Hey all, name is Foster and I recently purchased my first street bike. I rode a friends 86 VFR for about 6 months until he sold it, and I haven't been able to get them out of my mind since. So last week I found this one for 1500.00 dollars and I fell in love. It's a 96, runs like a champ, and is a blast to ride.
Based on your photo, the price sounds too good to be true. What are the details? Congratulations and welcome to the forum.
The kid I bought it from traded his truck staright across for it, then found out the guy had lied and the back registration was 450 dollars. It also needed two new tires and front brakes. He replaced the front tire but ran into some financial troubles and couldn't afford the rest, so he let it go for 1500.00. Technically it cost me about 2200.00 dollars if you include the cost of registration, new brakes, and a new tire, still came out ahead I think. It does have 40,000 miles, but mechanically everything seems perfect.
40K miles is just breaking in. these VFRs are exceedingly reliable motors, given proper care, and some good oil. absolutely a worthwhile investment to buy some good stands, QUALITY oil, and keep the electrical stuff up to snuff.
in general, keep a good battery in the bike, and every now and then, test your charging system. like MOST motorcycles, the charging system is a fairly weak point. bad batteries can compound the problem, or expedite a failure by overworking the system. personally, what I want to do, and consider a wise choice, is to find a place suitable for you, and hook a volt meter up direct to your battery so you can see in real time whats going on. I have to decide where on my 84 to do this(knowing everything is healthy is a HUGE benefit)
The 4th gen is the best bike Honda ever made......for the street. I bought a $6 "alternator testor" at Harbor Freight, 6 LEDs to show system voltage/charging rate, and mounted it on my '86 700.
