Feb. 2014 Bike of the Month

Started by FromMaine, February 02, 2014, 08:21:41 AM

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FromMaine

I first ran across this members bike around 4 years ago when I was researching swapping the 18" rear on my 83 VF750F for a 17".

He had done this mod plus a lot more to his 83 Ceptor. When you mod a bike like the V45 Interceptor, which is a classic, you run the risk of losing the heart of the bike in the translation.

Or not. His modded 83 V45 is in my opinion still the best take on what could have been had Honda pushed just a bit more back in 83. The bike just looks great.






Congratulations Teradyne, your red 1983 VF750F is February's Bike of the Month.

A link to the original post, the second pic is from the Show us your V4 thread in the Photo Gallery.

http://v4hondabbs.com/index.php?topic=25781.0


Michael: 
Midcoast, Maine 
85vf1100S,83vf750f,86vfr750,85vf1000RX2,,97VFR,
90 VFR, 77 CB550

John Hilmer

Well, That is nicely done.

Too many modified bikes just do not keep the idenity, but this is really well done.

Congratulations!

John
'86 VF500F, '87 VFR700F2 In Process, '01 KLR 650

zarticus

Congrats & Nice Bike, Great choice mike!!!!   :beer:
2014 Kawasaki Vaquero
2012 Kawasaki Concours 1400
1986 V65 Magna
1984 V65 Magna
1983 V45 Sabre-Sold

TarHeelV4Rider

I like it! I'd ride it, too! :bike:
Congrats Teradyne!
V4's are fun!

Stretch

83 - VF1100C
84 - VF1100C "The Bast@rd Magna"
2.75 - 84 VF1100S

subsidiarymaxima

James
Forest Grove, OR
Gone: '87 600 Hurricane, '75 CB400F, '83 VF750F, '86 VFR750F

a65bug

Paco
Suffield, CT
2001 ZRX1200...I know, it's not a V4...

MB_ED

Bethesda Md.
1995 BMW R1100RS
1984 Magna 700
1986 VFR750F (project)

klopperg

I love that fairing with the twin headlights.  :thumb :thumb
VF750f Interceptor - 83
BMW R1200RTW - 17
BMW GS650 Dakar

Gerrie
South Africa

OregonMike

86 VT1100C, gone.
84 V65 Magna, new toy.
Eugene, Oregon.

chazglenn3

Charles
2008 FJR1300A
1984 V65 Magna
1983 V65 Magna
1993 ST1100A
Tacoma, WA

KneeBurner

Nice job, looks new to me!
Congrats!
Speed Safely
'82 Sabre - V45, '03 BMW R1200clc
Easton PA

Hopit88

Kelly
NH
'85 Vf1000R x3
'86 VF1000R
'84 Vf1000F x2

The Dutchy

Wow.. First time I see a VFR800 fairing on a first gen.. I like the "eyes" as a headlight...

Well done...


:thumb
Those that walk along with the great herd, regularly walks through the crap left behind by others..

BILL PERDUE

Bill Perdue
Charleston SC
1983 V-65 Magna 
1985 V-65 Sabre
2003 HD Electra Glide Ultra Classic

John Hilmer

Well Folks,

I'm not getting it, it seems.

We are at the middle of this month and there have been precious few posts about this machine and the honor bestowed upon it.

Is he still active and can he provide more and better images?

Does he know that he has been honored?

Are we getting to the point that Michael has too few bikes to pick from in the gallery to keep your interest and you find this example lacking?

Something is wrong here as I see it, so please chime in to help Michael and the forum to keep this forum going.

John

'86 VF500F, '87 VFR700F2 In Process, '01 KLR 650

The Dutchy

#16
I don't have the answers John, neither do I know Ishould type this or not.. Anyway, whilst typing, I'm just venting..

Untill the early '80s, a motorcycle was a form of primair transportation , if not, motorcycles were rare to be seen.. And this has been changed during the end of the '80s and getting booming throught the '90's.

Could it be, that these bikes weren't build to be classics ??

Could it be that these bikes were part of the booming new generation and therefore have a niece corner on the market for just one generation ??

Economics haven't been that great to start a rebuild isn't ??

Anyway I love these first gen Honda V4's above the rest... They always had a sweet spot, but then again in 1983 I was legal to ride a motorcycle, and these were on the top of my wishlist to own. Could it be, times have changed ??

Should I enter my VF750F on the gallery section ???

