First Track Day on the 1984 Honda VF500F - Blackhawk (Motovid)

[@merfmoto6378]

Cool video Matt! That was such a fun day.

[@matttriestodothings]

Absolutely. Thanks again for all your help on this and all the track days this year. It was a blast. Can't wait to get back out there!

[@jehdbrbjeirodofjdjebeebbsnaka]

it’s hard to find content about the older interceptors, nice video

[@matttriestodothings]

Thanks Paul. Hopefully this one helps other people to start making their own vids as well.

[@clubnightparade]

​@@matttriestodothings this is sick, I've been thinking about picking up one of these as I'm a huge honda v4 fan I've heard nightmares about valve float and cams from your experience what are the best ways to improve the reliability I olso heard their are oiling set ups to improve oil going to the rear of the motor which is another failure point. If you could provide some links I'd love to be able to make sure I don't buy this build it and float a valve 500 miles in 😅

[@matttriestodothings]

@@clubnightparade I'm not sure there is a ton that you can do to guarantee you won't have issues with valve float. To quote an experienced VFRW user that raced these bikes, "Keep the revs below 9 most of time and keep your red-line runs short and enjoyable. The valve springs were not that strong to begin with, and they are weaker now with age. 500s like to "float" valves, mushroom valve stems and break them dropping valve heads into the combustion chamber. Ask me how I know." vfrworld.com/threads/1985-vf500-first-bike-concerns-etc.62043/ That being said, buying a 1986 instead of a 1984/5 would be the best starting point since they made some changes to address the early version's oiling deficiencies. Running a 30micron oil filter vs a 20micron should improve oil flow. Make damn sure you're not running the valves tight and they have appropriate valve lash. I've known several people with these 500s, and I don't know anybody that's floated a valve doing street riding. Just don't rev the piss out of it. My biggest fear on track was hitting a nasty downshift and overrevving the engine since that's harder to control than your right hand when accelerating. I had this bike when I was 17. I promise I wasn't babying it in my formative years, lol. I'm much softer on it these days than I was back then. But it hasn't let me down.

[@LUKEMAXX]

looked like a beautiful day to take your pride and joy out. Great Build , she sounds awesome!

[@matttriestodothings]

Thanks man, it was an awesome day on an awesome bike!

[@mikeyjay1970]

Back in the day I had FZR 600 clip ons, needed some machining to fit but I liked the lower feeling. They did touch the tank at full lock but I accepted it. Nice video 👍👍

[@matttriestodothings]

Thanks man. I can imagine they touched the tank for sure--the stockers will do it if you set the angle inward at all. As a street bike I absolutely would not change the clipon position, but I'd definitely want something lower if taking it to a competitive environment. Cheers Mike.

[@jrodrims27]

Absolutely the best vf500f track video on the planet, hands down. Thank you! For somebody who still rides a 1984 I bought new, I can truly appreciate every second of it. I'd like to see you go up against a 400 ninja, just to see how it compares even though the little ninja has much better everything of course. Hey, did you hear? They came out with the 500 ninja AGAIN? You see how these things go?.... it went from 250, to 300 then 400 and now 500 again. This cycle has repeated itself once again although technically the 500 ninja will be a 451 cc ninja rounded up aggressively to 500 just for the name. Thanks Matt, this is great stuff and is very much appreciated by your fellow VF500F'ers still around.

[@matttriestodothings]

You made my day with this comment man, thank you. A competent rider on a Ninja 400 would run circles around a similarly competent rider on a VF500F. On race days there are a few experts w/ Motoamerica aspirations on N400s running in the 1:19's (and probably lower). The best times I can find for a VF500F recently at Blackhawk were 1:25-27s. Though it's difficult to know for sure since I can just see times posted and have to make guesses if I have the rider on the right bike. I'm stumped as to why Kawasaki would want to go with the Ninja 500. The N400 seems like such a good platform, and it's easily one of the most popular bikes you'll see out there on race day. What is this going to do to racing classes? Is it even going to fall into one? I'm stumped as to its purpose. I guess Aprilia is coming out with their 457 or whatever. But I'm still confused on the whole thing.

