After a full winter of building, Project 14 is on its way to a fresh life with its new owner, Scott, in Virginia.

This was a new direction for me — putting together a VFR that deviated from the stock, original look. Of the three colors available on the '86-87 Interceptors I felt that only the pearl white would accept black wheels and accents. That, together with a bit of trimming and pruning resulted in an updated look to the classic VFR lines, at least to my eye (and Scott's).

Modifying a classic vehicle is always a gamble — one person's vision is not always shared by others, and those changes often lower the dollar value. In this case I was careful not to change the basic design lines of the VFR nor the ride feel. I'm confident that when knowledgeable riders come upon this bike it will cause them to pause, squint and try to figure what it is that's caught their eye. This is every bit a classic Interceptor, but with an enhanced look and sound.

I can picture Scott on the beautiful back roads of Virginia and West Virginia, and hopefully a Fall ride down the Blue Ridge Parkway. I wish him best of luck and ride safe.
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What: 1990 RC30 (VFR750R)
Where: Not sure
Why: Because RC30
Price: Taking offers

Rare Sport Bikes For Sale (.com) offers sellers a "Featured Listing" option wherein the site provides exclusive exposure for a small fee.

This time around a seller is offering his pristine, original RC30 with only 3540 miles! No price is offered — the seller is simply accepting offers via email for two weeks. Highest offer presumably wins.
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UPDATE: Sold Sold Sold

This is my second time around for this 1987 700 F2 in Candy Wave Blue. A few years ago I found the bike in suburban Detroit and after a full mechanical refurbishment it was sold locally 18 months ago. When the owner's priorities changed last Fall I purchased it back, repaired some mild crash damage to the right side and now we're back on the road.

Now showing just under 27,000 miles this is a fast and fine running example. Some of the mods include a Yoshimura slip-on, jetted carbs, fender eliminator, aftermarket turn signals, heated grips and stainless brake lines. The cosmetics are about a 6 of 10, but it's still a good-looking "10-foot bike." Then again, it is 30 years old, so it's due some scuffs and scrapes, I suppose.

I'm asking only $2200. This would make someone a great rider or an excellent basis for a restoration. The blue/grey is a rare color and after a few hundred miles last weekend I can guarantee that this is a very entertaining ride. Here's a link to a Flickr photo album.
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1981: Honda unveils an entirely fresh take on motorcycling's future. It all centered around a V4 engine concept that the the company hoped would be the Next Big Thing. And the two models they chose to introduce this amazing new powerplant were the 750 Sabre roadster and this bike, the 1982 VF750C Magna cruiser.

Late last Fall, the owner of this Magna, Charles, approached me with the idea of finding and refurbishing a first-year Magna. This bike, production number 9705, was soon located in the suburban Chicago area and the work began.

Over the winter months many emails were exchanged and many decisions were made as to the direction and extent of the build. First up was to get the bike running, beginning with the carburetors and basic tuning. Along the way it was discovered that someone had installed the starter clutch incorrectly causing the ignition timing to be 90-degrees off. Once we had a running engine the rest of the systems could be dealt with....one by one. Ebay parts arrived regularly as did OEM Honda bits. Stripping, painting, polishing, powder coating, fitting and fidgeting.

Slowly the project took shape. Charles added a few custom touches — white piping on the refurbished seat, gold-colored braided brake lines, along with lowered handlebars with aftermarket grips. Choosing the color was surely a tough decision for Charles, and he eventually settled on a Mazda color, Phantom Purple, a dead ringer for the original Candy Maroon. The gorgeous paint work was applied by Steve and the crew at Steve Nick Customs in Woodstock, Illinois and the custom covered seat is by Marty and Marie at C. M. Wiltberger Upholstery of Silver Lake, WI. They are the icing on this cake.

I wish Charles many happy miles on his stunning Magna.

Click here for the Flickr photo album.

The Blues Project, aka Project 12, is back on it's feet. I had to complete a shakedown run, of course, so this past Sunday it took me to the Spring 2017 Slimey Crud Run. It made for a perfect day on the twisty alphabet roads of southwestern Wisconsin.

This bike was in need of a replacement right-side mid-fairing and a fair amount of cosmetic touchup. I also updated the tires, added heated grips and braided brake lines front & rear. This is my second Wisconsin backroad trip on this bike and I'm still impressed with it's handling, velvet-smooth power and ripping sound from the Yosh slip-on. In fact, I believe it's the smoothest VFR I've sampled and the mid-range torque seems stronger than most, probably thanks to the freer-flowing intake, carbs and exhaust systems. It may not have perfect cosmetics, but the riding experience more than makes up for it.

