Old Is New Again, Sort Of...

Hey Guys,

Looks like a great forum with people who are passionate about their bikes.

Live in Toronto, love bikes, been riding most of my life, it's one of the great pleasures of my life.

In the late 80's I bought a used Intercepter 750 and proceeded to scare the crap out of myself. Yeah, it was fast and fun. Had it in for a tune-up and was told that even though my cams were still in good shape I should really "try and keep the rev's up" as it had a low oil pressure problem. UUHH OK!!

Fast forward 25 yrs and 3 bikes brings me back to a VFR. I'm looking at a 99 VFR 800 with 30 000 KMs. It is yellow and has the exact same corbin bags, seat,tank protector as the post below me by Dr. Jekyll (Thanks Doc for posting those) Seems like a decent deal at 4 000.00 Can.

Is there anything I should be asking the seller or looking for that affects that yr. model adversely? Such as swelling gas tanks, exhaust valve guides made from really hard chocolate or side stands that were made too short and allow the bike to just fall over. (all true of the Multi, thankfully not my bike, knock on wood)
So if there are any gremlins that need to be sorted on this bike I'd love to hear about them before I take the plunge.

Thanks Goo

 

For 5Gens it will be electrical gremlins to worry about, Stators and R/Rs and the wire harness in general. Of course the usual questions should apply..."Has it ever been crashed, dropped, etc.", "Does it have a clean title?", "Do you have any service records, when was the last time 'x' was changed/replaced/inspected"

I'm sure others will chime it too. I just picked up a 2001 last week so good luck in your acquisition!

 

Thanks OOTVS, I just spent an hour or so reading the sticky/threads, on the electrical issues you mentioned. Very enlightening, something I will definitely bring up with seller. I'm no expert but it also appears to be something that with a bit of work (and a lot of how to knowledge from here) could be dealt with by an average wrencher. Thanks again, keep you posted.

 

Unfortunately I thought too long about it and the vendor found another buyer, kicking myself now missed a good deal, I think. If I end up with a VFR I'll definitely be back!!
Thanks for the info.

 

One thing I found, is there is another "bus" that comes after the one you just missed. Sometimes, it's an even better one! Good Luck...again!