Reader Greg M., from Washington state, recently ordered a selection of items for his and a friend's VFRs. Both are 1986 700s, Greg's Pearl Crescent White and the other red/white/blue. He sent along this pic of his F2, with the telltale signs of its 1986 heritage — Denmark Blue seat and bronze clutch cover.

When I asked about his history with the bike, he had this to say: "Here’s a photo of my 700FII...getting carbs resealed (started to leak)…valves checked, fluids changed, brake calipers cleaned, spark plugs, and new tires. In other words, all dialed in and ready for the summer riding season! Bought the exact model new in ’86, unfortunately had to sell it while going to school and subsequently having a couple kids. Caught the bug again and bought this one in the late 90’s. Believe I’m the 3rd owner, around 20k miles, the original exhaust (currently not installed) is stored in the garage, other than that it’s completely original. I Believe I got the last Yoshimura 4-1 exhaust back in early 2000. I Have a modest collection of older Hondas (including 5 VFRs). It’s ridden about once a quarter on average, other than that it sits in the garage under blankets."

Greg's has had a long and happy relationship with his many VFRs so I was glad I could help out with this one.

The years have a way of chipping away at our bikes finishes, much like ourselves, I suppose. One of the details that I often find in need of attention is the lettering on the ignition switch, fuel cap and, on the 1st- and 2d-gen bikes, the fuel selector plate. Shown at right is a typical ignition switch, this one on Project 42, with about half of the letters missing their white coloring.

These are all recessed castings, thankfully, so we can pretty easily restore the paint. Here's what I do….

(Below) Using automotive touchup paint from Dupli-Color with the fine pen feature, I fill the recesses with paint, then immediately wipe the excess with a tight-weave cloth lightly soaked in acetone or similar. I wrap the cloth tightly around a finger, turning to a clean area with each wipe so as not to redeposit the wiped paint. One or two wipes is all that's necessary. I repeat the process with black paint on the other parts.

This is a quick and easy fix — one of the many tiny details that complete your project.

$9900 or make offer. This first listing (below) is from Throttlestop in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. This example shows 38,893 miles and is described as an "outstanding rider quality bike," which looks to be a very accurate summary of the bike. There's some chrome corrosion and other bits are showing their age but the bike is well detailed with very presentable paintwork. It sports a centerstand and the fairly rare passenger seat cowl. The black chrome mufflers look as good as any original examples I've seen. I suspect that the body paint and engine covers have been refinished at some point though there's no comments on that. Looking over this bike closely, I'd say the asking price is reaching — $10K is traditionally "R" model territory — but there's the "make offer" button. The listing features lots of detailed photos including the cool running video shown below. I cringe a little when I see those drooping turn signals — come on, guys, it's not that difficult a fix!
​Here's a link to the eBay listing:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266686781000?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m43.l1120&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=1e9473a6682842348cf1976040e54e4b&bu=42998154637&ut=RU&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20240223035213&segname=11021

$2799. The second listing (below) also comes from Wisconsin and shows similar miles; 36,995. Also listed by a dealer but they've decided to offer this one as is, in non-running condition, needing lots of TLC, and lacking the passenger seat cowl…a project. The paintwork actually looks okay in the low-res photos, but the remaining finishes are showing their age and neglect. Values are finally on the rise for the "F" model, so the asking price might not be too far out there, though it takes a lot of faith to count out that much cash for something you haven't heard run — I know, I've done it many times.

What: 2002 VFR800 Interceptor
Why: Low miles, great cosmetics
Where: Miami, Florida
Price: $4400 or offer

The first thing that caught my eye with this VFR800 VTEC was the perfect-looking Italian Red bodywork. After reading the description and zooming in on the photos, I can't seem to find any telltale signs of ground contact or other common rash. Assuming original paintwork, that's impressive in a 22-year old motorcycle. Then again, this beauty shows just 4488 miles, our seller having added only 131 miles in his 16 months of ownership.

