Fabriktr checking in.

I just joined yesterday so I would have access to the tribal knowledge that you cannot get at a Honda dealership. My son (23) and I both ride this bike and love it. Smooth as an electric motor, fast, and quiet. I am not sure if I like the way this seductive temptress causes me to ride at speeds that are a bit north of the legal limit. Most of the time I resist the temptations and ride it like a gentleman rarely getting into the V-Tech range. Bought it 5.5 years ago with 27000 miles and it needed some work. The PO was a bit of a hooligan and gutted the mufflers. Threw away the rear fender, and had no concept of fork seals or chattering front breaks. At 40,000 miles those issues are ancient history.
I was a Kawasaki and Suzuki service manager in southern California for 11 years and a mechanic at 4 shops. I do my own work obviously. I fabricate all of my own bits and farkle my bikes to suit me.
The only things I built for this VFR was an aluminum fender extension on the front fender. A luggage rack and a mount for my GPS. Oh yeah, repaired the mufflers.
Been riding over 50 years including a long spell in The Republic of China on my Kawasaki dual sport. That was back when a foreigner could still own a private bike, a Chinese drivers license, bike tags and no government chaperons. Not any more.
KLR 650, Aerimachi 350, BMW R100/7, BMW F800ST, Honda CB350, Yamaha XT500, Ninja 250, Kawasaki KD80, Suzuki DS85, and of course the most beautiful of them all 2002 Honda VFR A.

 

Hello and welcome

 

Nice work on the fender extender / tail mount.

Really digging the gold swingarm, I'm not sure I've seen that done before!

 

I see you made it to the intro section. Good looking machine you got there, gold wheels look good with red! Nice job on the fender extension.

Cheers

 

Thanks for the comments on the gold wheels. The gold goes great with the red bike, but have you ever noticed the visual effect of a black wheel and tire together look very massive and heavy. A light colored wheel separates the parts visually making the tire look smaller and lighter. I had cleaned the aluminum swing arm a couple of times and the rough casting was challenging to get it clean. I needed to press out all of the suspension needle bearings for cleaning/greasing anyway, so while it was apart I had the swing arm powder coated gold. Now it cleans up EZ.