I recently received an email from Peter H. with his story of acquiring and saving a blue/silver 1986 VFR750F. The bike shows only 3600 miles and looks to be a pristine, original-condition example. In his own words:
Hi Joe,
Back in the early 90s, I had a white and gold F-J model (with fuel gauge IIRC) which was such a great experience that I went looking for a COVID project.
I recently acquired a blue and silver 1986 RC24 with (at the time) only 3600 recorded miles. This bike was found in Japan (so actually showed 5800KM) and imported into the UK — sadly I have no back story to this 'find' and the mileage is not verified but seems believable from the condition. The condition of the bike is quite remarkable with original everything even down to the tyres (which were the first thing that had to be replaced being over 30 years old! 😀).
There is very little degradation to most components and fittings including rubber parts, fasteners, etc but the engine cases and wheels do have some aluminium corrosion under the paint plus there is small amount of surface rust on parts of the subframe. It even has the original toolkit which I don’t think had ever been used. Given the remarkable state of preservation, only a battery plus service items (plugs, filters and liquids) were needed to get the engine running well. After a few miles, carburettor problems (miss fire and fuel leak) showed that float valves needed replacing (plus a general carb clean). I have since performed a valve clearance check (all but one a little tight) and balanced the carbs. This has improved smoothness and idle no end. Other than this, the brakes have been dismantled and cleaned and that is about it. I was again surprised to see the forks hold air.
[I know your articles don’t focus on service but I think some discussion of setting up the valves would be a great addition. To be honest, even discussion on removing the cam covers would have helped me].
I was able to recover the somewhat hardened carburettor to head rubbers (and some others) by soaking in Wintergreen Oil mixed with Isopropyl Alcohol (1:3) for 48 hours - I had read something on the web about this but was surprised to see it worked so well!
SInce I didn’t have a right angle driver to adjust the carbs, I was able to just fit a flexible driver with small socket to make the necessary adjustments.
Finally, since working on the bike, I have now covered a few hundred miles without issue and the engine is running really nicely, so well, in fact, that I have accidentally stumbled into a speed limiter at 190km/h. I have yet to investigate this but am guessing it must be implemented as a signal from the speedometer itself to the CDI unit.
Anyhow, thanks once again for producing this great website!
Kind regards,
Peter H.
Cambridge UK
Back in the early 90s, I had a white and gold F-J model (with fuel gauge IIRC) which was such a great experience that I went looking for a COVID project.
I recently acquired a blue and silver 1986 RC24 with (at the time) only 3600 recorded miles. This bike was found in Japan (so actually showed 5800KM) and imported into the UK — sadly I have no back story to this 'find' and the mileage is not verified but seems believable from the condition. The condition of the bike is quite remarkable with original everything even down to the tyres (which were the first thing that had to be replaced being over 30 years old! 😀).
There is very little degradation to most components and fittings including rubber parts, fasteners, etc but the engine cases and wheels do have some aluminium corrosion under the paint plus there is small amount of surface rust on parts of the subframe. It even has the original toolkit which I don’t think had ever been used. Given the remarkable state of preservation, only a battery plus service items (plugs, filters and liquids) were needed to get the engine running well. After a few miles, carburettor problems (miss fire and fuel leak) showed that float valves needed replacing (plus a general carb clean). I have since performed a valve clearance check (all but one a little tight) and balanced the carbs. This has improved smoothness and idle no end. Other than this, the brakes have been dismantled and cleaned and that is about it. I was again surprised to see the forks hold air.
[I know your articles don’t focus on service but I think some discussion of setting up the valves would be a great addition. To be honest, even discussion on removing the cam covers would have helped me].
I was able to recover the somewhat hardened carburettor to head rubbers (and some others) by soaking in Wintergreen Oil mixed with Isopropyl Alcohol (1:3) for 48 hours - I had read something on the web about this but was surprised to see it worked so well!
SInce I didn’t have a right angle driver to adjust the carbs, I was able to just fit a flexible driver with small socket to make the necessary adjustments.
Finally, since working on the bike, I have now covered a few hundred miles without issue and the engine is running really nicely, so well, in fact, that I have accidentally stumbled into a speed limiter at 190km/h. I have yet to investigate this but am guessing it must be implemented as a signal from the speedometer itself to the CDI unit.
Anyhow, thanks once again for producing this great website!
Kind regards,
Peter H.
Cambridge UK
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