Hello all and thanks for letting me join. I was bike-less for a few years, then last year I bought a non-running 1982 Honda CB450SC. It was an identical bike to my first one that I bought off the showroom floor in 1983 (it was a leftover). It was fun to get it running, and now runs like new. I think the Covid-19 isolation was getting to me because I started shopping for another bike. I've always really liked the little 500cc Interceptor since I saw a new one in the showroom in the 80's. I'm a small guy and it always seem to be "just right" in size and power. So I started browsing the usual websites looking for a bike. There are several in my area in the $3k - $4k USD price range and appeared to be very nice motorcycles. However, one close to home caught my eye. It is an 86 VF500F in an awful shade of interior latex white. It leaks fuel like the Exon Valdes, and the tires are old and the wrong size. However, it did start and run on all 4, so that was a plus. I went and looked at it two weeks ago, but walked away because of all the issues and all the uncertainty, particularly with a bike that is hard to find parts for. This whole time since I looked at it, I kept seeing the ad when I was searching, and kept wondering if maybe it would be a good project bike. There was something about that sad little Honda that got under my skin. I finally talked with the owner yesterday and we agreed on a price, and today I drove it home. Here she is in the back of my wife's truck, ready to take a place in my already overcrowded garage. The tank appears to be from an 84, and although the petcock leaks, I don't think the tank itself is rusted through and leaking. The side covers have writing on the inside that say "84 vf500" so I assume that at some point someone replaced the tank and maybe all the plastics. You can see the remnants of the stripes underneath that awful white paint. I think the first thing I'm going to do is warm it up for a few minutes running off an aux fuel tank, then do a compression test. I'm not sure I want to tackle an engine rebuild on this bike. I should know more tomorrow. Thanks again. Hopefully this bike will be ripping around the neighborhood soon. Mike M.
Thanks RllwJoe. I just noticed that the forks on this bike are black. As an 86, they should be red, right? I wonder if this bike met the wrong side of a hedge some time in its life. On the plus side, it has a newer battery It also looks to have aftermarket ignitors from v4spark.com .