The bike appears quite complete and original, with a few little mods; the rear fender has been chopped, there's aftermarket hand levers and master cylinder covers, gas tank filler cap, bar risers, Throttlemeister throttle lock/bar ends and the rear footpeg brackets removed (included in sale). This one is not equipped with optional ABS, and there's no mention of maintenance items due for attention. I think this would be a great candidate to return to stock configuration and keep as a beautiful example of the first-year RC46 VTEC Interceptor, and it might be difficult to argue with the asking price.
​
For lots of tech and riding impressions from back in the day, here's Cycle World's road test from 2002:
https://www.cycleworld.com/sport-rider/red-techno-buff-2002-honda-vfr800-interceptor-full-test/

Years ago I was tuning a Honda 800 V-twin, trying to set the sync and mixture on the two individual carburetors…with no luck. It would stumble, fall flat or even die when adding throttle, unless I messaged the throttle to get higher RPM. After some reflection, I decided to install the airbox and filter, and voila, it throttled just fine. Lesson learned.

As a result of that incident, I always install the airbox and filter when tuning VFR carbs, but yesterday I decided to recreate my experience and ran the engine sans airbox. The video below shows the results.

Back in the day, we would routinely swap our inline fours' airbox for individual pod filters, and the bikes ran just fine, so my logical brain doesn't easily compute this phenomenon, but there's some science behind it, and that science began in the motorcycle world during the 1980's. Can we still make "modern" carburetors like ours (or fuel injection) run without their engineered airboxes? Yes, but it would take some aggressive jetting tuning, and we would likely be defeating the performance objective by degrading the torque/HP tuning that the engineers worked so hard to achieve. Here's a brief explanation from Kevin Cameron:
https://www.cycleworld.com/what-is-secret-importance-motorcycle-airbox/

I've spent the past few days rebuilding and tuning carburetors, specifically 3d-gen carb sets. I don't typically have a need for rebuild kits, not that there's anything wrong with a quality set, but I always try to reuse any of the original OEM parts when able, and I've sourced my own seals, so I don't have a need for much of the hardware or seals provided. However, I do replace the float valves and sometimes the low-speed jets if they're too far gone to salvage. I used to be able to get the 3d-gen float valve assembles separately from Sirius in Canada, but they seemed to have stopped stocking those, but do sell the Keyster kit shown below. They list these at about $95 USD but offer them in larger lots for about $71 with shipping and tax. That gives a good idea of their markup. Again, I don't need all of the extras — I don't think I ever met a main jet that couldn't be reused — but I'm kind of stuck. On the plus side, these are made-in-Japan parts and it's always easier to start with shiny new pilot jets. Obviously, this kit is only for the bits in the carb bowl, any seals beyond that will require a more complete kit…or a visit to my "Products" page.

 Just out of curiosity, I once ordered a Chinese-made rebuild kit for the 2d-gen VFR750 (below) and I received a mystery package of seemingly mis-matched bits and pieces along with a menagerie of seals, incorrect jet sizes and even a new jet needle. I should have know when the listing stated that the kit would fit several years of VF and VFR carbs, which are not compatible. But that little sync spring will come in handy one day, I'm sure. If anyone seriously thinks that all this stuff is of useable quality for $20, shipped from China, they deserve what they get, I suppose.

Speaking of reusing parts, don't be too quick to throw out your nasty-looking float blow drain screws. Yes, sometimes they've corroded away the tip with no hope of sealing ever again, but often a few minutes with some 1200-grit wet/dry sandpaper wetted with WD-40 or similar will have them ready for another 30 years. These are NLA from Honda, but are available aftermarket.

BTW, those rubber seals don't actually seal fuel, they just direct the draining fuel out the bottom spigot, so don't fret if yours aren't perfect.

Project 42, a UK-spec 1986 VFR750F, is showing some assembly progress. In this photo we see that the centerstand is mounted along with the refurbished set of Supertrapp slip-on mufflers. All the fairing panels and windscreen have been test fitted, then color-sanded and buffed. Here, I've mounted the head and tail light fairing in order to machine buff them on the bike, which gives me a more stable platform for buffing. Those are spare wheels/tires mounted while awaiting the originals to return from the paint shop.

(Right) Here's my basic polishing kit: After sanding with appropriate grades of wet/dry paper, always finishing with 5000-grit, I machine polish using 4-inch pads on a DA machine. In most cases, Meguiar's Ultimate Compound (with an orange cutting pad) will buff out the dull sanded finish, with Ultimate Polish (black polishing pad) the final step. It takes a steady hand and a certain amount of self-confidence to take sandpaper to your shiny paint and clear plastics. Always use the minimum grit possible to get the job done and be especially gentle along the decal edges. These very fine microfiber clothes are strictly reserved for this kind of polishing so there's no possibility of contamination with grit, oils, etc. After use, they're hand-washed and rinsed before machine washing.

