'96 VFR down :-(

Hey all...

It's been a while since I have posted.

Well, it has finally happened - I low-sided my pristine '96. It was on 7/19 on my way home from work. I was on a road that I have traveled several times prior and it had just been re-paved.

Anyways, the curve that got me was a gentle right hander up a hill that turned into a left hander down a hill at the crest of the hill. I was traveling at the posted speed limit of 35 mph - luckily. Anyways, as I crested the hill, I had the extreme displeasure of discovering thousands of stones and pebbles all over the road. I had already initiated my left hand turn when the front wheel began skipping to the right across the stones and the lean angle increased with every skip until the hard parts hit the deck.

At that point, the bike levered up off the rear wheel and tossed me off. It continued over the bank on it's side and came to rest on the widescreen/upper fairing against a stump 30' over the edge in the woods. I slid approximately 50' along the fresh asphalt and through the limestone gravel shoulder.

The bike required 2 hours to extract from the woods, and travel THROUGH the woods to a clearing 1/4 mile away in order to get it back up onto the roadway. The left side of the bike was completely trashed - upper, mid, & lower fairings were pretty much destroyed. The shift lever was bent up to the frame, and the tail was scratched down to the primer (but not broken). The windscreen is scratched up and cracked, and the left mirror is toast. All of the left fairing mounts were bent, including the $$$ upper mount. The tank got a couple of scrapes, but no major dents. However, the frame/forks/swingarm/engine are all fine.

My damage was pretty much limited to a big section of road rash along my left arm. I was wearing a helmet (which never touched the ground), armored gloves (best thing ever!), and jeans/leather low top hikers. I got a big lump on the top of my femur/hip, but it hasn't been an issue since Wednesday.

Anyways - I would like to bring the VFR back to it's original glory - anyone have a line on body bits?

FB album, with before & after pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1017111588346.36736.1241797729&l=d77d1572fe&type=1

Thanks-
Matt

 

Do you have full insurance coverage? If so I would advise reporting it to them and let them total the bike out which is likely to happen with the age of the bike and the limited availability of parts. If not you are looking at a tedious task of finding used parts on Ebay or using inferior aftermarket stuff from Airtech or Thurn Motorsports. Any fluid leaks? Will the bike crank up? If you repair it MAKE SURE THERE IS NO DAMAGE TO THE RADIATOR ASSEMBLY BEFORE RIDING IT!!! Damage in this area often goes unnoticed since the fan doesn't operate until the bike reaches a certain certain temp. Bent fan assemblies and radiator fins do not play well together!! I'm sure you can imagine what might happen and you really don't want to find out when you are miles away from home. Sorry for your loss but at least you are ok!

Rollin

 

Sorry about your crash man, good to hear you are ok though.

 

Major shame 'bout the viffer. You got a chore ahead of you for sure. When going back to a stock look you're in for more $. If you bike was it my shop I'd be thinking body swap and other crazy ideas. (allways wanted a VFR hidden under Duc or MV race fiberglass with custom lighting) But I'm sill like that. I see a cracked up bike and think "Sweet! Now I can CHOP without fear!" But glas youre not TOO busted up. And DUDE, I KNOW it's DAMN HOT BUT... a riding jacket of any sort may have been a GOOD IDEA!

 

Great that you survived. It could have been so much worse. Just proves that the road riding is a dangerous activity.

 

Damn, sorry to hear about your get off. Glad YOU are relatively OK.

 

We missed you on here, Matt, and this is a sorry way to come back. Seeing those stones was a major pucker moment 4 sure with you already turning and no room to stand it up.

You can bend most of the mounts back, but probably best to buy the front headlight support used from ebay.

If you have all or most of the plastic bits--hard to remember to pick them all up after you've just crashed--you can have some fun piecing them back together until you eventually find replacements.

Good luck with the repairs, and sorry to hear of the mishap.

