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I am selling my 86 VFR. I have had this bike since 1987 when I put it together from the factory crate. It had 0.5 miles on it. It now has about 19k miles. It is completely stock except for a K&N air filter and a jet kit. It all works. It has a bit of a flat spot in the middle of the range that can be traced to just not being ridden enough and the carbs gunk up. Otherwise everything works fine. Good tires, brakes...you get the idea. I put off selling my baby until I found this site. I figured someone here would take care of it and make it perfect again. I can't, just have too much else going on. I am restoring a 66 Jaguar XKE and it takes all my space, money and time. I want this bike to live forever and it won't if I don't ride it. There you have it. I will provide whatever additional information I can. Let me know if you are interested. You would have to arrange transportation.

I was cleaning out the garage and since there was some space I thought I'd snap a picture or two or four....

Another SpringRide has come and gone. If you missed it, you missed out. I didn't take as many pics this year but here are a few highlights. I dragged the CB500x along this year because CaptainApe( now MajorGrits) flew in from his new assignment in California. Andy decided to ride with us all week due to the rigors of flying coast to coast. There were seven of us on the PreRide this year. We met in Franklin on Saturday afternoon and enjoyed a meal at Fatz that evening. Sunday, we left for a long ride to Little Switzerland. It was a great day with no straight roads. Sunday evening, we enjoyed lies and beer by the fire pits followed by dinner with Kimball and some of his friends. Monday we started the day with The Diamondback and 80. It was in the upper forties so I put on my vest. About an hour into our ride, I noticed my phone wasn't on the holder. PANIC! After a few minutes of patting myself down, Bob said it was in my hand when I put my vest on. It was in my vest pocket. Now we had some catching up to do. After passing a couple of cars on 80, we found a really tight left hand that was preceded by a bad dip on the right shoulder. I missed the dip but had to check up hard for the turn. My next thought was how bad did I screw up Bob. I looked in the mirror to see him roll off the edge of the road and his bike launch him into the bank. It turned out that Bob had not seen the dip and it caused him to miss how tight the turn was. Only a few minor marks to the bike and Bob. I did not take a picture because I'm slipping. The sticker says "Crashing Sucks". Bob was getting a little sore from the off so I insisted that he and I head for the hotel and rest for the afternoon. The Oakpark Inn in Waynesville is a neat little place to stay. Bob was up and ready to go again after breakfast at Clydes. At our first stop of the morning, Andy and Greg decided to trade rides. It was very entertaining to watch Greg try and handle the 500 coming from his SuperSport. We road North Georgia into Helen for the night. Greg was nice enough to share his adult beverage. We road north into Tellico and then to Robbinsville for lunch at The Hub. Not sure where Andy puts all the food but I'm jealous. The CB was like a little puppy all week. It just couldn't get enough of running with the big dogs. As is tradition, we had to have a group toast on arrival back in Franklin. When everyone stopped for gas (SuperSports are thirsty) I stopped and picked up two twelve packs in my side bags. We had an awesome time thanks to Rob Power. First thing the next morning, another tradition, buying tires. We visited RideWNC and Mike put new tires on Rob and Ricks bikes. A Garmin stop on Warwoman and 28. This should have been a sign. My buddy Steve joined us on his big Versys. This is how you make a VFR look small. So the Garmin thing came up again and we found ourselves on a gravel incline of about 45 degrees. When the lead bike can no longer move forward and starts sliding back down the hill, chaos ensues. We all looked for a way to stop and help Rob pick up his bike but couldn't find a way to get off. Then I hear Steve's bike fall and see him running head first as fast as he can towards me. He wasn't having any luck with catching his head but managed to miss me and fall behind me. He was fine. This is when I pulled out my phone to take a picture. I watched as Rick leaned his beautiful Beetle Bag against the bank to go and help. Aaron road his XR to the top spraying gravel down the hill. The fun wasn't over. We got the bikes turned down the hill but then couldn't stop. Both brakes locked just resulted in the bike sliding down the hill. It was an adventure. The only damage was a few scratches to Rob's freshly painted bike. Saturday's weather was a little iffy and I was tired so I stayed at the hotel and watched it rain. Saturday night we had the usual dinner and awards. This years green jersey was awarded to Rob after a really close call on story telling. Saved someone from being the first repeat winner. I had to include this pic to show how hard Andy worked the CB. These are Shinko 705 dualsport tires. He ran the front and back to the edge and they don't even appear to have been hot. The middle scuff is from me loading on the trailer. One last pic because I'm really proud that for once I wasn't too close to the double yellow. A big thanks to Bob and Ben for continuing to put this event on. Hope to see you all there next year or maybe at the FallRide.

