A tale about a boy, a spanner and a (fixing a crashed) bike

[gmanxiii]

Chapter 1

With several people including myself asking about putting crashed damaged bikes back on the road either as cheap runabouts or whatever recently, I thought it would be nice to post about a newbie’s experience and the process of putting one back on the road over the coming weeks. Being a relatively new rider myself and not really mechanically minded, to me everything feels like a pretty daunting task but I am hoping to learn a little more about bikes through the process and perhaps even inspire other new riders to resurrect those poor unloved bikes sitting in breakers yards or back gardens.

Alternatively this thread may perhaps show it’s not as easy as it sounds and fixing up a bike is just a romantic dream for someone like me but we’ll see…. I don’t really know if the bike will even make it back on the road yet even though I would like it to. I may give up in the end and just break her, I may not. Just a warning though that this thread is NOT going to be about making a “mint” bike so sorry to disappoint anyone, I am gonna be fixing or botching her up as I go along, finding any discoveries and crossing any hurdles once I come to them. I’d like to have a go on a track at some point in the future too so throwing this round one will be less heartbreaking if I crash her again. This is almost like a story with an unknown ending as I don’t really know whats gonna happen myself…

Well the bike will be a Honda VFR400r NC30, its an 89 model, no history behind the bike, I originally purchased it from a dealer in what appeared to be good condition but unfortunately several weeks later it was destroyed by a drunk Nobhead jumping a red light in a van and almost jack-knifing me. Bike was carted off by police recovery and I myself was carted off by an ambulance.

Bike before

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=45765

Several days later I was released from hospital with a broken humerus a few scuffs and bruises, and aching all over. Rang the police up when I got home to find out where my bike had ended up and got my own breakdown service dudes to go fetch it back for me.

Seeing her roll off the back of the van was a sorry sight, the bike is my first (big?) bike and I’d barely even had a chance to use her properly. The bike then proceeded to sit in my garage for 2 months whilst the insurers decided if they would pull their finger out of their arses to sort insurancey stuff out. Eventually someone came to pick her up and 2 months pass again and they declare her a Category C write off.

Bike after

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=45766


After much umm’ing and arr’ing over the past few months and pestering many people (cheers Itchy in particular) I made the decision to try fix her. I already assumed the bike was a write off without the insurers verdict, but with the help of Itchy’s eagle ninja eyes decided the frames and forks looked straight and most of the damage was cosmetic. The bike also started fine if a little rougher sounding, which is fab and the bike had been serviced just before the crash. However after being stood so long the batteries gone and died.

Other factors like the continuing hold up from the insurance companies plus Mr Nobheads impending court appearance for drink driving means I’ve not actually got any money to buy another bike with at the moment (I was insured TPFT). With my arm finally beginning to heal up (I hope) I want to be riding again ASAP and it’ll have to be on something cheap. I realise the bikes not going to be worth anything being a write off but part of me loves the bike for sentimental purposes.

Anyways I was given the opportunity to “dispose” of the bike myself. For this privilege I’d have to give 120 of your English pounds to the insurers. I thought why the hell not as I could break it for more than that. So now I’ve finally got my bike back and my journey can begin…
____________________
I kills hondas

VFR400NC30 > ZZR600 > CBR600FX > CBR1000rr

[mattsprattuk]

ahhh that sucks!
they charged you £120 to give you your bike back????? i would have kicked up hell!

doesnt look like that big a job really, luckily. nose cone, lights and clocks and your pretty much sorted.
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[loveday]

thats a tad mangled!!!!

[gmanxiii]

[mattsprattuk]

if you do give up, PM me i love projects like this.
____________________
Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[gmanxiii]

Chapter 2

Ok, first things first, strip down all the broken and bent bits and create a list of what needs replacing. So the damage done was: -

All panels are either buggered or missing
No headlights
No indicators
The clocks are all smashed up
Screen brace and mirrors are mangled
Clock and headlight brackets are twisted around everything
Brake and clutch levers are bent funny
Clutch bracket is mashed up
Front brake lines have been cut
Rearsets are bent
Scuffs on tank and exhaust
Broken Tank breather nut
Pillion seat is ripped
Some of the electrical cables were snapped or are now exposed
Fairing brackets are all twisted

Quick search on eBay and 400greybike provided me with several parts that would help sort her out. So far I have got,

Haynes Manual (£3)
Headlights and bracket (£30)
Clocks (£20)
Indicators (£10)
Screen brace (£20)
New Levers (£15)
Clutch Bracket including lever (£10)
Complete Rearsets raised and moved back an inch (£60)
Tank breather nut and pipe (£5)
Hel Braided Lines (£70)
Headlight connector block (£3) thanks again stinkwheel
Insulating tape (50p)

Total spent so far on parts is £246.50……. ouch…….

I was originally thinking of getting a set of second hand standard rubber lines but there aren’t that many actually knocking about. So after some advice off some of the guys here I have opted to splash out a little and get some braided ones.

I was also thinking of just slapping matt black paint on the tank and kind of ratting or streetfightering it to some degree but several discussions with other members on the forum and the general conclusion is that the NC30 looks absolutely shite when streetfightered. So unfortunately to the disappointment of Itchy and my Bank manager, a moment of madness meant a purchase was made for a new set of cheapo repsol fairings off eBay. This cost me £300 delivered from Hong Kong and have yet to show up, I may be ripped off, plus I’m a bit doubtful about the quality but I suppose you get what you pay for and again we’ll see what happens. All of a sudden this has become more expensive than I thought it would be…

Pictures to follow…
____________________
I kills hondas

VFR400NC30 > ZZR600 > CBR600FX > CBR1000rr

[mattsprattuk]

do the fairings come with a new tank?
____________________
Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[gmanxiii]

nope, im hoping that ebay will be kind and bring up an already painted one in repsol orange... but chances of that is unlikely. although i have seen two over the last few months. i didnt think i was going to be putting the fairings back on though so missed them, the fairings ive ordered was truely an impulse buy...

