Fred Ziglar has this story to tell.If you search the VFR archives or perhaps remember back to Nov. '95 there was a thread called "$5200 dollar '95 VFR". Our own beloved John Perkins posted a want ad that was in his local Madison, WI. paper one Thursday morning. It mentioned a '95 VFR, 3200 miles, stock for $5200 or best offer. Since I was in love with my beautiful white '93 VFR, I thought I shouldn't even read this, but did anyway and also printed it to take to work so I could show my riding bud, Rick. About 2 hours after I got to work and finished a morning meeting, I showed the post to Rick and told him I was tempted, but shouldn't even call. That lasted about 5 minutes and I called the number in the ad.
It was a story of a guy that got transferred from Florida to Wisconsin and didn't have any other transportation and winter was here. He had advertised it the previous week at $6500 OBO and didn't get much response since it was November in Wisconsin, not a good time to sell a sport bike. He was getting very cold riding to work in that weather and so was very interested in selling ASAP. He said it was stock, except for a pair of Michelin TX 15, 23 tires! I knew I shouldn't, but I asked him about the OBO part and he said he had turned down the best offer so far, which was $4600. I thought "what the heck, go for it" and asked if he would take $4800 and he said, "uh......yeah." I couldn't pass it up. He agreed to hold it for me until I got there that day. I told him that I was about 6 hours south of him and I would be there with a cashier's check. I set a new land speed record for a Pontiac Bonneville pulling a bike trailer because 4 hours later I was there with the check. It was absolutely perfect, a bit too much chain lube gunk, but not a problem. Now, with 11,000 miles, a TBR system, Corbin, K&N, red vents and slicers, dyno tuned, J&M radar amp I am parting with it and I can now say that the "$5200 '95 VFR" was orginally purchased for $4800.
The unofficial world record for a current year VFR (it was a '95 purchased in 1995) purchased thru the VFR list is $4800. I still owe John several beers for that one :-). BTW, Rick is the one buying the '95 from me.
Fred Ziglar, HSTA Southern IL State Director
AMA, HRCA, BMWMOA, Springfield Milers
'98 VTR1000, '93 ST1100 ABS-TCS
'86 XL250R, '79 750 Bonneville
'70 250 Bultaco Sherpa T
Kevin W. has this story to tell.Just wanted to tell everyone a short story about how I came to ride VFR's. I started riding on some old KZ-650's. These are nice bikes, kind of fun but performance was not very impressive. On a ride from Alice's on Skyline Blvd. a rider on a VF500 came up behind and our pace sped up. I quickly became uncomfortable with the speed and waved the vee-four around me on a short strait. He promptly went by only to cut right in front of me as he set up for the right turn. He went in hot and panic took over. One good squeeze of the front lever put the him down 2 feet in front of my tire. His bike went out of my field of vision as I rode up against the side of the fallen rider and over his arm. Shortly after he disappeared under my bike I bailed and rolled once coming to rest dazed but still in one piece. The VF500 had struck a Wing coming up the hill and the Wing rode over it but landed on it's wheels. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt.
The out-of-court settlement filled my garage with a VF500 that needed a lot of work and two bills to put it together. I fixed it and could not believe how good this bike was. Sold all bikes and bought an '86 VFR which I put 82k fun filled miles on. Now I ride a '94 VFR and believe that I ride the best bike made. Moral to the story is simply "live and learn".
Kev W
'94 VFR
Technical Corner | Main Garage