I started to remove the rearsets to change them out for 929 type using Sebs adapters. I end up de-linking and swapping out the brake system! The rear system presented a bigger challenge than front as I didn't want to re-use the monster caliper with 2 lines. Seems like too much compromise. With a bit of thought, I figured adapting a floating piston Brembo with simple bracket should work. I just happen to have a 3D printer and have been using Fusion360 to make other things. It's a perfect opportunity! So, I was able to design an adapter to mount a Brembo P32 caliper to the OEM (5g) hanger! I should have a part machined for testing very soon. I test fitted the caliper using 3D fdm parts. First part was a guess fit as I didn't have the caliper yet. It fit the hanger but the caliper was way too low. I did have one on my Hawk but I wasn't about to remove it while waiting for one intended for the VFR. After getting the caliper, it took me 2 prints and several changes to correctly locate the caliper. With a bit of measuring, fitting and designing, it's possible to go this route without changing the whole hanger. Plus, I don't have to disassemble the hub to change out the hanger. To me, this was the faster route to change the rear caliper using an adapter bracket and it turned out to be a fun exercise. I can't wait to get it all mounted. In the front, it is standard VTR lowers, calipers and MC. Got the 3mm spacers off McMaster Carr. The rear line has to be custom kitted. Both masters are 14mm. Stay tuned!

Out in the sun on the first ride. Feels great and is running strong and perfect after the carb rebuild. Still needs a good bath, polish and wax.

First month with my very first Honda let alone VFR. She's a 2014 VFR800F with alittle less than 1800 miles on the clock.

I took this a few minutes before I got hit by a thunderstorm. Got soaked, but I got some riding in and that's what matters.

Today was a very special, albeit sad day. Fred, a very active member in the Dutch VFR Club Nederland had passed away following a mc accident before Easter. He never wake up from the coma. A seasoned, methiculous, ever friendly 66yr old rider is gone. It was the family's wish to give him a fitting farewell from the hobby he'd enjoyed so passionately. So some 170 bikes lined the steet, engines idling, helmets by the front wheel. As the herse passed each bike, full throtle was given and engine subesquently shut down. Thus a wave of the sound he loved accompanied him on his last journey. As quoted during the service: "life after death is uncertain, life before death IS certain, so he lived life as much as he could..." Ride In Peace Fred

Although much fancy expensive equipment is being used, it appears forecasters usually have no clue and are simply guessing. "They" forecasted 70-90% chance of rain for Friday and Saturday. We rode most of the day each day and not a drop of actual rain. Hope yall got some good riding in as well. Moral: Don't miss a ride due to forecasts. Show up and ride if possible and enjoy the company.

Black beauty! The fastest color 😋

BTW, here is what I did last night and is what I had forwarded to Seb (via pictures). Hopefully I am on the right track but I'm sure Seb's talent could easily surpass mine! I added a little twist to the V&N solution and put a little bend in the vertical section to give it a little more strength. Pay no mind to the looks, I did this with simple hand tools and a small vice. For my template, I added a bigger section on the bottom so a hole could be added to use the OEM rubber stop. Let's see if Seb finds this viable or if he can improve on it or come up with something even better.

Hi! I purchased a vfr 800 -99 one month ago after years of thinking about it. I found an anniversary with low miles (12.000) and in great condition, so I couldn’t resist buying it. What I immediately noticed, as many of you also have done, was that the bar position is a bit low. My wrists and neck began aking after only a few miles. So after reading different threads about the issue it got clear too me Helibars was the way to go. Problem for me was the money, after shipping, tax and customs to Sweden, a pair would cost me about 800$. I therefore looken for options and found this guy who used a pair of clipons from a vf1000f. Said and done, I purchased a pair out of an 1984 vf1000f and mounted them. 80$ instead of 800$ So far I’m very pleased, a lot more relaxed seating position. /Andreas

Thank you for accepting my membership. I have just bought 1990 VFR750F. Two owner (I’m the 3rd). The seller had owned it for 25 years. 58000 km. $2000 New Zealand dollars. Ridiculous amount of bike for that money. Has the odd bump and bruise, but pretty original. I’ve taken it out on a few day rides and love it.

