advice needed - what to do with this.

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Hey bikers,

father in law has basically given me his bike, since he's too lazy to sort it out.
Now i know pretty much nothing about bikes (do a bit about cars, if that helps).

as far as i know it's been standing around for the good part of the last 10 years and i know he's taken out the battery. Now would it be worthwile getting it up to scratch again and then selling it or literally just scrap it.

keeping it and driving myself is no option as i don't have a licence nor a storage space for it :(

JOB9owO.jpg
GoVDhcs.jpg A9IsRTF.jpg
 
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Put a battery and some fresh fuel in it and see if it starts then go from there. If it passes that test someone will take it off your hands even just for a few hundred quid.
Looks in good nick so would be a shame to scrap it.
 
Soldato
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I been thinink a lot about this bike.

Honestly mate, firstly you got a carbed honda = invincible.

Depends if the fuel was drained before it was stored/left.

If not, as per the above post, carbs may be gummed up. Be worth whacking a new battery, drain whatever fuel out of it you can, put new fuel, see if it'll fire up. If it does you've got a winner straight away.

If not, you can remove the throttle body/carbs, try and clean them, its possible. If you can get it running, it'll need a whole list of stuff:

  • Pull apart front brake caliper, dissasemble it completely, clean everything, new seals, rebuild.

  • New brake lines and brake fluid.

  • New Tires.

  • Replace coolant (maybe the hoses also)

  • Check tank for rust - this may be one of the worst problems - if the petrol was left in there, it'll turn to water then in turn rust the inside of the tank, that can be a problem

  • Fuel lines may need replacing.

  • Rest of the stuff is pretty standard, may need chain/sprockets/brake pads etc as necessary. Obviously new oil/oil filter/air filter.

Then, once you done all that, give it a thorough(good) clean, replace those U G L Y standard exhaust pipes with some chrome straight through, remove all the Honda badges, repaint the tank matt black. Chrome up the engine block.

Install a 12v sound system that only plays Def Leppard and Guns n' Roses.

Grow a beard.

Win at life.
 
Soldato
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If its been sat for a long time there will be parts of the engine that no longer have oil on them. I know in cars its recommended to hand crank the engine first to recoat the engine parts...not sure how to go about this on a bike apart from sticking it in 3rd or 4th and slipping the clutch while being pushed
 
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thanks a lot for the detailed post.
i was kind of hoping for people to say to not scrap it, since i was looking forward to actually fixing it, but wasn't sure if it's worthwile.

so after payday i shall get some bit and start the work and also hope i find the bugger that put a load of fag butts and packet wrapping down the exhausts :mad:
 
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If its been sat for a long time there will be parts of the engine that no longer have oil on them. I know in cars its recommended to hand crank the engine first to recoat the engine parts...not sure how to go about this on a bike apart from sticking it in 3rd or 4th and slipping the clutch while being pushed
There's normally a cover on one of the engine covers that you remove to set TDC, take the plugs out squirt some oil down into the barrels and turn it using that should be good enough to get it slippery again.
 
Soldato
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Yea good shout on that.

Looking at wiki it's a V4, seem to be all the rage these days in the latest ducati's.

I'm not 100% sure how it rotates on that Honda, but in the ducati's it fires each set of two just slightly apart from each other, so it's "almost" a twin, but you get slightly smoother throttle response. I'm guessing it's similar on that.

Edit: the photo on wiki is something I'd be aiming for:

300px-1999vf750c.jpg
 
Soldato
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Wow....

Ok looking at wiki Vs those images you posted, I'm pretty sure that is the 1988 VF750C Magna, which means, according to wiki, only 3500 were built....

Edit: actually I'm not certain, the part about the tank decal seems to suggest it might be the 87 version - vf700c, reported 16,000 made

It's definitely one of the two.
 
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