California Cafe'

9/11/2017

To stand out in the car- and bike-crazy culture of the L.A. basin takes some creativity, something reader Dave McDonald has no problem with. When he scored his '86 VFR700F from a neighbor for $1.00 he saw it as an opportunity to express his vision, and that's what we have here. Some say the best builds are inherently polarizing — the viewer will love it or hate it. What's your take?

I'll let Dave provide the background....

The story is...I bought an '84 VF1000 a few years ago. It was a beautiful bike but it was top heavy, didn't handle well and had an uncomfortable seating position. Since I didn't ride it that often, it finally would only run on three cylinders. I needed to sell it and didn't want to rebuild the carbs.

On one of my morning walks I ran into my neighbor down the street and he asked if I knew of anyone who wanted to buy his VFR700F. I said no, but how much did he want for it? He said $1.00! I really didn't need another bike and it didn't run either. Two days later I knocked on his door and gave him a dollar. He hadn't started the bike since 2009 and had retired from riding. I pushed it down the street and parked it next to the 1000. Later I sold the 1000 on ebay and the buyer was amazed at how gorgeous the bike was. Little did he know about the handling aspect.

Shorty OEM mufflers, chopped subframe.

Paying a dollar for that bike was a big deal because it gave me the psychological freedom I needed to do anything I wanted to it and not feel bad. I pulled the bodywork off and rebuilt the carbs. The plastic around the tail light was cracked and there were other cracks too. I had previously owned a '79 "naked" Goldwing and liked the functional look without the fairing. I happened to set the solo seat on the bike and thought it looked pretty cool without the tail assembly. The big step was to cut that frame member behind the seat. Since I only paid a dollar, what have I got to loose? Now I was starting to have fun.

I found a new (used) eBay tank ($130) and mounted a phone holder next to the tach. I can never read the speedo, so I use my phone with a speedo app with 2-inch digital numbers. Below is a dual USB and 12V power outlet.

Looking for hoses on ebay, I see I have a choice of red. Same for the chain. A few rusty bolts got the red treatment also. The front number plate I cut out of a clipboard I found. I couldn't figure out the best angle to bend a mounting bracket, so I used a gate hinge from Home Depot. I didn't want to see screws protruding so I bonded magnets on the back. Now it just pops on or off. Most cafe racers use a round headlight that doesn't blend well with the number plate, so I used a rectangular LED light bar.

A friend gave me the large front tire. I know it's not for performance, just looks — I'm not going to try and drag my knee. I would like to get it more proportional to the rear someday. Also, I trimmed the heat guard off of the exhaust because my shoe never seemed to touch anyway. I trimmed the side stand rubber off too. I also removed the footpeg "drag" bolt on the bottom and trimmed the protrusion off that it screwed into, then polished and clear coated.

It rides great, nice amount of torque for around the neighborhood but will scream at higher RPM. I weighed all the parts that were not used and the number is right at 50 pounds. I tried to connect the California smog system but was missing a part and couldn't make sense of the vacuum lines so the system was plugged. The carbon canister went into the weight savings pile, but don't tell anyone.

I love the bike for its performance but more importantly it gave me a chance to create a fun project!

(click on an image to enlarge)