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Hello fellow VFR fanatics. I'm not sure how many of us are still on this forum, but for those of you are still here, I thought this might keep you entertained over the winter. In late 2023 I purchased a 2002 crashed 6-gen, The main issue, I was overseas & my wife actually viewed the bike, so I took a gamble & bought the bike under the impression that the bike could indeed start except the bike didn't have an oil cooler or oil in the bike, after buying the bike & receiving the pictures & video of it, the first thing I noticed was there was no ECU, So after some searching I managed to find an "ED" ECU & key set on ebay. There are so many ECU's available but most are "A" or "AC". So once I was able to, the first thing I needed to do was make sure the motor started & that there was no "major mechanical damage" WhatsApp Video 2024-12-19 at 15.15.17_d3063102.mp4 I have since stripped it down to look for any hidden damage. As you can clearly see the entire front end was destroyed, the bike came with some unknown forks (TL1000 possibly) with the original front wheel, that to my eye is actually undamaged(tires match front & rear), the exhaust is completely mangled as is the rear subframe. The tank is in pristine condition, I suspect that it might actually be a new tank. The frame, motor, swingarm, instrument cluster, breaks & rims all seem undamaged. There have however been some delays as I was busy building my own garage & now a lot of the bike & engineering shops are closed for the festive season. So the next upload will only be next year. While i wait for everything to open after the new year I will service the motor & check the valve clearances, service the forks, clean up the frame, repair the wiring loom & attempt to fabricate a rear subframe with no clue as what I want it to look like🤔 Parts I have accumulated so far: ECU & key set 2004 R1 complete front end 2015 VFR800 Swingarm 2017 VFR800 Rear wheel Lextek Full stainless exhaust system I am still battling to figure out what the bike should look like, I can't afford to go full fairing option, so my only other option is naked. So the means different/custom headlight & subframe assemblies unless any of you have some other ideas for me. Anyway cheers for now, Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all

Hello all! I recently bought a 95' VFR750 basket case with the intensions on having a fun daily driver and to knock a bike off of my bucket list of 'bikes to own'. After purchasing it and getting into my garage to give an in depth look over, the thing is in VERY rough shape. The bike is in pieces (hence basket case) with every electrical connection disconnected from it's original place and no service history or proof of actual mileage. The wiring has been hacked up and eaten up by mice it looks like, over the years of sitting, and after pulling the plugs I found oil on them, one heavier than the others, which concerns me. Below are some pics of the bike after it was unloaded from the truck. I got discouraged after the in depth inspection of the condition of the bike, but after looking into several threads by other members, I am confident I may be able to get this one at least running/ road worthy. The title is bonded so not too worried about returning to stock or making anything pristine, so my plans are to make it into a 'street fighter', 'naked' build. My first trial with the 'Disaster' was trying to see if it would at least crank with the battery provided after having it sit on the tender over night. That did nothing... but keeping in mind the battery hadn't been used in 4-5 years along with the rest of the bike I wasn't too concerned. I then ripped a battery out of my other bike and tried that, and got nothing. After a night of more thread reading and a further look at the manual I had another set of things to check the next day. So this morning I checked the main connections to the battery, 30 amp fuse and starter relay.. that's when I found this.. After some short video tutorials on wire/ connector repair, and keeping my VERY small budget in mind, I decided to try and salvage/ repair the existing burnt up connectors the best I could to see if I could at lease get the bike to crank. I made the below repair, using my cheap Radio Shack soldering iron I purchased several years ago, but it gave out on me halfway through the joint. So that's where I'm at, I'll purchase a new soldering iron tomorrow and get to work repairing the rest of the connectors and wires as much as I can. The community surrounding these bikes seems pretty amazing, so I'm looking forward to anyone willing to offer advice and insights and seeing if I can keep another viffer on the road.

