Help The New Guy!

Hey, here is a 1984 700VFR Question:
This is my first post. Here is some background info before I get to the meat of the question.
I'm 36, I have a solid background in working on cars (engin, trans swaps, brakes, suspension etc) but absolutley no bike mechanic experience. I'm 6' and weigh 210 lbs (in case that factors into what size bike would work for me). I've loved first gen VFR's since a friend of mine bought a 500 in 1990. Unfortunately, he was killed in Iraq about 2 years ago and that got me thinking about finding his bike. Although that search was fruitless I did find a bike in my home state about 2 hours away. I'm considering buying it and wanted some advice on what to look for on a potential first bike. BTW: is a 1984 700 a good first bike?

THe 1984 VF 700 in question has 9800 original miles. According to the owner it needs fork fluid and seals (he has the new seals), tires, break pads, clean carbs and fresh gas. He used to drive it on weekends with his son but the son is in the army now and the bike has sat for 3 years. He wants $750 for it. THe bike itself looks to be in great shape, the pics file size are too big to be downloaded with my post though.

Any advice over anything I have or haven't mentioned would be great. Thanks,
Tim

 

I have a '83 750 and love it. Does it look like this? Sounds cheap enough. I paid $1850 for this one.

 

Yeah, similar to yours but in red, and with no v45 decals.
The owner was asking $1650 last fall on an obscure area BB but had no hits. I came across the ad just before it expired and got in touch with him, and his lower asking price.

 

These bikes do have some cam issues, but with only 9k on the odo, They should be fine. Brakes are no problem. A good tune-up and oil change and carb cleaning should get her back on the road in no time.
BTW, I'm 6'0"-203lbs and the ergos are just fine for me. I have 4 other bikes and the '83 is my 2nd favorite (it's hard to compete with the '07 RWB).

 

I've read some other posts on this site that deal with the cam issue. If they are still in good shape based on the low mileage, do I need to worry about the cam lobes getting wiped if I start driving it a lot? Any fixes like aftermarket cams etc?

 

Aftermarket cams are way too expensive. Just keep the oil changed and don't let it sit and idle too much. As I understand it, the top end gets too little oil at idle. They make an oil mod which puts more oil into the top end. I might do that if I had a low mileage bike, but mine has 24,000 miles on it and the cams are still fine. I've seen the stock cams go 50,000+ miles with no problems. I guess it depends on how well you keep it serviced and don't sit in traffic for a long time idleing. I did install a bi-pass switch which allows the fans to be turned on whenever I want, before the temp gets too high. Besides, oil quality has improved in the last 25 years, so the problem might not be as bad today as it was back then. Either way, it should give you many years of service with such low mileage on it.