New to the site/not new to Honda

Hello everyone.
As of today, I'm the proud owner of a 97 VFR 750.

A while back I started saving money for a bike, I just wasn't sure what I wanted, exactly. I was looking at a V-Rod (crap...did I say that) in some town, at some dealership, and my wife said, "Well, if you want it...get it. As long as I (she) don't have to make any payments". That's when I started my "Harley fund".

I scraped and saved, eventually I had a pretty good stash laid aside....but I never had that sure gut feeling that it was the right thing. I've had Hondas for over 30 years and couldn't see owning anything else.

It didn't hurt my feelings when I took money out to convert my old XL600 into a street motard (more on street/less on motard), and about a year ago I scored a cheap deal on an 01 CR125. In the following months I scrounged CR500 engine parts, custom rims, tires and other parts to build a full-blown motard, which will also be street legal.
Then I had the bright idea to swap in a set of CBR/VTR/VFR (whatever) wheels, to build a hooligan. I was searching for wheels and that's what led me to the VFR.

I was shopping for a Superhawk, saw an ad for the VFR and thought I'd take a look. I knew it was the generation that has geared cams, but I have never heard one. I liked the bike the instant I saw it. I really fell in love w/it when I fired it up and heard the engine, and I was blown away by the performance.

In typical Honda fashion, it doesn't have an all-out tire shredding engine and the agility isn't that of other (sport) bikes I've owned, but it does everything well. It looks great, has excellent brakes and it sounds bad ass. Surely one tough machine.

As of today my Harley fund is a lot smaller. Since I still have some coin to play with, I'll be replacing some of the cracked body panels (along w/a total repaint...stock colors) and swapping in new tires later this winter. Other than that, the bike is perfect.....A clean '97 for $3200 (he was asking $4K) was too good of a deal for me to pass up. My wife asked where I got the money, I told her it was from my H/fund. She just said "Oh, that's nice".

It's funny. I totally rebuilt one bike, I'm building another from scratch and I landed a VFR...all at a fraction of the cost of my original plan.
I pray for the day that I come up on a pack of those over priced, over weight, over chromed noise makers.

Cool to meet everyone,
Gene.

 

Welcome, you have some sweet projects going on there, we need pics...Good choice on the VFR.

 

Welcome aboard. Sounds like you're gonna fit right in here.

 

Ok, I had my camera at the shop and I took a few pics of the VFR today.
Here's my new addition to the family....or the new toy in the collection, whichever way you want to look at it:

Sorry...these came out crappy.






Here's the make-over on the XL600.
Click on any pics for the full albums:







and the build-up on my CR500 conversion:





Thanks for the cool welcoming everyone,
Gene.

 

Oops....I didn't see the intro page yesterday.
Looks like I put it in the wrong place.

Oh well.