New to me

[whodat90]

Sorry, no pics today. Forgot my camera cable. Just spooned on the new tires. Scratched up the rim lip a bit, but i don't care. They're black anyhow, so a paint touchup pen will fix most of the scars, and the fact that I have a long dirt driveway means they're constantly covered by dirt and dust anyhow. So it's hard to make a valid opinion in a quick 10 mile ride, especially comparing 9 year old tires to brand new ones, but I have to say that I didn't realize how bad the old tires were till these were on. These are so much better.

Edit: sorry, had to go eat dinner. Anyway, the new tires had that great new tire stickiness so that the ride down the driveway was grabbing gravel and whatnot and throwing it into the fenders. It's hard to describe the difference, but the old tires felt (comparatively) dead, where these tires feel much more responsive and connected. They're heavily siped so rain should be less exciting, and once I give them a few hundred miles to break in I'll be able to give a better impression. Of course rain tomorrow, but I may take the bike into work anyway.

[whodat90]

The delk mounted,

the top of the mount strap where I had to trim it and

where the centerstand hits the rubber. Overall very happy with the pipe, especially for the money and weight savings.

[whodat90]

Main relay, tucked in the left side frame/subframe junction.

Main fuse feeding the power wires running to the front.

Wires running forward under stock harness.

[whodat90]

Power breakout wires. Note that I staggered them for neatness.

Power breakout sealed to my main wires, dielectric greased and heat shrunk. The upper wire in the pic goes to the horns relay and the light green/dark green are the stock horn wires.

Neutral breakout, also staggered. This is also heat shrunk, tech-flexed, and sealed.

[whodat90]

The completed power and ground bundle, zip tied

Here you can see the bundle and the horns relay. Note that mounted this way the headlight hit it, I just turned it around so the relay was tucked up next to the main harness and it fit fine.

My sexy and super-effective wire bundle cover. Made out of an innertube. More for looks than anything else, but I'm sure it provides some kind of protection as well. The entire bundle and all it's fuses is accessible through the slit in the fairing side.

[whodat90]

The volt meter didn't have it's own fuse, and that makes babies cry. I didn't have a mini fuse holder handy so I just soldered some mini spade lugs to the wires, heat shrunk/sealed them, and hooked them directly to the fuse.

Then I put some heat shrink on the whole assembly to keep it from vibrating loose. If it ever blows or becomes a problem I'll take this out and put in a real fuse holder.

The voltmeter control box.

[Kozu]

hey guys, new 98 vfr owner here, coming to Tmac. need to buy throttle control, are handlebars 7/8" or 1" diameter? can't find this info anywhere!

[whodat90]

7/8"

Volt meter indicating low volts.

Indicating good volts.

[whodat90]

Grips control box in the front of the instrument cluster.

Control panel on the clutch perch, painted bracket.

Throttle closed

Throttle open

[whodat90]

And just now I swapped in a new set of EBC HH brake pads to the front to match the ones I put in the rear the other day. Haven't driven with them yet, but just the commute this morning got me to thinking that the forks need some love. Lots of fork dive under braking, and I imaging that the (bitier? Griptasticker? More embettered?) HH compound pads will only make this worse. Also, I noted that the speedo read almost 5mph high at 65, AND at 70 the engine was around 5K rpm in 6th. I foresee a gearing change to fix both problems. If I hit the gearing change just right, and change it between 7 and 8 percent, it should bring the speedo right in and add a couple revs to make the engine happier at cruising speed. Unless I got that backwards and it'll make it worse. I'll think more about it tomorrow. Oh and I took the baffle out of the delk, and it's quite a bit louder than stock now that it's broken it a bit. Still, under about 6K rpm you only hear the gear whine, but if you hammer it you can definitely hear the growl.

[whodat90]

Fan mount for the RR.