[@jrodrims27]

The CFmoto 450 MIGHT have something do with why Kawasaki felt the need to increase the little ninja's engine size a bit. Interesting times as always. CFmotos are selling well and holding up with quality so far from talking to a local dealer who sells them among about every other brand under the sun available in the USA.@@matttriestodothings

[@matttriestodothings]

@@jrodrims27 You're probably onto something there if that's the case. Granted, they would have had to have made the decision to start developing the "500" engine at least a few years ago. I was going through the new 2024 rulebook for ASRA, and it looks like they've had to slot in a bunch of exceptions to Lightweight classes to fit in the new ZX4RR. Currently the R3 and the N400 are pretty competitive with one another (to a point--at the club level). Start dropping three more ~450cc bikes in there, and I have no idea what that does to club classes. The "300" class has some of its own races, but I have to imagine this might start killing off a bunch of the R3's. We'll see though.

[@matttriestodothings]

I re-read your original comment and somehow missed "still rides a 1984 I bought new"

[@canned8389]

Awsome bike!!

[@matttriestodothings]

Thanks man! Just got it fired for the first time this year on Sunday.

[@eivindlukasmoenfasting1602]

Oh man! Joy! Good for you man! A bit jealous. :) Waiting to get a new motor for my bike. Maybe next year I can enjoy it a bit :)

[@matttriestodothings]

Thanks man. Hopefully you get your new motor soon and are ready to start rockin and rollin next year!

[@Ryhno411]

Great stuff as always bud. I loved your comparison at the track...making the SV feels like a superbike haha. :)

[@matttriestodothings]

Hah, the SV definitely feels like a rocket in comparison! I can only imagine what adding another 60hp of a 600cc is like. A super-rocket.

[@true-moto-resto]

great video Matt !

[@matttriestodothings]

Thanks man. Looking forward to seeing a recap from you track experiences on the RC8 soon! Well, more than likely I'll be seeing videos about your crazy winter-mobiles considering your latitudinal position.

[@true-moto-resto]

Yea , already had snow here. But sold my snowmobile last year , too hard on my neck now, So Ingot rid of it. 5 or 6 months ahead where I’ll be squirrelled away in the work shop wrenching on the bikes

[@mmotorcycles9497]

Got to be so nervous riding your pride and joy on the track. Race bike goes down it sucks but not like a restored street bike. 1.20 on the sv that’s pretty damn good for bhf.

[@matttriestodothings]

Certainly nervous. But I'd hate knowing I had the opportunity if I wanted to do it and thinking in 20 years (or 2 years or 30 years) and thinking... I should have done it Plus, I'd just be shipping odd the destroyed plastics for you to make look even better if things went south 😎 The 1:20 was good and beyond preseason expectations. But as the season went on, the goal posts changed when I realized I was close to the front but not quite there. Had some crazy good races but could never quite snag a P1. Going to narrate those sometime soon. Been saying that for a few months now. Disappointed with the results but not the effort. Got some plans to take the long off season to hopefully make me better.

[@AICD1999]

I was a teenager when these bikes came out. I have owned 4 and restored 3 as you have seen a few shorts of my bikes on KZbin. After all of that I am still wondering what they did for tires when racing these back in the day. Clearly there were other options that are not around now. Currently working on a 1986. Painting the frame today.

[@matttriestodothings]

I know that Captain 80s on the VFRWorld forums raves about the best race tires he'd ever used were Avons; however, that may have been 20 or more years after the bikes were released. I really have no idea what they used. The only bike I know of that's still semi-actively racing in AHRMA has both front and rear swaps to allow it to use modern 17" rubber sizes. I'm sure Bridgestone was a player at that time. No idea who else it would have been though. I've never worked on an 86. I'm curious to see the differences on the carburetor and fuel delivery. Good luck with the paint and rest of the restoration!

[@richardbehrle1496]

I love it!. If you try to find a 17inch front/rear equivalence in wheels? I know they are out there. As for rear sets I think Raask is still around they’re out of Europe. I’ve used my 83 Ducati Pantah 600 and I love going fast on a slower bike, I surprise people with that bike. My Pantah is my favorite bike even over my Duc 750 F1, it weighs 300lbs and has the 17inch wheels.

[@matttriestodothings]

It's funny you bring up Raask because I sent an email to someone selling a set of rearsets on Craigslist yesterday, but he hasn't responded to me. If I was going to be serious about racing a VF500F, I'd look into doing a wheel conversion. In fact, I'd probably look into changing the front end entirely because I don't like how the axle holders work on the 500 compared to the 700/750 or Hurricane a few years later. The two-piece thing is just silly. However, for this bike, I'm going to keep it stock. I may just do one or two track days on it per year. It's nerveracking though riding something you really care about compared to my SV650 which knows its going to see pavement occasionally! Interesting--never heard of a Ducati Pantah (too poor for Italian bikes, lol)--that thing looks awesome! 300lbs and 17's sounds like it's gotta be a fun ride at the track! Thanks for sharing man, enjoy the Ducatis!