My plan at the moment is im gonna try get hold of a spare tank to be sent off to be sprayed, again another expense but its my own fault! Anyways reason being my bike is my only form of transport. Means i can still ride about and catch up on all the flight time and rideouts ive missed over the last 4 months.

Just swap the two over when its done and pop the spare back on ebay. jobs a good'un
____________________
I kills hondas

VFR400NC30 > ZZR600 > CBR600FX > CBR1000rr

[mattsprattuk]

i was going to give you a link to where you can get a full custom fairing set for £275, but theyve closed down

https://www.apexleisure.co.uk/

they were unpainted ones, so you could have just stripped your tank and got a custom colour scheme.
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[gmanxiii]

Ah cheers anyway, i was originally looking for unpainted plastics or just a bunch of missmatched ones. but figured that it would not really be worth spending the money to repaint them, as i might as well buy another bike with the cost to get them to look decent. The repsol ones i found seemed a good compromise but im taking a chance with them...

Think what im essentially trying to do is strike a balance with spending enough to get it back on the road but not too much as the bikes not going to be worth much anyway. If i had left the fairings I would probably save myself a few hundred quid but i guess the tart in me didnt fancy a naked 30.

Hopefully once back on the road it'll survive for a couple years at least and then I can upgrade to something a little more faster and fancier.
____________________
I kills hondas

VFR400NC30 > ZZR600 > CBR600FX > CBR1000rr

[gmanxiii]

Chapter 3

Well I finally get down to stripping broken bits off…

Off comes the screen brace, then bits of clocks which although are smashed into little bits still work amusingly enough as the mileage indicator spins around when the recovery dude wheeled it on and off his van. Then the headlight/clocks bracket is removed from the frame, which was interesting as an hour was spent trying to prise the loom away and unbend bits of steel so I could get a socket wrench in near the bolts… As I only have the use of one arm at the moment it made it very difficult but what made it even more ridiculous was that I spent another hour trying to undo the two pairs of nuts and bolts that held the whole unit onto the frame with one good arm and one broken arm… god I felt retarded…

Anyways once they were off I proceeded to strip off the bent rearsets. This was trickier than I thought it would be. Gear linkage side was relatively easy but then I got to the brake side and had to figure out how they come off.
The current rearsets are not standard and the way they was attached to the master cylinder was odd compared with the new set that arrived. Ended up taking the rearsets to pieces in confusion to how to take the master cylinder off and then I remembered I had a Haynes manual which showed that the standard ones kind of clipped onto the master cylinder with a clevis pin. I figured these could be unscrewed from the master cylinder if I removed the inch of grime hiding the nut first…. This also meant I’d have to find the missing bracket for the master cylinder to join onto the replacement rearsets! How annoying…

Did a quick look for the parts and no joy so ended up purchasing another rear master cylinder. (£13) Should be here in a few days, so will try to fit the rearsets then!



Next I decided to strip off the side fairings… This was relatively easy but revealed some secrets and some right fugliness…

1) The bikes been down both sides in the past so generator and clutch casing are scuffed. Dunno why it bothers me as it has ended up in an even worse state since ive had my hands on it.

2) The fairing brackets are all twisted plus some fairing bolts are stuck in and wont come out. Had to snap one of the fairing panels off in the end.

3) The bike used to be Red White and Blue

4) Scary wires!

5) A small magical gnome living behind the right panel called Dave… no not really…

Thought I may be able to salvage the odd panel and flog them back on ebay as scruffy track spares to make back some of the money spent so far but looks like I’ve only got the tail piece in decent nick!
____________________
I kills hondas

VFR400NC30 > ZZR600 > CBR600FX > CBR1000rr

[gmanxiii]

Chapter 4

Ok my brake hoses turned up so I thought I’d have a go at changing them. This wasn’t too difficult the clocks wasn’t there so made fitting a lot easier as I didn’t have to thread stuff about. Next came bleeding them, I found an old clear rubber pipe lying about the garage and a clear plastic bottle and just kind of guessed how to bleed them and get all the air out of the system… took me a while and ended up with a load of waste brake fluid… dodgy I know… I then read stinkwheels guide to changing the lines over and retried bleeding them but it just showed I’d actually managed to get all the air out first time using the “make it up as you go along” method.
Im still waiting on my rear master cylinder so haven’t got round to fitting the rear line yet. So next was levers and clutch bracket.

Again fairly straight forward just swap them over, only problem was I discovered the clutch cable is stuck in the lever bracket housing and attacking it with fury and a screw driver doesn’t seem to free it. So time to order a new one and again something else will have to wait.

Next repair the loom, any torn plasticky housing bits are taped over and after giving up trying to bodge the headlight connector block that was ripped from the wires I bought a new one, snipped off the old and swapped them over. Next I fit the headlights and clocks and connect up the wires, annoyingly the sidelight bulbs are gone so I need to find new ones. No where seems to stock them!!! Im going to charge up the battery and check the electrics all work once I get hold of them.

Anyways whilst fitting the headlights to the frame I notice that the top radiator looked a bit odd… When Itchy came round to look at it first time we thought it was just a dent in the side of it, and luckily it was still intact. Now the fairings are off I can see that its actually shifted to one side where it landed breaking a mount. Bugger gonna have to dig into my pockets again!
____________________
I kills hondas

VFR400NC30 > ZZR600 > CBR600FX > CBR1000rr