[919hooligan]

A guy at work has an '84 Intercepter 500. He is asking $1,200.00 Says it is in good shape with about 2800 miles on it. Someone else at work told me it was a 1000. Either way the price seems ok if it is as described. The guy is sometimes full of B.S. and is more into Harley's than sportbikes so I'm not drawing any conclusions until I see it. He did say the only mod to the bike was a 12volt power port and that he was the second owner and it had been stored in a garage. He also said he had the carb's rebuilt and sync'd. I have heard that the chain driven cams on these bikes give trouble and reapir costs are high. If purchased I plan on riding this bike only on rare occasions.

My questions: Is the cam problem more of problem with the 1000 than the 500? Are there any more issues to be considered? Are replacement parts easy to find? Are there any other bikes of the this era and style that I should consider?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[segiano]

I don't know all the issues with the Interceptor. However, I used to ride an 84 GPz 550. They made a 550 and a 750 back then. Great bikes. I have only seen a few of these on the road lately.

[_oxygen_]

did you buy this bike? If not can you see if it's still for sale. I'm in Raleigh.. where are you at?

[ldavis]

seriously.. i would like to know if he got the bike or not too.. that would be a great find if the mileage was correct.. second year model of the int..

[Cato85]

Ive had one I rebuilt it totaly they arent too bad of a bike very flickable lil slow but otherwise they are a good rock solid bike the only issues is the top end has oiling issues but you can get a kit for that they are noisy they sound like the valvetrain is a train... parts are really really really really hard to find i spent about 4 months hunting down a relay for the tickler fuel pump it took me about 3 months to find a front end and not to mention most of the gasket kits have been discontinued not to mention its almost vintage so ebay and craigslist are almost the only way to get parts.

[Windsor]

The 500s had less of a top-end oiling problem than the bigger VF models. The popular speculation is because you're up higher on the tach most of the time.

IMO, $1200 is about right if it is fairly clean.

These are a bit notorious for requiring carb rebuilds if they sit. I've had mine built at least twice (in the last 12 years) due to inactivity. (My old '83 Nighthawk never had this problem, fwiw.)

I agree that compared to modern bikes they're a bit slow. You can still get it over far enough to drag pegs, though.

[_oxygen_]

Thanks guys. I passed on that one and picked up a decent '86 VFR700F Of course I crashed a few days later so I'm in the process of doing the repairs and healing a couple of fractures but I love the new bike and now I have a good excuse to repaint it.

[kl0an]

I've got 2 VFR700f's and I'm about ready to pick up a third one for a parts bike. The first one I bought had a problem with shutting down whenever you made a left turn. I pulled the ignition switch and a quick solder on a loose connection solved that problem. Picked up a used tank on EBay and I have less than $300 in it with about 3 years of good riding so far.

My second one I picked up for $200 and it was rode hard and put up wet. Needs a lot of work but, the motor runs. 2nd gears slips a bit.

I've got a third one lined up that was dumped pretty hard on the front end but, the engine was untouched and still runs. Everything else from the forks back looks great so it'll definitely be a major donor bike for my second one.

I came to this site to find out if anyone has made one of these old VFR's into a street fighter and to get some ideas. My #2 bike is definitely looking like it'll be going the way of a street fighter, that's for sure.

[honda86tb]

I have an 86 vf500 and other than finding parts, its a great bike. ran great before i got it. should run fine after i get the parts i need. I only payed $500 for it.