Matt Tries – 1984 VF500F Overhaul

Hah, thanks man. My first time out to Gingerman Raceway was certainly memorable if nothing else. I've got nothing to talk about from the most recent round in July since I kept the bike upright this time and didn't go as fast as I wanted to.

AHRMA comes to town (Blackhawk Farms) this weekend, and I'm hoping to go down to spectate on Saturday. Hopefully there's a few Interceptors running this year. I introduced myself to Andy Mauk at a bike event earlier this year--he's the one person I know of that runs a VF500F in AHRMA. Sounded like he wasn't sure if the bike was going to be ready for the round, but I'm hoping it is. I want to see his bike in person since I'm sure it's one of the more developed VF500F's that's been active in the last few years.

 

It's been a minute since I posted to this thread. I got to have a really awesome experience this weekend involving the Interceptor.

I may have accidently put myself and my Kramer 690 into the air fence at about 45mph a few weeks ago. Rider was fine--just sore and a bruised ego. My endurance teammates have my SV650 in West Virginia to race the ASRA endurance event at Summit. I did a full rebuild on that engine this winter (my first one), and they placed P2 against a bunch of faster bikes. So that's awesome.

Anyway, she had gotten invited to a private track day event at Autobahn Country Club in Illinois, and she was able to bring me along. We had the invite, but not sure which bike(s) to ride. She floated the idea last week to ride my Interceptor. Since her side business is fairing repair and paint... she took it upon herself to work long ass hours to somehow get the Kramer body repaired and painted and finalized about 16 hours before we left. She knew that the yellow I had on my VF500F is my favorite bike color and got a match to integrate into her 3 color design.

Such a cool experience. We both signed up for novice, and I just rode behind her and enjoyed the event. She had never even sat on my Interceptor--and she just jumped right in. I flipped the linkage so it would be GP shift as the only two other times she was on track she'd used GP shift. That worked fine. She rode three morning sessions on my VF while I just ran behind and giggled at how cool this is. And how tiny the 120/80 rear tire looks compared to everything else I'm used to seeing on track.

After lunch, we switched bikes and she ran the Kramer she just finished painting. And that I had had to replace a ton of crap on because apparently I crash on warmup laps now. What a trip. Interceptor ran awesome. It's hilarious how that bike weighs 150lb more than the Kramer despite looking smaller.

So many people coming up and going "Holy shit is that a 500 Interceptor!? No Way!"

 

That's a big pile of awesome, right there. (Stop crashing...your older self will thank you!)

 

Very cool, Matt! That paint job on the Kramer is wicked!!! That girl's got skills!

So happy for you my friend.

Thanks for sharing and continued blessings your way!

 

Thanks for the update Matt! Looking great! BE CAREFUL out there!

 

Agreed. And agreed. This is the first real physical activity I'd done since the oopsie. Glad I'd been making donations to the Air Fence Fund. Those things kept it from being a lot worse.

Thanks Bazz--I appreciate it. I think the paint job came out incredible and super unique. I love how it looks next to the Interceptor too.

Not a problem Jim. I love when I get to post cool VF updates. And I'll be more careful in the future.