Holiday bike tweaking.

Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 7:15 am

Spending my Christmas break working on the new to me 750. Shocks, tires, wheel bearings, change fork oil, check and lube steering head bearings. My stock shocks are in good shape but it seems to me that 30 year old oil can't be what it used to be and old seals are destined to fail. I'd rather store them away in case someone wants it to look original someday. 30 year old wheel bearing grease is pretty well hardened up as well. Progressive shocks, Conti Go tires. Bought one of these Pit Posse bearing remover set to do the bearings. It works well. Probably use it again for the VFR. I know, you can do it with out it but it sure makes it easy and within reason today I can afford to have the right tool for the job. Thanks to this site for the advice to drill out the retainer stake spots. Front one came off with a light tap with a punch. Back ones were pretty stuck. I happen to have a light duty bench vise that the base clamps were stripped so it was in the corner of the garage waiting to be thrown it. I put dowel pins in two retainer holes, clamped the vise on them, then one sharp rap on the vise with a small sledge and the retainer was free and undamaged. This is the third time I have used this Tire changing stand. This is made for changing dirt bike tires at the track. I have used it for all sizes of street bike tires. You have to do the work yourself with tire irons but it holds the wheel nice and steady for you at a comfortable height and beats hell out of wrestling with it on a couple of sawhorses or a bucket like I used to do. I put some heater hose over the ring as additional protection. It's already rubber coated, I was just being sure. Shocks, tires, and wheel bearings done. Forks and steering head over the next few days.

Twinstar Joined: Oct 03, 2012 Posts: 95 Location: texas

the wrestler calls that premium time off !

Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 1:54 pm

Sounds like a great time to me.

Are you also a member on vfrdiscussion.com, fellow VFR owner?

Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 5:00 pm

I am a member but I visit extremely infrequently. I was there a lot when I first bought the bike as well as on the VFR mailing list. The mailing list was way too contentious and the VFRD site was only a little behind. I know there is good natured ribbing going on everywhere but I got tired of the constant yammering about how the Gen6 VFR sucks. It's a great bike and just about anyone that puts more than a few 100 miles on one would agree. Perhaps the tone has mellowed a bit since the VFR1200 has been out long enough to become the new whipping boy. Maybe I should check back in.

Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 7:01 pm

I've found VFRD to be one of the most mild-mannered sites on the internet... of course, everyone has their own opinions.

Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 8:35 pm

I have an 86 VFR 750,never ridden it, hopefully I'll get it on the road shortly. All reports they are a good machine

Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 9:35 pm

SEBSPEED wrote:

I've found VFRD to be one of the most mild-mannered sites on the internet... of course, everyone has their own opinions.

Your perspective might depend on which model you own. I joined there right after I bought my bike and there were a couple of previous model owners that were always jumping in on threads in the Gen6 section to tell people what crappy bikes they had. Mostly based on a couple of negative comments they read in a magazine. I imagine they tired of their game after a while. Unfortunately I tired of it sooner. I will have to check back in. I also hang out in the Superport section of a Ducati site and the modern superbike owners never stop by to tell us how inferior our bikes are just like we don't hop over to their section to tell them how inapplicable their race replica's are to actual street riding. To bring back a little "F", content, I find this site to be pretty helpful and fairly congenial. As anywhere, you just have to realize the guys that think they know everything don't and look for a general consensus before you start ignoring the OEM engineers.

Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 9:54 pm

I have an 83 VF750F, 96 750, and a 2005 VTEC. Had an 86 for a little while and have ridden and worked on a number of 98-01 models.