The Slimey Crud Run is the informal kickoff (and end, in October) to the riding season in these parts. It's an unorganized mashup of bikes and riders from at least three surrounding states. Originally a small gathering founded by the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang, of which columnist Peter Egan was a charter member, it's taken on a life of its own so, natually, even the Harley guys have staged an uninvited invasion, complete with black vests, assless chaps and open pipes. There's two venues, one morning and one afternoon but the real attraction are the roads and riding in-between. 

The Blues Project and I arrived in Leland, WI around 2:00 pm and I strolled around to see what's what. The most interesting item (to me) was the absolutely beautiful VFR1000R pictured above. I chatted with the owner and picked up a few details, though I totally missed his name. The bike has original paint and mufflers, and he even sprung for Arai's matching Fast Freddie commemorative helmet. Very nice.

The Crud Run has managed to preserve its down-home flavor and stave off tacky commercialism for all these years, but the appearance of this T-shirt vendor can only mean the beginning of an ever-expanding biker's flea market. It's probably only a matter of time till the molded ear plug and doo-rag booths show up. And that will be the end, at least for me.

Heck, someone's even given the run its own web site.

The county gendarme have discovered easy pickins' on the first Sundays in May and October, though they've taken to simply parking in the midst and strolling the grounds on foot. This interesting side hack outfit also caught my attention — the propeller is particularly intriguing (click on an image to enlarge).

Everyone began to trickle away around 3:30 so I saddled up and headed home...the long way.

What: Not sure, but based on an ST1100
Where: Tampa Bay, Florida
Why: When you absolutely, positively need to be different
Price: $3200 or offer

Some folk's imagination take them to strange and unique places. Mine is obviously quite limited, 'cause I would never have envisioned this build. 

Based on a Honda ST1100 (1990-02), a 700-lb sport touring bike, our seller has bobbed, chopped and stripped his way to what is actually a pretty bad-ass (looking) muscle bike, in the vein of the Diavel and VMAX. A tough model to transform to a naked, this ST bobber has some interesting details. I think there's a NOS bottle mounted on the left side, probably acting as a radiator overflow tank, faked Ohlins suspension, and the custom seat blends pretty well with the stock fuel tank. The shortened mufflers, lowered bars, tinted headlight and little flyscreen all fit pretty well, and the choice of color is a refreshing change from the usual black. Too bad about the winged-foot Honda badge pointing backward on the tank, though.

I can just imagine what our seller was faced with at some point in the past: "What can I do with this wrecked ST?" Here we have the result.

The Honda V4 engine is a mechanical wonder to those of us who are in on the secret, and even more amazing that it's able to be produced to a price point allowing the VFR to be an affordable yet thoroughly modern performance motorcycle. When startup Motus and reborn Norton chose engine designs for their exclusive (read: expensive) new motorcycles both companies settled upon the V4 configuration — but in totally different directions.

Motus chose to play on their role as an American manufacturer and created what they like to call the "Baby Block," a reference to the Chevy small block V8. The reference is valid, with a torquey 90-degree pushrod design mounted longitudinally in the frame. This is a big mill at 100 cubic inches, or 1650cc.

Possibly taking a lesson from the Buell experiment, Motus chose not to compete with a world full of super-competent sport bikes, and instead went with a big, mile-muching sport tourer. Two models are available; the MST and MSTR. The bikes are a bit average, but the real star here is the motor, delivering 120 pounds of asphalt-rippling torque.

Are they worth $31K and $37K? Let your checkbook and common sense be the judge.

Norton, on the other hand, went the full-on sport route and came up with a 1200cc, 72-degree V4 spewing somewhere north of 200 hp, sitting transversely in an aluminum frame by Spondon.

In addition to their race bike, two street models are planned. In contrast to the rather simple Motus, both are dripping in electronics and carbon fibre. The chiropractor's dream shown here is the naked Dominator SS.

And, in what has to be the most "notice me" styling exercise since the Britten, Norton presents the RR. No, that's not chrome, rather a silver impregnated paint.

It seems every time the Norton name is resurrected, the price takes a leap upward. Expect these bikes to run $35,000 to $40,000.

I guess I'll be sticking with the Honda, at least till my lottery winnings come through.

What: 2010 VFR1200
Where: Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Why: Yard sale price
Price: $4900 buy-it-now or make offer

As values on first-year VFR1200s continue their slide to oblivion, the resulting buyers' market is creating some great opportunities.

Located near Washington, D.C., this example looks to be a clean and straight bike with some desirable mods, including a go-fast slip-on muffler, Corbin seat, HeliBars bar risers, and Z-Bomb timing retard calibrator. FYI, the Z-Bomb is a simple and inexpensive plug-in electronic device whose job is to simply fool the ECU into thinking the bike is in a higher gear when in first or second. Honda (and others) intentionally retard the timing (to lower power) in first and second gear in an effort to save us from our power-hungry selves. Showing 12,820 miles, the seller claims "excellent condition." Tempting, no?

