HONDA VFR400R NC30
Craig Prior finally strips the V4.
Yeah, it’s been a brilliant – if busy – year for me to be honest since the opening article when I’d just bought this Honda VFR400R NC30. As well as being worked way too hard by IDP Moto supremo Daryll Young (only joking boss) I’ve also been allowed to come away with the guv’nor on some of the other jobs we do, like helping out on Harley-davidson launches around the world and I’ve been spannering in the British national race scene with the Everquip Team and American rider James Rispoli. So, those are my excuses… I know a few people have contacted CMM asking where part two was, and here it is… Firstly, when looking at what was said in that original article, I’ve been too busy to take my bike test – although I can ride. This is something that I will sort over the winter when the racing season ends. I’m hoping to be a full licence holder come the end of the year… fingers crossed! With that to aim for – as in getting the bike sorted by early 2019 – I figured it was time to strip the VFR and see if the bike had any issues. First of all, let me refresh your memories about this particular bike. I wanted a V4 Honda after seeing a video of one race in the hands of Carl Fogarty – even with just 400cc it sounded epic! Initially I was thinking that the earlier NC21 and NC24 would be more within my price range but then I got lucky and found this. ‘This’ being a 1995, M-reg import NC30, which was down as ‘spares or repair’. Okay, so it had 69,000km on the clocks, had gone down hard on the right-hand side and was in far-away Scotland for £700, which, in retrospect a couple of years on, makes it a bit of a bargain. The long trip to and from Scotland was rewarded with the bike starting – but only on two cylinders. The previous owner had claimed to have had it running, but a quick peek at the carbs made me realise that the airscrews weren’t right and the carbs themselves seemed way out of balance – I can sort that. And I will with a good carb clean and refresh with new parts – its pointless not doing this if they are coming off the bike, right? But I’m jumping ahead here… the exhaust was blowing (but it was standard, which is good, as these things are pretty rare) and a prang had seen the right-hand side fairing ground away. The tank and tail unit was fine. I know the last time I was in CMM I really wanted to go all ‘flash’ and plump for TYGA bodywork and pipes but, now a year older (and wiser), I’m actually wanting to go standard all the way… especially as these bikes are really firming up in value. So, with my esteemed boss Daryll allowing me a morning off (at long last) it was a busman’s half-day holiday for me at IDP Moto with a bike on the bench, but this time it was my own NC30 and with big Bertie taking photos as I went.
Getting the bike on the bench, I got that lovely warm feeling you get when you finally get started. It makes me realise what a handsome machine the NC30 really is – a design classic of the late 1980s and mid-1990s and it makes me realise how bad all these fairing fasteners look. Will I have big issues with them? Thankfully I did use a bit of penetrating spray a few hours before, so I’m hoping that this will be enough to shift them. Within just a few minutes of twirling the spanners I realise why I’m glad I used that spray and see pound signs jump in front of my eyes. The pukka bolts are either coming off easily and look awful, or they are rusted and difficult to shift. Thankfully, only a couple of the bolts did shear off, but you can also see that some of the various fasteners are clearly not actually meant for the VFR400R… This isn’t too much of a worry, to be honest. I know lots of you like to clean up and re-use every ‘original equipment’ bolt you can, but for me, I’d much rather just take the plunge and do something extravagant and get a Pro-bolt kit or similar. It’s just an easier way to get what you need, rather than compare and contrast every bloomin’ fastener that you have left over and keep what looks OE… By the time the bodywork is off I can see the extent of the original crash damage and it’s surprisingly light under the skin, although the engine is a bit dirty in areas. Yes, the engine covers on that right-hand side look grazed, but checking out the engine and associated pipework and electricals she looks pretty sound. It is nice to see how straight the exhaust is too. Big (little) boss Daryll comes to help me out when it comes to getting that little micro-v4 motor free. He’s worked on lots of these as a former Honda dealer. An extra pair of hands here is absolutely vital (especially small hands, although his are strangely quite big) as those frame rails are ram-packed with bits and pieces/
carbs and the associated plumbing and it’s hard to get the motor out with the space (or lack of) that we have here. And that was the major issue – it took two of us to finally get that gem of an engine out from between those alloy frame rails with a fair bit of pushing and shoving. But it was worth it. The thing was finally down to a rolling chassis and a motor I can now strip, service and ultra-sonically clean the carbs on. A quick inspection revealed that the motor (aside from the issues we already know about) was pretty clean. No scratches or rounded-off bolts, which is a reassurance – fairing bolts that are iffy or different are one thing, but different engine bolts generally cover a multitude of sins… What I did manage to confirm is that the (clean) front and rear wheels are a little buckled, which is apparently often the case in a spill, as these items are quite ‘lightweight’ as it were. Also, the rear hub was seized, so I need to get that sorted. Either way I’m getting on and I want to get this project finished before the next racing season in 2019!