altimeter and Air Temp Gauges I had, but kept the Volt Meter.

Hawk GTs have a similar cowl mount on their rear footpeg brackets, but a little more rearward. Hawk owners learned that if you simply delete them, the cowl will vibrate and crack. So I did something similar on my Hawk when I built it. I wanted the handle / seat lock on the VFR anyway. And I think I mentioned earlier, the right side will be used for a Fox reservoir mount. You can also do something like Joe @ V4Dreams did and make them pretty small. The piece locates itself on the subframe bolt (hidden), so it can't rotate too far out of position when installing.

Once you know about it, you will feel/hear it on other bikes. I own more than a dozen V4s from 10K to 60K and they ALL do it to some degree. You can feel it come in as you let out the clutch lever. I worked at a Honda Dealer for over 12 years and it was one of the most common questions regardless of what model, including CB/CBRs.

Bike is now delivering it's own fuel thru the tank and pump. Charging system @ 13.8 - 14.2 with the original R/R and a newer style from a 97. Will be fine for some Fall test rides until I wire in the FH020AA. Brakes and clutch all bled. Now I really need to get going on the bodywork, no excuses.

NORMAL. Put in your new clutch and springs, it will still be there. It's 99.99% not a "problem".

Yeah, value exceeds price on the YSS for sure. Glad you're happy, I sure was on the ST1100. And that was coming from a 29,000mi shock. But a broom stick might better than a 120,000km shock...

Finally Went and got some gas and took a short shake down ride. Runs perfect. The front RT springs with the added ride height on the YSS shock feels great. Gonna let the clear coat cure a little more and get some protection on the tank and behind the front wheel.

Maybe pick up a cheap one that needs to be re-finished anyway... eBay Triple Clamp

2014 white VFR It really changed the look a lot.

Everything media blasted, light coat of etching primer, and shot with lacquer. Upper triple and bars are gloss clear lacquer. I masked off the center of the top triple thru the whole process, then on a thick piece of glass dragged the top triple repeatedly in the same direction over some sandpaper to restore the "brushed" finish. I left that area raw for now and we'll see how it fares. I didn't want to clear it because it would have likely "yellowed" it a bit. And I wasn't popping off a fresh can of 2K just for these bits. Everything else had matte clear. I was helping my neighbor bleed some brakes and when I was leaving he gave me an activated partial can of 2K clear. So I went home and shot the footpeg brackets, levers and some other bits with that too. The upper triple came out so nice I didn't want to risk using a day old activated 2K and have it spit. Air cured in the attic of the outer shop, which could almost be considered heat cured. 😉

Yeah, that did come out nice. Great job.

Thank you! The housings are weird plastic, very porous. If they are not completely fried, you can rejuvenate them with a plastic restorer or petroleum jelly (Vaseline) and re-apply as needed. These came out nicer than I thought they would, still presentable. The heat shields have been sand blasted and painted in high heat ceramic paint. I will add some heat reflective matting on the back if I feel the need. Got the brakes and clutch all bled yesterday too. Now it's time to turn some attention to the bodywork.

"track day" Killer

Here's some of the small items that were restored...

Thank you! I restored the top triple. It looked like this... Wheels are original 1992 painted finish, forks are original 1997 painted finish. The wheels have quite a few imperfections that get lost after being polished and having everything bolted up. The forks were some very nice low mile items I bought.

Restored triples (97 lower clamp) with new tapered bearings and 97 clip-ons. Steel braided brake lines, FR & RR, and Clutch. 97 forks with RT .90 springs. Stock front wheel has been hand polished and waxed with restored lower mile rotors. Placeholders until I paint a 97 wheel with floating rotors. Restored controls, custom D&D slip-on and hand polished / waxed stock rear wheel. I left a good portion of the old RT passenger peg bracket for the rear cowl mount and I'm going to mount the FOX TC res off of it after it's rebuild. Waiting for some shift rubbers to come in. Brake line "stay" is temp so I can roll it around and take a test ride before I get decades of chain grime off of the chain guard. Lots of stuff need more love, but not this round. Bleed brakes and clutch and start polishing bodywork.

Yeah, and you better head on back. You've got an advertised tire size vs actual tire size class to teach next. 😉

Was it? It's like being at a basic suspension course offered at the Community Center.

Have a great time.

The one I did, the number wheels were spring loaded from the side to keep them engaged with each other. I was able to slide them to the side to get enough play to manipulate them. Think it was a VF500F that the original unit was smashed. I have enough speedos from parts bikes I thought I'd give it a shot even if something went wrong.

Did the 86 linkage on my friends stock 87 wheel swap. He's a big dude and it feels great, even for me. I also have an 86 with an 87 shock, when I installed an 88 rear wheel and Hurricane front. Not saying it's amazing, because these shocks simply aren't great. But for a mostly stock bike with some period correct (read: skinny) 17" wheels, it feels really good and doesn't do anything weird or unexpected. Have an 87 linkage on one of my 86 that I fitted a modified CBR Fox Shock (295mm). Also feels great, but I have more adjustments and springs to compensate on that shock. Not sure where you are getting your shock length numbers from, but the U.S 86 is 265mm and the U.S. 87 is 275mm.

You can "manipulate" the odometer to match the original unit. I wouldn't frown upon it because you'd be doing it to match the actual mileage. You can at least get it real close.

You can install an 86 Shock Arm (the linkage piece the lower shock mount bolts to) to gain the rear ride height back.