Try... You know that term in astronomy, when something's moving so incredibly fast that it appears to change colour because the wavelength of the light coming from it is stretched into a different part of the spectrum? Well, they don't call it 'Yellow Shift', now do they?

OK, I put it back together. People in the other thread don't seem to think my pictures, which made this process take literally twice as long as had I just done the shit and moved on, illustrate exactly what I said. Or maybe they think I'm stupid. So fuck that shit, I just buttoned it up and I'll show one or two things, but no more expansive pictures of everything. First problem: centerstand spring fouling. The solution was twofold. First, I flipped the spring. PO had it spring toward the mount, I put it spring toward the crossbar, so the long, thin part was near the sensor. This made it so the sensor fit, but it was still super close: I expanded the connector pipe a bit farther in, so I could position it differently. Then I added a fatter stopper -- the Stock Honda one is a few mm fatter than the one that was on there. These two things bought me about 3mm so the spring clears the sensor with enough room to be safe. The pipe is close to the tire, but still has enough room to comfortably clear, and lines up adequately. Note the scrape in my fresh paint where I accidentally let the centerstand twang up into the retracted position when I was switching stoppers The stock Honda stopper is nice and thick Another note on the 3rd hole sensor. It's really not easily routed -- that sensor points to the chain and the swingarm with no safe place to run the cable up the left side of the bike. My old setup was pointed Right, so I had a lot more options. To keep it from getting loose and rubbing I attached it to the mounting point for the stock headers: Note: Your headers are no longer attached to the bottom of the case. You probably do not want to use them as a jack point like you could with the stock collector. After that the sensor run sneaks up between the clutch cover and the peg holder: I wanted to make sure it stayed tight so it didn't rest on the pipes. I then routed it behind the heat shield. I zip tied it to that bastard of a mount that is always in the way, so it cannot touch the headers up there and stays secured From there it comes into the rear subframe and I plugged it into the Rapidbike module behind the brake fluid reservoir. This should be good, every point is hard, so no bouncing around on the swingarm or anything to cause wear. When I put the plastic on I had several issues. The first was minor. The stock sensor rubs against the plastic just in front of the sidestand: My solution? I don't give a shit. Let it rub. It's not enough to really harm anything. The other minor issue is the right side lower comes kind of close to the pipes. I didn't take a picture of this. I don't think it's an issue, though it's closer than I'd like. I might wrap that pipe. I'll ride it a bit and see how hot the plastic gets. The REAL issue, though, is that the front headers rub against the chin fairing. Not just a little, a lot. The right downpipe made major contact. My solution there is to just grind away some of the fairing. Hate to do it, but I'm not taking the headers off and there's no other way to make it fit. Oddly, after I thought I made it fit it wasn't enough clearance, so when it got hit it still melted the plastic some. I'll have to do a little more dremel doctoring later. Nobody will notice.

When I added my custom High mount pipe, I forgot to spec a stand stop. So I bought some 4mm wall silicone hose cut a 2” length then slit it along one side. Slid it on to the right leg of the centre stand, whilst the bike was on the side stand, adjusted it in place to centre on the contact with the exhaust & cut a little away to fit around the stand cross bar. Once all adjusted, I cable tied it in place. Worked a treat !

No time to write now, but I got it together. More tips on fitting issues later. Here's the first start and checking for leaks:

Hello folks, I'm new to the Honda and VFR world! At the start of March of this year I purchased my first Honda, she's a 2014 VFR800F and when I got her she only had 1700 miles. Now she has 1800(to much rain here in the northern states to ride.) So far I'm loving every minute of riding her and just sitting there starring at her after a good wash&wax job. Unfortunately a few weeks ago I had my first lay over with gravel while trying to make a low speed turn on a crappy farm back road. Needless to say the bike is fine except for road rash on the fairings and a bruised calf(and pride) But none the less she kept kicking and the small lay over hasn't effected the ride or performance. I look forward to making new friends on here!

Also, not really helpful for some of us. Getting a check for replacement value would not do anything for all the time and effort I've put into all the little things I've done. I don't want a replacement, I want to keep MY bike!

