Hello from SF Bay - new(ish) to bikes coming from cars

Nice to meet everyone, I'm Tim, new(ish) to bikes, coming from the car world. I've been a car enthusiast as long as I can remember, got my first car (BMW E46) back in 2015 and it's still going strong at 366k km (~227k miles) today. My first (sort-of far-fetched) experience with motorcycles was FSAE, where we used a CBR600RR engine and I've been one of the drivers on our team all the years I was on it during undergrad - also did a ground-up wire harness and dyno tune with a Motec M150 which was a super-cool and fulfilling project. Ever since then I've always had a slight interest in motorcycles but living in an area (at the time) with lots of snow, expensive insurance, with parents etc. etc. and not having that much of a desire to actually own one meant it was not a priority.

But come November 2021 I'd just moved to the SF Bay and a very close friend had a couple bikes - somehow I got to riding pillion on one of them and that moment on I'd decided I HAD to have one. Other pluses were (mostly) good weather year-round with winding roads 10 minutes from my house, cheap insurance, having the motorcycle as my "daily" meant my car could go on collector's car insurance (with the mileage, I'd get pennies for it, and it's a somewhat special model in excellent condition), and lane splitting. Coincidentally my friend was moving back to Canada and was debating on whether to bring his bikes up with him, in the end he decided against it and I bought the bike I had my very first experience in, a 2006 SV650S. I've had it just over a year now and have put 5k miles since then, been to the hills a few times but nowadays its my commuter.

Sound is a very important element to me and as I researched and got more into motorcycles I came across the VFR - after watching a few youtube videos I knew I had to have one at some point since it sounds like a high-revving flat-plane crank V8 at full tilt. I wasn't super fussy with which generation, only that it had to be EFI (5th gen +) but was partial to the 5th gen because of the gear-driven cams, adding to the ear-orgasming appeal.

I'd been watching on and off the usual places for ads for some time, and 2 weeks ago I came across a reasonably-priced 1999 VFR with 36k miles on the clock not that far from me on craigslist. It was posted on a Friday afternoon, I came across it at 9PM that day and immediately called the owner. We spent about an hour on the phone and agreed to a visit the next afternoon - I poured over every page of the service manual writing down things to check and spent time lurking the forums for common issues.

Long story short everything major checked out, with the only real problems being a weak battery (I verified the charging system worked, owner said the reg/rec was upgraded at some point) and a front tire from 2007. Big bonus is that it came with the best plate ever, since in California the plates can stay with the vehicle. The VFR became mine within 24 hours of the craigslist posting, I think it was meant to be.

Anyways I'm looking forward to being a part of the community and hoping to learn and discuss common tricks and tips to keep these bikes going strong for the years to come! Some pics of my toys:

 

Welcome! You're going to love it. If suspension hasn't been tackled, doing that will transform the bike.

Be sure to sign up for VFRdiscussion forums also. Sadly, the great info is split across the two.

 

Ha, yeah first thing I need to do is set the preload. Did a 50 mile shakedown on some backroads and it's just not handling the bumps like my SV with its stock bargain-basement suspension. Funny how there are two big forums for the bike!

Tomorrow I'm planning to get my aftermarket fairings on. I plan to make wall art with all the original fairings, and don't want to risk damage to them if something happens.