My first VTR and How I May Have Made a Big Mistake...
Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 4:27 pm
This is going to sound stupid but I can remember the first time I saw a VTR1000 on the street and I can remember the sound it made.
The first time I saw one in the flesh was at Laguna Seca for world superbike in the late 90's - I loved it immediately - I loved that it was a sport bike but not and was disappointed when it was discontinued after only a few years.
Through the years I came within reach of a VTR a few times but it just never worked out. One time I passed up on a near perfect VTR for an SV1000 with 1200 miles on it.
I actually lost sleep over it.
The SV was very meh but it was probably good that got that out of my system as I wouldn't have ended up with my Speed Triple that may be the last bike I have before I croak.
A little about me - I have been riding for 25 years. At one point I was a decent desert racer on a KTM525 but had a kid who is 4 now and have a kid due next week as well so not a lot of racing going on.
I currently own 7 bikes (Triumph Speed Triple, VTR1000, KTM525, Honda XR650L, Honda XR70R, Honda CB400F, Razor MX350 which Im not sure if counts or not but it has two wheels and a motor so...)
I'm better in the dirt but not a big slouch on the street.
I had an 1150GSA for 95k miles and loved it. The wife and I camped off of it for months and we loved that bike!
ok I digress -
Long story longer, I inherited a near show room 1999 ZX6R that only had ~4K miles on it. The while I-4 sportbike thing has never been my thing but I was doing a 100 mile commute a few times a month so it was nice to have a bike that was good at speed and (relatively) easy on gas.
I never liked the bike, which is to say there was nothing wrong with it... I Just never liked it.
I was lookin at CL the other day and there was a guy on there with a "CBR Honda" looking to trade for a ZX6R. The pics were clearly of a VTR so I emailed him and he drove an hour to see the Kawi. He was INTO the ZX6 and wanted to trade immediately.
The pics he sent of the VTR made it look pretty good but there were warning signs immediately - a bent lever.
Ok long story longer, he showed up the other day and we did test rides.
Over all the VTR felt solid but not very well looked after.
23k on the clock
The Good:
- motor is strong
- tires are good
- everything seems to work
- started easily with no smoke
- even if its been set down, the plastics dont seem to be scuffed and the tank seems ok (maybe it was replaced?)
- Jardine High pipes
The Bad:
- It looks like it has been at least set down on both sides but not crashed
- both levers are bent
- shifter is bent
- stupid custom paint
- its clearly been in the sun as the front fender is faded and the reservoirs are a bit faded
- it leaks a little bit of coolant (not from the water pump...or at least I think so)
- Jardine high pipes
- Tags are two years out of date
The bottom line is that i didn't like the Kawi and I had tried to sell it and I let my romantic side finally get the best of me as I have wanted one of these literally since they came out when I was in high school.
...so I traded the Kawi for the Honda which was probably a bad deal for me, but I wanted to take a chance on this bike.
The seller gave me cash to pay for the title transfer.
I also got the seller to agree to pay for any issues I have with the bike related to the coolant leak, signed on the bill of sale.
....so theoretically I'm covered but we will see where that gets me in the long run. Since the leak stopped relatively quickly, Im hoping its just a bad hose or something.
Here are the pics from the seller
The first time I saw one in the flesh was at Laguna Seca for world superbike in the late 90's - I loved it immediately - I loved that it was a sport bike but not and was disappointed when it was discontinued after only a few years.
Through the years I came within reach of a VTR a few times but it just never worked out. One time I passed up on a near perfect VTR for an SV1000 with 1200 miles on it.
I actually lost sleep over it.
The SV was very meh but it was probably good that got that out of my system as I wouldn't have ended up with my Speed Triple that may be the last bike I have before I croak.
A little about me - I have been riding for 25 years. At one point I was a decent desert racer on a KTM525 but had a kid who is 4 now and have a kid due next week as well so not a lot of racing going on.
I currently own 7 bikes (Triumph Speed Triple, VTR1000, KTM525, Honda XR650L, Honda XR70R, Honda CB400F, Razor MX350 which Im not sure if counts or not but it has two wheels and a motor so...)
I'm better in the dirt but not a big slouch on the street.
I had an 1150GSA for 95k miles and loved it. The wife and I camped off of it for months and we loved that bike!
ok I digress -
Long story longer, I inherited a near show room 1999 ZX6R that only had ~4K miles on it. The while I-4 sportbike thing has never been my thing but I was doing a 100 mile commute a few times a month so it was nice to have a bike that was good at speed and (relatively) easy on gas.
I never liked the bike, which is to say there was nothing wrong with it... I Just never liked it.
I was lookin at CL the other day and there was a guy on there with a "CBR Honda" looking to trade for a ZX6R. The pics were clearly of a VTR so I emailed him and he drove an hour to see the Kawi. He was INTO the ZX6 and wanted to trade immediately.
The pics he sent of the VTR made it look pretty good but there were warning signs immediately - a bent lever.
Ok long story longer, he showed up the other day and we did test rides.
Over all the VTR felt solid but not very well looked after.
23k on the clock
The Good:
- motor is strong
- tires are good
- everything seems to work
- started easily with no smoke
- even if its been set down, the plastics dont seem to be scuffed and the tank seems ok (maybe it was replaced?)
- Jardine High pipes
The Bad:
- It looks like it has been at least set down on both sides but not crashed
- both levers are bent
- shifter is bent
- stupid custom paint
- its clearly been in the sun as the front fender is faded and the reservoirs are a bit faded
- it leaks a little bit of coolant (not from the water pump...or at least I think so)
- Jardine high pipes
- Tags are two years out of date
The bottom line is that i didn't like the Kawi and I had tried to sell it and I let my romantic side finally get the best of me as I have wanted one of these literally since they came out when I was in high school.
...so I traded the Kawi for the Honda which was probably a bad deal for me, but I wanted to take a chance on this bike.
The seller gave me cash to pay for the title transfer.
I also got the seller to agree to pay for any issues I have with the bike related to the coolant leak, signed on the bill of sale.
....so theoretically I'm covered but we will see where that gets me in the long run. Since the leak stopped relatively quickly, Im hoping its just a bad hose or something.
Here are the pics from the seller
