This morning Project 11, a 1986 VFR700F, was carefully loaded onto a box truck to begin its long journey to the west coast of Norway. The bike's new owner, Nils, first contacted me in late November just as I was finishing a mild updating of Project 11. Nils had been searching for his original and identical 750cc bike from 20 years ago, which he eventually located in Norway. But it was found in rough shape and would require more time and money to bring back to Nils' standard than he was prepared to offer. He decided that Project 11 would be an excellent replacement and began jumping through the hoops required to import it into Norway. With all the paperwork in order, the journey has begun.

This VFR will be a unique 700cc version in Norway — in Europe for that matter — and I hope Nils enjoys the bike for many years and miles. Trygg reise.

For the tenth time Ducati has claimed the "Most Beautiful Bike Of The Show" EICMA award. This time it's the Streetfighter V4S, an out-of-this-world 1103cc V4-powered naked superbike putting out 208 HP at 12,750 RPM! What one would do with that kind of power in a streebike package is beyond my mortal comprehension, but good on Ducati for pulling it off. The styling doesn't do anything for me, but I do like the T-shirt....

Anyone who follows my ramblings here knows I'm a big fan of white wheels, probably a result of spending too much time around 80's sport bikes, the Interceptor in particular. Sport bikes tend to follow in the steps of their heroes on the track, so when the racers started showing up with white wheels back in the day we began seeing them in showrooms. Honda really got it right with the first VFR and its flashy sibling, the RC30....

But they weren't the last to sport white hoops. Many followed, and even today custom builders and common backyard designers like to add a dollop of bright white to their builds. Here's a sampling for your viewing pleasure.
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Update: This bike has sold.
With a recent break in the wintery weather and clear roads, I was able to get Project 11 out for a thorough test ride. It went perfectly — this bike is just as smooth and powerful as I remember from the first time it passed through my shop, five years ago.

I was graciously offered this bike back by its caretaker, Andrew, when his circumstances changed and he needed to downsize his collection.

After looking over the bike, I decided to strip it down and go through the systems, bringing the maintenance up-to-date while upgrading some bits and returning others to their original look.

The performance remained, however, with a rare and beautiful shorty Yoshimura pipe in concert with jetted carburetors and performance air filter. This 700 is super smooth with a high RPM howl that showcases the V4 sound these engines are famous for. It's a pleasure to ride, to be seen on and just to look at. Other than some professional paint blending on the fuel tank, the bodywork is original with just a few small flaws. The swingarm is polished and the turn signals needed restoring, but this one is otherwise stock.

I can't keep them all so this 1986 VFR700F will be searching for its next caretaker. Contact me for details.
$4000.

Photo gallery with 59 hi-res photos:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJEh31Q
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This is not a Honda V4. It is, however, a Honda, it is a V, and it is tarted up to to look like one of the most iconic and beautiful bikes ever to grace the world's roads, the VFR750R, aka RC30. This is, in fact, the RC31, known in the U.S. as the NT650 or Hawk GT, a 647cc V-twin sport bike available in 1988-91. It was ahead of its time as a naked sport bike in an era of plastic-wrapped race replicas. The Hawk sported some cool stuff like aluminum box frame and single-sided swingarm, and the bike weighed in at just over 400 pounds. I'm pretty sure the later Ducati Monster took some, ah, inspiration from the styling (from the stock bike, not this example). The little GT was a blast to ride, to which I can personally attest, as I had a gorgeous red one back in 2002. Unfortunately, I found the bike a bit small for my growing frame, otherwise it would still be here today.

Today's bike comes to us from Iconic Motorbike Auctions. This bike was built back in 1990 by Two Brothers Racing as a race bike, competing against (and beating) bigger Ducatis. The engine is a Stage 1 J.D. Hord-built 700cc motor that features cams, a ported head, lightened pistons, and Two Bro's carb kit — it’s been dyno’d at almost 70 rear-wheel HP. Less than 500 miles are on the motor at most. The bike weighs just over 300 pounds and sports an RC30 front end and rare Two Brothers RC30 body kit. It's sporting a license plate so must be street legal, but that's probably not the point for its next owner. Pretty cool.

From seller edinburough in Ontario, Canada we have an eclectic collection of VFR bits up for auction with Buy-It-Now prices provided.

For the upgraded forks crowd, here's a complete billet steering stem setup for 41mm forks. The seller refers to these as replicas of the HRC parts from the VFR racing glory days. Adaptable to clip-ons or handlebars. These appear to be used items, but the seller doesn't specify.