You are a braver rider than me, too much white stuff on the road I would need both hands to 🙏

Oh boy! I'm done with this shite... 3 day ride and wow, what a difference. I shortened my screen another inch or so before I left. Didn't change the spoiler. Didn't run with the edging on the fairing. At one point, in calm (ambient?) winds I was doing about 75 MPH (GPS) and all I heard was such a quiet, amazing, soul enriching whoosh from my Shoei GT-Air. Veefour's cruise control was awesome and the VFR grew on me. I just might keep this bad boy. I hope this thread ends up helping someone! One last set of pics with the R&G parts on it after polishing and waxing it.

It's been ages since I posted here (yet I lurk from time to time), and I haven't owned a VFR is almost 10 years (though I've owned 3 of them), but saw this post and decided to chime in. I was super hyped when the VFR1200 was rumored to come, then supremely disappointed when it did...so much so that I never bought one. Instead I moved to a Ducati Multistrada 1200S, which I found to be an infuriating bike to own. When it worked, it was a great bike. WHEN it worked. I had nothing but problems with it. Then news of the Kawasaki H2SX began to leak. Besides not having a V4 the bike appeared to be a spiritual successor to the VFR made by a company that throws conservative out the window. I've had mine for a year now and love the hell out of it. Yes, it's a pricey bike, but it's literally everything the VFR1200 should and could have been (again, except for a V4). The only thing I wish it has was a little less weight (the supercharger and frame add extra weight), but I have no plans to track this thing so it's not much of a concern. What you get is impressive: Single sided swingarm Analog tach/TFT info display Cornering ABS Traction/wheelie control Cruise control Power modes (3 levels) Heated grips (3 levels) 12v socket in dash A 5.5 gallon tank (it will get low 40 mpg if ridden normally) Angle activated cornering lights Launch control Quick shifter Engine braking control Assist and slipper clutch LED lights all around Integrated factory bags, without fugly brackets hanging off it And all the power you would want access to (yet it's perfectly docile if ridden normally). With a reflash, slipon, and filter the 998cc is putting down 218 rwhp, and can get ~40 mpg riding sanely. Anyway, I wish Honda was less conservative and put out a larger displacement V4 with proper firing order, excellent power/tap on tap if desired, and slathered with tech. But they haven't...and I don't think they ever will. So yes, I view the H2SX as the successor to the VFR when it comes to high performance sport-touring. I got tired of waiting for Honda...

