Update: RVF400: Pictures Galore (new bike)

[Mac_Black]

Warning; long post, unfortunately I spent 3 hours writing the original on a crappy on screen keyboard just to accidently press 'back' and I lost all my hard work

EDIT: Many new pictures added on page 2! 'Av a butchers!
As some of you know I was considering a loan for a new bike,
well the other day I took out a £3000 loan and I have an additional £840 lying about for which to splash on something nice
[WAS LOOKING AT THE BIKE ON BIKETRADER]
On friday night I phoned the seller and asked him everything that was necessary,
he advised me he had other parties showing interest so with haste we arranged a viewing for early afternoon saturday .

At 10.30 me and my dad left Malvern for Worcester to go into the bank to sort out the money and grab the funds for a deposit...
We were back on the road for 10.50 and continued with the 89 mile jouney to Whitchchurch, Shropshire .
Never have I seen so many police on the M5, there was a car pulled onto the hard shoulder by highway patrol every 7 miles allmost,
atleast the weather was nice and 20 harley riders passed the other way, Bikes everywhere!
At 13.40 we arrived at the adress in Whitchurch, and there she was in all her magnificance sat on the drive freshly washed
https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/rvf400.jpg
The photo's told nothing but the truth, she is stunning, there is the occasional stonechip, light mark and scuff, its not mint but its damn close.
I know it has been dropped by a previous owner yet there is no evidence that may cause one to suspect this.
Seeing the upside down forks started a gathering in my pants, and then my penis got over-excited and puked
The bike has been kept allmost completely standard with the only modifications being a tinted double bubble screen (Yay!)
carbon-fibre style indi's (originals kept as spares) and red adonized fairing fixings (in good nick, will just require a bit of grease).

After having a good look over and some discussion I learnt that the bike is a grey import that came over in '97,
has had 4 previous owners, the current of which has only owned the bike since last august, and has done only dry miles.
It had not been started since christmas so prior to my arrival he had taken it out to put some life into the battery and blow away the cobwebs.
The time came to have a sit and to be honest I just thought WTF?
The riding position is a world away from that of the NSR, it feels alot lower, wider and more compact.

We got the jumpleads on it and started the engine first time, pwoarh at the beautiful sound that oozed out...
At this point my dad (who currently rides a Triumph Sprint ST) had the audacity to ruin the moment and ask "how many cylinders is it?"
before the owner could even answer I pointed out the wording 'V4' on the front fairing.
Now during our conversation on the phone I asked about the deal on testrides,
he originally told me it was to be full cash upfront, break it buy it kinda thing.
Now obviously my money hasn't been released yet so cash upfront was impossible, would you believe the kindness,
he still offered me the chance for a spin despite the lack of cash, insurance and heavy police prescence, top bloke! So I grabbed my kit out of my pops' car,
jumped on the RVF again as the seller wheeled the 'New Bike' out of the garage, a pretty tidy looking 2003 Honda CBR600RR

As we rode up the street I started to get a feel for it, it was supisingly torquey through the low range, and responsive throughout,
despite what some have written 400's gutless performance, it did'nt even miss abeat.
The only factor that subtracted from this experience were my chunky steel toecapped boots, which are'nt entirely suitable .
I did at one point get stuck in nuetral after coming up from 1st to second, as I did this the seller accelerated up the road,
and with a 'little' increase in the revs I boshed it upto 2nd and quickly cuaght his tail, I hit 80mph in no time
It may take a while to get used to the more stability oddly though, as with the NSR It was quite an edgy and bumpy ride yet one that I loved.

We got back to his house, it was all good so far and we continued to talk about our biking histories etc and then
we had a look over the documentation including MOT certificates running all the way back to '97, the year it was imported
Even the original toolkit was there, in the considerably spacous rear compartment
Tarty, rare and quite unique bike, well looked after, solid fairings, no rust, low mileage, good runner,
immaculate performance and a quick sale pricetag...
I like to handle my business myself but I do have a handy weapon up my sleve for when something seems to good to be true,
The skepti-meter himself: My dad Even he was happy, and thats saying something, needless to say I was sold.

