Hi from Somerset, UK.

Hi

My name's Rich and I recently picked up a 2008 VFR800 Vtec.

It was my friends bike for many years but he's given up riding having not ridden it for a couple of years now, so I took it off his hands. It was in a sad state (and is still in some areas) but I plan to make it a nice looking bike again.

Pictures to follow but here's one of it at the start of the process.



Since this pic it has had a 2 hour clean & degrease.
New battery and fuse holder (old one had partially melted)
Top box frame removed.

Yet to do is grease and tighten the headset (or replace bearings if needed)
Lube the throttle cables
Submit for an MOT and then ride it..

Then catch up on all other service items, Oil & filter, coolant, brake fluid.
There might be other issues but I sort those as I find them.

Cheers, Rich.

 

Go on - post up the "after" cleaning photos! Your bike looks to be a similar condition to mine when I bought it, it took a lot of scubbing and degreaser to loosen up the crud.

The fact that a fuse-holder had partially melted is an indicator that your bike may have some corrosion in other connectors that needs to be addressed if it is more widespread.

Modern throttle cables have teflon liners that don't really need lubrication; you may find that any excess drag could be a dry throttle tube or some friction between the grip and bar end.

And welcome aboard Kneejerk.

Before: After:

 

Hi Terry and thank you.
To be honest I'd be happy if I could get mine to how yours was in the before shot, but sadly this one is going to be a bit rough around edges at best.
56,000 miles on the clock and so far nothing has shifted the brake dust from the front wheel, the rear came up better but is patchy.
Headset has so much play in it it clunks under braking and the exhaust is blowing just in front of the rear wheel, there's no clamp either and it's so rusty I fear putting a fresh clamp on it might just collapse it.

I haven't taken any 'after' pics yet but the next time I have it out of the garage I get some, might even start a new thread to document the journey back, warts and all!

 

Hi KneeJerk. Welcome.

 

We are blessed with no salted roads here, but most of NZ is coastal so salt spray can be merciless.

I think that the rear headers are steel down to the joint and then stainless from there onwards, so you may find you need some new rear headers. I think the front headers are all SS but I haven't managed to shift the baked on grime on mine yet. The PO of my bike had been a London dispatch rider in his youth and cleaning was not part of his habits although under the filth, it was mostly well maintained. Inside the cases there was evidence of overlong oil change intervals (very brown) and when I got to checking the VTEC clearances, they weren't even close to in spec.

 

I would like to change the rear pipes at some point.
I need to take a closer look at what's going on at that joint but for now I don't think it's blowing enough to stop it passing the MOT.
I need the MOT so I can insure it, so that's my main priority at the moment. Once that's out of the way I can start riding it but working through the job list.

Also I know the valves clearances have not been checked, ever. So that is also on the service catch-up list.

 

You can insure it on a SORN

The stuff to clean wheels is Rhino Goo

Whereabouts in Somerset are you?

 

Most of my policies actually stipulate the vehicle has to have a valid MOT.
I know you can get 'lay over' insurance but I'm not looking to do that. Also it's insanely cheap to add the VFR to one of my other bike policies (£3 plus the admin fee) so I'm looking to do that once I have the MOT booked in.

So far on the front wheel I have only tried Screwfix brand No-Nonsense Degreaser (the older stuff that doesn't have caustic soda in it).
I do have a few more alloy wheel cleaner potions to try yet so I'll give those a shot over the weekend and see if any can lift it.

The rear wheel was mostly coated in oily chain fling but there are some corrosion patches that wouldn't shift with either degreaser or WD40.

I'm in Chard so not to far away from you.