The auction begins at $601 (USD) or $864 Buy-It-Now plus unspecified shipping costs (the seller cautions that his shipping costs are kinda high). I don't profess to know the value of something like this, but that looks like a chuck of money to me.

Clicking on "See Other Items" in the listing, we find that our seller has several more 2d-gen items listed, also at premium prices...a nice-looking set of side fairings (BIN $244+), an average seat cowl ($244+), a set of turn signals ($83+) and a set of NOS brake/shift pedals ($150+) plus a few additional items......

​.....like this set of petcocks listed as "Joey Dunlop RVF magnesium petcock set" from HRC. I have no idea how these would be authenticated, but they can be yours for $526+.

Project 11 is in the reassembly stage, but along the way I decided to up its game....

The biggest challenge I faced with this bike was an impressive 3-inch dent on the right side of the fuel tank.

The rest of the bodywork on this 1986 VFR700 is in very nice original condition, so I really wanted to save the existing tank as opposed to a full repaint. I began with my paintless dent expert who was able to get the metal back to about 90%, with most of the remaining blemish in the white area of this dent. There still remained chipped white paint and some surface unevenness.

My next stop was a visit with Bill, my painter. This was a tricky fix. We needed to attack only the white (the red is actually a decal) so to accomplish filler, sanding and paint adjacent to the red stripe wouldn't be a simple task. During the work, some original clearcoat began to separate on a section of the red, so that would need to be addressed as well.

In the end, Bill really come through. There's still some imperfection due to a scratch on the red stripe, but the white was blended perfectly and the final clearcoat brought it all together. Most importantly, the original fuel tank was rescued.

Next up was the defaced swingarm, where a liquid, most likely battery acid, had stripped the anodizing from the metal and left this ugly mess (right).

I discovered the fix a couple of years ago, which requires removal of the anodizing using oven cleaner, a very caustic foaming agent. I apply a first coat, let it set 20 minutes, wipe clean, and then apply a second coat for about 10 minutes to clean up any remaining spots.

This is followed by wet-sanding, in this case beginning with a relatively rough 220-grit (to sand down through the damaged aluminum) and working my way up to 800-grit. The final step is hand polishing with aluminum polish to whatever level of shine I'm happy with. Looks much better.
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With the swingarm out of the way, I took the opportunity to remove the shock absorber for a detailing.

Next up is a brake line upgrade. I've always used Galfer brand stainless steel lines in the past, but decided to try a set of Venhill "Powerhouse Plus" lines in black.

What else? Well, the carburetors have been treated to modern seals, cleaned and sync'd, along with fresh fuel lines and filter. The fork has been flushed, steering bearings installed, an OEM rear fender extension refitted, brake calipers cleaned, inspected and assembled and a full set of OEM turn signals have been restored, mounted with new, shorter stems. I'm also in the process of doing repairs to the headlight fairing in order to hide four small holes used to mount aftermarket turn signals, but that's a separate post.

This project began as a very nice Interceptor and is only getting better.

What: 1987 VFR700 F2
Where: Ridgecrest, California
Why: Original, low miles
Price: $4200

For the 1987 model year, Honda offered only the 700cc "tariff beater" VFR in the U.S. market. Some running changes were made to the 700s during the '86 model year and these were officially known as the F2, available in "limited quantities" in Pearl Crescent White, which became a standard color option for 1987.

Today we have this very complete and original-condition F2 showing only 7450 miles. The seller indicates that he acquired this bike from the original owner, also in southern California, and after bringing the mechanicals up-to-date, has doubled the mileage over the past year. The bike is showing a bit of sun damage from its life in the California desert and the lower part of the fuel tank seems to be a few shades off paintwise, but that could just be the photo. One of the pics shows the rear seat cowl in place and a service manual and OEM tool kit are also included. The seller's price of $4200 reflects the low miles and originality, though I'd want to see more detailed photos, particularly of the mufflers and any possible cosmetic flaws. Unmolested, original second-gen VFRs are becoming fewer and farther, so here's a chance at what looks to be a nice one.

A few weeks back I posted about the horrible concept of an Interceptor trike conversion. Here's another example from the RC24/26 Facebook page. So I guess it's a thing...but I still don't get it.

​That exhaust appears to be unmuffled, so the sound must be, ah, impressive. But it's the mirrors that take today's design award.