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Multiple Championship winning VFR428

Hehe - I was thinking "no way I could ride this" till you said that.

Nah I still couldn't approach it's potential, but I sure would like a ride!


This custom subframe and battery box helped shed a huge amount of weight from the stock item. Much needed with my weight disadvantage to many of my 450 peers.....
 
Dave, what master cylinder are you using? And are those RVF fork legs?

Also please keep that bike far away from me lest I do something exceedingly stupid.
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone.

The master is a Brembo and the forks are RVF - good spot and thanks for catching that.

The bike will be transported to the Z2 weekend at Thunderhill early tomorrow morning and set by the main building with a 'For Sale' sign on it.

Hopefully there will be someone in attendance looking for a championship winning 428 :)

If not, it will go on eBay next week.
 
Great questions - so here we go with some answers!

The bike is a perfect entry level bike. Small, agile and perfectly balanced. It requires minimal energy to ride and as such rewards very lazy behavior on track. That translates into being very smooth and letting the bike do what it is best at. Other bigger and heavier bikes require much more energy to ride, so if you are looking for a parallel port connection to a motorcycle post GP250 two strokes, this is the one for you.

To that end, any bike can be tailored to any rider and whoever buys this bike gets a full free day with me, plus a mountain of track tires to learn the bike (at least 4 sets). We all have to make our "new" to us bike work for us, so even though it is passing into a new caring home, diligence and caring will provide an enormous reward for the owner.

The 400 engine in stock form produced around 50bhp, so a bit more than Ninja 300 or R3 in superbike trim. This engine produces 77bhp - quite a bit more mostly due to the overbore and HRC carburetors :) How does it ride? Anyone who has ridden V4 engines knows how glass smooth they are and how they build power in a very confidence inspiring linear way. Just ask Aprilia and VFR owners what they love about their engine. Be prepared for a prolonged smile and an emotional answer full of compliments.

A stock 600 is around 100-110bhp in OEM form, so the VFR is a lot less intimidating as there is no power band hit at 12,000rpm (this bike needs to be shifted at 12,500) and revving a bike to 16,000rpm can really be a difficult thing to do for most people as the bike sounds like it is going to blow up. This motor builds power just like the old F4/F4i and R6S does, there's just less of it. Less power = more time with the throttle pinned = bigger smiles.

As an entry racer or A group rider, you already have the skills and pace to do very reasonable lap times at any track that AFM competes on. Most of the intensity comes from working hard to improve and that requires a lot of energy unless you've spent countless hours, months or years getting your bike to do exactly what it should when it needs to. All the R&D has been done to this bike over the course of 4 years, so after the initial learning and adjustment period, you'd quickly start dropping lap times. It CAN win Championships, but that takes a lot of personal sacrifice to get to that level. If you aspire to that great, if you want an incredible motorcycle to enjoy for track and race use, this is what you need.

Connie Droogas bought one of my original GSXR 600/450 conversions and LOVES her bike now that it has been fitted to her correctly and rides the way she wants it to. Most of all she loves the power as it is very inspiring rather than intimidating and a whole lot of fun on the track.

As for AFM, the bike is eligible for clubman lightweight and middleweight for novices, and for experts:- 450 superbike, F40 light, 650 twins and it might be granted an exception for 450 production.

I am not a great rider by any means otherwise I'd be competing in Formula Pacific, but this VFR allowed me to believe in myself and it inspired me to gain trust in it. That trust and path of learning brought me the championships and the one key ingredient to those championships was that this bike was bullet proof reliable, fast and handled perfectly. That brought me to how I ride today with great smoothness, and that smoothness created fast lap times.

Happy to answer any other questions about this gem of a motorcycle.
 
On that note, can you describe the powerband/ feel versus, say a 600?
Is any entry level racer ready for this bike or would it, in your opinion, be reserved only to go after a championship.
I imagine that this bike , fast and fine as it is, would just be great fun to ride and very smooth and confidence building, no?

Objection, Your Honor!
Counselor is leading the witness. :teeth
Dani, you are killing me... 😀
Now, I'm pondering this lovely machine, AND I will be forwarding all comments from dtrides to you.:thumbup
 
Objection, Your Honor!
Counselor is leading the witness. :teeth
Dani, you are killing me... 😀
Now, I'm pondering this lovely machine, AND I will be forwarding all comments from dtrides to you.:thumbup

:laughing

Just trying to get the best info to you.:). I kept remembering how much Connie loved Dave's other 450 and how she progressed with that confidence.
My suggestion for you is to ride it!
And of course you can always use mine for comparison.:ride and you should ride an SV650 race bike too!
It all comes down to the least stress , least investment in upgrades and parts and wrenching and worrying vs best handling and most fun for the buck in entry level racing so that you can focus and be confident. With race ready bikes like this and Dave's support and backing, you don't have to invest anything more up front. It seems like a pretty smart way to go versus building a street bike from the ground up into a dedicated racer.
 
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