Potential "New" Bike

[creaky]

I am looking hard at an '85 Honda VF500F Interceptor, verrry nice looking, 14K miles, only a couple of minor scratches on the whole bike. Does anyone here have some experience with these bikes and can provide me with some yays and nays. Thanks in advance.

[mike884]

If your of normal size; say 6 foot tall. The 500 is pretty cramped. But if you are looking at a sport bike and don't mind the compactness and lean, then your golden. Might be a tad quicker than the 650/750 NH, if at all. V4 sounds like nothing else on the road = glorious.  I found it to be one of those quick sprint bikes, not really something I could ride for an extended amount of time, but thats just me, you might love it!

[84TAVeRT]

i would love to have one...

[leftfield6]

Man I would love one of those in my garage.  I've always listed after the early small Interceptor.   I think I have stretched the wife's patience level already. Between the two of us we have 5 vehicles.  4 of them mine.   

[ERAU-944]

Man I would love one of those in my garage.  I've always listed after the early small Interceptor.   I think I have stretched the wife's patience level already. Between the two of us we have 5 vehicles.  4 of them mine.   

I'm in a very similar boat.  Since I've already got an interceptor, trying to talk my way into another would be impossible!  Mmmmmmmmm rwb...

[spiritof86]

Get ready to replace a lot of seals on a bike of that vintage. If you can do that you'll enjoy it.  If not, I'd get something newer.

[Option13]

Get ready to replace a lot of seals on a bike of that vintage. If you can do that you'll enjoy it.  If not, I'd get something newer.

So are you saying your bike is leaking all over the place? Aren't pretty much half the bikes on here "of that vintage"?

[ERAU-944]

i was wondering the same thing.  at 14k miles its not like it hasn't been used ever.  shoot, this 1500 mile interceptor isn't leaking a drop of anything!

[spiritof86]

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying.  Everything leaked on my 86 when I got it with 9,000 miles on it and I had to go through all the seals. You'll have to do the same thing on any bike 20 plus years old.  I ride my bike everyday so yes it leaked a lot.  If you're the kind of got that doesn't do a lot of mileage on his vintage bike then you *might" get away without leaks BUT IF YOU DO LARGE MILEAGE IT WILL LEAK. 30 years riding motrocycles tells me so!

Get ready to replace a lot of seals on a bike of that vintage. If you can do that you'll enjoy it.  If not, I'd get something newer.

So are you saying your bike is leaking all over the place? Aren't pretty much half the bikes on here "of that vintage"?

[Option13]

Haven't had to replace a single seal on my 26 year old bike. I've put 600 miles on it, so I'd say that 20 year rule is pretty flexible.

[spiritof86]

Then the po must have replaced a lot of the seals on it for you.  Consider yourself a lucky guy.  More miles will be the true test.

[Option13]

My bike has almost 19,000 miles on it, and the PO basically sat it in a barn for 5 years. Unless he rebuilt the carbs in that time, most all the seals have to be original. I cannot believe that someone would replace every seal in the bike just to put it in a barn, or sell it.

The idea of a system wide failure where every seal, at exactly 20 years of age, just decides it is done being a seal and starts pissing fluid on the ground is a bit too clean cut, don't you think? There are more factors affecting the degradation of rubber than merely age. Are you saying that every single 80's Nighthawk on this forum has had every single seal replaced? If what you say is an undeniable truth, the OP should get ready for his bike to puke fluid in a little over a year.

I'm not saying seals don't go bad with age. Just that it's a trend, not a rule.

[spiritof86]

Carry on in your defiant ignorance then. I really don't care.

[Option13]

Look, all I'm saying is that one swallow doesn't make a summer. Just because your bike leaked doesn't mean everyone else's did. There are plenty of bikes running around with original seals, and some did need new ones, such as yours.

The front transmission seal just failed on my '91 Ranger. But also of note is the crappy maintenance of the PO and the fact that this transmission was rebuilt at 70,000 miles a few years ago, obviously poorly. So something caused it to fail besides age. Was it improperly installed? Exposed to some chemical that killed it? Or just the general crappiness of the A4LD transmission? I don't know, but it wasn't simply age that did it in.

I said that seals are in no way guaranteed to fail at twenty years, but they do get much less reliable with age. Don't act like I insulted you.


Enough of the   How about that Interceptor? Got any pics?

[taj1772]

Yeah! Let's see this Interceptor!! 

[Laminar]

Look, all I'm saying is that one swallow doesn't make a summer. Just because your bike leaked doesn't mean everyone else's did. There are plenty of bikes running around with original seals, and some did need new ones, such as yours.

Yep. I've never owned a bike newer than 25 years and the only seals I ever replaced were carb kits and a valve cover gasket. And I ride my bikes.

The 500 Interceptor is a sweet bike, it would be a blast scooting around town or hitting some curves.

[creaky]

Thanks for the replies so far, appreciated. The bike was last ridden in early 08, has been garaged since. It is showing no evidence of leakage, very clean except for accumulated dust.  Battery is shot, will not hold a charge, tires slightly weather checked, I would replace them. The thing that bothers me most is that the PO installed Cobra F1 mufflers and does not have the originals. I'm going to make an offer tormorrow, we'll see how it goes.

[muttstang]

be sure to bring a good battery to see if it at least cranks over