Hey all Unsure if this has been covered in detail. I thought it'd be useful to put a picture guide together for removing and rebuilding the calipers on the RC36 VFR750 (1989 to 1997). This process should be identical throughout the RC36 models as the calipers never changed (to my knowledge!) Keeping your calipers in good shape is important for obvious reasons. You want to stop the bike as effectively as possible. There are a plethora of complaints about this bikes stopping abilities. I really, truly believe the sliding calipers are more than enough for this bike as long as they're in good nick. Out of shape calipers can cause other issues, pistons seizing leads to uneven pad wear, which in turn will result in warped discs. An expensive and arsehole job you really don't want to be getting involved with, which usually leads to going to a garage and paying labour costs and over inflated prices on discs. Fresh seals, removal of rust and dirt from the slider pins and new pads will see this bike locking up a fully warmed up PR4 with absolute ease. On a side note, the other thing that affects the bikes ability to stop is the state of the front fork oil. But we'll get back to that one in another guide! Before you do this, read the WHOLE guide so you get a feel of what you need in advance. Ok so to start, you need the following: Patience 12mm Socket 8mm spanner Torque wrench (1/4" drive is best) Rags Plastic zip bags Allen keys Thick, wide flat head screw driver Brake cleaner Copper grease Red rubber grease Brake fluid (dot4)R replacement seal kit for both calipers Ok so here goes! 1. Prop the bike up. Centre stand, ABBA stand etc...just get it upright. 2. Remove the Pad retaining pin cover. *WARNING* this thing is a piece of sh*t, it can and WILL round off and be an arse to remove. I highly recommend you carefully select a fat, wide flat head screw driver tip and gently apply more pressure when trying to turn it. If you get the SLIGHTEST hint of the blade digging into the cover's metal, stop. Buy some decent penetrating fluid (WD40 fast action release is good) and douse it, leave it overnight and try again the next day. If it's truly stuck, try an impact screwdriver or just drill the bast*rd out. 3. Remove the pad retaining pin 4. Remove the pads by giving them a tug if they don't fall out 5. Remove the Caliper retaining bolts (12mm) 6. Remove the calipers 7. Place a piece of wood or something similar between the pistons and the inside of the caliper. The idea is to pump the brake lever until the calipers are MOST of the way out, so choose your piece of wood (etc) carefully. I actually used a plastic box that holds my digital measuring calipers! This will ensure the pistons move to an even point. You want them to be about this far out (see top piston, I later evened it out by pushing the top one back in, putting the plastic case in place and pumping the lever again until they were both out the same amount.... 8. Put the calipers back in place on the forks, loosely put the bolts back in to hold them there. You may need to push the slider part of the caliper out a bit to make enough space. Don't worry if the slider comes off the caliper, it just pops right back on. 9. Place a rag under/around the caliper, specifically near the brake line banjo bolt (as you'll be removing this and will want to soak up the excess fluid. It EATS paint, don't wanna ruin your wheels...right?) 10. Use a 12mm socket to crack off the banjo bolt 11. Make sure to hold the rag tactically to soak up the drips. Remove the brake line..try to leave the bolt and washers in place for ease purposes. Slide them back through the brake line etc if anything falls off. 12. Immediately slide a plastic zip bag over the brake line. This will allow you to leave it dangling while you work on the calipers. *WARNING* keep the calipers upright so the hole that the bolt went into for the brake line is facing the sky. You'll spill fluid everywhere otherwise as it sits in the caliper. Pour it into a bucket etc by turning the caliper upside down. 13. By the point the calipers will be off the bike and your hands will be all slimey, give them a wipe (your hands and the calipers!) 14. Pull the sliders off the caliper. You'll be left with the below 15. Get a rag, drop it over the pistons. Use some mole grips/strong pliers to grip the pistons over the rag and pull them out. Depending how badly seized your pistons are, you may need to use an airline in the banjo bolt hole to blast them out. Be patient and don't lose your cool, jump in the car and take them to a garage to blow 'em out if needed! Now you'll be left with two empty calipers that are still dribbling fluid, just mop it up as best you can. If you think your calipers are clean...think again, they'll likely have rust on the sliding pins and or some horrible poo looking gunk in the piston holes. My bike has 25000 miles, has been incredibly pampered it's entire life (the service history folder weight about 5kg). Look at the different between one slider and the other, look at the gunk in the piston holes and on the piston itself. I flush my fluids every 3 months (excessive I know) and it still gets like this! I've put my pistons in Paraffin so they can soak overnight to make removing the stuck on crap easier. You can get away with using super fine sandpaper to remove anything jammed on, but why ruin that nice smooth surface? Next thing is to clean the calipers up and replace the seals. 15. Clean all gunk, muck and poo from the inside of the piston holes and the surfaces of the calipers. I used a mixture of old cloths, brake cleaner and paraffin. As you can see above, my calipers were super mucky, all that brown shit was old brake fluid, that's what happens when you ride all year and leave it laid up for a while, this bike was off the road for five years before I purchased it! I went from this: To this (top caliper is the clean one, bottom caliper was done shortly after) : I had to use a very slim screwdriver with a cloth over the end to jam in the brake line hole, it had brown poo in there as well. It was so hard to shift that I ended up using one tin of brake cleaner per caliper! 