New member, Hello to all.

I've been riding bikes now for 25 years and have always had sports bikes (I'm a young 50 years old). I decided I wanted a bit more comfort for long distance touring so bought a Suzuki Freewind (stupid name, great bike). As much as I love this bike, I was longing for more power and the 650 single just couldn't cut it.

Looking through the classifieds, I saw a red 1998 vfr800 with a claimed 31000 genuine km on the clock. I found this hard to believe after all these years, but thought I'd go for a drive anyway. The owner was in his 60's and having bought it from the original owner, scared himself riding it and parked it for ten years. After giving the spiders time to leave I took it for a test ride and was instantly hooked.

Before advertising the bike, the owner had new tyres, chain and sprockets, and full service done, I offered him $2500 AU and he accepted.

And so the fun began. The bike was completely stripped, cleaned, lubed, wheels painted, and all components checked. I replaced the air filter, brake pads, original R/R with the upgraded version, fitted a volt meter and a vfrness, and also added an extra earth from the battery to the frame. The more I worked on this thing the more I fell in love with it.

I have to tell you, I can't stop riding this bike. It's so addictive.

Only problem is, my wife catches me staring at the vfr sometimes and I think she's getting jealous :smile:

 

Well Hello from the land of down under. yea this machines are addicting aren't they and it only gets worse, or better depending from where you're sitting.

 

Don't let your wife catch you rubbing and caressing that beauty. BTW. Nice as you story is, it did not happen unless you can support your claim with pix. Get on it will ya?

 

Well you posted pix to the gallery so I might forgive you. Others won't. Sweet. But that red colour really drags down your top end. Red ones are real pigs comparatively speaking.

 

I should have warned you about Randy liking photos, Can't really blame him, I do too. For that matter many here do as well. Duck and run time...................

 

Pics in the posts or it didn't happen.

Welcome aboard, and don't don't hesitate to ask / answer questions!

 

You know it's the first red bike I've ever owned. Was never really a fan of the colour but it's slowly growing on me. I had to get some paint for touch ups and found it funny the colour is Italian red. Might be a full respray in the future, we'll see

 

Welcome jonmat66! Great to have you here.

Regarding miles: There must be some split, like 50/50 or such, with the VFRs. Guys here have toured them 150,000+ miles. But on the other end, there seem to be many people who buy nice new bikes, then park them in the garage, like yours, and mine that I bought with 17,000 miles on it.

Don't let Randy fool you. I am quite sure that my red is extremely fast. He clearly has ulterior motives for not wanting to approach a red bike at the stoplight.

Does the full service list tuning the starter valves? The partial throttle response depends on these being periodically adjusted, so make sure that was done, or otherwise have it done.

 

Yah, I picked up my current 2002 VFR800 with only 9,800 km's ... it was traded in by the original owner. They had only insured it for 7 of the past 13 years according to CarFax.

 

:welcome: to the madness from across the pond mate :wave:
Thanks for sharing your story that is a great price :thumb:
Not sure if you have the flash on I don't see any bike

 

Yes. Ask away. Jeff always answers. Sometimes good advice. Sometimes, well, creative. But usually spot on. His bike is grey. Now. Isn't that just so exciting.

 

Must be another Jeff, my bike is silver.

 

Welcome to The World jonmat! Bought my 5 Gen almost 2 years ago, it had ~16k miles and was sort of neglected by the PO but I gave it some TLC and she runs just great now.

 

Red = fastest