I’ve been quietly falling out of love with the Bonnie for a while. Well, no. I’ve been pining for something else. The Bonnie is really good for what it is, compared to, say, a Kawasaki W650. That’s a beautiful retro looking bike, like the Bonnie, but absolutely gutless. You twist the throttle in anger and … that’s it. An angry twist and a lethargic plod forward. So, the Bonnie is fun, and comparatively lightning quick, but it’s still a naked bike in winter. And I don’t like the feel of it if you try and throw it into corners with gusto.
I’ve been torturing myself looking at SV650s’, then changing my mind and thinking about a VFR750 again. We’ve not really had the money to buy one though.
I bid on a SV650 that was going cheap. I put my maximum bid at £750, but I put it in early, someone bid £770, which I thought was the start of a bidding war, so left it. It sold for £770! Dammit.
Then I saw someone selling a 1994 VFR750. He’d started the bidding at £500 and it had only gone to £711. I put a bid sniper in for £1,011. Again, I was expecting a last minute bidding war, and thought I’d beat the person who put in a £1,000 bid. I won.
£733!
Hahahaha!
Seven hundred and thirty three pounds sterling!
Incredible. I was waiting for him to say ‘nah, I have cancelled the sale, sorry’. But no.
I went to Boston on the train today and rode it home for about 4 hours. What a bike! I’d forgotten just how good VFRs are.
There were a few instances where I got a bit giddy and ended up with the back end locked up and fishtailing as I tried to avoid ploughing into cars. I got a grip after a big moment. I really thought I was piling into the back of the car in front. That would have been less than ideal on my first ride out.
As you can see the pictures are watermarked from 2016, which is cheeky, but to be fair it is indicative of the condition of the bike. The advert said one of the bolts that hold the exhaust header to the cylinder head wasn’t tightening, so it was blowing a bit. I understood that to mean he’d stripped the thread on the bolt, an easy fix, a replacement bolt is about a quid. When I got there he slipped it in that actually it was the thread in the cylinder head that had been stripped. That’s less good. I’ll try a helicoil insert and some liquid metal, but if that fails, I’ve priced a replacement cylinder head. £30! That’s not going to break the bank. I’ll have to get gaskets as well, and it would be a pain of a job, but very doable. For a £733, 41k miles, full stainless exhaust, 4 owners from new, (last owner had it for 14 years) VFR750. Yeah, I’m willing to fix that. Also it has a Givi rack and plate, so I’ve ordered a second hand top box. That’s me sorted. I can tootle back and to to work forever now. I’ve ordered (yet another) workshop manual, and a double bubble screen. I have a custom seat from other VFRs that I can pop on. I’ve checked, it comes with the tool kit under the seat (you need a special C spanner to adjust the chain tension) so I’m good to go. Maybe get heated grips for next winter. I’m not going to bother now for this one. The fairing isn’t perfect. Somebody has inexplicable drilled a big hole on the back left upper fairing, and the top screw holes on the front top fairings have both split. But all the screws seem to be in the fairings, it rode beautifully today, it’s rock steady if you take your hands off the bars and it goes like stink. Brilliant.
£733.
I’m not going to get that kind of bargain ever again. VFRs are a premium bike. They hold their value because they are such high quality.
So chuffed.