:???:
Those that walk along with the great herd, regularly walks through the crap left behind by others..

rrwarrenvanman

Quote from: John Hilmer on February 14, 2014, 07:21:10 PM
Well Folks,

I'm not getting it, it seems.

We are at the middle of this month and there have been precious few posts about this machine and the honor bestowed upon it.

Is he still active and can he provide more and better images?

Does he know that he has been honored?

Are we getting to the point that Michael has too few bikes to pick from in the gallery to keep your interest and you find this example lacking?

Something is wrong here as I see it, so please chime in to help Michael and the forum to keep this forum going.

John



He is still active, last on the board on 2/14/14.  Keep in mind that this is a slow time of the year for board participation, and not everyone visits the bike of the month forum.  He may not even know he has won.  Michael might want to send him and other new winners a pm telling them of the honor.

Ron Warren
Woodhaven, Mi.
ronrwarren@gmail.com
83 V65 Magna blue
83 V65 Magna black

zarticus

Quote from: rrwarrenvanman on February 15, 2014, 04:36:33 PM
Quote from: John Hilmer on February 14, 2014, 07:21:10 PM
Well Folks,

I'm not getting it, it seems.

We are at the middle of this month and there have been precious few posts about this machine and the honor bestowed upon it.

Is he still active and can he provide more and better images?

Does he know that he has been honored?

Are we getting to the point that Michael has too few bikes to pick from in the gallery to keep your interest and you find this example lacking?

Something is wrong here as I see it, so please chime in to help Michael and the forum to keep this forum going.

John



He is still active, last on the board on 2/14/14.  Keep in mind that this is a slow time of the year for board participation, and not everyone visits the bike of the month forum.  He may not even know he has won.  Michael might want to send him and other new winners a pm telling them of the honor.
Michael does pm every winner


2014 Kawasaki Vaquero
2012 Kawasaki Concours 1400
1986 V65 Magna
1984 V65 Magna
1983 V45 Sabre-Sold

luv2fly

That headlight set up is very well done.

Congrats!

sabma

Tomuza

Tomuza
 
V65Magna,Daytona955i,vfr750,R-1
Mid Tenn.

John Hilmer

Am I the only one?

I would have expected the owner to have acknowledged the honor by now. This hasn't happened.

I for one would like to see more images of his machine. All of that red has me thinking of a Duc type of bike which on this one looks to me quite good.

John
'86 VF500F, '87 VFR700F2 In Process, '01 KLR 650

chazglenn3

I'm with you, John...at the very least an acknowledgement of the honor bestowed upon him...   :???:
Charles
2008 FJR1300A
1984 V65 Magna
1983 V65 Magna
1993 ST1100A
Tacoma, WA

FromMaine

I have PM'd Teradyne twice, once when I posted this and again about 5 days ago. I'm on the ship so maybe its our internet provider messing things up or possibly its not getting through his e-mail filters.

We'll give him some time before we call in the internet calvary.

I would also like to see some more pics and details of his bike.
Michael: 
Midcoast, Maine 
85vf1100S,83vf750f,86vfr750,85vf1000RX2,,97VFR,
90 VFR, 77 CB550

65crazy

Nice job, looks like it could have come from the factory like that.
Greg, Nova Scotia , Canada, 83 V-65 Magna

Teradyne

#25
Wow, I just logged in and found out my bike was BOTM!

First I'd like to say a big thank you for this great distinction. I know there are allot of really great bikes on here and it's a great honour to be selected.

I'm really surprised and this was the last thing I was expecting especially on a Monday. I gotta check my Email more!
Wow, where to start.

Well I picked up this bike when I was helping a buddy of mine work a his car in the back lane. While we were wrenching one of the neighbours came up from down the street and asked us if we knew anyone who wanted to buy a motorcycle. Well we looked at each other and neither one of us had much interest but I figured what the heck so we headed out to the guy's garage to take a look. That's where I found the Mighty VF. Well I never had a bike before and never really had any interest in one but for $300 bucks I figured I could pick it up and make some cash. So I picked it up and got it running. I gotta say, this was my first bike and after the first ride I was hooked!

I loved the bike but the one thing that always bothered me about it was the way Honda noched out the side covers instead of flowing them into the tank. That and the fact they didn't give it a full fairing. So after about a year of ownership I got to work. The first thing I did was start learning about fiberglass to fill in the side panels and flow them into the tank. I've never worked with fiberglass before and I have to say it's really wonderful stuff. I learned allot from this project and used that knowledge later on later builds.