16. Next remove the seals, thin ones higher up the piston hole, bigger one further down. I used the same small screwdriver to remove these. They can be a pig so have a scalpel/something sharp to hand s you can stab and drag it out if it gets stuck The muck under the seals was pretty bad too. It works it's way past the seals over the years Use the same small screwdriver or a tooth pick to scrape out as much of that crap as you can, you'll never get it all out unless you have an ultrasonic cleaning bath with some serious cleaning solution 17. Once cleaned, replace the seals with new ones or reuse yours if they're in good condition. I smother mine in red rubber grease before they go back into the slots. 18. Now replace the rubber boots. The one on the slider part is easy to pull out. Give it a clean in there with brake cleaner, rag and screwdriver if needed. Replace the boot with a new one or reuse if in good nick The caliper rubber boot is...awkward. It requires a lot of squeezing the end and tugging, It might split if in poor condition so make sure you have a replacement if needed, might be worth checking this in advance 19. Clean up your pistons and place them back into the piston holes. They can be fiddly so have a c-clamp on hand if they won't go into place. Again, I coat these in red rubber grease, it just helps the sliding action, is brake fluid friendly and keeps things from seizing for much longer 20. At this point I remove the bleed nipple and blast it with brake cleaner, both outside and jam the brake cleaner tube into the nipple hole and blast it out (watch your eyes, seriously!) I then coat this in red rubber grease and put it back in place 21. Cover the sliding pins in red rubber grease, I previously assume coper slip was fine but it seems I was wrong. Grease on the pins keeps them from rusting and assures they take an age before needing another clean (Thanks to Steve27bha for the above pic) 22. I now put the brackets back in place, they only go in one way so won't bother with a pic (forgot to take one anyway) 23, Out the slider back onto the caliper body, again these only go in one way so don't worry about what goes where 24. Brake pads now go back in place. I clean up the retaining pin with some wet and dry, feel free to coat it in copper grease to protect it from the elements 25. The brakes are now back together and ready to go on the bike, bolt them in place 26. Get a rag and wrap it around the base of the caliper, take the brake line out the plastic bag and put it back on the caliper, a washer sits at both the bolt head and under the brake line 27. Torque everything up (low range torque wrench should be in the region of £25): Mounting bolts: 27nm Banjo bolt for the brake line: 35nm Bleed nipple: 17nm 28: bleed the system, wrap a rag around the master cylinder. Use a number 2 philips screwdriver/bit and remove the lid screws. Gently prize out the plastic cover and remove the rubber reservoir fill. Turn the wheel to the left if on a stand to level out the reservoir (Careful does it, don't spill anything as brake fluid eats paint remember) Get an 8mm circle spanner, put it over the bleed nipple - either caliper is fine. Some say do the one furthest away from the caliper first but I've found it makes no difference on these calipers. It does, however, on normal 2/4/6 pot calipers with no slider in my experience Buy a one way bleed valve. Halfords sell these for £9.99 http://www.halfords.com/motoring-travel/motorcycling/motorcycle-accessories/gtmoto-brake-bleeder Stick the spaner over the bleed nipple bolt Dab red rubber grease around the nipple to stop air inducing into the system Put the thin tube of the brake bleed kit over the nipple, the valve has an arrow on it that should be pointing away from the nipple/caliper. It's one way so stops air going back up the tube. Now at this point your system will be all air and little fluid. So you WILL need to employ a traditional method of getting fluid through the lines and into the caliper (keep a bottle of dot four handy to top the reservoir up, don't let it empty of you'll induce air into the system and have to start all over again): with the bleed nipple closed, pump the lever slowly four times, hold the level all the way in open the bleed nipple with your other hand (this is why a circle spanner is handy rather than an open ended one as it stays in place) you only want to open the nipple a small amount. Still holding the Brake lever in, close the nipple Repeat the above steps until fluid starts to make it's way out the tube. It took me about 4 sets of 4 pumps. As long as everything is torqued correctly, it should be the same for you too. Once fluid comes through, you can leave the nipple open for longer but will still need to close it from time to time to pump the lever four times (and hold it) to force air out the system. This induces pressure in the system. Once the fluid comes out clear with no bubbles, move onto the other caliper. The second caliper is never as hard as most air is forced out the first caliper and fluid starts to spread evenly, Keeping a rag handy to quickly clean up spillage... Once you're happy with the pressure on the lever (should stop about half way from fully disengaged to pulling it to the handlebar) fill the reservoir up until the fluid it just above the viewing glass. Now put the rubber filler back in place, then the plastic cover then the metal lid (the writing on the metal lid should face you) Arguably you're done at this point. But roll the bike forward and press the brake. Careful not to drop your pride and joy - the bike should stop hard and the front dive a little. You may find the brakes are a bit faded at first, take it for a slow spin around the blocks and progressively press the lever harder and harder until the bite feels great. If it simply won't bite hard you can check the following: Pads for grease.dirt - clean with brake cleaner System for air - bleed again until satisfied Worst case scenario you may have a master cylinder that needs a rebuild, having a seized piston can mask this and make the brakes feel super tight and strong. Cleaning them up and freeing the pistons up to move evenly can show your system to be a bit spongey as everything moves back to positions as it should, rather than one piston staying 3/4 the way out while one backs off - or the slider being stuck as a certain point. Hope this makes sense. I'm going to re-read this a couple of times and make alterations as I see fit. Hopefully it'll help those who're too scared to try this on their own. It's very easy as long as you're methodical about it.

