12-30-08....Couldn't help myself

It went up to 56 degrees here yesterday and the bike was in pieces...So I put it back together and took it for a ride today, it went up to about 50 degrees. I guess my illness is obvious. Since all I have is a mesh jacket with a quilt liner, I layered a little and was fine. I really like the new Bridgestones, a good investment at a good price. I had no tach or brake lights during the ride, so I'll have to go through all the connections I broke down during disassembly, apply dielectric grease and get things in order. No problem......other than having to remove all of the upper fairings.

The final paint work has to be completed, but I'll wait until March when we string some balmy days together to do that. For now the bike will be ready for me to get my "fix" on those occasional warm winter days. I also did a tape job on the seat fairing to try out a number plate configuration. I'm up in the air about it.

12-15-08....New(er) upper fairing

Scored a complete upper fairing, including turn signals and headlight unit on Ebay for $20. It arrived today. There are NO cracks or broken mounts, but it does need refinishing. The headlight and turn signals are mint. I should be able to sell what I don't need for what I paid for all of it (note. sold headlight unit and covered all costs including other side fairing i purchased earlier). Good stuff and a distinct upgrade for parts that had been fixed/glued/bondo-ed.

Maybe the old fairing can be used as a basis for the RC45 replica fairing I wanted to do.

12-07-08....Repair, Adjustments

Disassembled the cluster because it was damaged in a previous fall. Turns out that the mounting bosses had been broken and repaired poorly, so I did them right and they should be good from now on (Lower housing costs $200 from Honda). The upper fairing stay seems to be tweaked a little, too, so I spent some time un-tweaking it. It's better now.

11/30/08....The Wings LIVE!!

Finished masking the wings today and shot the black. Set the tank in place to again get the bigger picture. In spite of the fact that the color scheme has gone quite a way from the original intent, I'm still OK with what I've done so far. Not so much MotoGP, but pretty good anyway.

11-25-08....Color for the tank....

Finally....a better look at what the bike will look like in full color. I applied color to the tank and did a quick shot of black on the side fairing to complete the scheme. Now that I think I like the look, I'll shoot the clear coat, apply graphics, finish the side fairings. It's definitely high contrast.

It looks like I'll have to wait a while to work on it again. The weather forecast is finally starting to look like winter, starting on Thanksgiving day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

11-23-08....Tank Wing Graphics layout

Today, after fixing the two dents in the tank and priming the repairs, I decided to further develop the "Wings" on the tank much like the race bike. Afterward, I set the tank on the bike and took a look see. I used black tape to get a better idea. You'll have to try to "visualize" the orange on the tank and the left rear fairing. Anyway, here's what I've come up with so far.

11-21-08....Wingracks arrived

Got my Givi Wingracks today from a friend on the VFRD. The plan is to use Caribou cases (http://cariboucases.com/store/?name=Home) with this setup. These are Pelican FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastic) cases used by the military and are water tight, durable and very utilitarian(OK, not slick like what you'd normally see on a Sport Touring machine). Looking at the brackets on the bike, it's apparent that I won't be able to use a high mounted exhaust can (or it will be very tight), so I plan to have the high pipe for riding single (which will be most of the time) and swap in the stock pipe for riding two up and with luggage. Installing the cases and swapping exhaust takes 20 minutes, tops.

11-17-08....Pre-assembly to check colors

Managed to get color on the radiator inlet shroud and the lower fairing, I pre-assembled the pieces to see if I like the combination, which I do, except for the annoying little orange splotch below the windscreen. Now to disassemble, clear coat the orange on the inner shroud and lower fairing, and get rid of the little orange splotch. The tank will come out tonight and get its prep work tomorrow, hopefully....

11-17-08....Upper Fairing painted

Finished the upper fairing, but I'm not happy with it. The orange accent below the windscreen looks out of place. I think it will have to go black. Once I paint and install the front radiator inlet orange, I'll go through the same deal and may want to go with a metallic charcoal instead of orange. I'll try it orange and then decide. So far so good, though.

11-15-08....Fender Eliminator (sort of)

Forgot to post how I plan to cut down the rear fender. In the photo, you can seen a very faint yellow line on the fender(nothing, not even a grease pencil will write on it very well). The plate resides at the bottom edge of the fender normally. I'll raise it and cut down the fender, then I'll use 90 degree LED bolts to mount and light the plate.

