Hi All, I am Maxim, from Belgium. I'm only wrenching on bikes for one year now, my previous project was a 1983 Honda CB450SC. This twin is wonderful to wrench on, has bomb-proof reliability, and is overall a good performer. That project is now running towards it's end, and I am looking for something new. (and meanwhile up the difficulty a bit) That new project might very well be a VF400F! I will post more info soon, I am in the process of gathering all info I can about these bikes, which is the main reason I'm signing up now...
Hi Maxim Welcome to the MadHouse:welcome: From your other post it sounds like you enjoy a challenge. Even so the idea of making two serviceable bikes out of three non-runners will certainly require a good few crates of beer! At least in Belgium you should have no shortage of inspiration . Anyway to help you on your way you may want to have a look at the various links in the Specifications sub-forum, which should have some general information on the VFR 400 and 500 engines. A while back I nearly ended up buying an RVF400 - so did some research into these increasingly rare beasts. What quickly became clear is you may need to be inventive sourcing parts for bikes that old, and may find you can usefully widen your potential choice of spare parts by identifying other similar vintage Honda models which had similar components. Things like the petcock are a known trouble source with suitable replacement parts increasingly problematic. Likewise inadequate servicing has been implicated as the cause of serious engine issues. Given the impeccable English in your forum posts, I think you may also get a lot of useful information browsing through the "document library" here.. http://www.400greybike.com/forum/index.php Good luck with the vehicle hunt, and if you take the plunge, please post up some pictures of what you started out with, and keep us posted with progress. opcorn: SkiMad
Thank you very much for the kind and informative response! A true warm welcome! Thanks for the link to 400greybike, I did not come across that forum yet. Of course, if I end up taking the plunge, you will see a lot more of me, and I'll start a project thread too, I plan to have an in-person look at the bikes later this week. Are the VF400F and VFR400 motors similar apart from their firing order?
If Wikipedia is to be believed the engines are only similar with lighter engine components ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_VFR400 To add to the confusion there were lots of Honda 400 engine variants out there and a good few got swapped around - often due to failures from inadequate/infrequent servicing. VF400F/VFR400/RVF400. - You may want to check out the various article here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_RVF400 One issue you may want to investigate is how you ensure that the bike(s) and engines you are thinking of buying were actually whole bikes - and not just a melange of bits salvaged from numerous similar 400's which may not be entirely compatible with each other. NB It is worth noting the official Honda service intervals for those bikes was every 6,000 KM (3,700 miles)! http://www.hondarvf.com/workshop/maintenance-schedule This intense servicing regimes was in part due to the quality of oils available at the time and the very tight tolerances on these bikes. Suffice to say many owners stretched the intervals quite considerably - and eventually many of the engines suffered terminal damage. Take care SkiMad
That's some stuff I needed to know! All of the bikes and parts are supposed to be of the same model, except for one engine. I will doublecheck. Since I'll be doing all the work myself, maintenance intervals will be nonexistant. I'm more of a "continuous maintenance" person, always something to do a bike Just checking valve clearances already seems like a major undertaking though.