We asked about the price, as I understand it he has had it on biketrader for a number of weeks and had received calls from as far as London and 'somewhere on sea',
a women had phoned weeks ago and then suddenly asked to veiw it on saturday afternoon/ evening,
basically he had got tired of being messed about so he knocked it down by £200.
He gave me the choice of either having a further £95 off, or chucking in an unnamed stainless slip on race can.
I chose the cheap option, as I am already interested in the Tyga GP 'maggot' exhuasts; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovgPVfMEYWs&feature=related
which I understand can be had on ebay for around £150 https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/mrstabby.gif Atleast if I do decide to get the Tyga zorst then I'll know the jetting etc.

In we went and we arranged that a few days later in the week I will collect it, I handed over a £300 deposit and in return was given a receipt.
Hopefully I will be collecting it on Wednesday evening or Thursday afternoon.
If all goes well and my loan goes through quickly then I may be able to splash out on upto £1k's worth of gear in time for the collection
Teh Old Man says if the weather's decent then we'll go back up on the Triumph and enjoy some of the roads

Thankyou Roger, a great pleasure to do business with and unacceptably reasonable
commiserations to the other potential buyers that fell to my 1337 n1nja qikzor skillz !111111 Harsh luck I guess.

[Mac_Black]

...Then there was the jouney home, treated my fauhjer to a Quinton KFC then back home,
whilst we were reminiscing about the dozen or so twatish drivers that we had encountered a black unmarked Volvo Estate flew past ar 120mph+ blues n two's
Five minutes later on the M5 southbound we found out why.
Wtf?! How? Careless Driving... Senile Dimensia!! Ban this fool, Classic.
https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/Photo-0010-1.jpg

Some crazy old hag had managed to take the wrong EXIT ONTO the motorway or something, there were no skid marks we were sure she had driven against the flow of traffic, my phone doesn't have enough zoom zoom in the camera to capture her face, but I do have a video which is much to do about nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D66s8HOXXkM

[Moonie]

Sounds like you got a perfect seller, I'm well jealous lol.

And a pretty nice looking bike, I'd love an RVF.

Nice one
____________________
Don't practice it until you get it right, practice it until you don't get it wrong.
Presenting the one and only Chinkmobile

[Knacker]

Tasty Bike Mate !

Lovin the choonarge in the car though
____________________
Current: Gsxr 600 Srad - GS125 - DT125
Previous: K1 GSXR 1000

[Clone]

Nice write up And bike looks great!

Well i'm getting what you used to have NSR, can't wait till saturday to ride it.

[Mac_Black]

Thanks guys.
As I said in another NSR post you'll have fun on that.
Just treat it well, tough little bike though, mine survived a head on crash into a wall, 3 lowsides (not all me), 3 drops (my mothers stupid fence!),
many stoppies and wheelies... I let it down with the services though I regret what happened to it.

[tutton]

Sexy bike
sounds like a good buy.
and i had to laugh at the commentry on the car.
"CMON COPPERS"
lolzzzzz.
____________________
Past: '05 Peugeot XPS '99 Aprillia RS125 '94 FZR600R
Current: '02 ZX636 A1P '51 CCM R30

[AJI]

I'll read all of it when I can be arsed, but that's a bloody nice looking bike you've got yourself, nice one
____________________
TARMAC - Automotive blog *UPDATED 26/3/09 - Abandoned fuel stations to go electric? ~ Buy my eBay stuff!
You're gonna go far, kid

[binge]

Yea agreed with the above. Lovely bike.

If you crash it, Give me first dibs on the forks.
I want a USD Conversion for my NC29.

[neatbik]

Nice bike mate, so when are you coming out on a rideout with us?

[virus]

remeber to let the clutch out inbetween downshifts yeah mac?

looks like a minter though, fair play chap
____________________
own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[NinjaLee]

lovely bike mac
____________________
Current bike: 2006 zx636 C6F
Previous bike: 2000 zx6r J1, 1990 cbr400rr nc29
Restriction ended: 17th november 2010

[Mac_Black]

Whenever I'm not working I'll be up for a ride, saturday mornings/ afternoon, sunday afternoons, I need to get my Saturdays freed up I don't have much definate freetime in the week, but I'll be on it daily/ evenings
Beatneck whereabouts are you mate? Uptown? Wells?

