'85 VFR 500 - upgrade advice

picked up the bike - it's stock and in pretty decent visual condition
Gas tank has a ding, but no leakage, everything seems to be working fine, but brakes are pretty weak and the clutch lever needs some serious adjustment. There's a minor tick from the engine room, but I'll get to that when checking valve clearances etc.

Haven't started flogging it yet cuz I still need to give it the once over, but I anticipate trying to improve it's handling a bit to allow for spirited sport riding and occasional two-up riding.

Would you consider the following to be reasonable upgrades, or is the standard package already good enough that the upgrades would not be worth the trouble?
- forks - upgrade to a more modern type like BPF?
- rear suspension - upgrade for more adjustability?
- brakes - what are the best options to improve braking distance?
- tires - what are some of the best options for decent cornering?

It'd be sorta interesting to keep this little gal bone-stock, but not at the expense of good performance.

Thanks in advance.

 

Thanks for the reply. Good price and plan to pass it along to my kid who's a newb. But I know that he'll eventually want to play and would prefer the machine be well suited to that kinda play. Not looking to get to MotoGP, just prefer that things are strong, predictable and forgiving - esp. brakes.

Your implication that it'll be a money pit to do this gives me an inkling of the value of making the changes.

 

First, a message ....

Here's my $.02 ...

Of the early VF-F's, the 500 is the most difficult to upgrade in terms of availability of the parts. I'm sure there are guys here who can point you in the right direction as far as making the bike more 'secure' in corners (although it was pretty good stock). Things like 'BPF' are not an option; but you may be able to install better springs and RaceTech valves in the fork, and there are options as far as the rear shock goes too - but you're talking about doubling your investment to do this. Brakes are easier to improve. Braided steel lines and good pads (EBC HH's are my personal favorite) will give you as much stop as you need. Thanks to the wheel sizes you won't be able to fit truly 'premium' sport tires; but the BT45's will give you as much traction as the chassis can handle without mods.

Good luck!

 

Perfect! That's exactly the kinda feedback I was looking for. I'll make a start on it and post back once in awhile with a progress report.:mechanic:
:biggrin:

 

+1 to everything Tink said.

I love the 500. I've had two of them (well, maybe four if you count the donors!). You are just asking for heartache and stress due to the things that will go wrong, the unavailability of essential parts, reliability concerns, etc., etc.

Passing a 500 down to a son would be cruel and unusual punishment, IMO, lol. Of course, you might luck out and have few problems!

Read up everything you can on this site, keep the revs under 9-10k as a bit of insurance against valve float due to fatigued springs, never stray too far from home.

With what you have in mind, you would be far better off with an old, bullet-proof CBR600. You will get a lot more performance, better reliability and less heartache for less money compared with modding and maintaining a VF500.

My 2 cents.

 

Thanks to both you and tinkerinWstuff - sounds like good solid advice. It hurts to keep the revs so low tho...got used to my ZZR600 that loved the high-end revs...

As to cruel and unusual punishment - I'll consider it as retribution....<eg>