Captain 80s

Not sure why you think that will be an expensive day. You expect to have to dig into internals? I wouldn't expect to. Those engines are very resilient. Verify/adjust the carbs, check/adjust valve lash, enjoy the glorious sound. I own 4 86 VFRs, two 700, two 750. Ranging from 50K+ hard miles to 14K. The 50K 750 is the smoothest and quietest engine of the bunch. I have found that every single one of my 86's (and the 3 other VFR's of my friends) has a different personality too. Everything gone thru and adjusted exactly the same by me and they are very different. Not "bad", just different. When I worked at the Honda Dealership I had two customers well over 100K with no major work. One of them was ridden AS HARD AS F-ING POSSIBLE ALL THE TIME. Zero issues. Have a friend also with well over 100K on an 87. Cheers dude! Quite the home coming story.

Nothing that I wouldn't chance a set of new DPRs with some properly sorted carbs and do a new reading with. Certainly doesn't look like you will foul new plugs.

I'm reading. Keep posting, please.

I own and build a lot of bikes, so I buy a lot of shit for them. I do the majority of my shopping on ebay, used and new. I've been doing it a long time and am pretty savvy about weeding thru the junk and identifying good deals on the quality items I need (or want). Individual OEM Honda parts can be hit and miss on ebay due to shipping (like $7.99 shipping on a $2.99 seal). I have put together identical large orders and compared the final cost (including shipping) at Honda Parts sites and found Partzilla to be consistently the best deal for the types of parts I order from them (seals, orings, etc). But when you get all the way thru the order process, most of these places are pretty close to each other in the end.

Wouldn't this technically be an "Asslift"? Looks good.

They are pretty much the same type fluid. ATF (approx ~7) will provide good compliance for damper rod forks. 10 wt can slow down the compression (and rebound) a bit, but can be harsher on sharp edge bumps) I usually run 10 in my damper rod forks. Sometimes I'll make a blend of the same brand for something under 10. 15 is too high in my opinion for these type forks (without emulators).

Yeah, no one will touch that shit anymore. Nice set-up in a pinch! It's kinda freaky how far you have to go to account for spring-back. Seven thou ain't shit.

Nice! This is "Chrissy" reloaded after camping for the weekend with the family outside of Winthrop WA at Lake Pearygin. From our campsite the night before I left. Crossed over into Canada for a week long solo trip around NE British Columbia. Had such a great ride.

I've found set up instructions typically have a preload starting point of 20mm (for a proper spring rate according to your weight / usage). That's usually approximately the length of the threads on the fork cap. Oil height and preload can then be adjusted to sag numbers and preference. Obviously easier with adjustable caps, but if you have the right springs, you're usually not doing a lot of fiddling. I'm not a suspension expert by any means, but I've rebuilt and setup a lot of 80's and 90's forks. I've found with the right springs, personal preference tweaks are not likely to totally F things up. Also, I only use straight rate springs.

But if everything is compensated (like oil level and pre-load) to your liking...

My neighbor works on Triumphs a lot. He has cranks balanced for different rev ranges and usages. I think it has to do with primary and secondary balance and vibration (???). A 90 degree V-4 has perfect primary balance. Black magic whatever it is. I've only trued single cranks, let alone balance anything. Let the Pros do what they do.

I've never seen capped spacers... I like it. Whatever works and is in the garage at the time.

I straighten fork tubes in my press no problem too. I have a couple hard wood v-blocks and then mount the tube in my wheel stand and spin with a run-out gauge to check and mark where if more is needed. Easy as shit, pretty much like your setup. Nice. Is that your pre-load spacer?

I'll buy a set to have just in case, I mean when, I stumble across the right 98-99 project..

Humans can also be pretty cool and still make mistakes. But I hear ya. Humans haven't been impressing me lately either in general.

Got it. Ruler works of course, but could be a +/- 1mm (or more) on that method. Also, think you learned to never trust a reseller to verify everything.

What did you use to verify the length of the Bitubo as delivered?

Your swingarm hits something and stops. Unless you find something that can be manipulated to allow the swingarm to extend further, that is what you get. That is the max shock length, regardless of what number that is. But it sure sounds like it was less than 330 before too. Maybe you were able to force shims in and compress the shock a little with it on the center stand, like you did with the length adjustment on the Bitubo. You didn't mention what type of shims and how they were installed.

Measuring eye to eye exactly ideally requires a height gage. With a set of good calipers, what does your shim stack actually measure at? It could be that you were really around 328-329 the whole time. One of your install pictures, the lower bolt looks pretty damn close to going thru.

With the shock out let the swingarm hit whatever it is it wants to hit and try and chase the sound (or feel). Maybe the exhaust from 99 to 00 has a change that the swingarm wants to hit earlier, but isn't an issue with a stock length shock.

They are different part numbers, but that could be something like dampening changes. The linkage parts are the same. What does your stock shock actually measure at? I thought you did that already. I just can't think of anything else being different to not allow the same swingarm travel between the two. Unless there is something different and they changed the shock length as well. Honda does like to change a bunch of little shit on seemingly similar models though. Seen it many times.

That's what I would do. Straight to a true old school radiator shop.