Hello crom a new member in Fredericksburg, VA

And by CROM I of course mean FROM!

Hi all! I just purchased a 1998 VFR800 Interceptor and will be picking it up in Charlotte on Sunday. Can't wait!

 

Welcome to the WORLD. Looks like you scored a nice looking machine judging by the photo. I for one am sure you will come to favor the VFR over any other kind of bike. All you need to do is throw your leg over the bike, thumb the starter, listen to the basey thrum of the V4 pulsing through the aftermarket D&D exhaust. When you pull away from the curb and feel the unending and linear torque from the engine and the ominious growl as the revs pass 3, 4, 5, 8000 RPM you will be forever converted. Not that we here are the least bit partial to the VFR, Nooooooooo, not that. No one would ever accuse of us being impartial. LOL

Make sure to check when you pick the bike up that it comes with the passenger grab handles as well. The seat cowl over the rear of the seat must be removed in order to put the grab handles on and a lot of owners that ride with the seat cowl installed seem to put them somewhere and then forget where they are. If they are missing, you can still buy OEM grab handles from some of the after market companies like Ron Ayers or Bike Bandit.com but they may cost you around $100-$200 so its worth asking to make sure they are present and accounted for.

 

Welcome to the forums :welcome: and congrats on your *new* 5th gen :whoo:
You must send updates and post pictures once you have it.

 

Will do.

And thanks for the welcomes!

 

:welcome: to the madness
Great job by posting picture of the bike, be safe picking up the ole girl.

 

you are going to Love that bike ...

 

But the fuggen thing is red..........Welcome to the site. You should enjoy the ride. Hell, stick around here. You may enjoy the comradely here too!

 

Yeah....not my first choice, but the price was right.

 

Well, it's Sunday, where's da pics, where's da pics............LOL. Hopefully the bike is now yours and that she is more than you had hoped for. Oh, ...............and that you had a chance to take the bike for a good long ride already.

 

I'm driving five and a half hours to pick it up....so not quite there yet.then another five and a half hours back home. I expect to get home about 10 o'clock tonight.

if anyone lives on the road between Fredericksburg Virginia and Clinton North Carolina, I'd be happy to stop off and have a chat en route.

 

Now that is what I call an EPIC journey. I think the farthest I have ever driven to pick up a bike was about 6 hours round-trip. I remember another member here from Australia driving almost 12 hours each way to pick up his new ride and how he related his experience. He mentioned it was like the bike was taunting him to stop, pull over and take it for a quick ride. Every time he looked in the rear view mirror, there it was, sitting on the trailer, the head lights like eyes staring back at him, boring a hole in the back of his skull.

Hope your trip goes really well, and drive safe.

 

Thanks! It's compounded by the fact my truck has no A/C...

 

I effing LOVE this bike!!

Still on my way home....will upload pics after I arrive.



It followed me home~

 

The non-stock muffler on this bike was MADE for it (D&D). Not too loud, but lets some snarl through when you get on it. This engine sounds HEAVENLY! Throttle response is snap your fingers quick! I've only been used to older bikes under 500 cc.....this thing is a beast~

 

You nailed it~ That exhaust note is intoxicating. I was NOT expecting the instantaneous throttle response---WOW!

The owner never had the grab handles, so looks like I'll have to find a pair somewhere. Not worried about it anytime soon; if anyone rides with me, she'll just have to hang on to me...

 

Somehow I thought you might like the glorious sound that eminates forth from the bellows of the engine. In my view there is nothing quite as nice as the sound of the V4 with the help of an aftermarket slip-on. Definitely intoxicating.

The engine pulls like a stump grinder from just about 2500 RPM all the way to redline. One thing that is really nice about riding in the twisties with that kind of grunt on tap is that while all your buddies on inline 4 powered bikes (smaller cc's like 600's especially) are shifting up and down through the gears to make sure they have the right mix of power and speed, you just have to use your right hand. Just throttle up and throttle down, throttle up, throttle down.

I love the shot of the bike sitting in the back, just staring you in the face the whole drive back. Damn, I bet that just gave you the urge to pull over every time you got gas and ride it around the gas station parking lot. From the trailer, the faint sound of ghostly whispers came forth, speaking to my very soul, and the only thing they said in a hauntingly quiet voice was, "RIDE ME,........... RIDE ME, ............RIDE ME."

If you do decide to get a pair of grab handles for the bike there was a set for sale on VFRD. Here is a link to the posting,
Grab Handles From 2000 Vfr - Classifieds - VFR Discussion

If you have spent much time looking through posting on this site, one of the things that comes up quite consistently with the VFR in general is charging system malfunctions. As the proud new owner of a VFR, one of the tools you may want to purchase is a digital multimeter so that you can keep an eye on the charging system with particular attention being paid to the regulator/rectifier located on the left side of bike behind the rear seat cowl. These are known to fail without much warning. Make sure your battery is freshly charged and then check the voltage at the battery with the bike running. You should have about 13.1 V at idle and around 14.3 V above 3000 RPM. If the numbers are a lot lower, you may want to check the charging system further. Not long after I bought my current bike I started noticing a few issues with the R/R. Here is a link to a thread I started when I noticed the battery starting to go dead for real apparent reason.

http://vfrworld.com/forums/mechanics-garage/39362-2000-vfr-r-r-question.html

Another thing you might want to consider is downloading the Factory Honda Service Manual for your bike from the Specifications section of this site. The factory manual comes in really handy for doing any mechanical work to your bike, from changing a headlight bulb to removing fairing parts. I downloaded one just after purchasing my bike and it was probably the best thing I ever did. It's an amazing resource, as is the knowledge of the members of this site.

http://vfrworld.com/forums/specifications/3161-downloadable-parts-catalogs-service-manuals.html

Enjoy your new bike, WE ARE SURE YOU WILL.

 

Mmmmmmmmm.....*drool*....

She's not perfect--had been laid over once two owners ago at about 5 mph, so I was able to get her quite cheap. I'm all about the mechanical & could pretty much care less about cosmetics; I'm old enough I don't have to impress anyone but myself~

 

I already downloaded the manual before I even picked up the bike~

I'm familiar with Honda's propensity for stator/charging failures. They are so good about so many other things; why don't they get THAT right??

Thanks for the links/info! I've been on forums for years (Yotatech & ToyotaNation in particular) & am very familiar with "newbie" syndrome & try to avoid it whenever possible. I appreciate the database of info you guys have accumulated here on these bikes.


(FYI: it wasn't on a trailer; it was on the back of a relatively tall 4x4 truck...so getting it out at the gas station would have been time consuming. Even MORE so putting it back in. Also, I don't think I would have been able to quite limit myself to the gas station parking lot~)

 

Nice lookin machine dude and I hope you get a chance to stretch your legs and go for scoot really soon. Have fun and ride safe.

 

Click to watch a short video of my new bike: