"Life with an old VFR" thread in "Motorbike Chat"
I tried a vfr750 expecting to love it; I'm a 4-twin man, so a 4-four should be better right? Wrong. Found it pretty dull to ...

I tried a vfr750 expecting to love it; I'm a 4-twin man, so a 4-four should be better right? Wrong. Found it pretty dull to ride, not much character to the engine. Shame. What really killed it was the amount of lashed up gubbins behind the fairing, seeing that pranged one brings it all back ...

They are fantastic compared to the VF i owned



Mine managed to get me all over the uk looking for work before i part exed it for a gpz900.

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http://www.therevcounter.com/touring...do-france.html

I went from a late 750 to an early 800 and didn't notice there was an issue from the f.i. to be honest.

I preferred the 750, the wife thought the 800 was smoother and more comfortable for the pillion though.

The power delivery is linear, it just builds up with no discernible power band so it can feel a bit lacking in character. I liked being able to keep it in one gear rather than changing up and down the box to keep it on song.

As for the gubbins behind the fairing, it's no worse than any other faired bike. You have to put all the electrical connectors somewhere, behind the fairing is out of the weather and (fairly) accessible. The only other options are under the tank or the seat.

I had one of those too. It did the usual trick and ate its cams, though it did have over 50k by then. It would have cost £600 in parts to fix (in 1990) but a car pulled out in front of me and it was written off, which saved me the trouble of scrapping it myself.

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A biker is someone who rides through choice. Not because it is the most comfortable way to transport a body but because it can be the most magical way to carry a soul - Dave Gurman

Me? Noooo, merely suffering from the advantages of youth and impetuousness

I had a VFR750FR as my first bike at 21. Got to say that I agree with everything said on here; I did 30,000 trouble free miles on it, with the only time it ever let me down being when the positive feed to the ignition cable rubbed through (my fault for having a tankbag strap round the headstock which frayed it).

I replaced the exhaust for a motad, and put a hagon shock and springs in it and fitted an earlier pro-arm rear wheel (.5in wider than the standard, allows for a 180 tyre to be fitted properly).

It stood up to me lobbing it down the road twice (R&G bungs helped its resilience somewhat) I could even get my knee down at will with bt020 tyres on it... can't do that on my GSXR11 that I have now (perhaps my balls ain't big enough?)

Sold it this year for 900 quid (fairing was tatty and looked like it had been repaired by a 5 year old let loose with plastic padding). It didn't excite (ie scare the shit out of me) like my 11 does, but sometimes I miss it...

Sorry Bonners, reading your post has brought it all back

I've had 2 of the first FG's and an FM.

Loved the first FG even though it was a factory streetfighter from Japan and really just a workhorse bike for courier runs. First bike I ever properly got my kneedown on. I think it was on 50,000+ trouble free miles when I sold it on. I NEVER had to touch the engine (other than servicing).

A few years later I bought another FG - this time in white so everyone thinks it's Police and drive into ditches and stuff when you appear in your mirrors!

Bought in and did a few thousand miles before some scrotes stole it, drilling all the locks out and -ing up the otherwise pristine fairing , and it's on Ebay now at £300.10: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MESE:IT&ih=007

To replace that I bought a tatty old FM, and up until January was happily riding it anad it was on 110,000+ miles! Still started first time every time, and again I NEVER touched the engine other than servicing. Some tit took em out by doing a u-turn in front of me and insurance wrote the bike off.

I sold it for £200 and someone is now riding it again.

The FM handled great. I can't say anything else, because my mates on Fireblades could just about match me when things got silly. Kneedown at will anywhere at any speed, and pegs down on every corner even 2-up. The first FG was good but a bit skittish because of the raised bars. The white FG didn't turn in very well - and I'm sure that's because of the 170 rear tyre on it when it should be a 150.

Awesome bikes!

Quite ironic that the ZX9R I got to replace that FM ate it's own engine earlier this month on a mere 34,000 miles!

If you need a bike that's quick enough to match most things on the road today, AND that runs forever with no hassles, there is no other choice.

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MySpace blog NastyEvilNinja

Kwak ZX9R

Or, you could buy the VFR VTEC*.
























* Hides behind sofa ready for abuse.

You know what I think makes the VFR's (especially that engine) so fantastic?

The gear-driven cams.

Guess what they did away with when it went to 800cc?

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MySpace blog NastyEvilNinja

Kwak ZX9R

Tell me what difference they make to your riding experience.

[EDIT]That's wrong btw, the 800Fi has gear-driven cams, the v-tec doesn't.
So maybe it wasn't the cam-drive that you liked after all. [/EDIT]

Crank and pistons? Barrel dimension?

Dunno. Give us a clue because it certainly wasn't gear driven cams.

But as trogggy asks, how can you tell how your cams are rotated when you are riding?

You can hear the whine from the gears, as you probably know. Whether that makes any difference to the riding experience is debateable.

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A biker is someone who rides through choice. Not because it is the most comfortable way to transport a body but because it can be the most magical way to carry a soul - Dave Gurman

You might be able discern it at a standstill but I've had a CB1 and two VFR's and can't say I've noticed it on the move.

It's not intrusive, but it is certainly audible even wearing a helmet and earplugs...

or maybe the gears were worn and that's why they were noisy

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A biker is someone who rides through choice. Not because it is the most comfortable way to transport a body but because it can be the most magical way to carry a soul - Dave Gurman

Gear driven cams, blah blah blah......

I went from a 750 to an 800 Fi, then the VTEC, didn't miss the whining noise from the gear driven cams one bit.

One thing they all have in common that makes them all so fantastic is the V4, what a great sound imho.

Change the OE zorst on any viffer and voila, instant V8 style engine roar!