11-15-08.... Graphics. Many possibilities

I've been busy upgrading the garage for additional lighting, but spent some time pondering the paint scheme and graphic breakup between the colors on the bike this evening. Initially, I had thought I'd two tone the tank with the orange on the upper portion and black below. Playing around with some fine line tape, I think I came up with a better idea and keep black above and below an orange stripe(so to speak) in between. I feel this will keep the orange as an accent color and avoid having it become too obnoxious. I'll use a smaller black Honda wing set on the orange field, roughly in the same location as the original.

I also received my single seat cowl and wanted to do a number plate scheme on it. Initially, I thought painting orange covering the entire top would be right, but after some consideration, thought this would look better.

11-09-08.... Mounted tires, Front fender

Today the wheels and tires were assembled to the bike and got it back on it's feet. I'm always a little nervous when it's up in the air for any period of time. Too many people in the garage, especially little ones. Anyway, I finished paint on the front fender and mounted it and the wheels. I also temporarily mounted the mid fairing to start to get a feel for the color scheme. I can now start to consider graphics.

11-08-08....Wheels DONE!!

Finally, on 11-03-08, my tires arrived. I immediately took them to Rocky Mountain Motor Sports here in Loveland Colorado, and had them installed on the wheels. On Election Day I retrieved them and begun to prepare them for paint that evening. Without going into too much detail, I prepped and painted the wheels using Dupont Chromabase paint, Ford code 775302K, Ranger/Mustang Grabber Orange. I had rattle cans loaded with the color and used Dupont acrylic A-7480S Clearcoat, purchased at Ed's Paint Supply also in Loveland, for the final finish. It worked exceptionally well considering the marginal temperatures here in Colorado these days. While this is not powdercoat, I feel it came out extremely well.

11-01-08....The "PLAN"

I determined that I could refit this bike fairly easily to have a much more aggressive appearance, without compromising the innate nature of the machine. Through some simple paintwork and mechanical upgrades, the bike would be fun and look good, too.

I chose Satin Black with '08 Mustang Grabber Orange accents. Years ago, I developed a clever way to apply the black in order to produce a stippled effect that minimizes how noticeable small defects appear.

I began by getting the bike up in the air, disassembling the fairings, and pulling the wheels. I mail-ordered out for a set of Bridgestone BT016 Battlax tires, basically on the recommendation from my son Erik who is in the Navy in CT and rides a yellow '00 Superhawk (really nice bike!).

While waiting for the tires, I began prepping the middle side fairings for paint, disassembling the vents and doing the first paint work.

10-29-08....The TEST ride...and the future

After riding the bike for almost 3 weeks, I concluded that I'd made a good choice. I had wanted a VFR... any VFR.... and it had come true. I had test ridden new VFR's and this machine runs as near to new as I could imagine. The bike has no mechanical flaws. I'm happy.

During this three week period, I began developing scenarios for the future of the bike. It definitely needed paint and a few parts, but would I bring it back to original? Or would I have a lot of fun with a relatively small investment? Keeping in mind that the modifications would be reversible, if I or any subsequent owner wanted to bring it back to original? I haunted forums such as VFRWorld and VFRD and realized there were a bunch of beautiful box stock '94's. Being who I've always been, I chose change. Now to decide how to change the bike and do something unique (I think, I hope!).

Browsing about, I came upon pictures of Honda's current MotoGP machine, the RC212V in developmental trim. I was taken over by the stark simplicity, as well as the high visual impact of this"test mule". I found my template. I will make some small changes that better suit the bodywork of my Fourth Generation VFR.

I also find the front upper fairing of the RC45 particularly intriguing with it's dual round headlight system. I'll research that and see if that change would be feasible. Mechanicals may also find improvements as this progresses. I'm open to all suggestions.

Sooo, here we go, on the way to something a lot different than your run of the mill VFR.

10/19/08....The NEW BIKE comes home

On October 19, 2008, I purchased my 1994 Honda VFR750F-R and brought it home. It had 10,800 original miles, but had a few minor issues. The previous owner said he purchased it without plastic and claimed he replaced it with used pieces. It looked OK, but had a pretty shabby rattlecan red paint job. Wrong color. I enjoy a project. A few discoveries were yet to come about the history of the bike, but nothing that would affect the enjoyment of it. It needed paint, tires, a saddle(maybe only a cover), passenger grips, and a new LR turn signal unit (perhaps just a repair). But that being said, it was a road-ready bike and would be ridden until winter weather brought it to a halt. Then the project would begin in earnest, with the intent of completing it quickly in order to possibly ride again during the winter warm spells that seem to always occur here in Colorado and be ready for spring.