Here's something I've been working on for a few weeks now. The whole project isn't finished yet, but should be soon, so I thought I'd post a few installments of the rebuild here. I was asked to get this girl back up and running, she was last ridden 10 years ago. During early discussions the carbs were cited as the main issue that needed addressing, but after getting eyes on the bike, the issues went a little deeper than that. Still not bad overall, a good starting point for sure. Nowadays you can give just about anything 10 feet and an Instagram filter to make it look good: But, the closer I got the more I saw that needed attention. The whole bike was fairly original, and was put away just as some of the small "old bike stuff" stared cropping up. Tires were dated 2003, fork seals leaking, clutch slave leaking, gas had gone off, battery gone, mufflers packed full of whole kernel corn feed, etc. I made a list and settled in for the long haul, but not before getting the bike to start on the old gas with a fresh battery. It took full choke and a lot of cranking, and the bowls leaked, but it did start, run, and even took some throttle so I knew we had something to save here. First up, clear a space, pull some bodywork and the carbs Rut roh, first sign of trouble... someone's had that plenum off, and they chewed up the screws while they were at it. When I saw that I figured it was time to go all in. Ordered a full rebuild kit from BillyC and tore the carbs down I got them to this point, then proceeded to tackle 1 carb at a time till all 4 were done Kit contents: All the rubber was hardened and splitting, this definitely needed doing Each carb body was soaked in Berryman's and thoroughly blown out/dried and rebuilt with the new rubber. The diaphragms and slides were in good shape and stock. The chrome on the slide hats was pitting and chipping/flaking and the hats were dirty, so I sent them on a quick trip through my blast cabinet to clean them up without dulling the chrome too badly, then installed the nicer ones on the outside carbs. Also blasted the plenum, and refined the body & bowl gasket surfaces. All in all, they look better now

