Looking for a 5th Gen

Greetings. I am looking for a 5th gen. I have always wanted a Honda V-4. It looks like a 49 state 98-99 is what I want. I have read about the electrical problems.
Anything in particular for the VFR 800 that I should look for when looking at and road testing?
Any mileage considerations? All of these bikes are 20 years old so I am thinking at a restoration project.

 

Thanks. Good advice. The mechanical design, parts and manufacturing on these models seemed to be really good. Since I a new to the VFR world, I was looking for not obvious places to look. Like signs of corrosion due to incorrect coolant, signs of wiring damage, etc.
I expect I will put more $$$ into it then it will be "worth". Any rubber, cables, etc are suspect at best.

 

Yes, the first-half of the 5th Gen, the '98 and '99 bikes, are now over 20 years old.

So the reality is that finding a "good" example of a first-half 5th Gen can mean a few very different things:

The two best possibilities are:

1. You get your hands on someone's "Ultimate 5th Gen" which is absolutely up-to-date on every possible maintenance item and probably has lots of tasty upgrades on it.

2. You purchase someone's low-miles garage queen. These bikes tend to have gotten lots of regular oil changes and new chains and tires in their lifetime, but not a lot of long-term maintenance like refurbishment of the forks and rear suspension, no new thermostat, no electrical system upgrades, etc...


Option #1 will cost you a good bit in purchase price.

Option #2 will cost you a good bit in refurbishment.

 

I recently bought a 1998 "garage queen" with 1700 miles on it. Sometimes wish I hadn't cos it's too nice to ride..
I can vouch for the engineering. Very well made bike.
When I first rode it home to Ireland from the UK the ferry guys were all stood around in admiration and disbelief that something so old could still look so new.

 

Man ive just done the same, mine's a 98 just bought her and she's like just rolled out of the showroom, I'm terrified of dropping her but couldn't bear to foul the fairings with sliders etc...what to do!....

 

I am just going to ride it. I didn't pay a fortune for it although it was still a sizeable sum, but it is almost a new bike after all. I have other bikes so it wont get huge use. Will not ride it much through winter if I can help it. No sliders for me. One good thing about them is they sold thousands in the UK so spares are plentiful.

 

Thanks for the inputs. They were helpful.
I have been waiting to post this, but ... "If it is not in the garage and pictures posted, it did not happen."
I bought a 1998 49 state VFR (online/phone) from the original owner in Aug. The motorcycle trucking firm picked it up around Atlanta on Sep 4th and delivered it to Spokane, WA yesterday Oct 4th. The bike is spotless with many upgrades. Mileage is somewhere between 20 - 25K. ( Odometer is blank, but LCD autotests OK - subject for different post.) PO said that he has owned almost 30 bikes, but this was the only one that he kept.

 

very nice!