New Rider, New Bike, New learning curve - '85 500

Very nice, the VF500F was my first new bike back in '83. I loved the sound of it as it approached red line. There is one at the local suzuki dealer that I am tempted to pick up and see if I can resurect it. It is in poor shape looks like it has seen some hard mile. The one you picke up is extremely clean for it's age, looks like someone took very good care of her.

 

I was giving her a rub down today and found some rust on the backside of the radiator near the bottom, but there's no sign of a leak... other than that, still haven't found anything wrong.

 

Been researching the bike a bit more lately. Just wondering about a few details if anyone can help me out with 'em.

Exactly how long, in all good faith can I expect this bike to last with proper maintenance (I haven't been able to find a definitive outlook online)? Is having the valves checked out something I should do before taking her out on the road?

Aside from that I got a Clymer service manual incoming in the mail, safety course in two days!

Much appreciated.

 

VFR,
Congrats on your first bike. My very first bike was an '86 500 Interceptor. Many good memories on that bike. You can expect your bike to last a very long time with proper maintenance, well over 100,000 miles.

The one thing you will want to think about in the near future is that the bike came with an air adjustable rear shock that is pretty much crap. When you get some extra cash, think about looking for a Fox shock for a 500 Interceptor on Ebay or Craig's List. They were very popular as shocks in that time frame. You may be also be able to find a new, undamaged side panel for the one that got dropped on the garden fixture on Ebay as well. I had a set once, but they were for an '86, not an '85. I had two problems with my bike 1) the thermostat for the radiator went out, and the petcock for the fuel tank leaked, and filled one of the cylinders with fuel, effectively hydraulic locking the piston against the head. I am lucky that I did not bend a con rod when I tried to start it full of fuel and it went CLANK! when I pressed the starter.

 

I've found the panels, just not the one's matching my bike's color scheme. That or they're junkier than my cracked one. I think I may just end up repairing the one I have.

Your mentioning the thermostat reminds me that every time I've started her up, I haven't ever seen the temp gauge move. Granted I've never run her for more than a few minutes, I would think there would be some sort of representation on the gauge. I'll remember to look out for that when I take it out for a longer ride.

As for the rear shock, remember I'm knew to motorcycles, what aspect(s) of the rear suspension is crap? Is it a major safety concern?

 

The shock itself is the problem. It is the shock absorber that damps the spring that is used to absorb bumps on the rear wheel. There is only one on your bike (it is a monoshock rear suspension design). The air adjustable shock on VF500F's is a poor design, and with 14k on it, it likely not damping very well anymore, it's probably pretty worn out. It's not a safety hazard, per se, but you will need to replace it fairly soon. A fully worn shock will have the rear wheel bouncing up and down on the road like a tennis ball.

 

Spark Plug readings.

I changed out the spark plugs today with NGK DPR8EA-9 plugs today and thanked the heavens that the bike has the factory tool kit (any other kind of spark plug tool wouldn't have been manageable).

When I took out the old plugs I noticed some peculiarities among the spark plugs wear; mainly the dry fouling of the spark plugs on the front right and rear right cylinders.

All four laid out, in formation of where they were located on the engine when I took them off.



Front right cylinder (rear right looks very similar)


http://www.ngk-sparkplugs.jp/english/techinfo/troubleshooting/03/index.html
^^^ they look just like that.

Front left cylinder (rear left looks similar)




But on the plus side, it starts even easier (good half second start) now.

I was thinking air filter, but that would probably affect all 4 equally and all would show similar conditions.

Any ideas?

 

Great find, I also like the older VFR's. Welcome to the crew...

 

the front left plug looks exactly right....give the new plugs 100 miles and inspect them all again. If all plugs don't match at that time, maybe some trouble-shooting can be started then.....

Did you properly set the gap on the new plugs or just take them out of the box and install????

 

They pretty much came out of the box at .035. Granted my wire spark plug gauge is a little beat up from the years, the gap wouldn't take the next size up and slid real easy next size down.

I haven't got the clymer service manual I ordered in the mail yet, but I figured .035 isn't a bad place to start?

EDIT: I should also note that the plugs that were previously installed were DPR9EA-9's, instead of what my local bike parts store told me of DPR8EA-9 for my year and model. What effect would that have (I have no idea what NGK's alphanumeric denominations mean).

 

Most plugs from the box are set at .025"
Honda specifies about .030 for your bike.
The #8 plugs are for colder weather and MAY run TOO HOT for your motor......check the manual when u get it....

 

Thanks for the heads up!

I still haven't taken her out yet so I'll be sure to do that before I go on any trip. I had the classroom portion of my MSF class yesterday (passed the written test with a 50/50 :juggle: ), I have track time on Saturday and Sunday.

http://www.ngk.de/Spark_plugs.649.0.html

I came across that little article about NGK spark plug ratings. I understand it to say that the lower the denomination, the hotter it is supposed to run? Wouldn't that mean that the 8s I installed in there are designed to run hotter compared to the 9s?

EDIT: Ah! Did some more research. From how I understand it the "hotter" plugs have larger insulation contact area to build up heat to burn off the various deposits that accumulate during cold operating conditions. Colder plugs are less capable of burning off deposits in colder weather, but are less likely to build up heat to the point where ignition problems can occur during hotter operation?

