Through the workshop this week comes a Honda RVF 400 NC35. Coming out of hibernation after more than 3 years in storage, we are seeing more and more bikes like these at GF Racing. As we know RVF prices have always been strong, but of late they have taken a similar path to that of the 2 stroke market price rises we have seen in recent years!
It’s great to see that our customer intends to use his bike on the road this coming season.
Aside from the standard service items of Oil and filter change, this bike is being treated to one of the recent ingenious Oil Drain valves made by the German Company Stalbus, more on this later in the article… Other work includes, Clutch Kit, Brand New GF Refurbished Carbs, Steering Head Bearings. Refreshed Braking System Front and Rear, Suspension setup (inc Nitron Rear Sport Shock), Shod with New Bridgestone BT090’s front and rear……. and finally we will be using this bike next month to Dyno Develop our new Twin Stack Exhaust Systems…. again more on that later!!
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
How many motorcycle main dealers or independent garages go to this level of detail? Bearing in mind that the bikes we have coming through our workshop are 20 years plus in age, we have to deal with seized fastners, dry bearings and much much more. Here at GF Racing we have a fully geared up workshop to deal with these siutations. Our customer was complaining of poor clutch operation, so further investigation was requried. On disassembly it was clearly evident why… Take a look at the photos below. Possibly from use of Fully Synthetic Oils, which older clutch plates don’t like, the steels had overheated to the point of turning purple and the friction plates were down well below their servicable limit. A brand new clutch kit was required on this bike.
We are one of the only companies in the UK who supply a fully assembled clutch kit for the RVF. Many people assume the NC30 Clutch is the same kit, but it’s not… the clutch packs use differnt combinations of steels and friction plates, baring in mind the NC30 and NC35 run different gearboxes. Our kit consists of the correct pack height combination of Clutch and Friction plates, using the fantastic EBC Kevlar Friction Plates, (which are great for both Road and Race Use and we have been using these for many years.) and the Factory Spec Diaphragm Springs. The latter are normally servicable on most bikes, but the RVF in question here needed new ones due to the origininals being badly scored… in short this clutch was in a bad way.