As a "pre-internet" old guy, I've always been impressed with the ease with which we humans adapted to this new social phenomenon. We make "friends," buy and sell things with a new-found trust that never existed before email, and find it perfectly normal to think everyone in our real and virtual worlds is fascinated with what we're having for dinner or how our latest garage project is progressing, complete with hi-res photos.

It's all good stuff as far as I'm concerned. There's no way our motorbike hobby would have the depth and interest without the virtual world, and a big part of that is the people — people like Falco Verkleij of Boskoop, The Netherlands (Holland).

Falco, 25, works as a professional mechanic with a background in cars, transport trucks and off-shore hydraulics. He found his beautiful '86 red/white /blue VFR as a neglected garage find — for only 300 Euros! He stumbled on this site and I was able to supply a few parts to help with the process of bringing the bike back to life. As the photo shows, he's now out enjoying the Interceptor and impressing the locals.

Falco also rides an '02 Yamaha Fazer FZS600 and a couple of scooters, including the only Honda Spree in Holland ('86, of course) which his Grandfather brought from the U.S.

The whole purpose of maintaining this site is to share information and experiences about these great bikes. Meeting the people behind the emails is a real bonus. Cheers, and ride safe, Falco!

Eighteen months ago Patti and I trailered home this 1987 VFR700 F2 (left), which would become number 14 in the progression of Interceptors passing though my hands.

Non-running, clutch inoperative, layers of Rustoleum covering cracked bodywork and dented fuel tank, it was quite a moto mess. This past Fall I began the process of bringing it back to life and after two or three reversals of direction, it has morphed into what I think is a great-looking mild resto-mod VFR.

The list of modifications grew steadily over the winter. Originally conceived as a budget red/white/blue bike assembled with bitsa this and bitsa that, after test riding it in February I decided it was such a nice running and riding bike, that I should take it to the next level.

Here's some of the highlights....
The style has evolved into an original white look with an appropriate amount of black accents. All the bodywork panels are repaired with plastic welding (the right way). The fuel tank is the one that came on the bike and required stripping and basic bodywork. The color was matched to the original Pearl Crescent White and applied by a local professional paint shop. Reproduction decals were special ordered from England. I elected to use a round Honda winged foot emblem on the tank for a little vintage touch. Mirrors, fairing infill panels, and instrument surround are redone in satin black. The front fender has been reshaped to give a visually lighter profile, while the rear fender has been eliminated and LED signals added — the front signals are NOS, tucked close to the fairing. The seat is reupholstered in black vinyl, and an aftermarket windscreen added.

The bike came to me with a 17-inch front wheel from an early CBR600 to which I mounted a fresh Avon Road Rider tire. The wheels are black with a painted white pinstripe along the inside of the rim to tie into the white body. The mufflers are unique. I've removed the rear baffle chamber, shortening the OEM muffler by 5 1/2 inches which freed up back pressure and sound. The exhaust system was then painted hi-heat black and the mufflers buffed to a satin finish. The carburetors have been jetted to match the exhaust and K&N air filter. The engine pulls strong to redline and sounds much throatier than stock.

Other personal touches include the engine covers getting a bronze powercoat treatment to mimic the '86 bikes. For a cleaner tail, the old rear turn signal mounts and seat lock have been shaved from the subframe. Galfer stainless steel brake lines replaced the originals front and rear. The rear brake lever has been smoothed and polished along with several more detail touches throughout.
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Mechanically, all systems have been addressed. Brakes, clutch, steering head bearings, engine adjustments and tuning. Forks rebuilt, chain & sprockets replaced, fluids flushed. Master cylinders rebuilt with new sight glasses installed.

I consider this build to be a sympathetic restoration, as opposed to a full restoration. It's been brought to a level consistent with the overall condition of the bike, as best it can be represented. No stories, no excuses. There's still some bits of original patina of a 30 year-old bike but the use of as many original parts as possible is important, at least to me. So, if a particular part is visually and mechanically serviceable as is — the master cylinder housings, for example — then they are left as is.

This bike is being offered at $3300. Included is a clear title, an owners manual but no tool kit. There's also no seat cowl available. Trailered delivery is possible. Please click on the first photo for a link to the Flickr album with 43 high-resolution photos. For a short walk-around video and the running bike, here's a YouTube link.

Thanks for following along with this build and please pass this info along if you know of someone who may be interested in this Interceptor.

Cheers.