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Thanks Skids, feel free to give me more specific info on the reflash and suspension upgrades. Right now I have the more pressing issues of mostly seized front brakes, a leaking fork seal and an electrical gremlin; I had started the bike once, but when I tried to repeat that I got an electrical pop and deadness so need to locate the cause. Not asking for any dick pics, but do you have any photos of the left side of your bike with its clothes removed, especially the area around the front left of the engine?

That sucker looks rough! You're a beast to take it on.

Not a question of legality, but power production.

I made a bit of progress over the weekend along with my helper! Front wheel removed and forks out. They are not in great shape but have cleaned up reasonably well. I dropped them up to a local mechanic to do the fork seals and oil as I have nowhere clean to work. The downpipes are looking fairly crusty, I'm not looking forward to taking those off! They go on the list for winter. It does look like the oil cooler lines have been changed which is good. I took one look at the calipers and ordered good second hand ones which arrived a few days ago, so I'll try refit everything this week and hope to get out for a first spin at the weekend just to see what else it needs.

Do yourself a favour & buy a vacuum pump, used em for yrs, gets fluid moving thru the master cyl/hoses/calipers, shift most if not all air, finish off with a master cyl full of slow lever pumps to get last dregs of air out. Never had any probs bleeding conventional or CBS or CBS/ABS brakes on a bike, must have done a few thousand bikes over the yrs, cars too.

I don't rely on it but it's good to have for emergencies. Level pumping like a pleb.

Yep, had a few Honda's with CBS/ABS, more bother than it's worth, I don't mind linked braking, in fact I quite like it, not a fan of ABS on a bike, when it goes wrong, it's usually an arm & a leg to fix it. Hence why old ST1100's with ABS are worth next to nothing, I know quite a few Pan 1100/1300 & Blackbird owners that's removed it & re-piped it like a normal system.

Have you tried it?

ABS is pointless on a bike, too many variables, parts are prohibitively expensive. How are you bleeding it? Lever pumping or a vacuum fluid pump?

I will try that tonight. I also bought a replacement banjo bot with a bleeder. I will install it on the master cylinder and try to bleed from up there.

It would've been possible but I made sure to follow the instructions. Not only that, I bought an old master cylinder and replaced it with the same issue. I was looking at the ABS pump too, used of course because a new one is $1700 lol ABS is useful sometimes. I have had not used ABS in regular riding but I ran over a cardboard on the road and I used the front brakes right on top of it. ABS saved me on that one.

sensor in the radiator wouldn't be accurate, since coolant only flows through there when the thermostat's open. better option would be at the water pump outlet. if i were to do it i'd chop the hose a few inches away from the water neck, add in a short length of metal pipe, and drill&tap that for the sensor.

Nice, but you have some work to do. Depending on how you will ride it (it's really fast!) you may wish to consider upgrading the suspension. There is a remote ECU flash available which will make it much smoother as well as removing some gear limitations etc. The exhaust note can be made to sound abso...fecking...lutely fantastic, but you'll need the right can. Other than that, iyt's a fantatstic bike and I hope you get her how you want her and enjoy the ride. Will keep an eye out for updates.

I’ve had my fair share of frustrating repairs too, and sometimes when I can’t figure it out I just need to step away for a bit. That’s how I ended up browsing https://groundwirenews.ca for news in Canada while waiting on parts for my own bike. It gave me something different to focus on, and keeping up with current events actually helped me clear my head before getting back to the repair with fresh patience.

Hi all, I am modifying/rebuilding a 98rc46. I added a Koso multi dashboard but the problem with it is that the ETC from the engine block needs to be a thermistor to show useful values on the screen, but the ETC is not a thermistor and is connected to the PGM-FI unit… I stopped looking for it once I noticed how complex removing the throttle assembly is. I was thinking on drilling a hole on the top of the radiator, tap wire in it and have the thermistor installed there… any thoughts/advice? Many thanks! Wout

I finally installed the manual tyre change equipment in my garage "and what about a new shelf at home?", I'm sure you're wondering 😁 The thing is that I bought a set of second-hand wheels coming from a Hornet 600 to fit the VTR; the front wheel came with a tyre, so i put it off and used it to make a "bike-topic" shelf to furnish the stairs leading to the garage. I found it appropriate 😎 Luckily, my wife is a biker, so she approved 😅

Bourbon brings wisdom 😎 Nice move 🤘

Hi, I'm happy with the MICHELIN RoadClassic 130/70B18. Joe/Germany

@FromMaine Thanks for your input. I'll take the grease seals out and try to press them again. Hopefully that is gonna do the trick.

Step 1 is the Voyage of Discovery where I get to learn just how many parts I need to buy. It is clearly going to need some panel and paint work, and given the price of new OEM bits I am looking for some lightly-used bits on the net. I also puhsed the button on some Helibars as reaserch shows the ride position of the 800 VTEC and 1200 are near enough the same, and I enjoy the higher bars on my 800. I will also splash out on a centrestand. I think I will keep it generally stock except for maybe a slip-on muffler to replace the "unique" stocker...call it a sympathetic refurb constrained by price. A lot of the bolts are showing surface corrosion; what would be the smart way to deal with those (other than just buying new)? as thinking to start with a soak in Evaporust but after that? The brake and clutch levers are super furry, what about those?

Yesterday was the annual Vintage motorcycle show at the Owls Head Transportation Museum here in Maine. It's a one day event, and fairly local. About 120 bikes showed up less than usual, but a fair showing considering the weather forecast for severe thunderstorms and hail. There are no awards or trophies given, so the Trailer Queen crowd stays away in droves. 🙂 These are just a few pics. I was not the only V4 there as there was a Yamaha VMax, but I was the only VFR in attendance.

"One too many bourbons" will get you every time....lol! Looking forward to see how you do... Good luck 👍

So, back to stock or do you have something more exotic in mind? Either way I'm looking forward to your new project. best wishes for a successful build.

the california model is perfectly legal in the other 49 states, therefore it's the 50 state version. mine's a 49 state model so this is rather all a moot point.

I was looking for another project and this 2015 1200 hove into view; after one too many bourbons I hit the "buy-now" button and had it shipped to me. It has done 23000km and was an insurance write off; it was bought by the PO with the intention of powering a dune buggy but that never happened. It appears to have sat outside for a couple of years and has quite a bit of surface corrosion and the obvious crash damage. My guess is it was dropped on the right side at reasonably low speed in a collision avoidance, and then slid under the object that was being "avoided". Scuffs on the right side, left middle cowl completely missing and a severely bent radiator look to be the major offenders but the time parked outside has not been kind. Anyway the chassis and forks appear perfect, the brakes a bit draggy but not bent, and it starts and sounds mechanically great. I've owned many VFRs but never the 1200 so this is all new territory for me. Watch this space! Wish me luck!