A few times a year Tim at Pashnit.com offers the Galfer 2-for-1 brake line deal. Buy the front, get a matching rear for free. Plus free shipping.

I just ordered a set in black for $96.95. A good deal.

My usually understanding wife, Patti, expressed some "concern" when I came back from Fort Atkinson, WI last week with this pretty little '86 VFR700F in tow. She claims there's now 12 bikes in my hoard...err...collection, but that remains to be officially verified.

In any event, I came across this 700 on Craigslist, where it was offered together with an '07 R/W/B Anniversary Edition VFR800. The seller, Russ, is making the transition over to big cruisers and his pair of Interceptors is up for grabs. To say I was tempted by the 800 is an understatement, but I managed to resist, at least for now.

This one is a pretty complete example showing 24,000 miles and sporting a 4-into-2 aftermarket slip-on exhaust. There's no identification, but it looks to be an F1 brand to me. The bike has been sitting a few years and Russ did his best to get the carbs functioning, so it starts right up but is running rough with partial throttle — carburetors. The bodywork and seat are very useable, the flaws being a small dent in the rear portion of the fuel tank, a missing seat cowl and the right mid-fairing damaged to the point of being a parts donor. This is also a California model so some carb plumbing will need to be dealt with (trashed). Everything else seems to be in order with no further modifications made over the years.

I expect a stock-looking refurbishment, keeping the slip-on in place, and some carb tweaks. It should come out very nicely and back on the road where it belongs.

Sold for $6090

Here's a repossessed 2014 standard model 800, located near Detroit, MI, which just sold on eBay for $6090 with 23 bids. The seller, a bank, states that the bike "looks brand new" and has no issues with clear title.

These excellent eighth generation VFRs just seem to keep sinking in the marketplace. Someone got a real deal here.

I was at my local dealer this morning (for some parts) and they have a leftover '14 Deluxe model Interceptor on the floor, in red, with the sale tag showing $9400. "And we could do a little better," said the sales guy. This was a bike that listed for $12,400 two years ago. It's all a little disheartening, seems to me.

Fender eliminator, that is.

Project #14 arrived with the rear fender hacked off, possibly using a chainsaw. I finished the job by cutting the fender off flush and adding a license plate bracket from eBay seller customizedbikeparts.

These are USA-made powder-coated aluminum, available with or without the little ears for mounting turn signals. $14.99 shipped.

This bike will be a mild hotrod build so to tidy things up I'm eliminating the original turn signal brackets and changing up the signals for something smaller.

Aftermarket turn signals are tricky. I'd like to keep a classic look but without the bulk of the OEM lights.

I'd also prefer incandescent bulbs, again in keeping with the classic flavor of a 30-year old bike, but the selection is really getting limited in this age of cheap LED lighting.

I found these LED lights in China, shipped for only $6.05. I don't know how that's even possible, but good luck finding USA-made turn signals in any case.

I think they fit into the space nicely, without being too large, too small or too "modern." They're also very bright.

With a little enlarging of the bracket's mount hole, the signals bolted up securely, which left wiring  the load resisters ($5, also from eBay) and finding a place to mount them. In this case they fit snugly under the rear seat bracket, tie-wrapped to the plastic bulkhead.

The old signal mounting brackets, visible in the lower right of this photo, will be removed to finish up this install.

I spotted this very interesting VF500-based custom cafe build on eBay and submitted it to Bike-urious.com. Here's my write-up:
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Customs built on early Honda CB's and CX's are pretty common these days, and justifiably so. With their classic proportions and interesting engines, they fall easily to the artist's eye. But can one work with a "modern" perimeter chassis and complex V-4 power plant? Apparently yes, as Illinois-based Craig Rodsmith shows us with this 1984 VF500 Interceptor cafe custom.

The bike's signature is Craig's hand-formed aluminum fuel tank and body panels, left to impress in their raw but polished finish with just a few red-colored accents. Lots of metal to assault the eye here, including the custom headlight nacelle and bare-naked engine block. It's a dense but clean package with very nice proportions. Does it work for you?

UPDATE: No bids, no sale.

Last week a U-shipper arrived with these two forlorn partners stuffed in the bed of a pickup, along with an orphan front wheel and a huge tote of miscellaneous parts.

Both are '86 750F models, one in fairly original condition, bought new by the seller and showing only 10,000 miles! It has some cosmetic issues and I plan a complete restoration of bodywork, wheels, seat etc. It arrived with a period 4-into-1 Kerker exhaust but I'll fit a perfect OEM system—just because I feel that this low-mile example should be brought back to stock condition.

The second bike is a 33,000-mile "parts bike" but has a good title, so if it runs well, I'll see about putting it back on the road where it belongs.

I'd spoken with this seller over a year ago through an ad at VFRworld.com, but with the bikes so far away his asking price wouldn't work out for me. This time around the price came down to $1750 for the pair and I found a shipper for $424 so it made a little more sense. Well, to me anyway, Patti's still wondering why there's so many VFRs crowding the garage.

As part of a complete cosmetic restoration on one of the project bikes, I had a set of engine/valve covers refinished in powder coat.

I was able to select a color from about 500 choices at Prismatic Powder, a commercial powder supplier, and I picked "Bronze Texture." They don't offer an exact match to the brown/tan OEM color, but this is pretty close and I think it's much richer and will look great.

The covers came to me on a parts bike and were sun-faded and generally rough shape. Someone had begun stripping the paint with a wire wheel and they were gouged up pretty badly. I was able to smooth them out somewhat with a metal prep pad on the die grinder, but let's just say I wasn't expecting any miracles from the painter....

...but that's pretty much what I got.

There's no evidence of the previous damage and the texture is perfect.

The project bike will look great with its "new" engine covers.