I found my unicorn, and a love affair with 2 wheels.

Greetings folks.

I have no one else to share this with, so I hope my little story is well received.
In June of 2018, I was driving to work in Phoenix, AZ in my car and a 6th Gen VFR800 pulled up next to me on the highway cruising at 80mph.
The rider gave me a glance, and I made room for him to get in front of me and break out of traffic, like a decent person should.
He gave me a thumbs up and proceeded to warp to eleventybujillionmilesperfreakinghour towing an exhaust note I can only describe as post coital.

That weekend I took the MSF, and the following week I bought my first bike (ninja 400).
Brilliant first bike, learned a lot over 3500 miles, currently for sale because as the title states, I found my unicorn.

Fast forward to the week before Xmas.
Poking around CList, with no intention of buying a bigger bike, I found an 02 VFR800 in mint condition with what the owner reports as "5700 original miles", for a few grand.
Surely this was a typo, and it was 57000.
Reached out to the seller, who was adamant it was 5700.
I took a rather skeptical drive across the city in the hopes to at least sit on this thing and dream for a few minutes, assuming I didn't wake up in an ice bath missing a kidney (CList can be scary in PHX).
Fate, as it seems, is not without her charms.

5700 miles, immaculate, zero paint fade, kept in a climate controlled garage as part of a private vehicle collection, run for a few miles every other month... and cherry, gorgeous, luscious red.

What was to be a sleepy Saturday turned into the happiest declaration of war against my savings account I have ever experienced.

Fresh Dunlop Q4s, tags, insurance, a wash, a wax, hours pouring over the forums here, new dot4 through the clutch, brake lines, K&N filter, snorkel mod, pair mod, coolant flush, and the great oil change debacle of '18.
Seriously that filter was put on drug fueled gorilla.
But I did it all myself, and it has been incredibly rewarding.

So to all of you who spent untold hours posting detailed walkthroughs of maintenance, thank you.
To the community of riders who has always thrown back the wave when they see another brother, thank you.

Most importantly, to the one who vanished into the distance on the I-17 in June of 2018...
You have to explain to my wife why half my garage and closet is now overwhelmed with riding gear, tools, and the aroma of the road.
You cheeky bugger.

 

Great story, thanks for sharing and Welcome to The World! Who knows, that VFR rider might be a member here so you might be able to thank him in person.

 

What a sensible way to start! And congratulations on finding the unicorn!

Riding on the storm

 

What a great story...I love that part about the assault on the savings account
Sounds somewhat familiar lol...after being off bikes for the better part of two decades, I decided to get back on and started with a Ninja 300 (which I still have and will probably never sell, great little bike) and wasn't really thinking of upgrading until I found my VFR on Kijiji. And it was the exhaust sound that got me, too...when the seller pulled in and blipped the throttle I was done, the bike was sold before we even finished our coffee.
Anyway, nice find and congrats, enjoy that beautiful machine!

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

 

So is the wife as happy as you ?

Glad to hear the story.

 

Well... seeing me come home on the bike the first time had an effect for sure...my daughter is due in February

 

Awesome story bud, and welcome.
You mentioned K&N filter, hopefully that is an air filter!
If not, may I suggest you waste no time and trash can that oil filter.
You scored fer sure, enjoy and remember ATGATT



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I second that if it is an oil filter. Lots so shit on this forum about the "dangers" that result from those filters failing catastrophically I have never had a K&N Oil filter fortunately. I even dumped my K&N Air filter a few years ago and returned to OEM paper.

 

Good story, sounds like a deal.
Ride safe.

 

Great story! There truly is something about that V4 that can stir the heart of man!