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What old bike surprised you with its competence?

'85 FJ600 that I bought new in 1986 and still have. I like it just as much now as when I bought it.

It's stock except for the bar end mirrors, fork springs, K&N air cleaner, re-jetting to run on E10 and decals on the fork legs.

I wish I had never sold my R5 café racer and XS650. And I was an idiot to sell my Penton 125...


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Montford said:
I bought this 88 Kawasaki GPZ900R as a project in 2014 ,it had lain untouched in a garage for 17 years.
It took a fair bit of work to get back on the road but I am was really surprised at how quick and capable a bike it is.
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Nice burner!*
 
Honda VFR800. Never having encountered a VFR certainly not looked at them as a potential purchase or base for my Obsession of Street fighters , I rode a mates low £ 6th generation purchase late last year and did not want to give it him back. It was a shock to me i expected a lumbering numb stable but unexciting touring sports bike with nothing Adrenalin inducing to write home about.
Well it Really was not anything like that, its only real crime was from my own personal perspective that is ....honda/ self induced, In that it was geared a bit too high for my wants / needs. It was fine for riding touring and matched its available power perfectly for its intended use.
first gear was a little too high for me and the jump to second was a little wider than i would like and third better in that it was closer with great ratios close for 4th and fifth with that wide too wide jump to top gear.
Its this simple it just needs gearing down a little for me personally.
The Vtec thing is something else and again with lower overall gearing i am sure it would wake up the torque from that 800 for second gear lifts its just a bit too steep as stock and not as smooth or torque amplifying as i would like, it needed more speed and to be on the vtec thing and then it was down on available grunt to maintain and build on a lift without feathering and it got less maintainable then and just not as smooth. Needed gearing down end of story.
the BIKE , well good solid felt awesome stable very safe not as flick-able as say a Tl1000 but a precise unfussy platform its hard to condemn. Brakes were god with trevs bike having green stuff pads and once worked hard improved to verging on exeptional. about the only real critasisum i could make was it was a bit slow to turn in on tight or quick turns and front end felt a bit wooly. I sugested droping the front forks in the trees a few ills and look at the damping on the front forks which had weaping seals to be fair anyway. Impresive conpitent and strangely unloved classit ST bike. IMO . .
 
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