After the fiberglass was done I moved to the fairings. I spent allot of time thinking about what I wanted and looked at what was available from other makes and models. The V4s are pretty slim compared to the inlines and I was worried about the overall width. In the end I decided to go with the Gen5 VFR. I got the parts from a couple of different vendors off E-Bay. I removed the original stays and mounting hardware and mocked up the new fairings on the VF. It took a while to get the spacing and the angle down but once I got it I took the final measurements and made spacers out of wood. I wanted to be able to take the bike back to original if I wanted to so I didn't want to weld directly to the frame. I removed the original stays and bolted up some flat iron tabs to the original stock locations. Once I got the tabs on as a starting point I tack welded some round iron to the tabs and started bending. It took some time and allot of trial fitting but in the end I managed to get it. I thought for sure I'd have to do some cutting and fabbing to the plastic but I was really surprised how well the fairings worked out. Didn't have to mod the plastic at all and even the tab under the kickstand managed to fit. Really worked out great.

Next was lighting. I spent allot of time trying to get a VFR800 headlight but they were really few and far between. I looked into getting one from Honda but they were just to much. In the end I decided on a couple of aftermarket fog lights until I found an original. So I picked them up for $20 bucks and put them in. At first I thought they looked kinda frankenbike but I have to say, they really grew on me :) Didn't have any side markers so I went with some aftermarket pickup cab lights. They were a little smaller that the originals but with my new fiberglassing skills I managed to make them work.

I spent some time thinking about the paint and color. I don't like allot of the striping and decals that are on most of the sport bikes so in the end I went with a solid red.

I have to say the bike creates allot of interest. I've had people pull into the parking lot just to chat about it and take a look. Allot of people think it might be a Ducati but so far only one person has managed to identify it.

I've had it about 8 years now and it's got a permanent place in my garage.

Thanks again for the interest and thanks for putting it up as Bike of the Month!

Cheers




John Hilmer

Thanks for the input and the explanations of how you got to where you are.

This must be the latest response from a winner to date.  :lol8:

I'm surprised that your trophy didn't get to you before you noticed the E-Mail about this. Er, is Michael still sending these out?

We could be more pleased with more images of course.  :thumb

So, I'm not the only one that likened it to a duc.

Well done at any rate.

John
'86 VF500F, '87 VFR700F2 In Process, '01 KLR 650

The Dutchy

Great you found the post before the end of the month...


I like the looks, but as a Dutchy I have some Q's as well..

How on earth is the cowl following the frameline that excellent, whas it a fluke ??

Those exhaust cannasters look larger from Original... Bassani ?

Does it need a new shock on the rear ??
Those that walk along with the great herd, regularly walks through the crap left behind by others..

Teradyne

Yea, sorry about the late response. I don't check my mail that often. I missed seeing it in the BOTM thread and don't remember seeing a PM. I'm feeling like a putz :(

Anyway, to answer some questions:

About the fairings: When I was looking at what was available I looked at a ton of pics from all bikes on the net. One of the things I paid particular attention to was the approximate angle of the side of the frame and approximate width of the bike. Pics from the Gen5 looked like it was close so I pulled the trigger and sourced some out. When I first put it together I was really surprised how well the fairing worked and how close it followed the stock frame of the bike. I had to play with the angle a bit and drop the front down when I had it in mock up but it was really, really close.

The rear shock seems to be performing well but I put a 17" rim on the back to get some radials so that might have dropped it down a bit in the back.

As for the cans, those are the originals. They had a bit of rash on the one side so I had them done with grey VHT in the first shot and re-did them in black for the second.
Also had to rebuild part of the collector as it rotted out where it connects to the cans on both sides. Don't have pics of that but can take some if interested

All in all it went fairly well with no real hickups. Actually learned allot on this project and really got me into bikes.
Right now my garage is home to my 83 VF, 90 VFR (just painted Starfire Pearl white last year) and a 96 VFR (soon to be painted if I ever decide on a color).

Anyway, I'm going to see if I can find some pics of the build and post them up.



FromMaine

Sent you another PM, but if you see this first please send me your name and a mailing address.

Thanks.

Any pics of the project would be great!
Michael: 
Midcoast, Maine 
85vf1100S,83vf750f,86vfr750,85vf1000RX2,,97VFR,
90 VFR, 77 CB550