Note: This is for a 5th gen. Everything here is MY observation, on my bike, and I have not elided those bits where things didn't go smoothly simply to try and be helpful. Your experience may be different. Your bike may be different. Your headers may be somehow different. Deal with it yourself. OK, I got started on my installation after work today. So far I have removed the old (Delkovic) headers and gotten some things cleaned up. I ran out of light, so I'll put them together after work tomorrow or Saturday morning. Additionally, since you have to pull the exhaust to add or remove the centerstand, I started by pulling the stands off and repainting them. the Delk exhaust has a gazillion slip joints, so I was able to just grab the section behind the heat shield and get them out enough to get the stand off, but the new headers are one piece. If I want to add or remove in the future I have to remove the whole exhaust, so now was the time. This happened earlier this week (There's a thread elsewhere with pics). Steps I followed for disassembly: Strip the lower fairings off the bike. Both sides. Chin fairing. Remove the slipon and connector pipe. Check the fit of the connector pipe before continuing. My connector doesn't fit over the TBR size exit, so I had a local shop stretch it to fit. Remove the chainguard. Remove the heat shield from behind the right foot peg holder. Remove all sensors (two if stock 00 or 01, mine has a third for my Rapidbike). Remove the nuts from the studs on the rear cylinders. With the collector still attached to the mounting bolt underneath, remove the front nuts from the mounting studs. Remove the mounting bolt holding the collector can. Delks come apart in pieces, so that was a matter of popping them apart. Stock (and the new) headers will come apart at the rear downpipes, but the front will come off as one large unit. You'll learn to wrassle it around when you see it. Remove the old crush gaskets from the exhaust ports. Clean up and get ready to put it back together. I'll have pictures below of a few things I found on disassembly. Steps I will follow to assemble (Note, they aren't the same as in the service manual): Attach the centerstand. Insert the 42mm round crush washers in the rear ports. Use Delkovic round 42mm washers. These are the only ones to use! They are proven to work, anything else is likely to give bad results. Loosly attach the rear downpipes. Use high temp Antisieze on the studs before you put the nuts on. Do NOT Torque the nuts! At this stage you want the ends holding the crush washers in, but the pipes should have a little wiggle room. Insert the crush washers in the front ports. Put antisieze on the front studs. Wrestle the larger headers into place. Line up the ends with the slip joints and put them together loosely. Get the front downpipes lined up with the ports. Put nuts over studs finger tight on the front. Make sure the rear slip fittings are tight, then put springs on. Torque the nuts down Go slowly -- this pushes the crush washer into its seat Toque is NOT much -- 9ft/lbs or 12Nm according to the manual Reinstall the sensors. These don't seem to have consistent torque specs... I've seen everywhere from 15-30 lbs. hand tight and a quarter turn like an oil drain plug is conventional wisdom. They have a crush washer and threads, they're not going to leak with reasonable, 20lbs torque. You can't fit a socket over them anyway, so it's all just a well calibrated elbow and a wrench. Use antisieze. Give a brief prayer to your deity of choice that the connector pipe will line up adequately, and fit the connector and slipon. Get a snug fit. Line up the can in the clamp/holder behind the rear pegs. Tighten the clamp over the connector at the headers. Tighten the bolt holding the canister. So far, I got the old stuff off. I didn't install the Delkovic system, the previous owner did. He told me he had problems with leaks and he wasn't a great mechanic. Handy with tools, but overtorqued everything and didn't understand anything beyond the step by step instructions, so I have redone a lot of really bad work he did. However, he didn't overtorque the exhaust nuts! That said, he used incorrect washers and held them in place with high temp gasket maker goop. Everything is coated in the copper Permatex. Heh. Anyway, I have it all off now. First, I got the the slipon and connector off, then I got to work on the sensors: I want to note that this is the ONLY time I ever use that wrench for actual wrenching. Though I use it a lot. It's the perfect lever for popping the left side of the throttlebody out of the boots, and I've done that more than a few times. But now I get to use it as designed! So, now the muffler is off and the sensors are out. I suggest you start the bike at this point and rev your engine for at least 10 minutes. This will both make sure all the exhaust is blazing hot AND will assert your authority over all your neighbors. Chicks dig a man who can handle 500 degree metal, and love confidence. The glorious, unmuffled noise will let lesser men know that you are dominant. The equivalent of being the baboon with the biggest, reddest ass. There's no downside here. Next, I took the back downpipes off and got a look at the ports: Yes, he did hold the crush washers in place with copper permatex. He's a nice man. Enough said. I was worried the washers would be frozen in place, but he used too small a washer so there was a lip I could hook and pop them out: More about that lip later. I pulled the front off and was also greeted with not overtorqued nuts. Thankfully. I was able to just pop the downpipes out of the slip connectors (you won't be able to do this for stock or the new system) and got a look at the front ports: The front of the engine is really grungy. Lots of permatex: Again, I was able to pop these washers out because they had a goodly lip on them. And here's why we use the 42mm Delkevic washers that SFDownhill has proven work properly. Take a good look at the black part of this crush washer: That's all INSIDE of the inner diameter of the Delk downpipe. That pipe is osensibly 34mm id, but this crushed out washer is a couple mm less id. The black parts actually stick in to the port a bit, so there's about a mm lip I could feel, and was able to hook to easily pull this washer out. On the one on the right you can see it formed INSIDE the header, but not outside. Lance's photos show the crush ring smooshed into the corners of the ports, wrapped around the pipe, and not restricting the pipe or the port itself. It's amazing what a difference a couple of mm here and there can make. So here's some comparison pics before I put the new pipes on. The port ends are actually pretty close to the new ones. The Delks are 1mm less inside and outside diameter: The new ones are beeflier farther down, though: here's the fugly merge on the Delks: I'm sure between the gaskets sticking into the ports and this clusterfuck of a collector I was giving away a couple of horsepower, just from workmanship. I cleaned that permatex crap out of the ports and was out of light, so I put the bike in its shed for the night. More coming in a later post when it all comes together. Here's the roommate's dog who was taking his afternoon constitutional while was photographing exhaust gaskets. He's ugly on the inside, too.

Looking for this type of weather soon.

To be fair, I've seen your watch band size and IIRC your header could also wear your watch...

That's exactly the way the original Two Brothers pipes they were patterned off of fit. Everyone should expect this.