http://www.v4dreams.com/1/post/2017/04/project-14-is-finished.html

Hi, I'm in a pickle. I've bought a bike and rebuilt the carbs along with some other things. I've never even heard it run and I'm soooooo close to trying to crank it over (tuned it by hand and it moves smoothly). Read the full story here. I haven't had any replies about my recent issue so I thought I'd post it in this forum...I've got some pretty itchy feet to try and turn her over on my day off today. I just need to figure out how to get the fuel feed hose to attach to the carbs. It's so simple but as you can see from my picture I'm either missing some sort of adaptor/bridging piece (? 16199-MAL-505 TUBE ?) OR the previous owner has managed to lodge a piece of plastic connector into the feed hose. I would really appreciate a guiding voice here. I'm thinking of pulling the plastic part sitting in the hose out and just connecting it to the t-joint. It seems it would make sense but I'm far from a mechanic! BJ

Hello all. I wasn't sure where exactly to put this story, I had already completed an introduction post (Linky-poo) but I haven't been around or active much (soooo much lurking) as I have had my hands tied up with the below: After doing some investigation and various bits and pieces I had everything I needed to be able to work on the bike. Mechanically very little was needed, in the end it was some various seals/gaskets, full fluid flushes, front brake, starter motor and carbie rebuilds, some fine tuning and a tiny bit of re-wiring. The painting held me back for a few months as I was waiting for the right weather - I even built myself a boot to do it in. Luckily, at the last moment I was able to secure a booth through a friend and used that, instead. I have never really done a lot of panel repair before, and especially not to this level, and I had never really painted before. I've got no doubt in my mind that the experienced spray painters will be able to recognize my (many?) errors along the way, but for my first go I'm pretty happy with the result. All up, the bike, parts, paint, tools, materials, registration, roadworthy and insurance have cost me A$3,500 - to put that into context, a reasonable condition second hand one in Aus (where you would still need to pay rego, roadworthy, etc) would cost around 4,000 - 5,000 - so I'm extremely please to have the old gilr up and running, now looking as good as she is mechanically. Plus, I got to rescue this amazing bike!

Long Story but here goes nothing, Back in October of 2016, My dad bought me (a 16 year old) a 1996 VFR with 40,000 miles for $1500 which was basically like stealing it ;). Once we brought it home the next morning I was already tearing the thing down not knowing anything about it and did it slowly and carefully. After that Day 2 was degrease and clean the whole bike which was tough because the previous owner didn't have any knowledge of the bike or how to fix or clean anything at all. Then it was time for all the actual maintenance. What I noticed after we tore all the fairings off was that all the really important expensive small things were missing like screws and fairing pieces, etc. The bike first got all new fluids and filters (oil, coolant flush, brake fluid, clutch fluid, etc. After knowing that the previous owner never did any maintenance we decided to take the carbs off for a cleaning not knowing that they had never ever in 20 years been taken out.... It was hard work but carbs got cleaned and put back in. Meanwhile to clean the fairings we got a wild hair and decided to use NuFinish Scratch Remover on all panels which very surprisingly made everything look as if it was new and shiny. The last thing we did was a front suspension rebuild. We ended up getting new springs (Racetech 0.95 kg) and OEM seals and bushings along with Pro Honda SS8 10w fork oil. After the front suspension rebuild we noticed that the rear was too low in ride height and sag and ended up finding a jack up kit on ebay from Lust Racing that would raise the rear 1 inch. All in all the things that costed the most money was buying the original screws and little tid bits from Honda. When it was finally finished we all took it for a test ride and wow did all those little things make a difference. Here are some of the pictures of before and after and some maintenance pictures. P.S. In some of the pictures you will see my dads 1996 Honda CBR600F3 that is completley stock and unmolested and yes it has a mint stock exhaust.

I finally got the carbs removed! Thanks to all who offered tips. I didn't have to resort to my BFH. Since the tank was very rusty (now clean thanks to cider vinegar) I'm going to disassemble and clean the carbs thoroughly. What o-rings, gaskets, diaphragms, etc. should I replace? Where best to buy? Any opinions on the litter Vitron kits? Thanks.

New guy here! My name is Ryan and I am the proud new owner of a 99 VFR800. I currently own two 1984 Honda Nighthawk 700S's and love them, but wanted something a bit different. Ask Marriedman, I've been interested in VFRs for a little while now. I wasn't seriously searching when I came across the Craigslist ad. The price caught my eye, $1600. I figured at that price, it had to have been laid down, or crazy high miles, or a combination of both. Called the number, talked with the guy, he said that he took it in on a group buy from an elderly man with some flat tracker bikes he wanted. His son (16) wanted the bike, and he didn't want his son on "no dad-blamed crotch rocket." A friend and I drove up to Tennessee from my place in South Carolina. The bike was solid, bone stock, 13,000 miles, but with less than 2,000 miles in the last 11 years. Fairings were all original with no cracks or scratches, just faded Florida paint. Tires are 13 years old and hard as a rock. Battery was dead, and I couldn't hear it run. Somehow, the ignition key didn't match the fuel filler cap, and the fuel cap key had been lost. The seller knocked $100 off because of this, so I drove away with the VFR for $1500. A nice view on the way home: And unloaded: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First off: Diagnose the no start. Drilled fuel cap lock cylinder, poured in gas. Fuel pump runs, still no start Compression check was good. Had strong spark. 42 psi fuel pressure Houston, we have injector pulse. There's only about one thing left: gummed up fuel injectors. Yep, there's the problem! Let's look in the tank... Yep, just what I thought. Remove rust from tank - added to the To Do list. Here's where I'm at now: Needs: Battery (ordering Motobatt) Chain and sprockets (ordering DID Xring and JT sprockets) Oil Change Clutch and Brake fluid flushed Coolant change Ordered: Tires - Michelin Pilot Road 3's Deals: Yoshimura RS3 stainless slip on Givi top rack Givi E35 top box ^ Package Deal - $335 shipped OE seat cowl in 9/10 shape - $25 shipped Done: Installed TPO Parts PAIR delete kit New NGK spark plugs Cleaned fuel injector inlet screens Most importantly, she needed a name. Gentlemen, I introduce to you, Vanessa. I've got a decent bit of work ahead, but that's the fun part. Can't wait for riding season! Stay tuned for updates... RD

