Hey everybody! My name is Elric. I'm from Virginia Beach, Virginia. I bought my '91 F2 for $450 with just over 18k on the clock. Bought the bike from a guy in the Navy, he brought it with him here from Washington state.

When I first saw the bike I was ready to just turn my head and walk the other way (he wanted $1000 for it). He said it'd start and he had the choke on all the way and that's the only way it'd keep running. After a bit of talking and debating he let it go for a smooth $450, I threw it in the truck (not literally of course) and brought it home to start getting this bike running again.

Here it is when I first got it back in the garage:



I promptly put it up on my rear stand and got to work cleaning the carbs:





Try not to do what I did below if you're ever cleaning your carbs, the little silver thing next to the intake valve is actually the screw that holds the choke cable bracket on the frame, I dropped it and pretty much wanted to run into a freeway during rush hour. Luckily I have some 1/4" magnetic tip extensions and I was able to reach it, good thing it didn't drop past the valve!



Junk in the carbs floats, the slow jets were completely clogged, I just used a strand of wire from some wiring harnesses I had laying around and twisted it in and out until it was clear. Compressed air was a good thing to have.



Once she was all buttoned back up I realized that the clutch was cooked, I couldn't open the throttle more than maybe 10% and it would slip as if I'd pulled the clutch in.



I was able to find a Barnett kevlar clutch kit (friction plates, drive plates and springs) for $50 NIB from a local guy, after 4 tries I got the clutch in correctly and viola! IT RUNS PERFECT!!

I then modded an '03 GSX-R 600 D&D Aluminum muffler to fit (made my own 4 bolt flange) but it was too loud.





So finally I scooped up a used Yoshimura RS-3 from a fellow F3 rider that came to my place when I held a maintenance meet. $20 haha, buffed it up nicely too.





Pic of my bikes:

 

Hello & welcome aboard to CBRF!
One of the best new member intros EVAH!
U got a great deal on that bike for $450 bux...looks clean too!
Great pics & congrats on getting her running again

 

christ man that is impressive. You have juliet's old bike!

Btw what did you use to buff up that exhaust so nice and shiny?!

 

Welcome to CBRF fastrax!! Not bad for a new member post...not bad at all...lol. Great pics and a dynamite write-up to go with them. That's a gorgeous F2 you have!! Very sharp!! I can't believe the previous owner let it go for only $450!!!

Obviously, you are very handy with bikes so check out the F2 section and lend a hand in helping other members with their problems as well as posing your own. Having an F2 as well, I'm looking forward to having you in there.

Take care and enjoy the forums!

 

jpanside@gmail.com - I used some Mothers Metal Polish. I applied it with a microfiber application pad and used a microfiber towel to buff it off. The finish on the pipe was VERY hazy so it took a few applications to get it right.

eweppley - Actually this bike was the first time I really got in there and wrenched. I'd never taken the carbs out of a bike before and I've already owned 5 so far. Here's pics of my bikes in order:

'91 Suzuki GS400F / Bandit 400 - 14k on the clock, picked it up for $1000 from a motorcycle tech friend of mine, he tore the bike down to a bare frame, chopped the subframe and mounted a Ducati Monster seat (super comfortable btw), had CBR clip ons and a custom M4 muffler. Bought to learn, learned a lot.







'04 Kawasaki Ninja 500R - Got this as part of a sale. I sold my '96 Civic Hatch with a B16A swap and the guy was short $500 of what I was asking for the car, he offered up this bike to make up for the $500. It had 12k on it when I got it, it already had a Vance and Hines full exhaust on it and K&N filters. I put a Sylvania headlight, RK Gold 520 XW-Ring chain, painted the body panels red to match (that's spray paint btw), and put 120 60 17 front / 150 60 17 rear Continental ContiForce tires on it. It's a BLAST to ride because it's so light. My GF owns the bike now and she's learning to ride on it.

Brought it home



De-stickered and installed RennTec engine brace



Sprayed the rest to match and added a custom solo cowl







'98 Yamaha YZF600R - This was an impulse buy, it was owned by a high school classmate of mine. The bike had 26k on it and I bought it for $1500. Bike ran awesome, had a DynoJet Stage 3 kit on it, D&D full exhaust CF, JT -1 in the front and +2 in the rear. It was baby blue when I first got it so I immediately sprayed it flat black. I found it big, clunky, and uncomfortable to ride as it'd been dropped 2" out back and 2" up front. Also had a 2nd gear problem. I sold the bike for $2500







'86 Honda VFR700F2 - I picked this bike up for $1800 with 12k on the clock, it was in amazing condition, very clean started right back up and after I took it for a spin, I was in love. The VFR was an AMAZING machine for it's age. The low end grunt of this bike would embarass my CBR up to about 40mph at least with it's stock gears. I didn't do anything to this bike, kept it as stock as possible.











And of course the CBR is the most current. I have a thing for old bikes because the first bike brochure I saw was for the '86 VFR750F, I wanted one sooo bad and I loved the RWB color scheme. I wanted my CBR in the RWB colors but I'll settle for what I have, unless someone wants to trade

 

Wow Elric!! You've really had some nice bikes over the years! I especially like the VFR750. When I get the chance to upgrade my 600 in the future, if it's not a CBR (1100XX or 1000RR), then it will be most certainly be a VFR.

 

GREAT intro, bud...
You've got some fine lookin' bikes there, man! Obviously the CBR being my first choice, like classic said... but they're all nice!

Welcome to the forums!

Well you could have fooled me! That may be the best part of the intro...lol..
I like your style, man..
(and a honda car guy, too... I've got a '90 hatch with a b16..)

 

I've owned roughly 22 cars, I'm only 26 haha so I averaged just about 2 cars a year. The current car is a '97 Miata that's now turbo running a standalone ecu (Megasquirt PNP). I'm an ASE master tech, so wrenching on the bike wasn't so bad. The theory is the same when it comes to the mechanics, just never actually worked on one. I found it a lot easier than I had expected it to be. I called for quotes on carb cleaning/sync and a clutch change. Apparently it would have cost about $1200 to have these things done and it took me about 5 hours in total to do it myself and $60 for the clutch kit and the bottles of carb cleaner. I definitely recommend anyone who owns a bike to do their own maintenance it's NOT that hard.

I loved the VFR, but it was way too tall. I'm 5'8" but my inseam is just barely 30". The VFR sits up at 32" I think so I'm up on my tippy toes, and that bike weighs over 500lbs with a full tank (I think it was 508lbs). It doesn't seem that heavy once you get going but strolling through a parking lot at low speed and making tight turns for parking, or backing out of parking was just a chore. A lot of people thought I was being a bitch about not being able to flat foot it but I was on the very tip of my toes and let's face it, I was using this bike for commuting so I stop a lot during city traffic and it was a pain. BTW I had lowered the front of the VFR 1.5" and it was still too tall.

The CBR on the other hand was a bit shorter and was much lighter (40lbs goes a long way). The bike wasn't quite as silky smooth as the V4 and nor did it have the low-mid range grunt the VFR had but it was much easier to manage and easier to work on.

 

22 cars, huh?!
Dam!! lol.
I thought I was bad owning 7 and being 28. (I still have 3 of them and 2 bikes).
It would be a full time job just buying and selling them.. lol.

You're right about maintenance costs if you don't do your own work. Hell, the 2 shops I called about swapping tires for me wanted $50 just to swap a tire!! And that's with the wheel off the bike... Total BS, so I just did it myself. I haven't even asked about anything else... no thanks...