Inconsequential ramblings of an Old Git

[mangocrazy]

Welcome to a time-warp 1980s shed somewhere in Sheffield...

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[Supermofo]

94 is healthy numbers for such an old bike, it'd see off the latest crop of 750/800 shopping bikes. Never ridden the 750 but loved my dad's 800, they are a bargain now too but definitely not ULEZ I'd imagine. Although a really old 750 must be close to exempt!

[mangocrazy]

94 is healthy numbers for such an old bike, it'd see off the latest crop of 750/800 shopping bikes. Never ridden the 750 but loved my dad's 800, they are a bargain now too but definitely not ULEZ I'd imagine. Although a really old 750 must be close to exempt!

The newer 750/800s would have the advantage of being lighter (something I'm starting to notice more as I get older). My old VFR weighs 203kg dry, so it's a bit of a lardy old lump, but it should be eligible for Historic Vehicle status in 2028 and thereby ULEZ exempt. But it does make lovely linear power. The dyno power curve was pretty much a straight line (didn't ask for a copy, foolishly).

Once I've done all the carb mods I'll be taking it back to John for a re-test, but that won't be until mid summer. I'll get a print-out then. The 800s were the first of the EFI models, weren't they? ISTR that only the 750s had carbs.

[Skub]

Since it was after the pic of the Elsie,I thought for a moment you had squeezed 94bhp out of it.

That would be quite something.

There's nothing like a well set up bike on a dyno. Folk have this idea it's all about big numbers and outright performance,but owning a bike that has sweet fueling everywhere is cause for deep joy.

[mangocrazy]

Absolutely this ^^. The amount of time you spend at WOT is infinitesimal - 0.001% if that on a road bike. You spend all your time either on the slow running jets or the needle and that's what needs attention. Deciding on main jet size is a pretty simple thing, the rest of it most certainly is not.

A standard LC with 94 bhp would be an utter death-trap...

[Mr. Dazzle]

The 800s were the first of the EFI models, weren't they? ISTR that only the 750s had carbs.

Indeed they were. My Dad had a bright red X reg (so.....99?) 800 from brand new. I still remember the PGM-FI text under the VFR logo on the fairing.

IIRC it was also the first one with linked brakes.

I had an RC36a, which again IIRC was the last one with carbs.

[mangocrazy]

The 800s were the first of the EFI models, weren't they? ISTR that only the 750s had carbs.

Indeed they were. My Dad had a bright red X reg (so.....99?) 800 from brand new. I still remember the PGM-FI text under the VFR logo on the fairing.

IIRC it was also the first one with linked brakes.

I had an RC36a, which again IIRC was the last one with carbs.

The early RC36 (a?) were the FL/FM/FN/FP models (1990/91/92/93) and the later RC36 (b?) were the FR/FS/FT/FV models (1994/95/96/97). I had an FT, and it was immensely capable (and probably the best looking of the 750s) but it always felt a bit flat to me compared to the older and lighter conventional swingarm models. Honda had traded a little bit of top end for increased mid-range to compensate for the increased weight, I think.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I always say a when I mean b. I had a 1995, one of the last ever 750 types.

[mangocrazy]

One area where the RC36 was streets ahead of the RC24 (conventional swingarm) was in the headlights. I couldn't believe how much better the lights were when I switched from an RC24 to an RC36.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Daddy dazzle also had one of the newer VFR800s with the LED headlights (he also had one of the early noughties VTECs...bit of a theme ).

Those are blooming impressive for bike lights!

[mangocrazy]

Yes, I remember it being commented on in the road tests of the time. I kinda lost interest in VFRs when they ditched the gear driven cams - for me they were the essence of VFR-dom. I can understand why they did - they're expensive to manufacture - but it diminished them in my eyes. And then going from DOHC to SOHC with the 1200, and having the chutzpah to label it 'Unicam' (!), completed the fall from grace. A mate of mine had a VFR1200 and he loved it, but it wasn't for me. Too bloody heavy, as well.

[Mr. Dazzle]

TBF there's quite a lot more to the VFR1200 engine than the switch the SOHC! It's still a 4v head too AFAIK.

It's got a properly Honda approach to alot of to it, in that it's "just because we can" type design. It's something odd like 30° firing interval, the cylinders are laid out differently so the rear pair are closer together and take up less space, the SOHC means its mounted really low down etc.

I don't remember many details, but I do remember thinking they'd gone to enormous lengths!