Well I managed to find a few hours, got the aluminum piece machined up and installed. To me this is the perfect solution for mounting a power socket and USB. Only downside is that it raises the bezel around the key hole and now I cannot use the steering lock. Though not a major issue right now for me. In the future I'll probably eliminate the bezel or modify it to allow the key to push down enough to engage the steering lock

Note that we have just reached out to Sebspeed to see if he can make a more elegant solution, so if you're still wanting something more than a temporary solution, please stand by. As for your your setup. The only concern I have is the rubber stop sitting directly against the mid-pipe. Have you tested it under normal riding conditions? Not sure how much heat transfers to the stop in the OEM condition but would imagine much less than with direct contact. Perhaps mounting the stop to the mid-pipe would alleviate any potential melting issues.

A couple of nice photos of my buddies VFR that I rode during a visit to Tucson early Spring. I'm tempted in trying to find a pearl white gen 8 deluxe but I'm still really fond of my gen 6.

I don't think ceramic would help the front chin fairing on mine. It presses against it to the right of the right cutout. Trimming was the only option and no amount of relaxing of the pipes will change it. However, they're all going to be different, and I bet many folks will get lucky and see zero fitting problems. And this wasn't a complete system, so there will be other variables. Part of my issues were specifically related to the stand stop on my connector, which was completely out of Wade's control, and easily rectified. Fairings are not all precise on these bikes, either. Anyone who has done a repair after a drop will know that little bit of obnoxiousness when trying to line up the new plastic. In other words, there's nothing WRONG with these. The type of steel that can handle repeated extreme heating and cooling will be, by nature, quite elastic. Otherwise it will become too brittle and crack. I have no idea what coating does, by the way, so no comments on that, but keeping bent steel tubing of this sort precise even prior to welds is a huge challenge. That's expected. They are narrow because the TBR pipes they were modeled on were also tightly spaced. A friend 25 years ago had TBR left exit system on his 1990 and they, too, were not precisely spaced and needed some hammering in to place. I assume there's a reason for this, and it's probably a legacy of the design going all the way back to the 80s race bikes. I don't know what the reason is, but these were built right. The welds are excellent and workmanlike, and folks who know more than me have commented that the junctions were done right. I got a good, tight seal with no leaks on the first try, something I cannot say for the Delk headers I pulled off of the bike. And the butt dyno can feel the difference approaching redline. You get custom made stuff like this and it's just that. Custom. People who haven't gotten theirs yet will see, they're a quality item. But, yeah, expect to have to do minor troubleshooting.

Nice job working through the issues. Don't worry about what other ppl think. You're still helping somebody... I bet everyone that bought a header is studying your thread. Also, this is still more of a custom set than it is production, so there will be some variation from part to part and if everyone assumes all parts are 100% the same then there will be these little disagreements about what fits and what doesn't. So just keep doing what you're doing. One other note, IMO you'd be better served by a piece of heat shielding attached to the inside of the fairing vs wrapping a section of the header. Install it with a good contact cement and it should last the life of the bike.

I'm selling my red 1998 VFR. It's in just shy of immaculate shape, no crash damage just the normal dings on the fairing belly. It's always garaged in a climate controlled space so no rust or sun fade. It's just shy of 30K miles. Recent brakes, chain and sprockets and Pilot Sport tires. The stator and rectifier were replaced 5,000 mile ago. The originals had not failed but charging voltage was lower than optimal so I replaced everything proactively. There was no damage to the wiring harness. The only modifications are the mirrors, replaced the so called "condom mirrors" with the later generation, a one tooth smaller counter shaft sprocket and "Speedo Healer" to correct for gear change and a Two Bros. Silencer. I have all of the original parts including seat cowl and Tool kit. It also comes with the factory service manual. It gets serviced annually with full synthetic. This is an excellent example of a 5th generation VFR that's ready to ride. I will post photos later today. The price is $2,500. Call or text at 917-846-6673. I Will consider delivering in the Tri-State area. Pictures now attached and a correction, the mileage is a tick over 30K but still a fine example of a 5th generation VFR.

