Honda VFR750RH

Mike the Bike
The first of two VFR750's the I owned, was named after Mike Hailwood, in acknowledgement of a great rider who once rode Honda to victory on the Isle of Man. Had he been still racing in 1986 when I purchased this beauty, then he'd have been racing on the RC30's of the time.

Consequently, I was not about to accept 'White' as an appropriate colour scheme for such a machine, so the new bike was sent away to Dream Machine to be sprayed up in Rothmans Honda racing colours
Click to see the Rothmans VFR750 The resulting machine was similar to that seen at the island being piloted by one Joey Dunlop and co. Performance was tested to the extreme and both rider and machine came through with flying colours. One lap was achieved legally in 35 minutes, obeying all the 30/40MPH speed limits then going flat out in the de-restricted zones (Legal on the I.O.M.), and seeing a top speed appropriately on Hailwood rise of 156mph (indicated).

Not something I'd care to repeat as it scared the pants off me, it is just an A road really.
Mike saw many many miles, commuting mostly, but also a few ride-outs in the Welsh hills near where I live to brake the monotony. Never dropped it myself, but it was hit from under me once at a roundabout by a classic "Sorry mate didn't see you" artist, nice re-spray for that. I owned Mike for just over 6 years and enjoyed almost every minute of being shiny side up.
Sadly Mike is no more, the local natives nicked it from outside my father in law's place and wrecked it. I got it back, managed to repair it and had just put it back on the road when it got nicked again from my parents house. Next time I saw it, it was in bits. Thankfully plod did something useful for a change and put the b******s away.

 

The White One
So what do you replace a VFR750 with, well, another VFR750. Picked up a white one again during 1992, but this time no spray job (no cash as I was now a home owner and a hubby). Still it was a nice one with a 4 into one which emitted a nice note or two.
Click to see the old White VFR750 Rode this one for a year or so, the usual commutes and weekends exploring the Wye Valley, most of the time it went very well. Not as fast as the first one, even with the 4-1, pays to run a bike in carefully I guess.

Did come off this one, a bizarre incident involving a wet road, a number plate and some attempted front end aquaplaning under braking.

Once again, the interest in one of Hondas flag ship motorcycles proved my downfall. Once again the bike got nicked and trashed, this time from our local sports stadium. Despite having a Spyball alarm and a disk lock fitted, the crook rode it away and managed to avoid the local constabulary when they gave chase some time later. Luckily when he trashed it, he trashed himself - no sympathy from me as the skunk still got away.
Perhaps I should try riding something less popular.