[mangocrazy]

Yeah, it had been rumoured for ages, so it had a long development time and as you say, it was chock full of Honda 'innovation' (whether that was a good thing or not). I do remember there being a spate of seized preload adjusters on the shock, and the suspension in general was regarded as being not quite up to the standard of the rest of the bike, but that's a common enough complaint on a lot of Japanese bikes. I found it quite odd that Honda spent so much R&D on the bike, only for it to be discontinued as it wouldn't meet upcoming Euro5 standards. Wouldn't they have been aware of that being imminent?

[mangocrazy]

3 or 4 years ago, when I was reassembling/partially restoring my 350LC, one of the things I had done was to get the plate on which the clocks sat re=plated. As with a lot of fasteners on the LC, they had been finished in olive-green drab passivate (zinc coating), and over time that had corroded. Fortunately I knew someone who could get this done (apparently the process is sufficiently hazardous to health that only the military have ready access to it), but to get the plate off the clocks meant partially disassembling them...

As soon as I'd taken the backplate off I knew I was in trouble, and so it proved. When the plate came back all new and drab and I tried to reassemble everything it was as much as I could do to get the back on without trapping any of the small wires that fed the idiot lights. When it came to start the bike up I though I had a flat battery as none of the dash lights would come on. But the engine started and headlights and indicators worked, but the dash lights either didn't work or worked when they felt like it.

Once again the RDLC-Crazy forum came to the rescue in the shape of one Shaun Murphy. According to all the forum members he was The Man to fix clocks, in much the same as Gary (Arrow on the forum) is The Man for oil pumps. So, as I'm going to be in France for 5 weeks very soon and the LC would be staying put in Blighty it was time to remove the clocks, parcel them up with much padding and send them off to Shaun on Monday. That will mean I'll have a set of working clocks and idiot lights ready for me when I come back. That thought makes me happy.

[Skub]

Clubs are great for this stuff.

In the triples club there's a man for keys,carbs and fuel taps,clocks,cranks,decals,oil lines and check valves,stators and ignition,etc.

[mangocrazy]

Clubs are great for this stuff.

In the triples club there's a man for keys,carbs and fuel taps,clocks,cranks,decals,oil lines and check valves,stators and ignition,etc.

Yes, absolutely. I just wish i had access to the level of information and the specialists we now have on special interest forums when I was trying to get my YPVS-powered Hejira 'special' working back in the late 90s. Totally simple things like vacuum fuel taps and how, if you switch to a tank with a standard On/Off/Res fuel tap, you need to blank off the vacuum input on the carbs. I was chasing inconsistent jetting on that Hejira all the time I owned it, and had I realised that those inputs on the carbs needed blocking off, it would have saved me so much grief.

On the RDLC club they now have people 3D printing stuff like updated fuse boxes/holders, leakdown testers and God knows what else. There is just so much information out there on our old bikes that we can now get them running way better than they ever were 'back in the day'.

I love it.

[mangocrazy]

Two and a bit months after the previous update and the weather still feels like April. Pah.

Anyway, the other day I was mooching around in the shed, getting the VFR rebuilt and ready for its MoT (next week) and I noticed with some annoyance that the black high tensile cap head bolts holding the Brembo caliper halves together on the LC were decidedly rusty. Having thought about it for a while I figured that the best way forward would be to replace the HT cap heads with Titanium ones, due to Ti's famed corrosion resistance. Nothing to do with bling, oh no sirree...

So a few days later a (surprisingly light) package dropped through the letterbox. With the package opened I was even further impressed with how light they were, measuring 8.5 grams per bolt on my scales. So today I decided it was time to fit them to the calipers. Armed with my trusty tube of Wurth CU800 (German Copaslip) I swapped all the rusty old bolts out and replaced them with the swanky Ti jobbies, applying copper anti-seize to the Ti bolts as I went (Titanium is notorious for galling and if there's one thing you don't want, it's a seized Ti bolt in a brake caliper). Here's a 'before' shot:

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As I was removing the old HT steel ap heads, the difference in weight was very obvious. When I put them on the scales a steel bolt weighed 19.5 grams - a whole 11 grams more than the Ti bolts. I really wasn't expecting that level of difference. So overall weight saving was 88 grams, not that I will ever notice it while riding. Here's the obligatory 'after' shot:

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Much better. Having said that, these photos illustrate that I need to wax and polish the bare aluminium fork legs, before those water marks turn into corrosion and pitting. Looking after an old bike is a constant process...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Either your fork legs are bent, or that pic was taken on a phone

[mangocrazy]

Either your fork legs are bent, or that pic was taken on a phone

Neither... Taken on a Fuji XE-1 and fork legs are straight.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Fuji XE-1.

Ooh fancy. We have Nikon mirrorless here

What lens then, cause the first and second photos seem to be quite different focal lengths...just looking at the fork leg, hence my comment

I assumed it was the classic phone wide angle look.