Fan from the rear

Fan from the side. I had a fan duct that would fit perfectly over the fan and RR, but decided against it. Where the fan is, it blows forward over the RR and the wires/connector, and out the vent in the side. If it fails, it doesn't impede the cooling fins the way it would if it were firmly mounted to the RR. Worst case scenario, it fails and everything's back to stock. Best case scenario, this fan blows over both the front and rear of the RR, and provides cooling for the wires and connector as well. Plus it was free and I have an extra fan ready to go if needed.

Edit: More info than you could possibly want on that fan: http://www.sanyodenki.co.jp/en/techrepo/16e/f.pdf

[Veefer800Canuck]

hey guys, new 98 vfr owner here, coming to Tmac. need to buy throttle control, are handlebars 7/8" or 1" diameter? can't find this info anywhere!

7/8" for the VFR

Harleys use 1" handlebars.

Please start your own thread in the appropriate section for clarity in the future, thanks.

[whodat90]

I was playing around with the calculator last night and it seemed that going from a 17t front to a 16t would raise the approx. final drive ration about 7%, which is exactly what I wanted. I ordered one, should be here thursday. I'll throw it on and see how it goes, hopefully it'll make my speedo read just a bit low relative to the GPS, and add some revs at highway speeds.

[Veefer800Canuck]

I had a -1 sprocket on for one season. Was always looking for 7th gear. Never found it.

Back to standard now.

[whodat90]

Well I've changed the gearing on every bike I've ever had with a chain, and usually made it shorter. My FZ1 had a couple teeth smaller in the front, my dirtbike was smaller in the front, my dirtbike/dualsport had a -1 and +1 front sprocket depending on whether I was doing street or dirt. I figure $20 for the sprocket vs. $120+ for a speedo healer is an easy decision. Not to mention that the 6th gen has a 16t front sprocket stock, so I figure it can't hurt.

[Veefer800Canuck]

Get the OEM front sprocket with the bonded rubber cushion.

Much quieter.

[whodat90]

Alright, in the home stretch now. I swapped in the 16t sprocket (if I like it I'll go ahead and pick up a stock sixth gen sprocket with the rubber) and added the powerlet and fused the two lines coming from the license plate light. The powerlet is on the clutch side of the bike rear fairing just above the vent. Once again I heat shrunk, color coded, zip tied, and dielectric greased all connections. I also added shielded spade lug connectors everywhere I tapped into a stock wire so that I can disconnect all of my stuff without harassing the stock harness. Right now I have my battery tender junior plugged into the powerlet charging the battery. Only remaining jobs are to get and install the new windshield (which will be a somewhat long term project as I cut it further and further down) and a clean/flush/refill of the cooling system. I changed the coolant when I resurrected the bike from it's 9 year sleep, but I'm sure it scaled up a bit inside and the other day when in 85*+ temps in stop and go traffic I saw over 235* coolant temp. I'm hoping a cleaning and water wetter will help. Yes I know they run hot at the best of times, but still. Oh yeah, I'm sure everyone else already knows this but in a teeny pocket in the back of the stock toolkit is a .7mm feeler gauge, which I have no idea the use of. Neat though.

Edit: Apparently it's to check the centering of the front wheel and make sure you have enough clearance on either side of the calipers.

[Veefer800Canuck]

Oh yeah, I'm sure everyone else already knows this but in a teeny pocket in the back of the stock toolkit is a .7mm feeler gauge, which I have no idea the use of. Neat though.

Edit: Apparently it's to check the centering of the front wheel and make sure you have enough clearance on either side of the calipers.

This ^^^^^^^^

[whodat90]

Well the windscreen is a bust. First the looks; it looks like a seagull that hit a window, or a KTM. Not an issue since I was going to cut it down anyhow. However, it fits abysmally. Biggest problem is that it doesn't have the hooks on the front of the screen that hook into the fairing. This leaves is totally unsupported in the front, and any pressure against the top pushes the front open. I asked for a refund, it's not even worth trying to work with the way it is. Pics later. Please tell me that this isn't how all the aftermarket screens are, and does anyone have a spare stock screen I could work with? Scratches aren't an issue.