[@yepp5922]

Dude. You messaged me the one day on Reddit talking to me about your interceptor. I have an 86 vf500f and I wanna do a complete teardown i just dont even know where to begin. Any suggestions?

[@matttriestodothings]

Me? Talking about 80s Interceptors on the internet? nahh... had to have been someone else, lol. I think you need to have an idea of what your goals are, the amount of time you're willing to spend, how long you're willing to have the bike unrideable, how much research you're willing to do, and how much space you're willing to allow this project to take up in your garage. To really tear a bike down and go through it and restore it, I've got to imagine you're looking at a year and $2,000. Now, a lot of that depends on your starting point. If you've already got a ton of tools (especially motorcycle specific tools) then it's not as big of a leap. If the bike is currently running, that's fantastic news. I wouldn't even consider tearing a bike down and trying to really restore it until I had it running. If not, you may be wasting a whole lot of time. You're right where I was only a few years ago. There's really no step-by-step guide on how to go about things. It's frustrating at times, but definitely rewarding. If you do decide to start going ahead with a tear down, I'd recommend starting up a thread in the 1st generation forums at vfrworld.com as well since there's a lot of much smarter people than me to get insight from. That being said I do tend to chime in when I know I can actually be helpful over there.

[@cptomes]

dude. still have my vf500f. raced ccs 97-2001. mostly bhf. still have the bike. f2 forks and wheels. machined a f2 rear cush drive, filed the swingarm slots to fit the f2 rear axle, modified a vf500f rear brake hanger to work, used vf500f rear disc and a 7075 adapter plate to mount it to the f2 wheel. ebc hh pads and rotors on the front. fn sweet handling bike. you want a cbr1000f set of triples, and vfr/cbr f2/f3 forks. f2 or f3 wheels. you can then use real race rubber. I raced on Metzeler street tires, still have the box full of wood. buy spare radiators, you will need them. figure out crash bars or skid plates on the sides to protect the clutch cover and oil filler port in case of a lowside.

[@matttriestodothings]

Oh that's awesome man. Sounds like you had the setup that would address a bunch of the the ergonomics/setup issues I experienced. That's a ton of work that you put into that bad boy! I truly love these bikes. I think I'll do another track day this year on it and consider an AHRMA run next year as a field filler. Modern rubber on 17s would be pretty key to actually wanting to fast as well as something to address the low rearsets. Also would have to fashion up a belly pan of some sort. Could even go the turkey pan route.

[@cptomes]

@@matttriestodothings I stopped racing it the year before belly pan requirements. I made a form to build my own fiberglass belly pan, used it to make a pan and graft it onto the vfr750 race prepped I bought from Seth Rugo - he might still be riding that at bhf every now and then. he used 88? cb600f front wheel - those drop right into the front axle/forks/brakes, same dimensions. but stock forks which suck. you want a cb1000f triples and f2 forks with gold valves and custom cut down f2 springs to match your weight for proper sag and rate. then drop the triples down the forks to decrease trail, limit is when under braking and bump the front tire hits the front head cam cover. get clipons. then figure out steering lock limiters to prevent the clipons from bashing the tank in a crash. that was my last addition that I never did.

[@cptomes]

heh they must have smoothed out turn 6 in the last 20 years. had Jason Damico come up to me after an advanced Learning Curves class saying I was all over the place on the stock vf500f rear shock and it was going to kill me. he was running a ducati 650 in lwgp same class I was running.

[@matttriestodothings]

I actually raced at Blackhawk this weekend on my SV650 with ASRA (CCS). Turn 6 really isn't bad. I think they repaved in like 2004 or 2005. The biggest bump to deal with is the bump that's formed across the track in turn 5 after apex. It's not big if you're right on the curbing, but it gets worse the further out on the track you are. It's my best passing spot though so I hit that bump pretty hard if I'm trying to get around someone. The stock shock on these things is so bad, lol. I can only imagine how that felt trying to go around at speed.

[@cptomes]

@@matttriestodothings I have a f2 shock modified by Daugherty Motorsports with custom clevis to work on the VF500F, not sure if he's still in business. he traded me that plus a set of Gold Valves for the F2 forks I used for a dead vf1000r that I had gotten broadsided on but still had a motor that wasn't destroyed. never got to run that setup - just the gold valves. kid was born in 2001 hung up the leathers.

