March’s Top Project (So Far!) and This Year’s MOTO2N Shop Bike
It’s snowing on and off, and things are starting to pick up with the mobile business, so if you’re looking to get a bike serviced or repaired for the ’22 riding season either call me at (719) 425-5515 or (720) 634-6935 or better yet book me online. That said, I’m committed to answering my phone whenever I hear it ring and returning any relevant messages I receive.
An old Porsche 914 2.0 parked next to a ’93 VFR750F in one of my customers’ garages was some sweet icing on the cake during the past few weeks!
I Love Honda V4s
Seriously. They are rockin’ bikes with a unique engine configuration. They make cool noises and have interesting power characteristics. A 750cc V4 is like half of a 1.5L V8. A 1.5L V8 would be an absolute screamer in something like a tube frame racecar or Sevenesque replica car, but you would probably have to build something like that or have it made at considerable expense.
The more common V4 bikes include the Honda VFR750, 800 and the V4 Magna cruiser. Others include the more rare RVF400, VFR400 and the fantastic RC30 homologation special AKA VFR750R.
Yamaha built a muscle bike called the V-Max that stayed mostly the same for nearly all of its first generation, that was how good it was, and it’ll rock your socks off too. All of the V4 bikes make great power down low right off of idle and awesome noises as the power builds towards a reasonably high redline. The V-Max is a legitimately scary fast bike, and it has a tendency to wobble if you take your hands off the bars at speed. Ask me how I know. 🙂
March’s top project goes to this customer’s ’93 VFR750F, the more sedate version of the highly sought after VFR750R AKA RC30. It looks better in the pics than it does in person, but it’s a fine rider that has weathered its years without falling apart, mostly because people gave a crap about it.
I had to clean its carbs. Because carbs get gummed up when we let old, carbureted bikes sit around for too long. It’s not a cheap process, but he saved some money because someone else had gone through them and replaced the more important parts recently, in the past 2 years or so.
It’s a stunner, but at some point someone installed a later model front end that came with a black front wheel instead of a white one. Absolutely fantastic, well cared for bike in great condition for a vintage sport bike that could be ridden every day if that’s what someone wanted to do with it. If it ever comes up for sale, I would love to be a buyer assuming these bikes don’t appreciate to the moon like everything else seems to have done in the past few years.
2022’s MOTO2N Shop Bike
In my last post I talked about putting together part of some rearset mounts. Well I finished them, and they look pretty cool!
I sticker bombed the left one with some moto stickers I had around. Left the other bare aluminum. w00t!
I like the way the left one turned out a little better. It’s more adjustable on account of having a straight rear line. Just have to drill holes to move the right rearset up and back.
Honestly they look a little low on the bike, and the angles aren’t quite right, so I plan on drilling more holes in the front side to get a more attractive angle out of them. As they sit the pegs are straight up and down and 13″ off the ground. The stockers are 13.5″ off the ground. It’s funny, my GSXR’s rearsets are much higher and close to the seat, and it’s a little too close for my frame, but I’m fine with contorting myself to flog that bike on the track.
This is going to be a street bike, so I’d like for it to both look right and be somewhat comfortable on longer trips.
The really sweet part LOL is I’ve never heard this bike run, and here I was making parts for it… I’ve had it for nearly 2 years. I bought it as a theft recovery from a friend’s neighbor. It didn’t have a tank or fuel pump, no fairings, but it still had the ECU attached and came with a clean, undated title, so I had my wallet sing him a song and loaded it up.
All that changed last week! I removed the entire wiring harness when I first brought it home, so I started plugging things in along with a new battery and, to be perfectly honest, nothing really happened at first. So I did some more research after confirming that everything that was supposed to be plugged in was, in fact, plugged in. It turns out Kawasaki installed a 100ohm resistor on the factory ignition and without that resistor the ECU doesn’t do anything. You won’t find this information in the factory service manual. You kind of have to figure it out yourself by looking around on forums, which I did.
After installing the necessary resistor, the Holy Trinity of Internal Combustion was completed, and the bike fired right up! Music to my ears! The song of my people! I was very happy! If you want to hear it check out my insta @denverscooterguy. It sounds like dogshit because someone took the exhaust off and replaced it with some parts store special that I threw in the trash. I can get the stock unit for $100 shipped on eBay or a neat aftermarket unit from Coffman’s for $240. It’s pretty cool that there’s still a decent aftermarket option for such an old bike!
Here it is in all of its glory, deconstructed wiring harness draped over the bike and everything.
The last time I messed with anything fuel injected, I was messing with cars, so this is a little different for me. It’s easier than working on carburetors! Just plug stuff in and as long as everything works, it’s game on and the thing just fires up regardless of the weather outside. Fuel injected bikes tend to be more reliable than carbureted bikes because of this. Better rideability. There’s a reason almost every new bike on the market is fuel injected these days. Most people don’t want to fuss with carbs; bikes with carbs are becoming more and more of a niche item meant for hardcore enthusiasts or people who are willing to put up with the headaches they cause, but that’s a topic for another time.
The goal is to have it running, rideable, insured and registered by April 1st or so. I have a pile of parts set to land in the next week, which should clear up some of the minor issues its having. Also have to cut down the wiring harness and eliminate all of the unecessary junk that I don’t want to run on the bike. The idea is to have a neat streetfighter or muscle type bike I can ride on terrorize the streets with and use as a back-up when the GSXR wants to act up on the track.
That’s all for now, but I’ll be back with another update next week.
To book an appointment call me at (719) 425-5515 or (720) 634-6935 or hit the button to go to the online booking page. THANK FOR READING!!!