Well, it happened.

Today I dropped my pristine 04 Ferrari red VFR800. I was making a U-turn in front of my friends house (which happens to be on a hill) when the bike leaned too far toward the inside of my turn and downhill. I held on an laid the bike down as gently as I could but it was damaged nonetheless.

My friend helped me upright the bike and get it to the curb. The left mirror broke off at the stem, lower and front cowl on the left side have minor road rash, and the left front footpeg guard broke off. Also, immediately after uprighting the bike it leaked some coolant from the lower fairing. I hope it was just overflow escaping from the bike being on it's side. I was able to restart the bike after shutting it down and resetting the kill switch.

I now need a good bodyshop that handles motorcycles. I am having difficulty locating an OEM mirror already and I know this will cost me to make the bike look nice again. Any suggestions?

D

 

Man does that suck...But aleast you placed your bike down.Seems like minor damage.Mirror and some slight scuffs.
Maybe scuffs can be buffed out..

 

For OEM parts, you can try anumber of places:

Bikebandit.com

Ronayers.com

Servicehonda.com

These are just a few. AMA members get a discount at bikebandit.com.

 

Those hills are tricky, especially when trying to do a turn, I almost did the same thing when I had a CBR 600...

 

That sucks! I know the feeling. Similar thing happened to me two weeks ago. It was a tip over in my driveway. I started the bike and had it on the sidestand. I must not have fully extended the sidestand b/c after I turned & took a few steps towards the garage to suit up - I heard a very bad sound - *crash*. It had fallen over on the left side. Same thing as you broke off the left mirror, clutch lever looked like a horseshoe, and bad scrapes on lower cowl, as well as little scrapes on the nose and the rear cowl. Paint/bodywork estimate to repair was $525! I ordered replacement mirror/lever from Ron Ayers - great price/quick service. It was also cheaper for me to order a new OEM lower cowl (about $300) with exact paint match so I ordered that from them as well. I scored a rear cowl on Ebay for about $50, so I saved some money there as well.
If anyone can help, One question I have though is now when I use the steering lock, the left bar end can actually touch the tank. Before it fell over, there was about an inch clearance. Is there a stop or adjustment that I can reset so the bar end won't touch the tank? The right side is fine, it stops an inch away from the tank as it always did.
Thanks for any advise...

 

Well, I just got back from the shop and paid $780 for a new lower and upper cowl, mounting bracket and left mirror. Parts should arrive from Honda in about 1 week. I'll leave the small ding in the tank for a later date if I fix it at all. Not as bad as I thought it would be (I have heard all kinds of horror stories).

 

Hey Johnny, your clip on should rotate around your forks some to move the bar end away from the tank. Losen it and line it up as the other side.
For tight turns I drag the back brake under a bit of throttle. Keeping things moving seems to help balance and if you have an "oh s#$t" you can let off the brake to keep it upright with some acceleration. Some would argue that's bad on brakes.....I say it's no worse than stops from speed and pads are cheaper than body parts.

 

Shiet sorry to hear this.. as stated Service Honda is a great place. good folks not to bad on prices either,as far as mirrors go try Dynohumm, it's in Canada, was looking at a set of new 00 mirrors and they had the best price.

 

argh....I know how you feel.I can still here that awful sound as my fairing and left mirror hit the ground. I have also a scar on my sides fairing bought the color match from a automotive shop to match the color of my bike.replace the left mirror and the weight end....as I can always say a lesson to be learn the do's and don'ts.

 

Hey DC, glad to hear it's all going to be fixable. Let's still plan a ride once it's all back together. -Mark