Abandoned VFR750 brought back to life!.. Hopefully...

Hello everyone, My name is Jake and I'm new to the Honda VFR. I guess you could say I'm new to this type of bike in general. My only real ridding experience comes from riding dirt bikes with my friends when I was younger. Though I'm new to the VFR scene I do have a respect for all bikes and know a good one when I see it. Which brings me to why I joined VFRworld and made this post in the first place. I'm currently in the Navy, I'm stationed in Japan. Here the bikes the cars the anything and everything Motor-head is abundant and fairly cheap. Seeing as things are cheap here and there is no penalty or fines for just abandoning bikes or vehicles in or near base if you like in the right places at the right time you could find something like the VFR750 I hope to bring back to life. To most people I've shown the bike too they tell me it's a hunk of junk but something keeps bringing me back too it and keeps telling me to claim it. (I'll post a few pictures As soon as I figure it how from my phone.) I'm currently in the process of getting my Japanese motorcycle license so I can take custody of the bike. It's in a rough looking condition but I believe with the help of a couple willing and equally enthusiastic friend we can hopefully restore the black beauty to its former glory.

As far as the bike goes its a Honda VFR750F RC36. Almost all of the other writing on the bike is in kanji. This bike in my mind is pure Japanese. It was left under a ramp in a parking garage for at least a year, possibly longer. There is obviously a decent amount of rust. The clutch lever has be broken to the point you can hardly pull the lever with just your pointer finger. The fairing on that side is cracked pretty good. It was probably knocked over by some drunken sailor (big surprise!) the throttle side seems alright though.
Our plan is once I have the title from the base call in a favor and get it moved to the base housing so we have a good enough place to store and work on it. We are for sure the base doesn't have a key so we are thinking we can take the tank of take it to a lock smith out in town and get a new key made (after we clean out the tank of course.) we are going to definitely going to need a new battery, spark plugs and some engine cleaner. I'm sure we will need more but this is our rough draft plan to just see if we can get it to come alive. If we can get it to start we want to replace the fuel and brake lines along with tires if they are really junked up. If we can get it ride ready then we plan to go in and cosmetically tweak it. I'm think something classy and race themed like and old Marlboro race team graphic. For now tho we are focused on breathing life back into this stray in need of some TLC.

I'm more than open to any questions, suggestions, comments, criticism, or any helpfully pro tips! I'll definitely be keeping you all posted if you guys seem interested enough.

 

Hopefully this picture open up for you all.

 

Holy Molly, you've got some work ahead of you. Good for you bring her back to live another day....and thank you and your buddies for serving your Country. Are those front rotors rusted or what..never seen that. Good luck and please keep us in the loop with pictures. At least it looks like it's all there....

 

Bet with a bit of fresh fuel and probably a squirt of Aerostart she would probably fire up, sitting for a year or two shouldn't be any problem if it was running when parked up. I wouldn't even bother with new plugs at this stage. Any idea what year it is? I thought you couldn't register vehicles older than 10 Years in Japan, not sure if this is correct

 

Pretty sure the ten year registration thing is wrong, I saw old Skylines rolling around every day. They may have it registered as a classic car or something but there are definitely old cars and bike out here.
As for the bike though, yes it is in rough condition but we are very optimistic about this project in fairly handy with tools and I work with all types of machinery on the ship. My friend that's copiloting the operation here is from a primarily car back ground and knows a lot about rotary and carbureted engines so we feel confident about working on this bike. Fingers crossed though!

 

Wow, that poor 3rd gen! You have yourself a great bike, hopefully you can get it back to at least rideable. Damn, those front rotors are in bad shape! Not going to lie, in order for them to oxidize that badly, that thing had to be sitting a lot longer than a year. I would venture to say that the brake fluid has probably gelled too. Would not be suprised if you have to replace the brake lines.

Man, good luck!

 

Get it running first, the rest can all be fixed later, as for the rotors they can deterioate pretty fast, remember it is a Navy base, Navy base means close to the sea, close to the sea means salt filled air blowing around everywhere, that stuff is so bad it would rust your armpits

 

The biggest problem you are going to have is corrosion. If it was parked out of the direct elements that's good. It will still be subject to the sea air. You will probably need new throttle cables and every electrical connector will be suspect. That said, with a good battery and a crab clean it will probably run, It just might not be very reliable.

I would think that getting your Japanese motorcycle license would be way harder then getting that bike to run.

 

3rd Gen VFRs are great bikes so good luck with the project. Do you mind telling us how much you had to pay for it?

 

I am going to the base DMV to get the word on taking over custody of the bike I will let you all know how this goes as soon as possible. I appreciate everyone's input.
I'm waiting for the proper paper work to come back so I can be approved for a drivers license. This could take a while the military has a very lengthy due process...

 

Welcome aboard. Aside from the obvious rust and tattyness it does look fairly unmolested, whats the mileage like? Agree with what others have said about getting it running before you go much further. Good luck.

 

Do you think it was abandoned by a sailor returning home?

 

Get it running. If the engine is toast any other work, or paperwork will not be productive unless somebody need parts. In the US the fairing parts are getting really scarce for that model.

 

Good Luck! You can rescue that bike with some love! I got mine back in May and commute on it now, it does around 145 mph, not as fast as my 91 but its a low mileage unit. Had to get the seat re-covered along with some other stuff. Long list actually, no regrets though best $500 I ever spent! :thumbsup: