New North Carolina VFR Owner !

I just wanted to make my obligatory "first post" in the new members section. I purchased a Red 1995 VFR750 today ! It's in nearly perfect shape with just a few normal wear and tear nicks and scratches. With only 15k miles, I plan to be riding it this time next decade It has a Yoshimura slip on that growls nicely, but is not obscenely loud.
I rode previously for about 12 years, owning various older Honda Nighthawks, and then a Ninja 600 before leaving the motorcycle world for about 5 years.
All I have to say is that after not riding for 5 years, then jumping on the Viffer for a test drive, is....OH MY GOD, HOW I MISSED RIDING ! It was kinda like not having sex for 5 years, then bedding the entire Swedish Bikini Team all in one night
Anyway, I'm glad to be in the club now and I'll be posting messages when I'm not busy riding the Viffer.
Oh, and if anyone has questions about Acura Integra's....I'm your man !

Mike

 

yes the VFR's is an all around bike from what I'v heard.I'am trying to get as much ride time as much as I can Congrats on your bike you will enjoy every time take her out for a spin..

Ride safe / Stay Vertical.

 

Hello Mike and welcome to the group. Need a moist towellette? hehehehe. Anyway, Glad your re-entry to motorcycling is such a joy and you have chosen such a fine machine to so. Be sure to post some pics if you can in the photo gallery and pin yourself to the member map so we can find you. You will find lots of useful info here in the forums.

Off the topic of introductions, have you ridden the tail of the dragon? I want to cause it sounds like fun, but more than that I wanna see the scenery. :biggrin:

 

Well, it seems my re-entry into motorcycling will not be without some bumps, bruises, some cracked body work, a broken ankle, and a seriously bruised ego. Yes, I managed to splat my "new" 1995 VFR today.
In case anyone wants to hear the sad story: I was taking an exit off the highway when it happened.....Its a long downhill exit with two left turn lanes at the bottom. I was coming down the exit and was going to make a left...I had the green turn arrow. There was a car in front of me blocking my vision of the intersection (big mistake) but when they briskly moved into the other left turn lane, I rather suddenly noticed a big old patch of gravel at the bottom of the ramp, spilling out into the intersection. So, in the split second i had, I decided to hold off starting my pre-turn braking to avoid sliding in the gravel (second mistake), hoping I would have enough room to brake and turn once I got past the gravel....BUT found I had too much speed once I got into the intersection and was going to run wide of my turn. So, I guess I pushed the front end a weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee bit too hard and managed to low side, with 750 cc's of V-4 Honda power landing on me and my ankle. So basically, it was some bad luck, combined with some bad decisions and regretfully rusty riding skills on a bike I was not familiar with......bummer. In retrospect, I should have gotten on the brakes despite the gravel, and braked through the gravel keeping it pointed straight, and I guess tried to come to a complete or mostly stopped, then point it in the right direction and go, OR maybe, have just run the turn wide and gone off the road into the grass.....hindsight..hmmmmm...luckily, I was wearing some thick pants....still rashed my left knee, and my riding jacket with its shoulder armor that very likely saved me from breaking my left shoulder which still hurts like a big mutha. I was wearing boots too that probably saved me from a more serious ankle snappin'. The bike is in surprisingly good shape....I even rode it home, busted ankle and all.
There is serious rash on the left side upper fairing and the left "middle" fairing and some cracks in the rear cowl.
I plan to get her fixed up while my ankle heals and I can't wait to get back on her ! I WILL RIDE AGAIN !
As a side note, the front tire was nearly brand new, put on by the previous owner just before I bought it. I need to limp to the garage and look, but it may not be fully scrubbed in....dammit.
As you might figure, I am mad, sad, bummed, embarassed, disappointed in myself and hurting all at the same time....so keep the shiny side up people !

 

Tough one Mike,

Was about to send a Congrats!!! till I scrolled down and saw your latest entry - Real Bummer. But nonetheless CONGRATS ANYWAY ON THE PURCHASE
Once u have healed and recovered and fixed up the bike you will love it. I had also been off from riding for 3 yrs and didn't even test the bike How could something that looks sooo good go bad..... And as soon as I rode it off the showroom POINT PROVED It is an awesome piece of machinery
So get sorted out shortly and HAPPY SAFE RIDING

Cheers
Rodrick

 

Ouch! out:

Hope you heal quickly.

 

Sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you heal quickly. Don't feel too bad, it could have happened to anyone of us as well.

 

Really bad luck but at least you had some gear on and walked / limped away still whole. Sounds like you have a good bead on where you went wrong so it is unlikely that you will get into a situation like that again.

On another note, I have a 93 Integra SE and some tech support could be good!

