PROJECT: HONDA VFR750F
To Ireland and the North West 200 on a grotty £750 Honda? What could possibly go wrong? Not much actually...
Words HUGO WILSON Photography HUGO WILSON & IMPACT IMAGES
One for the VFR £750’s holiday album: Outside the paddock at the North West 200, Friday May 9, 2025
At a glance, and nicely illuminated by the early morning sunlight and a blue sky, this 1994 Honda VFR750F looks pretty decent. These sports tourers were always good looking; the bodywork’s curves, ducts and bulges look great in red and are nicely set off by black wheels and belly pan, while the frame and single-sided swingarm in bare aluminium suggest purposeful, quality engineering.
Look closely and things aren’t quite so rosy. Every one of the body panels on this 43,000-mile, 31-year-old machine is scuffed, or cracked or both. There’s peeling paint on the engine cases, rust on the painted steel, corrosion on the rear hub and fork sliders, missing fasteners, a mottled plastic chainguard, chipped paint on the wheels, a sun-crazed screen and a misfitting exhaust system. Still, it got me here.
We’re at sunny Port Stewart on the north coast of Northern Ireland, outside the paddock for the North West 200, having made a pilgrimage of 375-ish miles from the English Midlands to one of the fastest and most historic road races in the world.
NACA ducts
Apparently the NACA duct, with its distinctive flared shape, was developed by the US National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1945, though most of us weren’t aware of them until Lamborghini put them on the side of the Countach supercar in 1974. The idea is to get maximum airflow into the duct, with minimum disturbance to flow around the fairing. How relevant this is when the duct isn’t really connected to anything is moot, but they look ace.
The NW200 takes place in the shadow of the Isle of Man TT, but is remarkable in its own way. According to the race’s website, it’s Ireland’s largest outdoor sporting event and attracts 150,000 spectators. It’s fast, too. The quickest recorded lap is 127.63mph, recorded by Tom Herron in 1977. Sadly, he died here two years later.
Chicanes have since reduced average speeds on the 8.9-mile course, though it’s creeping upwards. Last year, Glenn Irwin lapped in 4:16.433, for an average speed of 125.928mph. But that’s not the whole story. With long straights, slipstreaming is critical to fast times. At this year’s races, the draft from other racers helped Dean Harrison to blast through the speed trap at a record-setting 209mph on the factory Honda superbike – that’s motoring.
‘We did a few laps of the course, watched the racing and enjoyed the coast road’
Joey on a red Honda at York Corner in 1998 (we think). It’s not a V4, but an NSR500V two-stroke twin. If you know more, write and tell us.
Our North West pilgrimage plan was conceived late, but a VFR felt like the right bike to take. An easy-going sports tourer is ideal for the A1-M6-A75 journey to the ferry port in Scotland, but the racing heritage of Honda’s V4s is a huge part of the appeal. On the roads, that pedigree started at the North West 200 in 1983, when Joey Dunlop was timed at 171mph and won the Superbike race on the new RS850. He followed that up at the TT with the first of 16 consecutive Formula One TT victories for Honda V4 racers. They continued to do well at the North West too, with nine Superbike wins (four of them for Joey) between 1983 and 1998.
That 1983 Isle of Man win was popularised by the film V4 Victory. It was our first real exposure to onboard TT laps, the flat drone of a V4 engine at peak revs – and to Joey Dunlop. We watched the Duke Video VHS tapes until they disintegrated. Best put a visit to Joey’s Bar – at Ballymoney, a stone’s throw from the NW200 course – on the itinerary for this trip too.
Joey’s VFR750R inside
Hugo’s VFR750F outside Joey’s Bar
The VFR was bought last year, sight unseen, for £750 (CB September 2024). That sounds cheap – but once I’d actually inspected the bike, it felt like I’d paid too much. Its condition is testament to the damage that one neglectful owner can wreak. With new tyres it passed an MoT, but then its reg/rec malfunctioned – ‘They all do that, sir’ – taking the battery with it. With that repaired, I had to accept that it needed new discs and a brake caliper overhaul to make it rideable.
So, after spending a further £750 (tyres, discs, caliper rebuild kit, rec/rec, battery, fluids, secondhand seat), I had a bike that had baggy suspension, woolly carburation, a not very nice clutch and which looked like the unloved runt that it was. It did a few miles on local roads before I parked it in a lock-up for the winter and tried to forget about it. Six months later the NW200 plan was hatched.
Hugo on a slightly less rapid red Honda than Joey’s at York corner in 2025
After hibernation, the bike was reluctant to start until I’d drained the float bowls of stale fuel. The hydraulic fluid needed topping up before the clutch would work; there was no sign of a leak, so I’m not sure where it went. Ditto the missing engine coolant. The tyres needed air, while the throttle-return mechanism and locks got a light dose of WD40.