[PhotoOp]

My Zero Gravity fit just like stock, hooks and all. Its just more money

[whodat90]

Cool. Took it for a test ride, the HH front pads are vicious, but the front brakes drag a little. I'll drive it for a bit and see if they loosen up. The 16t front sprocket is great for riding, but puts the speedo 7% more wrong than it was so if I keep it I'll need a speedohealer. The rubberless sprocket does make a bit of noise, but not enough that it's annoying.

[vfrcapn]

The speedohealer fixes the speedo or the odo issue, not both. Honda decided the ECU software would measure each independently, so correcting one throws the other off.

The ZG 2nd's are a crapshoot, the one I got was full of bubbles and looked horrible. Best to get a new one.

And ditch the high beams idea, really turns me off to be blinded by an oncoming bike in mid-day.

Other than that, welcome and great posts! I think you've done more in a few weeks than most in many years. '99's rock!

[MaxSwell]

and does anyone have a spare stock screen I could work with? Scratches aren't an issue.

I have an extra stock windscreen I'd be willing to sell. Off the top of my head (I'll go look later) I'd say it is in excellent condition. I believe it has no scratches. PM me if interested.

[whodat90]

Yanked off the fairing yet again (does anyone make a dzus fastener kit for it?) and drained the coolant, flushed it twice with regular water (I'm on well water, and have a charcoal filter that gets everything out of the water) each time getting it up to temperature, then added a full bottle of radiator flush plus more water, let it run at temp for a half hour or so, let it sit for a few hours, ran it at temp for another half hour, then drained and flushed twice with fresh water. Then I added a 25/75% mix of some kind of pink coolant and water, plus some amount of water wetter. The pink coolant I believe was specced for audi and volvos, both of which are mighty picky about their fluids. Plus the green coolant wasn't working with the red bike's feng shui. ;) While I was waiting for the bike to cool down between runs I pulled the front calipers and pads, extended the pistons about 3/4" each, and cleaned/brass wire brushed/600 grit sandpapered each piston, then ran them in and out a few times to make sure they moved freely. Visually verified that each one would extend with the brake application and very slightly retract when it was released. Took some 120g to the rotors and pads, and reassembled everything with fresh brake grease where needed. Took the bike out for a nice 50ish mile ride through the twisties (I'm lucky enough that I live at the foothills of the blue ridge mountains, and have miles and miles of twisties right outside my door) and when moving (ambient air temp indicated at 85*, weather.com states 80*) the bike never got much above 180*. Stopping for gas brought the temp to just over 200*, so I claim victory. I need to see what it does in traffic, but so far I think it's much better. Ended up putting about 4 gallons of coolant/cleaner/water through it in the process, and burned the shiat out of myself (note to self: rubber dipped cotton gloves are still cotton gloves, and the cotton will absorb hot water faster than you can take the glove off.) The 16t front sprocket is great, and makes the bike much happier in the twisties. It may possibly raise the revs too much on the freeway, but I doubt it. IIRC it was turning 5000 rpm or less at 65mph in 6th, which made me downshift to 5th. I also put the baffle back in the pipe, now that it broke in it got right at the edge of obnoxiously loud without it. Still sounds (I'd add better than stock, but stock it didn't sound at all so anything is an improvement). And it's still 20+ lbs lighter than stock.

I didn't know about the speedo/odo disconnect, I think I'm gonna have to do some more research. One of my kids is an electronics genius, I'll ask him what he recommends. With any luck he'll take the whole shebang apart and build a speedo/odo healer directly into the dash panel.

[whodat90]

I think you've done more in a few weeks than most in many years. '99's rock!

Thanks! My goal is to get the bike set up the way I want it, all at once, then just ride it. I hate hate hate having to redo something because I didn't plan far enough ahead the first time I did it. That's why I left the extra power and ground connection in the front.