I have a few questions I'll hit you up with off list if you are up to it.

bubba.taylor@aero.bombardier.com


regards

Brad

 

Thank you all for the consolation and encouragement. I was happily informed today that I will not be needing surgery on the ankle. The good people over at Duke put a "Honda VFR Red" cast on it (note, it's also NC State Wolfpack and Carolina Hurricanes red too). We plan to put some honda and VFR logo's on the cast with the airbrush to match the bike....I WILL post pics of that....ha ha.
So it looks like my triumphant return to motorcycle riding will have to wait another 4-6 weeks. In the mean time, I plan to "go back to school" and read up on riding safety, crash avoidance, etc etc. I also plan to take a safety course as soon as I get back in the saddle. This was not my first crash, but it was the first one that was my fault. The others were all caused by cars cutting in front of me.
So for everyone reading this, please learn from my mistakes:
WEAR YOUR GEAR EVERY RIDE ! (I almost left my leather jacket at home...if I did, I would be in the hostipal right now)
GET SAFETY TRAINING (I had 12 years riding under my belt, and just a little rust on my skills heavily contributed to my crash. Even learning one thing at a safety course might save your/my life).
LEARN/KNOW YOUR BIKE (I was planning to take her out to a parking lot and get to know her characteristics better.....never got that chance)
Well, the vicodin is kicking in so this post is going to crap now....
Last thing though....can someone point me in the right direction for some new fairing pieces? Does Honda still sell OEM fairings for the 95 VFR? I plan to look around regarding plastic repair, but does anyone have any thoughts on that? I'm quite handy and use bondo all the time at work so I think i can fix much of the damage by filling and sanding with plastic filler....thoughts?

 

wow.....sorry for your mishap hope u get well soon.....

 

With the VFR red cast and the VFR logos, you will at least be riding in spirit until you are ready to climb back on it once again. I think most if not all of the plastic is still availabe from honda. You can go to bikebandit.com or servicehonda.com and see. Bike Bandit will have some prices and they usually say if an item is discontinued or not. 94 - 97 plastic should fit your bike. Plastic won't be inexpensive either and you might be able to find aftermarket plastic, just kind of have to shop around various sites or even keep an eye on ebay for plastic.

 

Thanks for the continued support and the info on the bodywork. I finally had the nerve to crutch my way out to the garage and was pleasantly suprised to see that the damage to my Viffer really ain't all that bad. Luckily for the Viffer, it had 175lbs of whiteboy to land on and cushion the fall. Unfortunately, almost every body panel on the left side took damage, but the majority is located on the upper left and middle left fairings. There are some very minor cracks on the rear cowl, but barely noticable. The damage to the upper and middle was 100% rash and no cracking ! Seems it should be a relatively easy job of filling, sanding, and some fresh paint. I have a master painter that will hook me up on the spraying, so I figure a $500 bill should cover most of the fixing....cheaper than it will cost to fix me !
I will try to post some pics of the damage tomorrow.
Can't wait to get back out there and riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide !

Mike

 

Pics of Crash Damage Uploaded

I posted pics of the bike before and after. The crash damage seems very fixable and I doubt any fairings will need to be replaced.
Here are a few of the images:

 

Reg~

Yes, most of the damage was the rash on the upper left and middle left fairings. There are some small cracks on the rear left cow (see image below)l, which I suppose I would want to fix one day, but they are hardly noticeable. There may be some cracking on the inside of the left middle fairing back near the radiator, but you can hardly see up in there anyway. When the leg feels better, I will start tearing it down to take a better look. I know that several of the fairing mounting brackets are bent, and when I get it torn down, I can see how bad they are.

No, I won't be riding in the cast...although I did start her up in the garage today and got in the saddle to give her a few revs Felt nice, sounds wonderful with the Yoshi Carbon !

I'm sorry to hear about your mishap today. Why did you have it on a centerstand in the grass? How bad is the dent? I assume you plan to get it pulled? Argh, I'm sure that's aggravating...trust me, I know how you feel.

Here is a blurry pic of the rear cowl damage...you can see the hairline cracks near the seat cowl botl and horizontally along the seat....not pretty, but not horrible.

Mike

 

Hey man! Very sorry to hear about your lay-down. I bought my "new" 1998 VFR about 2 1/2 months ago. I had it one weekend and dropped it on my way to work in RTP. Almost all cosmetic damage and I lucked out with just a sprained thumb, but it was heartbreaking!!! I rode her back to the shop for an estimate and what parts I'd need. Turned out they told me I needed $3400 dollars worth of work, but I found out later that a lot of that was there "cost" on parts. Taking off a few things I didn't actually need (including their labor) to replace got it down to about $2500 and then I went online and got ALL OEM PARTS for $1700. Here's the link where I bought them. http://www.ridenowonline.com/oemparts.aspx

This included a new lower right cowl (Fairing) and upper (Nose) cowl. Much better prices than anywhere else I could find OEM.

Good luck with the healing and the bike repair! Maybe once you're up and running we'll see each other on 40!