Member Contributer MarkDetroit Posted May 22, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted May 22, 2011 I bought a 2001 VFR about a month ago and I'm learning a lot quickly. It's been a goal to get a gen 5 for several years. It's an interesting comparison to my 919. The biggest handling difference to my 919 is the the VFR has an aggressive "over steer". The bike steers easily but an excessive amout of effort is needed to keep it from turning in further. Almost unsettling. So i replaced the tires which were down to the wear bars and this did help but the issue didn't go away. While doing other maintenace things like plugs and coolant change i noticed at the lower bridge that there was evidence that the fork tube position had been changed. I measured the top position and it's 48 mm from top of bridge to top of fork cap. This is probably the source of the turning issue. I hope it is anyway. I searced the forum and checked an digital maintenance manual (Date of issue Jan 1998 (on the contents page)) and it said to position the top of the fork tube at 39mm from upper surface of the top bridge. And the picture showed from the top of the fork cap. But then i checked a hard copy of the manual (from the PO) with a date of issue of Dec 1999. The version said the proper distance is 41mm and the picture showed from the top of the tube not the cap. This looks to be just like the Gen 6 settings... I'll try 41 mm to the top of the cap. Any advice or comments? I wonder why Honda made a change to this fairly critical position setting for the Gen 5? BTW - This forum is great. It's the reason I bought the bike I did! Thanks, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer JZH Posted May 22, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted May 22, 2011 I've seen something about the 39mm being an error, which was corrected to 41mm subsequently (though 2mm won't make a big difference!). Ciao, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer MarkDetroit Posted May 23, 2011 Author Member Contributer Share Posted May 23, 2011 As a follow up... I set the position back to 41 mm to top of cap and I can't believe the improvement in handling. No more collapsing into turns. My only advice for those thinking about lowering the front by increasing the tube position - Do it with caution! Thanks, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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