The NGK site and the various other resources I've found on the net seem to indicate that the DPR8EA-9 plug is factory spec. But I'm going to verify with the service manual, as you said, before I run the plugs for very long. I still need to get the how to and numbers for suspension adjustments, oil capacity, etc. before I'll feel comfortable taking it out.

 

Disaster

I laid her down today at about 15 MPH.

I was practicing in an empty parking lot and came to a turn. I don't know what happened, but I don't remember touching the brake. I was looking through the turn, press left, lean left, go left. It started out smoothly enough, then out of nowhere I low-side off the bike. I stop really gently, my helmet doesn't have a scratch on it. My worst injury is my lightly scraped knee and my ego; I've got quite a bit of adrenaline and endorphins in my blood stream at the moment, but I'm finally starting to calm down. I got REAL lucky.

As for the bike, I bent the front left turn signal, I bent that back and it still works great. The rear left signal is dangling by the wires (but it seems like it's meant to break like that, it tore the rubber booting). I got some moderate scraping on the engine housing, some moderate scraping on the exhaust pipe and the front plastic is ground along the edges. The left handle bent (snapping the little tab) and I have a minuscule dent in the tank from the horn button. She was still running when she was down. She still starts up just fine, but her idle is particularly high with the choke off (about 3k); I don't know what's up with that, I'm thinking that maybe the choke cable is pinched. The only fluid that leaked in the accident was gas out of the gas cap, other than that, it seems to me the bike is still OK mechanically. I was able to successfully ride her home (I was only about 300-400 feet away).

Anyway, I just thought I'd let everyone know that I'm still not discouraged from the sport. However, I need to know what it is I need to look for to make sure she's still good and safe (and after I'm done calming done consider what it is I did really wrong). I know the left handle is going to need to be replaced, but I need to know what other essentials there are to check. All in all, it could have been worse.

Right now I'm in dire need of a cold shower.

 

sounds like your first get-off wasn't too bad....

sorry you had to go down, but just about every one does.

just know that you now have street cred, and the sooner you get back on 2 wheels, the better you'll feel about it.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, from my first day I brought her home and I damaged her not going anywhere and now my Olympic dismount. At this point I'm just hoping the momentum of recent events doesn't continue in the path that it's currently on; else something worse happen.

As for getting back on two wheels again, I rather have to tomorrow morning for my MSF class (if only I had the restraint to wait).

I must have a guardian Angel. :redface: :angel:

 

the MSF course will help you a lot, I'd bet!

good luck, and take their advice!

 

I'm sure, and I won't have to ruin my bike any further to find out!

My concern now is for that left handle bar. I have the service manual now but I can't for the life of me figure out how to at least loosen it so that I can at least rotate the handle bar to point where I can lock it (and also so it doesn't knock into my tank).

 

Welcome, VeryFunRide. Very clean bike. With regard to spark plug gap, the "usual" for most Japanes bikes of that era are about .025 - .028". If I remember correctly, the NGK xxx9xx is a colder plug than the xxx8xx. The colder plug will tend to foul & the motor will not make as much power. Your plug pictures are indicative of the old plugs being a bit too cold (dark brown and fuel-fouled black). "Ideal" is somewhere between your dark brown (as squirrelman pointed out) and a light tan. If you've only been able to run it a few minutes at a time, I'm guessing that you've had to use the choke a lot. I wouldn't worry about the difference in coloring until you are able to get the bike up to operating temperature and are able to ride it. Chances are that it will be fine, particularly since the new plugs are hotter.

Whoops! I typed this before I saw that there was a second page. Doh! Squirrelman's already got you covered...

Sorry about your get-off. All of us have, sometimes moving, sometimes just a stationary tip-over (although if one is tipping over, I guess one is not stationary...). And nobody that I know of has ever planned it. "I think I'll ride down the road about 50 yards, fall to the right and bust a few parts. It'll give me something to do".

I think one of the funniest things I've ever read was a quote from a motorcycle road racer after a particularly spectacular crash. When asked what happened, he replied; "The problem was gravity. One second, there wasn't nearly enough. The next second, there was way too much".

Hang in there!

 

My Clymer manual specs out ".031 /035" as the gap tolerance for DPR7EA-9 through DPR9EA-9. So pretty much the plugs came gapped out of the box, pretty handy to know.

I also found this handy link googleing about:

http://thepit.shacknet.nu/honda/

^has downloadable PDF's for a LOT of bikes. I'm sure it's not legal due to copyright per se, but the internet is a tool, I'll use it to get what I want if I need to!

As for the spill, I figured it would happen eventually and I accepted that as a reality, but it still feels weird after it happens, ya know?

I'm just glad I didn't spend too much $$$ on the bike; I had a perfect (cosmetically) bike from 1985, I feel bad I put some dents dings and scrapes into its history, but as it seems to go in the world of riders, your first ride is seldom your last and nothing lasts forever.

I took my first riding portion of my MSF class just now, great fun. During the 'quick stop' session of the lesson I locked the front brake first two passes, but I was later able to keep all wheels rolling whilst delivering maximum stopping power; can't wait for tomorrow.

 

Good link! Too bad I'm on a dial-up at the moment (big files). Yeah, I know, it does feel weird to drop a bike, but it doesn't happen often. Then again, it could be that I just hate breaking things so much that I sacrifice myself to avoid it...

You have inspired me to start a new thread...Look for "My First Get-Off".

Good luck with your class! Sounds like you're doing well.