[neatbik]

Im just off pickersleigh rd mate, by the new doctors surgery.
Whereabouts are you?
By the way, you werent at the fuel station on pickersleigh rd earlier were you?

[Andy C]

£2k!! I won an action for one and the guy wanted £2.7k for it, and wasnt as mint as yours looks.

Good id love a RVF400. I love my 'four and everything but had that been there when i was looking i would have paid full asking price straight up.

Look after it, seems to be fewer and fewer looking like that these days
____________________
99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[Mac_Black]

There's not a yellow (maybe red ) Triumph daytona somewhere around there is there? I live on merton road in the Link, behind the Francis Sofa dept.
No I was'nt there

[damz]

dam that was a good bargain you got for it, i paid £500 more for 3000 extra miles, a year older and bits of rust on it .

are you on a restricted or normal liscence?


there great little bikes, keep it in gd condition and you could probobly wont loose any money on it when you sell it on.

since binge has dibs on ur USD can i get dibs on the fairings
____________________
Current Bikes RVF400 - 94
Cars: RX7 FD, Eunos Roadster
Former Bikes: FZR 250R 89, ZX7R 98

[Mac_Black]

Yeh I'm on my A2 probation until the 23rd December 2009, but I won't be restricting it, I'll see if there are throttle stops available though that I can slap on if I get pulled over.

I got pulled by a CID Octavia back when I was on 'L' plates, cuaght doing 46 in a 30 on my unrestricted NSR, no fine, no points, no questions asked

[neatbik]

My mate Gaz lives in merton rd, drives a blue citreon xsara, also got a k6 gsxr750. Let us know when you've got the bike mate, i'll come over and all over it

[StevenF]

Good write up and a lovely bike too!

[Mac_Black]

Yeh I've only seen the GSXR once on the road, Never seen it in any of the yards either...
(I can see every back garden in the neighborhood, I live in the cottage in the middle )
We should all get out for somegood local runs for sure.

[Noxious89123]

It's leaning rather alot on the stand no?

Gorgeous bike, i'd of loved one, but for the money they go for, a 600 was an easier option.
____________________
'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[Stelmer]

My sincere sympathy for loosing the original write up. That has to be one of the most frustrating things about PC's ever.

Sweet bike. Looks fantastic.

[Mac_Black]

Stelmer thankyou for the sympathy, I was really pissed when I lost the original post I had to focus really hard to avoid putting my fist through the screen
So instead I started writing it up immediatly again with this futile 'onscreen keyboard', lost a whole nights sleep for it

Thankyou everyone for your interest, I will have a look at the bike after I ride it home, I don't think it'll need any service but I'll get the air, oil filters & brake pads checked just incase.
I am also looking to replace;
Grips Renthal Grips.
Missing bar end / 1 carbon look Oxford Black flat ends.
Tax disc Silver Hex holder from NSR.
Screen Trim (gaffa'd on?) Off with it (Replace?)
Standard? tank pad Motrax Aegis.
Goodridge? Braided hoses.
Seat bum stop cushion.
Rim trim! (yellow?)
Carbon yoke + instrument + fuel cap covers.
Rear seat cowl.

Also I have searched google, biketrader and ebay yet this is the only RVF I've seen without the black vinyl/ transfers on the tailpiece
Does anybody have any Idea why? Where can I get these from? Should I get them cut as transfers or find originals? Would they be clear coated over as standard?

...The TYGA 'maggot' GP exhuast, the 'slip-on' mount is 2" internal diameter, will it fit onto the standard pipes and how can I hang it?
https://tyga-performance.com/site/product_info.php?cPath=72_84_159&products_id=1012
Apart from a dyno jet what will need doing? If it'll put to much stress on the engine are there any alternatives?
Thankyouplease

[neatbik]

That exhaust looks goddamn sexy
I notice the tyga website mention its quite loud a few times , it'll sound awesome but be aware the coppers might not agree.....
Whatever exhaust you fit it would be worthwhile i reckon to fit a dynojet kit and get it set up on a dyno, my mate gaz knows someone who is quite cheap, i'll get his number for you