You could also go the NC30 VFR route, fundamentally the same bike (except forks iirc), last time I looked they were cheaper but still the 'classic' in terms of only going up from there.
Working on them isn't that hard, bit fiddly but nothing major really, hardest bit is the carbs but once you've got the knack of doing it it's not bad.
With mods, the tyga exhaust is nice but also Graeme France does/did some link pipes/cans for a shotgun setup that looks and sounds as nice for less than half the cost iirc (I got my tyga as part of a race bike + spares package, 'bargain'
). Ignitech CDI's are nice as well, although you won't see much difference (I mostly used it to remove the speedo without faffing around with resistors and raising the limiter for the race bike).
Best mods I made was suspension/brakes though, nitron rear shock and new springs/'compression emulator valves' (early model vfr forks) transformed the handling especially being quite heavy, whilst upgrading to cbr1000 front brake calipers was just insane (did that first and had to beef up the forks as the tyre was rubbing the radiator under braking
)
) Very tall first gear as well, good for at least 60mph from memory.
