Apology to Mr Honda.

Dear Mr Honda, I start by saying that I am very sorry for taking your wonderful VFR800 V4 motorcycle and tearing it to pieces. However I am also sorry that I cannot be sorry for how it went back together!

Mr Honda I love all your motorcycle machines. I’ve had several. They are superb to ride, very reliable, high performance and extremely well manufactured. I love the way your engineers have spent such care and time to lay out the engine components, the frame and suspension and most everything else in between in such a way thats assists greatly in gaining access for maintenance and much more so so easy.

And I especially love those great little things you do like how so many of your models share many of the same bearing sizes, bolt sizes, shaft lengths and designs. Wow Mr Honda, that was very special!

Sadly for you Mr Honda this last fact also means that much of your wonderfully crafted and machined high performance Japanese component inventory can be transferred between many of your motorcycle models with ease. And it is this that I wish to thank you for Mr Honda from the very bottom of my heart (and similarly from my bank account also).

(OK, sarcasm aside, my mum would not approve.)

I like very much what you did when you built this … it is marvelous.

But I really wanted it to be like this.

Like this

Like this

And like this

Why?

Hi, I’m Dave. Melbourne Australia is where I am and this site exists to demonstrate what happened when I let my Dreams transform into Goals leading to Plans and finally becoming Actions.

Let’s get started

The Honda VFR800 is a superb motorcycle with much to offer through many years of development, maturation and the earlier the years of racing success.

But it became a bit of a slug, become bloated, fat, heavy …. slow!!!

Coming from a long heritage, including superbike racing successes you would hardly know Honda VF and VFR.

It doesn’t sound like a motorcycle with V4 configuration engine should and with so much technology and definite potential built into this machine there exists plentiful opportunity to create something very enjoyable.

Then there were the looks (they’re not bad, just not terribly sporting)

So …. I decided to change everything!

Taking this V4 powerplant with a solid chassis and leaving behind many Kilograms and un-needed excess was part of it.

To make a sporting machine from less so was certainly part of it

To build something from a clean slate without listening, even slightly, to the OEM specifications was most certainly part of it

And so it began …

I purchased the VFR from Fowles Auctions here in Melbourne back in mid 2006 (from memory) and it sat around in the shed for a good year or more while I put the parts list together from eBay through time. Also playing around with an auction damaged CBR1000RR at this time (that is another story).

From the auctions the bike would start, run (although strangely with one muffler closed over) and do most things it should. It wasn’t road registered.

First thing I did was to pull everything off in the way of plastic fairings and accessories, leaving a bare frame with a wheel at each end. It looked so much smaller and better in that minimal look and it stayed that way for some time, giving me many thoughts of what could be done.

When the part list was complete the process of repainting all the fairings plastics was taken on and from there it was a simple process of reassembly. It was surprisingly easy. I’ve restored a range of damaged bikes but the Honda has the most logical layout and design of all I’ve looked at. Great engineering.

Reassembly complete the bike went through the mandatory VIV (Vehicle Identity Verification) process here in Victoria at $440 per inspection. This is a recent requirement here to try to reduce the incidence of stolen bikes being rebirthed as parts. I’m not sure how effective this process is given nearly all the parts I purchased were from eBay and the VIV inspection service accepted the eBay receipts as per any other. It might just be a great way to give certain licensed inspectors $440 for a 5 minute bike lookover, but who knows …….
(BTW: a car VIV is the same price which does not seem fair to me but then again …….. )

Bike was registered on an early November Friday morning in readiness for a 2 day ‘mystery’ ride starting the following morning (gutted the mufflers that friday night ). Couldn’t cut it much tighter than that but all is well that ends well and the 2 day ride was a blast. The VFR ran perfectly, never put a foot wrong and was a pure pleasure.

The next year was simply transit from home to work for the VFR but eventually the desire to tear-it-down won out and it went into another bare chassis configuration in spring 2008. This was a fairly intense work period as a custom rear subframe was needed, custom front fairing bracket, fairing reshaping and fiberglassing, rear shock chang-over, painting … the list goes on.

Not sure exactly but I think around January it was in fibreglass CBR600 raceglass mode painted black and thus began some more aggressive and enjoyable track time. Summer of early 2009 put the VFR into near current road-going look and configuration…

That was until January 2010 when the CBR1000RR front end went in like a dream and now it finally feels like a true sportsbike that can now turn corners with confidence.

Now it is essentially a pure sportsbike with respect to chassis and handling but with the smooth tractable power that the V4 engine is renowned for. (and some exhaust noise)

The menu pages provide greater detail as to what has happened and will happen in future. (MUCH more descriptive detail and images to be added later)

Much more to do in the coming months (VTEC modification module, CBR954 swingarm, custom full exhaust, new rear end, new custom fairings, split fuel tank ….. etc) but that is it for now.

The deconstruct/reconstruct of the Honda VFR800 VTEC 6th generation has been and remains very rewarding to do.

Please feel free to say hi to me, ask questions and pass me comments

Background

After running a range of conventional sportsbikes (RGV, R6, CBR1000RR) I was fortunate to test ride a VFR750. Being very impressed with the rideability and tractability of the engine in particular I wondered why there were no such V4 configuration sportsbikes available on the market

That was 2006 and all that was available and went well were inline 4 cylinder machines

The VFR very much impressed me and I wondered what it would take to create a sporting version

After several damaged motorcycle auctions and letting the over-bidded rubbish go past I found a VTEC model VFR800 6th generation with little damage and at the right price. It was the perfect candidate as this particular bike had damage to the rear, not the front, and as such the forks, instrumentation, headlights, engine computer (ie: all the extra-expensive items) were undamaged!

Some time and after many repairs the VFR was restored to original condition. Painted gloss black (clear over matt black)

And that was when I decided to change it!

Updated: 31 January 2010.