$3300
After six seasons together, Patti & I have decided to try a completely different direction for our touring needs. Now showing 70,000 on the odometer but looking more like 20K, the bike is ready to go anywhere. Lots of nice farkles make the miles melt away and the maintenance is completely up-to-date. No excuses, no disappointments.

What: VF750S Bobber
Where: Norwich, United Kingdom
Why: "I got nothin'"
Price: $2400 Buy It Now

What do you do when you have a clapped-out early model Sabre and a (questionable) vision? Make it a bobber, of course. Why not?

Our builder went to a lot of trouble to completely transform a 1983 shaft drive VF750S into a styling exercise, complete with round headlight, springer seat and rattle-can paint. Offered for around $2400 USD buy-it-now. Hurry, auction ends Saturday.

What: 1997 VFR750F Interceptor (three?)
Where: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Why: Final year 750 in beautiful condition
Price: Auction, with opening bid of $3000

Here we have a seller who is obviously in love with the fourth-gen Interceptor. His listing description is sparse ("mint") but the pictures show a gorgeous, original bike with 20,500 miles. It's not clear whether the other two will be offered — he states that he's thinning the herd.

Our seller also has some NOS fairing panels available. These are genuinely rare pieces and he's priced them accordingly. Also listed is a set of newly powdercoated RC36 wheels; the rear a desirable 8-spoke. Click on "see other items" in the listing.

Our mirrors take a beating. Garage rash, tip-overs, whatever, after a few decades they can end up in pretty rough shape. Another issue with the second-gen mirrors is that the decorative plastic sheathing covering the mounting arm is susceptible to cracking from ham-fisted owners. I have a selection of mirrors in varying states, all needing complete refinishing before being used on one of my projects.

Recently I selected three sets of mirrors, one set with intact mounting arms and the others with cracked plastic sheathing. My solution is to remove the sheathing, sand and repaint. The actual arm beneath the sheathing is some sort of hard, solid plastic material, which is easily smoothed, primed and painted.

Here's a look at a typical damaged mounting arm. This set had also been crudely repainted at some point in the past.

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I begin by using the Dremel with a cut-off disc to carefully cut the sheathing into smaller pieces, followed by cracking the plastic bits away with a screwdriver and pliers.
(click on an image below to enlarge)

Next, I file the ridges and body-fill any imperfections followed by wet-sanding with 320-grit.
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Next, the mirrors housings will need to prepped for repairs and paint. I attack heavy damage with a couple of grades of files, followed by a few grades of sandpaper, finishing with 320-grit. The entire assembly is then filled, primed and finished with color and clearcoat.
(click on an image below to enlarge)

Job done! Here's a comparison shot of the refinished mirrors with (left) and without (right) the mounting arm sheathing.
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As Project 13 nears the finish line, it's the little things that remain. One not so small project is detailing the bodywork. These finishes may be 32 years old, but it's pretty amazing what some effort and the right tools can accomplish.

Dulled and discolored paint, scuffs and even scratches can all be eliminated, or at least brought up to the best level we can hope for. I begin with paint touch-up, allowing the paint to cure for a few days before approaching the paint job as a whole.

Here's some of my favorite finishing tools, along with various fine grades of wet/dry sandpaper. I approach any problem areas a with 5000-grit wet sanding, only going with coarser paper if necessary — this will take out many scuffs and light scratches. In the case of this project, the fuel tank was slightly discolored, with the white showing yellowing, probably from a combination of gas spills and years of UV damage. A combination of 3000-grit followed by 5000-grit brought the tank to an acceptable level. Great care and a fine touch is required — it doesn't take much to sand through the clear and color coats. It's easy to take paint off, impossible to put it back.

This leaves a dull finish which I tackle with an application of Meguiar's Mirror Glaze #83 with the dual-action polisher using a three- or four-inch pad, followed by Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. The final touch to any project is a hand application of Meguiar's Polish.
(click on an image to enlarge)

The same techniques can be applied to the plastic turn signals, lenses and mirrors, assuming they're only lightly damaged. Here, the finished turn signal is mounted on a shorter 1 1/4-inch stalk to bring it closer to the fairing for a trimmer look.

Most of the fairing screws and their associated washers are NLA from Honda. I can't locate some of these aftermarket, so back to Ace for some generic replacements. These large screws didn't originally come with washers under the screw heads, but I like to cushion them anyway, so I've found some nice-fitting nylon washers in either white or black.

Here, the metal (backside) washer, an OEM part still available, is combined with an outer nylon washer.

It's the little things.....

Yesterday, being the first Sunday of May, heralded the unofficial beginning of the 2018 riding season here in the hinterlands of the midwest. It's called the Slimey Crud Cafe Racer Run and it's a unique gathering, in that it's not at all organized, sponsored or publicized anywhere, by anyone. Originally conceived as a club run on the alphabet back roads of southwest Wisconsin's (glacial) Driftless Area by the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang of Madison, WI. If you're a Peter Egan fan you'll recognize the Gang. But it's evolved, or devolved, into a multi-state, semi-annual standardized motorcycle gathering. And that's too bad.

At the risk of dating myself and sounding like a Grumpy Old Man, the Slimey Crud used to be, well, more interesting. You were expected to have a ride that was unique in some way, or at least old. These days you can't swing a dead cat without hitting yet another black Harley surrounded by black-clad "riders" swilling beer. I had to follow a gaggle of these weekend pirates into Leland, WI and none of 'em seemed to have the concept of cornering, braking or any other basic motorcycle skill. But they sure were loud.

Anyway, rant over. In line with the general decline in quality of bikes, I find fewer and fewer V4 Hondas in attendance each passing year. The pristine VFR800 pictured above was an exception, and I'll bet it sounds awesome with that Delkevic exhaust. 

​Parked in formation were these two red Honda STs — first and second generation.

Some interesting bikes were scattered about the grounds. Below is a custom old-school version of a Boss Hog featuring a Ford flathead V8 (!) with some sort of fluid drive transmission...and about nine feet of lumbering length. I also spied a very clean John Player Norton (click on an image to enlarge). But, in general, mostly more of the same. The good news; I enjoyed nine hours of blissful backroad strafing in one of my favorite and most familiar riding areas.
​A good day.
(video at bottom of post)

I came across this seller on ADVrider (.com) who got the VF1000 bug a few years back and kind of lost control. He eventually acquired three of the 1000 "F" models and now wants to pare it down to just one. So, all three are up for sale and he'll keep whichever one is left.

Located in central New Jersey, the seller is asking $3300 each, your choice.

All are 1984 models and none are what could be called original examples. Mileages range from 15K to 32K and one has a full set of repainted bodywork ready for decals. All have some modifications and updates with maintenance generally up to date. Our seller doesn't provide any contact information in the ADV post, so one would need to PM him there. Registration is required.
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