Howdy folks. I've been perusing your lovely forums since I bought my VFR this year. Now that riding season is over for me and wrench time is ready to begin, I figured I'd introduce myself and get some insight. What better to start with then some background. My name's Shane, I'm from pretty much the middle of nowhere Maine. 20 years young(my bikes older then I am!), I'm a computer guy at heart, but never afraid to get my hands dirty. I got my license last year and had my fun learning to ride on an 83 650 nighthawk. Was a nice little bike. However, being a youngin' and wanting to go fast, I learned pretty quick what not to do with bikes. Spun a bearing about 2,300 miles after buying the bike. Since I was mad with myself for being so hard on the poor little thing, my riding ended that day (was around june of last year). Sat for quite a while, eventually talked a buddy of mine into helping me rebuild the motor and turned it into something a bit more interesting (off-road gokart). Fast forward to april of this year. I'm riding to work one day when a little silver beauty off to the side of the road catches my eye. I pull over and have a look. Bike is a little rough on the eye... lots of cracks and scratches, it was pretty obvious she'd seen her fair share of hard riding/downing. But something about that bike spoke to me. It was like a little whisper in my ear... "ride me, if you dare..." I looked on the side, and saw big black letters "VFR". Looked at the VIN and saw it was a 1986 VFR 700. It didn't look like a 700... nor did it look like it was from 1986. At that point in time I had never seen a VFR before in my life. Even in such a rough shape, it was still a sight to see. Something told me this bike was worth it. And boy was it. I was sold on the looks alone, even with all the scratches and dents and bruises. And then the owner came out of the house and we talked about the bike a bit. He asked me what I liked about it, and I said "pretty much everything!". He pulled a key out and turned it over for me. The noise... Oh dear sweet baby jesus the noise it made! I have never heard anything sound so angry, so primal... it was like there wasn't even a motor, just a monster contained inside a small metal housing. Waiting to be tamed. I went to the bank and bought it that day with 1200 bucks cash. Drove it home too. What an experience. I'd never really been on a "sport" bike before then. It was an intoxicatingly brilliant experience. From that day forward I vowed to treat this bike with the respect it deserved. And that's that really. 7 months and 10,000 miles later, she's never done me wrong. Not a single setback. She gets her regular fluid changes, I've changed the chain and tires, but that's about it. Everything has been the same since I bought it. Mostly due to money issues (My salary ain't all that great yet and I support my girlfriend who doesn't have a job currently, so one can imagine it's a bit tight), the rest of it is time constraints. However. With all of that said. I want to get her into shape this winter and get her running and looking the way she deserves to be. And that's why I'm here. I see a lot of people around here that share the same thoughts as I do about these bikes and I'm happy to see that. Granted I'm a bit greener around the collar then most of you folks, but I don't see where that changes anything. It's all about the bikes, eh? So here she is. My pride and joy. http://img441.imageshack.us/i/27081139250713222312184.jpg/ You can't see all the finer issues due to the image quality, and that's about a year old so there's a few more things in the image you can't see (for instance i had a minor crash a month or so back and snapped my brake handle, I just tell everyone i have a race brake lever since you can still wrap 3 fingers on it ). I'm going up to my parents' house this weekend where the bike is stored so I will have much more detailed imaging of the bike then, will probably take a video just to be more thorough. Just figured I'd get my introductions out of the way now since my next post will be another wall of massive text detailing more about the bike Here's some videos of me with the bike; YouTube - The beast. 1986 VFR700F. <-- When I first got it. My mate likes to rev the piss out of stuff which is apparent in the film. 1986 VFR 700 madness <-- Myself having a bit of fun on some private road. Read the description if you have concerns on this one. Well, that's probably more then enough for now. The bike needs lots of stuff done to it and I'm not the best when it comes to wrenching, so rest assured you will be seeing much more of myself and the bike above. Just did this as a sort of howdy doo and whatnot cause I'm just that kind of guy. Cheers and Regards, Shane
Thanks! I try to make my posts interesting to the point that people enjoy the read. A lot of people here I see are in the habit of coming out and rattling off questions expecting you guys to answer them immediately. To me that's rude. I treat it a lot like real life. I like to earn the respect of those around me before I start asking away. If I want someones help, the least i can do is make sure they're entertained while they help me! I really do believe I am a gen 2 nut hahah. I love my bike more then my girlfriend most of the time. Atleast when I give the bike a hard ride she doesn't complain!
2ND GENS are the best gens. You're right, they don't look like they are from 86. Truly ahead of their time! welcome to the forum and be sure to ask any and all questions... these guys are good :cheersaf:
welcome to the world...... gen 2 is the shiznit..I have one currently in the "remodeling phase" she is a runner though..