I'm starting a thread here for my VTR 250 rebuild. I have a thread started on the VTR250 forums as well. Small crowd, but lots of good information and helpful people. Started Saturday on sorting through the mess of stuff that came with my $250 VTR. I get another bike in the garage in a few days (Track prepped Honda F2), so progress on this one will be slow, as that one should only take a week or two to finish. Started on the carbs. The PO must have not known exactly what he was doing, because he just bought almost everything new he could from Service Honda for them, down to the screws. The first carb was pretty much perfect. The second carb was in pieces. It went together and I had all the parts for it, except for one. The vacuum diaphragm was torn to bits, probably because he just threw it in a ziploc with a ton of other loose parts. So an hour into the bike, and I've already found something to kill it off. Waiting to head if a member here and there (Squirrelman) has a spare one. Otherwise I found someone who makes new ones, but they are thicker than OEM and may not be as good. But it's $20 a pop vs $100 for OEMs that you can't get anymore anyways, so not much of a choice. Here is the link to the aftermarket ones. They are thicker and not as stretchy as OEMs, but it's better than what I have. http://jbmindustries.com/K-72-S.html Moved the VF500C rolling mess in the shed and brought this out to the garage. Put the carbs together as best as I could to reduce the number of loose parts floating around in the bag. Forgot to put the Y pipe in, and a few other things. If your diaphragm looks like this, you will not be riding today. The petcock was taken apart as well. The rebuild kit says it's for a CX500, but the parts looks about the same. Couldn't figure out exactly how it goes together. Something just didn't seem right when I was fitting parts together.

Hi all. I recently purchased a 4th gen VFR 750 FV, with all good intention to simply wash the crap off it, fix the fairing, and ride it 'till it died. It's got almost 200,000 k's on the clock, and isn't worth putting an enormous amount of time or money into, as far as i'm concerned....or was concerned, should I say. I picked the bike up cheap, with no rego, pretty crappy fairings, and a wish to have it ready to ride before summer gets here. I started off by taking off the fairings, then deciding that the bars are too high....then ditched to pillion stuff, as I probably won't be needing it. Before I knew it, I had a major project on my hands, and no way to turn back. There were bits going in the bin, left right and center. Visions of tuned pipes (2 into 1 for the front cylinders, and 2 into 1 for the rear), clip ons, rear sets, and flash new styling. Wrapped exhausts, single seat, chopped sub-frame, custom instrument panel, and one off glass bodywork. Now all I need to do, is to divide my time between my family, my job, and my Son's half made FZR 250. Simple! I'll be doing pics along the way, so if you're interested, keep an eye out. This may well turn out to be the lightest VFR on the planet.....and quite possibly the ugliest. O.K.......First technical hitch, as far as this blog. I'm unable to add any photos, at this time. Some kind of drama between here and there is stopping me. You'll just have to imagine a picture of a half dead VFR, for now. What i've found, so far? Well....The bike won't run, if you turn the handlebars. Simple fix. I've narrowed the fault down to a faulty wire between the ignition, and it's connector. Now to some stuff that's important, if you want to get rid of a few kilos (or pounds, if you're that way inclined). Some of the things that would surprise you.... The bar ends weigh an incredible 195 grams EACH!!!!!! If you add the cap screws that hold them in, The total weight, for something that's not really required, is almost 420 grams. Things like this are usually forgotten, and when all added up, can add a huge amount of weight, with no benefit. Sure, there has to be something there, but nylon ends, with Aluminium cap screws will weigh virtually nothing. I've always taught my Son an important lesson, when it comes to shedding weight off bikes, and that is that a thousand drops make a bucketful. Small parts that are no required can make up a massive weight saving, without having to really do much, except be a bit ruthless. There are so many fancy rubber guards, and plastic shields on this bike, that i'm amazed. All up, so far, i'd say that i've managed to reduce the weight of the bike by three kilos, and haven't spent a cent. Now, I know that there are going to be people who will disagree that this has any real world impact on performance...and you're all welcome to have your say.....BUT, here's the facts of the matter. We'll say the bike weighs 216 kgs, and produces 102 BHP. It has a power to weight ratio of 0.472 HP per kg. The weights and measures may not be right for a VFR 750 FV, but bear with me....it make s no difference. If I just removed 3 kgs from our bike, it now has a power to weight ratio of 0.478 HP per kg. Yeah....not very impressive. I know. Let's say, though, that I can manage to reduce the weight by 20 kg's (which is a realistic possibility). We now have a power to weight ratio of 0.520 HP per kg. That's not bad, when you consider that there has been zero dollars spent.