[@cptomes]

@@matttriestodothings sv650 was just starting to dominate when I stopped racing. interesting they are still competitive 23 years later.

[@matttriestodothings]

@@cptomes They're competitive to an extent. Just as the SV bumped a lot of the bikes out around 2000, the SV is getting bumped out now. There are tons of them at the track still because they're (relatively) cheap and plentiful, and you can always find help with them. I think they're the best gateway into racing. But in the past few years they've all but become extinct in the Twins class in MotoA due to the R7 and RS660. On the club level, you can run a superbike build and be pretty damn competitive. You're at a fairly significant disadvantage in SuperSport though. For the classes I'm legal in--so is the Kramer 690 single, and that thing is just hilariously fast. Additionally, the Aprilia RS660s come out of the box with 20 more horsepower than my bike makes, so in SuperStock you're at a pretty significant disadvantage. But Club racing where the limiting factor is the rider (me) and not the bike? The SV is an awesome way to get out there and mix it up. I'll consider moving to a new platform in a few years when I start to taper off and get held back by the bike. I see my personal ceiling for laptimes on my Gen 1 SV650 as possibly 1:17's. I'm in the 1:19's now. It'll probably take me another year or two to figure out how to get 2 more seconds. If I can get to 17's but I'm still getting my doors blown off in straightaways by newer machines, I'll consider moving platforms. This shit is so expensive already though. Or maybe I'll just drop the SuperSport classes and move to a SuperBike build on my existing platform.

[@matttriestodothings]

@@cptomes I did reach out to jamie Daugherty attempting to get one of the modified F2 shocks, but he no longer offers that service for the VF500F. He is still in business as "DMr Performance Suspension". "Kid Born, Hung Up Leathers" is a pretty common phrase I've been hearing. I get it. Not only the expenses but there is a lot of danger involved. You can minimize it as much as possible with safety gear and airbags, etc., but you can't eliminate it. Hell, a deer jumped out in front of a rider this past Sunday in the race immediately before mine. He split the deer in half coming into T2, and that little bastard sent him on a helicopter ride with a broken femur. So I don't knock or question anyone when they hang it up once starting a family.

[@Mad8vCycles]

Ahrma style!

[@matttriestodothings]

We shall see. I need to git gud first. Easier said than done.

[@Mad8vCycles]

@@matttriestodothings ahrma is pretty casual...

[@matttriestodothings]

@@Mad8vCycles That's what it seemed like to me as a spectator for the first time this year. More a celebration of older bikes--but I still would want to be quick enough to not get lapped. But we'll see. More focused on wanting to break through on the ASRA side with the SV.

[@Mad8vCycles]

@@matttriestodothingsby the way... still shoulders.... your hips are pointing in the wrong direction so your shoulders are pointing in the wrong direction

[@Mad8vCycles]

@@matttriestodothings slide back, point your dick into the corner, bring your shoulders in the same direction

[@descendantofphineas7785]

One thought, the old school design handles better in corners with power on, you want about 75% of the wt on the rear, the rear tire steers the bike under power. Let's say a 70mph turn enter it at 60 then once leaned in go throttle on. Get the wt off the front.

[@matttriestodothings]

I think that would take me a lot of re-wiring my brain to get used to. I'm super dependent on front end weight on my SV. It's likely at the point its detrimental as I've been told I need to work myself backwards a bit. I have a lot of faith in fronts for some reason and not as much the rear. Not sure why since rears have never given me much of a reason to doubt them.

[@descendantofphineas7785]

@@matttriestodothings it was for me also, I was racing a single vintage, a old time racer told me brake lean in, then go heavy throttle, it worked, it's the trust issue. Cheers.. :)

[@matttriestodothings]

@@descendantofphineas7785 hah, that's what I'm struggling with now. It's the long right handers where I just don't have the confidence or balls to give it that last bit of throttle twist and it's killing my times. I'm trying tho. I'll get there.

[@cptomes]

don't clutchless shift the vf500f that transmission doesn't like it. I had vf500f, 86vfr750, 85 vf1000r. if you don't have spares on hand that bike does not like overrev. float the valves or downshift too early and you're going to bend and stick a valve. if you run this bike hard you need to buy a couple spare good sets of heads. and stay on top of valve lash adjustment. those valve stems grow if you rev it. 14,500 rpm.

[@matttriestodothings]

Valve float was the thing I was most worried about, so I was trying to short shift as much as possible just to stay away from that redline. I'm not an engine expert, so I really don't want to have to be rebuilding it if I don't have to.