 

Glad to hear you are alright and happy to hear you were wearing proper gear. It is good the bike was not totally trashed. I went down on my 2K VFR when is was still pristine and had to replace plastics also. There are not a lot of places to find quality aftermarket plastics for the VFR. The OEM plastics are painfully expensive and the best price I was able to find was at Honda Parts Nation http://www.hondapartsnation.com/pages/oemparts?aribrand=HOM&gclid=COe36fesmKoCFULc4AodphPXww#/Honda/VFR750F_A_(96)_MOTORCYCLE%2c_JPN%2c_VIN%23_JH2RC360-TM600001/LOWER_COWL_94-97/VFR750F-96-JPN-A/2Y14MT4LMT44F3202AD .

 

The mid fairing might be repaired in the interim (it's cracked up pretty good, but still all there), but the upper is smashed into at least a half dozen bits, and is in no way re-usable. Oddly enough, the turn signal is intact... The rad took a bump but is not leaking at all. There were no fluid leaks (other than the carb overflows), and the bike fired right up after clearing all of that gas out of it. I will be changing the oil before riding it again, I don't think gas is a good replacement for oil in the crankcase. ;-)

I am on the fence about "street fightering" it... I have to admit that the bike looks pretty mean without any front fairings... But that is almost as much work as bringing it back to stock with all of the stuff I'd need to find a place to hide (2 coils, rad overflow, and about 3 cubic yards of wiring...), not to mention sourcing a headlight that doesn't look like poo, and figuring out a decent set of round gauges that have an electronic speedo pickup...

At this point, I've "reshaped" the shifter and the rear lower fairing mount so that they are reasonable and functional facsimiles of the originals. The upper fairing mount is going to be difficult as it not only supports the fairing, but a coil and the radiator, too. It's pretty twisted. The upper gauge/headlight mount is only really bent in one spot, I'm going to put some work into it before I bin it.

Oh, and a word on wearing a jacket - I have one, a Tourmaster Jett. It's black and f*#king hot. The weekend before my accident, I went on a longer trip (400 miles round trip) to meet my wife at some of her relatives. I wore it on the way there, but could not bear the thought of wearing it for 5 hours in 90+ F heat for the return trip. So it stayed in Maine and I returned to Vermont. My next purchase before hitting the road again will be a vented/armored jacket. I won't ever ride again without one.

 

Sorry to hear mate, as long as you can walk away.

Aviation Proverb:

"A good landing is one you can walk away from. A great landing is one where you can reuse the aircraft."

 

You can trying getting what looks like good quality replacement fairings from Airtech here - HONDA VFR750 1994-97, VFR 750 fairings, bodywork, fairing, upper, lower, mid, seat side, race, street, fender, tail, undertail, tank

 

Sorry to hear. There are some good deals on mesh jackets. got to wear one!

 

I too have wanted a light weight armored jacket. Summer heat is oppressive. Nice thing about your fairing is that it did it's job in protecting the bike. You don't have a frame or engine cases that are ground down. I have seen crank shaft ends that were bent.

 

Here is a link to a lightweight FieldSheer Jacket with CE armour I got on sale. The jacket is lighweight and has a good combination of pockets, downside it has no vents. Good jacket for the money. Fieldsheer Slip On Jacket - Street Bike - Motorcycle Superstore

 

Sorry to hear...I was in the same boat last year around this time. It stings for a few months and i never even looked at the bike for 4 months. Then slowly i started making a list and looking for bits and pieces.. By this spring she was back and better than ever...Good luck

 

Sorry to hear you biffed Matt.

I've got a front fender and a smoked windscreen left over from my old '97 that are in good shape. If you can use them you're welcome to them. Sorry no body panels,that's all I've got.

 

I actually could use both of those pieces - e-mail me at krazykarguy AT hotmail DOT com so we can get something going (replace words with symbols - don't need any spambots!!!).

THANKS 1,000,000!!!

 

SUPER HUGE PROPS TO STOSH for sending parts my way gratis.

THANKS SO MUCH!!!!

 

Your welcome Matt. This was payment enough for me. ^^^^^

Good Luck with your build.