After lurking around for a while and posting some specific topics I thought I ought to start a build thread for my VF500. Currently it sits completely dismantled in the garage awaiting lots of new shiny bits. She's a a1986 VF500F2, and I got her last year as something to play with as my CX650 Eurosport was finally on the road following its full rebuild. The bike looked to be in good condition and complete but was a non-runner. It only has 20k miles on the clock and was last taxed in 1994! All the electrics worked and it even had oil and water in. Here she is when I got her, looking slightly sorry for herself. Under further inspection I found:- Bent RH fork leg Exhaust collector rotten Plastics cracked but complete Master cylinders full of jelly-like congealed fluid Front brakes stuck on Surface rust to frame and 1 area of corrosion in the frame rail under the engine Carbs full of varnish Not one to be scared of a challenge, I've set about given her a full rebuild. As some of you may have seen, I set about making my own 4-2-1 exhaust, here VF500 Exhaust, and I'm going to be putting both wheels off a CBR600 F2 on for good measure! This forum has been a wealth of knowledge and extremely helpful, so I thought I'd post up what I've been working on!

It looks very much like I am going to try and salvage both my VF500C and VTR250 engines. I have a spare VF500 engine with one head left on it for parts. So after I tackle the F2 and get it running I was going to switch back over to the VTR and see what the damage is. A new engine is going to be cheaper or close to buying all the tools, but then I'm still left with an engine in questionable condition that might need work in the end anyways. I don't have any of the tools needed to do it, so I figured I would ask around to what other people have or have used. I've seen some DIY stuff with C-clamps, and some of the Motion Pro tools which look really nice and have a price to match. Off the bat, I'm thinking I'll need the following. Leak-down tester Piston rings tools valve spring compressors valve seat guides Might end up needing a few other things, but those are the big ones I can think of. So please let me know what your experiences are and what you suggest. I'm all for spending some money on a nicer tool than a DIY solution that's a bit iffy to use. If the tools can carry over to car heads that would be even better.

So there was a ticking noise in my 1983 vf750f interceptors rear cylinder so I took it apart the head and shure enough I found one of my rocker arms looking like this so I started to take the bolt for the rocker arm out to replace it with one on my parts bike and found that the bolt cannot come out with the engine on the frame then I finally had it all apart about an hour later... and got the rocker arm out... another bonus is that the cams were still fine and my parts bike had the upgraded banjo bolts (sorry about the quality) I then put everything back together only to find that my bike wouldn't start I then found out my timing was a little off so I took apart the head again to fix it. when I was putting the pin to hold the cam chain tensioner in place I accidentally dropped it into the case . this turned out to be a good thing because when I took the tensioner off I saw that a part of the cam chain guards had broken off. so now I am completely rebuilding the engine. I will get the cylinders honed, get the intake and exhaust re machined, get new piston rings and a new gasket set. I'm in the process of the tear down and will keep you guys posted on how it goes

I'm rebuilding my suspension both front & rear. My front fork sliders are beat up pretty bad from the road & I'd like to get them refinished. I'm probably going with Lindeman for the fork & shock rebuild, but any ideas on the refinishing? TIA