My '86 VFKR Project

Got her back late yesterday and went for a 50-mile ride this morning. She's running much better now with no big holes in the intake system! Still a little rough around the edges; but JT put some cleaner in so I'll go through a tank of fuel and put in some fresh before drawing conclusions. She starts right up, doesn't hesitate off -idle (once she's warm), and doesn't 'hang up' when the throttle is closed (all were symptoms before the work was done). He showed me the manifolds he replaced. It's no wonder there was a vacuum leak!

Another observation - this is by far the coolest-running Honda V-4 I've ever ridden. The gauge never gets to the halfway point, even climbing the lengthy hills I have around here. I'm hoping this isn't a problem.

 

Same here. The needle on my 1000R only gets 1/3 of the way up on the temp gauge. I've never seen it higher than that.

I'm glad that your bike is getting straightened out. My favorite thing about this bike is the motor. I wish I had the same torque / mid range on my 6th Gen. It then would be perfect - even with the VTEC.

 

I'm glad to hear that actually. I guess I'm used to other V-4's running hotter (some MUCH hotter, like the late 90's VFR I borrowed once). Thanks for the response!

I'm looking forward to riding it as it should be ridden. I'm going to fit a video camera mount somewhere and go for a ride tomorrow.

 

Woooohooooo!

Vikki and I went out for a sweet 100-mile loop through Gold Country this morning. Had to run the tank of fuel/carb cleaner mix down - and accomplished that mission, going on reserve with 155 miles on the clock, and rode another 10 on reserve before fueling up.

By the time I got home she was running very close to normal, with just a tiny bit of off-idle hesitation remaining. Don't know yet if that's still a bit of crud in the carbs or if I'll need to go deeper; but damn this engine is sweet. Easily lifted the front rolling into it at the exit of a 2nd gear turn (thankfully I was going straight by the time the front got light!), only exceeded 100mph once - by accident while passing a long line of cages that were behind a jackass puttering along at 40mph on Hwy 88.

So she's definitely running very well now! Perhaps not perfect; but definitely rideable, fast and fun!

Here's a pic from our break at Mokelumne Hill:

 

It's looking and sounding really good. So before you took that picture, did you have to ask all of the gawkers to please step away from the bike? These bikes draw a lot of attention. It's cool when I take mine out, how people come right up and start asking questions as many of them know exactly what it is and have some sort of story to tell. I never get that with my '07.

 

I had gawkers for the first ten minutes after I arrived there, including a young man who was staring with his mouth open as I rode up. He has an '84 1000F (he said he traded two 500F's for it); but wishes to someday have a VFkR. Then there was the couple on the Harley who hit the binders hard just to ride over and have a look. But that place is really not 'on the beaten path', kinda out in the middle of nowhere. So after the old guy in the pickup stopped asking questions and left I had a few moments to grab a couple of pics.

Yeah, they do draw a crowd, don't they?