Back we go again...

....of which I currently have one of those in my lockup too.

Belongs to my old man.

Nice bike actually - rode far nicer than I expect it too, and not
exactly a slouch either.

If he decides he's had enough of it in due course, I may consider
adding it to my fleet for when I can't be arsed to wrestle with the
behemoth.

 

My initial thoughts when Dad bought this were 'WTF did he buy that
for?'.

That changed after I rode it though.

It's an I believe it's an FII, so hopefully not one with impending
chocolate camshafts.

Dad bought this when he was looking for a Superdream 400.

I'm not quite sure why he wanted either really, but the official
excuse was as 'something for when I want nip down the town etc and the
Divvie is a bit big for that'.

I believe this one runs slightly on the hot side.

Main issue with it at the mo is the throttle cables seem to be free,
but the throttle seems to stick - have you seen just how accessible
the cables are at the carb end??? :-O

 

The VF400s and all the VF500s had no camshaft problems, they didn't
regularly break cranks as some magazines would have you believe either.
One VF500 broke a crank when being abused by a journo on the South
African launch.

The biggest problem with the smaler VFs was servicing was a difficult
job to do at home back then. They were quite sophisticated machines and
very compact in design, and with being so jewel-like in manufacture
they need good regular servicing and oil changes. With Honda servicing
costing so much, even back then, they tended to get neglected after a
couple or three years, with the result that some broke down or ended up
rattling badly. It wasn't really the bike's fault, but cheapskate
owners who should have got them properly looked after.

I'll admit all the 750s were a complete mechanical sack of shite, but
the 1000s weren't too bad.

 

I had a good read when he got it, and apparently the pre-FII models
are a bit prone to that.

Seems they improved the design of the top end on the FII to counter
that kind of thing.

I know... which given how much he'd been on about getting a 400, was
one of the reasons I said 'WTF!' when this appeared in his garage all
of a sudden. ;-)

Looks like a right PITA to me, anyway.

Had the GSX not been inadvertently vandalised yesterday by the shop I
normally use, I was thinking of putting the VF into there to get said
sticky throttle sorted.

Will review the situation once the GSX is back...

 

Mark Olson wrote:

I burned the **** out of my left hand on a water pipe balancing the
carbs on LN's VFR400 NC24. As my left hand is dead to the feel I didn't
notice I was doing it at the time.

 

It was the fact you had to remove the rad to get to the front pots to
do the valve clearances, and the fact everything was packed in so tight
and awkward. I have seen loads of neglected V Fours because the owners
just can't be arsed to service them for these reasons.

I find them a joy to work on because it's rare you come across a
rounded nut or bolt and being a Honda everything fits nicely when you
do it properly.

 

I find SVs a piece of piss to service, probably because I've done so
many and done them often enough. It's very rare the shims ever need
changing on them anyway, especially if they've been run on decent
semi-synth changed every 3 to 4K miles.

 

Same as the VF750 too, with which I've had some experience. I was a
bit surprised, when the old thing started exhibiting symptoms of fuel
starvation - but a swift perusal of the Clymer BOL (and, hey, Mr Clymer
tells even more hooorendous whoppers than Mr Haynes) showed a concealed
pump, hidden in the depths behind the heel of the tank. It turned out
to be a replica of an SU pump, with which I'd had some considerable
experience with the infamous Moggy Minor and later, the Jag. It also
yielded to the same treatment - a good cleaning of the points gave it
back its 'lub-dup' and later, when it fritzed again, a tap with the
handle of a screwdriver re-energised the accursed thing.

But no, no feed back to the tank, and thye should operate at relatively
low pressures, although I'm quite sure that it'd be possible for the
thing to go wrong in yet another interesting and exciting way and
suddenly start to squirt fuel around when you would least desire it to.

 

Mark Olson wrote:

[VF500]

The demise of my VF750 started with it getting a bit warm. Despite
having the radiator reamed and then drilling the 'stat, then later
removing the 'stat and throwing it over a hedge, it continued to do so.
Once it had advanced to the point where the temp guage would start to
creep up should I exceed 70mph on a motorway, serious investigations
were undertaken. Compression checks revealed nothing amiss, then a
series of hot and cold leakdown tests (and if TOG thinks adjusting a
carb on a hot engine is a PITA, he ought to try a hot leakdown on a V4)
equally revealed nothing.

After embarassing me on a rideout when I had to top up the radiator
twice, it got to the point on a subsequent occasion when it spat its
coolant out at the bike following me, whereupon I got Auntie Carole to
take me home and threw the fucker in the shed and never rode it again.

It did, however, move house with me four times in the back of various
vans, then I eventually ebayed the POS as a garden ornament cum guano
collector and some certifiable Hungarian geezer gave me 120 quid for
it. He reckoned he filled it with fuel and it not only started but ran
with no problems, but I gave little credence to that. I think he was
full of guano, in fact.

 

That's a wise move. Having said that (you're looking at a Sabre or
Magna, I guess) if the thing is still capable of moving under its own
power it must be sound by now, ffs. Or ready to die, expensively, of
course. Same as anything of that age by now, probably.

 

I remember that bloke, he was a fucking fruit cake to say the least

 

Interesting. I think my Duke has a feed back into the tank. Must look
some day.

 

<Pedant mode>

Two, actually.

Indeed. Some VF1000s have clocked up massive mileages.

 

What startled me, when I peered into my VF500, was that the camchain was
a duplex affair.

 

Oops, my bad. So two out of thousands, and they were pre-production
models anyway, so don't count.

 

On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 00:26:22 -0800 (PST), JackH

snip>

Get it on Ebay and set the starting price higher than normal because
I'll be watching for it.

 

If it got sold, you'd get your *OSM, don't you worry. ;-)

 

Name wasn't Tibor, by any chance?