A mate of mine is looking for a mid-range, older bike for a bit of a resto project over the winter. Came across this today and thought it might fit the bill. Anyone have any comments? or know much about them?

Looked to me to be a fun wee bike to get back into motorcycling on after a 20 year break.

Honda VFR 1987 | Trade Me

 

Gear driven cams I think. The only thing I wish the Hurricane had!

Solid bikes with a reputation for going on for ever, the engine on that one is only just run in if the odometer is correct. Only weak spot is the collector box on the exhaust, stainless down pipes and collector box about £250 new or can be found 2nd hand on e-bay.

Personally I prefer the looks of the VFR750FL ( I think that ones an FJ/FK)



VFR-750 FL Remus CF hi exit right. by gsx-r750, on Flickr

 

In the states we had the VFR500. A local bike shop that I go to has a boneyard out back. I noticed several VFR500's back there. I asked about them, very popular bike and that's why so many? The owner told me that they have a weak oil pump. If you don't keep the oil in tip-top shape and keep the RPM's up, you trash the lower end. He told me that it was a poor design, unlike the 700's or 750's, the mains starve for oil. All those bikes looked 90 to 100% but all had trashed lower ends.

Sad, because they look like a fun little bike.

Sorry for the news, but I would stay clear. I don't see them being any different than the 500's here. I could be wrong.

 

Never heard of a VFR500, a VF500 yes, but that was a different animal and the reason the VFR was so over engineered.

Here's a link for a VF500 review 1986 Honda VF500 F2 - Classic Motorcycle Review - RealClassic.co.uk


and one for the VFR750 Honda VFR750 RC36 (1990 - 1997) - Sports Tourers - Motorcycles - Visordown

The VFR750 was on my short list of bikes to buy, if they'd made a 1000cc version it would have won, but the Hurricanes extra 250cc's won out in the end for the extra oomph with a pillion on board.

 

I didn't even know that Honda made a 400 VFR. That may be collectable, or not. But it looks like it needs a lot of work. Like the others say, I would look for a 750 VFR, made after 1990.

 

Yeah quite a few VFR400's about here in the UK, the ones I've seen have a twin headlight set-up rather than the single KiwiTK posted up, which made me think it was the 750 until you just pointed it out.

Still have the gear driven cams though I think, but might be a bit down on power if you weigh any more than a 16yr old

Here's one in the UK in good nick, just to give you an idea (and they do have the gear driven cams).HONDA VFR 400 ( NC 24 )

 

Thanks for your comments guys, it's great to be able to tap into such a wealth of (sometimes conflicting) knowledge.

From what I was able to research last nite they seem to be primarily aimed at the Japanese domestic market where there is some kind of license or tax break if the bike won't go over 180 km/h. Anyway apparently that is quite an easy speedo based fix and they will then run out to about 210km/h.(refer Ruapehu and his CBR750)

But that; to be fair, is all a bit academic; like me, my mate Gerald is on the downhill side of 50 and is looking at getting a bike again after a 30 (!) year absence. But unlike me, his last bike was a PE 175 enduro.

So while I agree that to most of us that sit round this particular table we would probably find it somewhat lacking in power, I think that kind of size range is probably a very sensible option for someone in his position. To me, it makes waaaayy more sense than :

"Hi, I'm new to the Forum, never owned a bike before - but I've just picked up a CBR 600"

And to be honest, I think it's probably as much about the challenge and interest of taking on a bit of a resto as much as the end result.

Thanks for your input guys, I think at the end of the day we may have to call on the services of KiwiJK to go check it out - at least he lives in the same island as the bike is.

 

Hawkwind

Just had a look at that UK bike you posted up, isn't that Rothmans color scheme so neat?

A bit unPC in this day and age, but yeah I'd be aiming for that.

 

Smokin' paint scheme better than smokin' exhaust anyday At one time nearly all the racing teams were sponsored by cigarette companies, how times have changed!

 

I can't tell what the difference is. It looks like the VF500F and the VFR500 are both Interceptors and the VF500C is a Magna and the VF500S was a Saber. Search on both the VF500F and VFR500, they look the same. It would appear that you are right, the real nomenclature is VF500F and everyone calls it the VFR.

Interesting thing in the first link you had there. It said that there were a batch of bad crankshafts. What I was told was that the oil pathways and oil pump lacked and the mains would go dry if you lugged the RPM's.

I also came across a link that said the VF500 oil pathways lacked for lube to the camshafts but the interceptor engine didn't suffer form that problem.

I guess that if you know that there is a problem and you keep the rev's up, the bike would last a long time. There are still some running around so the problem can't be that bad, just need to know how to deal with it.

Edit: Here's an interesting LINK. Look at all the cool bikes Honda had in the '80's, what happened to them (not the bikes....Honda)?