With the fluids refreshed, I rode it 10 miles to seek reassurance from Gary Hurd (aka Grumpy), CB’s friendly local bike mechanic. Gary wandered around the bike to pass judgement. He pointed out that the rusty fork legs would shortly be taking out the oil seals, advising me to “Take some rag and wipe them down each time you make a stop, to prevent it getting onto the brakes’. He also oiled the chain. Good idea.
Finally, he shrugged his shoulders and asked me: “Have you got recovery insurance?”
Crack maintenance squad in action. The VFR’s missing centrestand makes chain lubrication a two-man job
My friend Keith was more reassuring: “It’s a Honda; you’ll be fine”. But I was still plagued with doubts, envisaging the journey ending up in the back of an AA van – or in flames on the hard shoulder of the M6.
With a full tank of petrol (Shell V-Power Unleaded – ‘Removes up to 100% of performance-robbing deposits’ they meaninglessly claim) and an anxious knot in my stomach, we rolled onto the A1, heading north towards the Cairnryan to Belfast ferry. Then, against all my expectations, we didn’t stop until refuelling at Penrith, 200 miles later.
On that sunny afternoon, the VFR bopped along at an indicated 70... 75... 80... 85 and occasionally 90mph without drama. At 6000rpm the speedo reads 85mph, with another 5500 to the redline, so it wasn’t working very hard. It was as comfy as I’d hoped too, with a natural riding position that only made me get fidgety after a couple of hours.
Winter spent in a lock-up hadn’t improved the carburation, there’s a stutter around 3000rpm – probably caused by dirt in a jet that Shell’s V-Power hasn’t managed to shift. The suspension is still baggy too. Neither faults caused a problem on the speedy and straight roads between Peterborough and Penrith.
Joey at Church Corner on the Honda Britain RVF750 RC45 in 1998
The next morning, we rode the more challenging twists and turns of the A75 from Gretna to the ferry port at Cairnryan. Sure, the suspension damping has gone AWOL, but on Dunlop Sportmax tyres the steering is lovely – it has that reassuring Honda feel of stable, but low-input handling. That made me start to wonder what it would feel like with a new rear shock absorber and rebuilt forks...
As long as it was rolling, with the revs in the midrange, I didn’t notice the carburation issues either. There was plenty of punchy performance to blast past the trucks and traffic on the journey. My fantasties turned to carburettor rebuild kits... but the view from the rider’s seat of the sun-crazed screen and scuffed-up top yoke brought me back to reality. Sorting the suspension and carburation won’t make it look better.
In the queue for the ferry, the VFR was the oldest bike. No one gave it a second look amongst the 21st century machinery, but I was deeply impressed. Surely we don’t really need much more than this. Joey’s Bar at Ballymoney is 50 miles north of Belfast port, and there were race fans outside enjoying the sunshine when we pulled up to take a picture. Inside, I enjoyed a half pint of Guiness – and the fact that Joey’s 1988 VFR750 is in a glass case in the back room. Admittedly, it’s the VFR750R (aka RC30) but it’s still a VFR.
In the queue to board the ferry home at Belfast, VFR was the oldest bike in the line
Obviously we did a couple of laps of the course, took that photo at the paddock, watched the racing and enjoyed the famous Northern Ireland coast road.
Maintenance? It hadn’t used any oil, the coolant was still up the mark, so we oiled the chain, replaced a missing fairing fastener with a zip tie and then rode home again. V-Four Victory? I think so. And of course, now we’ve bonded I’m contemplating showering love on the old girl. Full restoration? She certainly deserves it.
North West 200
First run in 1929, the North West 200 has evolved into one of the fastest road races in the world. The 8.9-mile Triangle Course connects the coastal villages of Portstewart and Portrush with the town of Coleraine.
The coast road, on which the pits and paddock are situated, is undulating with fast curves. The straight connecting Coleraine with Portrush is now slowed with two chicanes. The straight connecting Portstewart with Coleraine doesn’t have chicanes – and that’s where the speed trap is situated.
The original course included a blast along Portstewart’s sea front promenade, but that was omitted after 1971. A traditional early May date means that teams and riders treat this as a warm-up for the TT, which starts later in the month. This year’s superbike races were a tussle between local hero Michael Dunlop and his rivals Peter Hickman, Davey Todd and Dean Harrison. Dunlop controversially won Saturday’s first Superbike race, pulling off an astonishing ride to beat Davey Todd after overshooting the braking point at Mather’s Chicane on the opening lap. Dunlop failed to put his foot down in the stop box as required, but was awarded the win anyway. Hickman, who finished third, boycotted the podium ceremony afterwards in protest. The second Superbike race was won by Todd, with Harrison second. northwest200.org
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