NEw/old 86 750 interceptor for GF, but i'm kind of loving 'her' bike

Hi, I set this account up cause you guys seem like 'TheSamba' of Honda VFR's.

My GF wants to start riding and my Bike is an 83 BMW R100Rs airhead that's just to big for her to physically handle.

Found this little gem for 1750 at a lemon lot on my way home from work, an hour later it was in my garage. Now I need to get the materials together to do a thorough maintenance run down. There are some fairing issues I would like to resolve, and I'm pretty sure I want to make sure the carbs are balanced.

The only thing I wasn't super pleased with was the brakes seemed a bit under aggressive. I'm kind of curious if that's something common to these, bikes stock, a sign of age, and/or if there are brake upgrades anyone could recommend to me.

Anyways, I'll get a picture of the bike linked later, and look forward to enjoying this community. the little perusing I've done looks like this is a great place.

cheers

 

HOW TALL IS YOUR gf ?? It's a common opinion here--although not unanimous--that a VFR is not the best FIRST bike for a new rider. She'd be alot safer starting out with a lower, lighter, smaller UJM than on a VFR for a year or so of experience. A smaller, easier to handle bike will give her the confidence and experience she will need.......rather than being thrown into the deep end. :sorrow:

The brakes are fine on VFRs with fresh fluid, a good bleed, and clean pads. yOU SHOULD PROBABLY change coolant, brake fluid, fork oil as basic maintenance. How many miles on the bike ?? :beguiled:

As for the fairings, i'd advise not to have the lowers mounted on the bike for her first rides to avoid damage.:grumpy:

 

Yes, She's about 5'7, 125-130 lbs. we set her on the bike and static test the fit. She's ridden quads and street scooters before and drives manuals. The deal was she has to take the beginner/intermediate riding courses near here in conjunction with all the safety gear. Definitely not gonna just 'throw her in'.... I kind of like this girl. As for the maintenance, that was my plan. Just going to do all fluids, full inspection, probably start with new tires (these are a bit bald), I hadn't really thought about taking the fairings off but that's not a bad idea at all. I saw someone on the site had posted a picture of a half naked and it still looked pretty good. Her wrist is currently healing from a snowboarding injury so it's still a good 3-4 months I'm guessing before she actually starts driving it, which means I'll get to enjoy it for a bit I think

That, and she bought the bike, all I can do is make sure it's safe and try to teach her safe at this point. She's made up her mind for now.

 

ah, and the odometer is showing 50-51k. I've talked to previous owners of this one so far and it sounds like it's been a daily rider for the last 3-4 years with a 15 year parked in yard nap prior to that. The last real owner was a Harley mechanic.

I'm confident/hopeful I'm realistically not going to find any major issues when I go through and do the shakedown.

Are there any uberusers who on here who specialize in the 1st/2nd gens? How many miles can I expect this motor to really go before wanting to do an engine refresh? I noticed in one of the posts a similar model apparently had a cam-chain-guide recall. Really interested in the random oolies about these bikes, especially since I come from a more Germanic maintenance lean.

 

The 86 model VFR750 was the first to use gear driven cams, so no camchains in there at all. The earlier VF750 models did have some serious camchain tensioner and occasional cam lobe wear and Honda's reputation was taking a pasting, so they pulled out all stops with the 86 models to put an end to reliability issues. Aside from issues that you'll get on any older bike like corrosion and electrical issues, mechanically the 86 should be as reliable as they come.

If the brakes are a bit suspect then I'd suggest firstly cleaning and deglazing the pads and rotors, then checking that the pistons are moving freely and are clean, and also checking that the sliding mounts on the calipers do, in fact, slide. The brakes should be pretty powerful.

 

Awesome, good to know. I'm hoping the Honda service manual shows up today and the Haynes by the weekend. I'm really looking forward to start using it for daily work commute but I'm reluctant until I can go through the mechanicals. Thanks for the heads up on the brakes and the cam chain.

 

At 50k miles the steering head bearings should already have been changed, usually at about 35k; but it would be wise to check them carefully, clean and relube or replace with OEM.

With proper care and quality oil a VFR engine can last to 100k without needing any refreshment, but you don't know about her bike's previous history of course. The circumstances in which you found it might be a clue.

 

will do. This is the type of gouge I was really hoping to get. You guys rock.