I just wanna put my tongue on that melted plastic.

Yeah WTF Kerry... can't post that shit and not say anything!!

That was the aftermath of my garage fire which happened in Nov '06 out in NC. Had a fantastic ride up to Shady Vally with Kathy 2-up & some other VFR guys, than around midnight woke to my neighbor banging on my door. I ran outside and saw smoke billowing out the cracks around the doors, and heard fire engines headed my way. Luckily, my house was directly across from a fire hydrant & 2 miles from a big new firehouse. VERY luckily, since there were LOTS of flammables which didn't go up (5/gal can of lacquer thinner, paint reducers, torpedo heater full of kerosene, buddy's truck w/ 30gal of diesel, etc!). Much gratitude to those guys - they hooked up fast & had it out very quickly, and before it turned into a MAJOR weenie-roast which would have rendered most of my stuff unidentifiable, all of it unsalvageable, and destroyed the structure. Still an incredible mess, and a life-changing event which kept me from moving back to Nashville much sooner.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSC01119.jpg

As for the VFR, the plastics were roasted pretty good but it wasn't hurt too much other than cosmetic damage. What really sucked was that the prior spring I had rebuilt it from a crash a couple of years prior, and it was a fantastic 2-up bike which we spent many hours & miles on sharing some incredible rides.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/88db3667.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/24b80870.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/b0ca67f1.jpg


Now it was a melted mess, I no longer had a 2-up bike, and I spent the next year consumed with rebuilding the garage damage while the bike just sat forlornly.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/IMG_0287.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/2fdbe7df.jpg

But, eventually the garage was wrapped-up nicely with the help of some outstanding treasured friends...

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture373.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/6cb6263f.jpg

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http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...9/9683b8a4.jpg


http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...9/37f9c3d7.jpg

...and I got around to doing what I should have done much sooner - moving back to Nashville, and repairing the VFR!

Fortunately, I had pulled the Ohlins forks from my RC51 just a couple of weeks before the fire, and they were 'destroyed', but salvageable with plenty of elbow-grease.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/IMG_0284.jpg

Over the winter/early spring of '09 during several trips back to NC for work/rental house stuff, I slowly pieced the front-end conversion together & tended to the cleanup & cosmetic stuff.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/e2eae22c.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/8fee0824.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/42c34801.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/IMG_0210.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/15fcf144.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s.../WHEELS-01.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...HEELS-07-1.jpg

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http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/cdff2edf.jpg

Eventually, she was ready to haul back to Nashville!

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/IMG_0213.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/IMG_0219.jpg

Unfortunately, shortly after getting it back on the road it developed an electrical/ignition issue. Thought it was the charging system & replaced/upgraded all that - but it persisted & remained parked since last summer. Life has been pretty rough over the past year, but I have a great new pad with a garage now - and one of the first orders-of-business is to get the VFR sorted out. I've been through a lot with that bike, and I really look forward to many more miles & adventures on it, both solo & 2-up again! :)

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/5e02b1f1.jpg

You just can't let a VFR die. It becomes a part of you. LOL

What caused the fire in the first place?

Well, the insurance adjuster tried to blame it on a bookshelf stereo system. I think he just went in there looking for a name-brand appliance to try to pin it on so the insurance company could try to go after them. I tend to suspect a raggedy 4-gang lectrical box which my buddy had a halogen light stand plugged into while he was working on his truck - he had been gone for a couple of hours though and the lights were off, so?....