Hello, Ridden and owned bikes for about 30 years. Current rides are 1990 Ducati 851 and 2000.5 Aprilia Mille. This weekend I bought my winter project, 1985 VF1000R that has seen better days. Tired and rough, but has most of the bits intact that are missing on so many examples. Plan is for fall/winter restoration. Did the same last year with my 50k mile Mille. It has been spiffed up from a faded and tired bike badly in need of TLC to something I now ride every week. Many questions coming up in the 1st-gen section.
Welcome to the Funny farm!!!! I was going to bust your bollocks about being from Mo. the show me state and not posting a pic. of your bike but you pulled it off!!! Well done!!!!
Welcome, post some pics of the rest of the stable too! I bought the same bike as a winter project, took me 3 years to finish.
These are my other two bikes. 1990 Ducati 851 (June 8 marks the 17th anniversary of the day I bought it back in 1996). Bought the 2000.5 Aprilia Mille last spring. Several years ago the chain broke on the Ducati and destroyed the case. I ended up waiting a few years (and had a Triumph Daytona and Ducati 999 in the mean time) and finally found a complete engine that I replaced in 2010. The Ape had 50,000 miles when I bought it and was a bit like the VF, tired. I have since done several things to it and ride it most of the time. Very impressive bike that I wish I had bought earlier. My commute is 100 miles round trip so when I am able to ride to work the miles pile on fast. This year has been tougher to ride as the weather has been bad and I seem to make daily trips to Home Depot and Lowes.. My refresh of the Aprilia can be seen here: Giving new life to an old Ape. - Speedzilla Motorcycle Message Forums I still haven't painted the fairing lower of the Mille, and need to grease the rear linkage and service the forks. But the bike runs fantastic. Ducati needs cam belts and this new/old engine forces me to play oil leak whack-a-mole. I have probably fixed four or five, my old engine never leaked a drop. Last one (I think!) is a cam seal on the horizontal cylinder, will fix that when I do the cam belts and valve adjustment. Hear it here: 1990 Ducati 851 cold start in garage - YouTube I cut off where my daughter scolds me for scaring her puppy with the deep desmo sound. The VF1000R has quite a bit more to do so I am planning on it being my project this winter. I am in the middle of some time-consuming outdoor renovations and improvements of my house, so I am waiting until those are completely done to start on the Honda, probably September or so.
