I found my motor in a large motorcycle salvage yard here near Chicago. The motorcycle had been "totaled" with only 1708 miles on it... Nothing like throwing a perfectly good motorcycle down the street and into a light post!!

"Donor" Honda 1996 VFR 750. Crashed with 1708 miles on it!!

    I bought what was described as an engine "Kit". The "Kit" was the engine, wiring harness, all electronics, oil cooler, radiator, radiator fan, carbs, air cleaner, intake, fuel pump, and exhaust system off of the donor bike. Basically it is EVERYTHING needed to make the engine work... This salvage yard usually sells these kits to people building small racing cars. It will take some work to make it work, but I think it will be worth it in the long run!

750cc V4 Honda VFR motor finally home!

More Motor...

Parts is parts!!

All righty then... we got parts and plans from Australia, motors from Japan, and now we need building supplies! Fiberglass, resin, kevlar, all that good stuff is easy! RAKA in Florida is the only way to go. Less than a week after I ordered  the stuff was sitting in my living room. The plans call for Marine plywood (11 sheets). Now you would think that getting Marine Plywood in a big Metropolitan area like Chicago would be pretty easy wouldn't you?? Remember Dixon's Law?? It took me 3 weeks to finally end up with the plywood in my garage. The next problem was trying to find a substitute for the "Meranti" wood that is called out for in the plans. Meranti may be plentiful in Australia, but here in the good ole USA it's not... I decided to use Mahogany instead. It took me the better part of 3 weeks to cut out all of the required parts. The plans are metric so I work in metric- the only conversions that were really needed were for the fiberglass and resin that was ordered.

Half of the parts that were cut.

    Assembly was finally started, and the first part of assembly was the cockpit area of the craft. This craft was designed for "Stitch and Glue" type construction. Using copper wire for the "Stitches" got real old in a short time, and using the tried and true boatbuilding "Zip Tie" method works MUCH better!

Beginnings of the Cockpit..

Cockpit a little further along.... Front View

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