This tank now has its original luster back. I'm not after restorative perfection here, just the best that the original parts can be.

(Right) After sanding and buffing the windscreen, I repaint the blacked-out backside as several black areas were scuffed clear during its life. This is an easy operation — I clean the black surface, sand lightly with 1200-grit and carefully mask off the clear screen. The black is then sprayed with three light coats of satin black. Here, we're ready for paint.

​(Below) Next up are the turn signals and mirrors. The signals were treated well during the past decades of use, and I will be able to reuse them with sanding and polishing. On the left is a before/after photo showing a sanded and a polished signal. The lens is left attached (as is the tail light assembly) as they get the same treatment, and when finished, I will remove the lenses for cleaning residual polish from the seams. For this project I'm using one NOS and one repainted mirror. Both are fine sanded and polished.

(Below) A common fix I use for the 2d-gen bikes is to enlarge the front turn signal holes. I do this to allow a "relaxed" fitting of the signals, meaning the fairing isn't pressing up or down on the rubber signal stalk. I remove only about 2mm of plastic around the perimeter — the rubber trim strip still fits snuggly but the stalks now have a little more clearance, which helps me to align the signals up/down and front/rear, allowing a nice, level appearance. TIP: Drooping signals may be able to be fixed by swapping the stalks side-to-side if they're not too far gone. It worked for this project, both front and rear.

One of the under-appreciated tasks of a thorough bike refurbishing is re-fitting of the body panels. After a few decades of use and abuse, it's often a time-consuming and frustrating process to get all the panels aligned. I sometimes need to remove/install a headlight fairing, for example, a dozen times in order to tweak its mounting points to allow proper alignment of the lower panels, which are all affected by the headlight fairing mounting. Even the windscreen can be visually twisted by a misaligned front fairing (typically caused by a tip-over). It becomes a 3-dimensional puzzle that simply takes time and attention to detail. But it's one of the many details which sets your bike apart from most.

When I bumped into this eBay classified listing, it took me a few seconds to wrap my mind around what's going on with this fuel tank…what's with the two metal caps atop the tank?

The answer came with the photo of the tank's bottom — someone decided to channel the popular 90's ram air trend (like the Bimota pictured below) by, apparently, installing two tubes through the tank, presumably to increase airflow to the carburetors? I'm not sure if the caps are removable and if flexible tubes are supposed to be connected to them. Our seller doesn't mention this unique modification but describes the tank as "very nice" and is asking $150 OBO plus $20 shipping from Iowa.

"Without Honda, we'd still be in the dark ages."
I bumped into this video series via my ADVrider.com weekly email digest. In search of a mid-winter psychological moto boost, I gave it a look…and ended up bingeing for a couple of late-night me-time YouTube sessions. Host Neil Graham, a long-time Canadian moto journalist, leads us through an eclectic collection of beautifully filmed and well narrated 20-minute segments — from enticing back-road rides to the relevance of the chopper and more. Neil is deadpan, insightful, well-researched, semi-funny and unapologetic about his views and selection of material. In other words, this is not your father's moto-vlog. Give it a try, here's the trailer….

$28 (includes shipping)

I'm often asked what I do about replacing the original fuel lines for my projects. Every one of my projects has come to me with the original 37-year old fuel lines still installed, their best-by date having expired long ago, so I always replace all the components.

Here's what I do. The 8mm (5/16") section from the fuel tank to the filter is replaced with TYGON line, the filter is a new Japanese-made item identical in size and style to the original, and the remaining 10mm (3/8") lines are modern fuel line from a name-brand manufacturer (Continental, Gates, AC Delco). The clamps are easy-to-use spring clamps in the correct sizes, and all lines are cut to correct length, shipped as shown, assembled and ready to install. I source made-in-USA parts whenever possible.

I'm offering this kit for sale. The $28 price includes shipping to all U.S. states. Contact me (with a shipping address) for actual shipping costs outside the U.S.

Coming next: A carb rebuild kit for the 2d-gen, with just the essential items I use for every rebuild.