So I got them installed -- ish. After work I pulled it out and started. Note the small parts, carefully inventoried and accounted for: Previous owner was a dolt. I spent a lot of time scraping his permatex out of the ports. Here's a pic mid-cleaning: Front ports, too. Here they are almost ready: Gaskets are a tight fit. That's good, I guess. They'll form around the end of the pipe as it gets tightened and shoves them into the seat. Here they are test fitted. They just stay in place by themselves. I lined up the rear pipes and loosely held them in place with the nuts. Don't forget antisieze before you put the nuts on, it's annoying to get in there and take them off again. So, if you noticed in the previous pics each port goes out at an odd angle, so it looks like there are cockeyed studs. Not only is that my new band name, it's Honda's engineers being smart about maintenance access. Each one points to a gap in the works where you can get a ratchet, as long as you have the correct length of extension. So this bolt, my long extension and short socket works: Same for the next stud over, just enough room for the ratchet: On the left side rear, extensions are too long, but a deep socket is just enough to get the ratchet between the shock and the stud and work properly. You'll find the extension clears the exhaust up front, too, you'll just have to work around the radiator hoses. If you're having any trouble getting the nuts threaded, take this little bastard off. It's the heat shield mounting bracket. I left it on so I didn't have to detach it from inside, but it was constantly in the way. So, problem one: There isn't enough room for the pipe to clear the centerstand. You have to drop the centerstand, feed it into the gap in the pipe there, then re-attach the centerstand before you can wrassle the headers on the front. SF's advice was to loosly fit the rear pipes at the slip fitting to get things lined up for the front. This is opposite of Honda's advice, they say bolt the fronts on first. So I got them loosly fit int he loosly bolted rear pipes -- trust me, you'll NEED a lot of play at first, so just thread the nuts on a little bit back there -- then attempted to line shit up up front. So, I go to lift the fronts up and -- what the fuck man? This isn't even CLOSE to fitting: For some reason, TBR made their pipes very narrow, and you have to somehow spread them out to get them into the ports. I mean SUPER narrow. Like, line one up with a port and the other one is only covering 1/3 of its port. I texted @sfdownhill and asked if this was normal. His response was that this was expected and that he found lining up those back pipes first and loosely slip fitting them helped to get these lined up. I found that a hammer and strong language were more helpful. Then I did a magic trick to get these lined up with their ports a little better. Back to the olden days, when I was pre-internet internet famous for "Moose's Wonder Jig", an appropriately sized piece of 2x4 for getting the radiator out of the way when changing plugs on a 3rd gen. I found a wedge of wood and pounded it between the pipes. From there it was some wrestling, I got one bracket over the studs jsut enough to get one nut screwed a thread in, tapped the other side (another piece of 2x4 on the outside and some gently hammering) until it lined up and got that on. Then the same for the other pipe. By this time the back had popped out of the slip fittings, but they were close enough. Everything was a few threads on the studs and I was able to line up the slip fittings and gently tap them into place. I got them close to tight, slowly tightened all the nuts on each stud a little one each side to walk the brackets down evenly and push the pipes into the ports, then slipped the springs over. One spring disappeared. I mean completely. Slipped off my spring puller, I heard a twang, then it was gone. Nowhere under the bike, nowhere in the driveway, I think it launched into a different dimension. Luckily that previous system has like a dozen slip joints. I took this moment to make sure the slipon lines up: Note the fugly spring. I had to reuse an old one from the delkevic set. Also note couple of Moose's Wonder Jigs lying there and one of two hammering tools I needed to use. There's a deadblow mallet around somewhere, too. Thankfully the can lines up pretty nicely. Then I ran into problems. Sensors, sensors, sensors. First, does anyone know which sensor has the black connector and which has the white? One is 1-2 and the other is 3-4. I've had them disconnected for a while now and I don't know which of that charlie foxtrot collector can from Delk was for which cylinders. Or even if the previous owner had them right. And, second, it looks like the centerstand fouls the Bosch lambda sensor in the back bung: SF claims that he has installed several times with centerstands, so maybe I'm missing something here, but it was getting dark and I'm a driveway mechanic. Had to put my tools away. I'll look at it in the morning and see what's what. Maybe I did something wrong or am seeing it wrong in the darlking light. It'll be clearer in daytime. So, a lot of effort. The end wasn't particularly satisfying. Just like the debut album from the Cockeyed Studs. Hopefully I'll get those sensors installed and make it run at some point this weekend.

Hi Well I thought I would give you an update to my issue. So I tested the fuel pressure of the fuel pump and that was in spec. I replaced the fuel regulator but got no improvement to the issue. I was then going to go and get the bike dyno tested to see if there was an issue with map or even a fault with my PC 3 USB as it is subject to vibration under the seat but decided to first replace the fuel filter in the tank. On replacing this item my woes have gone including an annoying vibration that used to come in around 4500 rpm. After coming back off the ride with a big smile on my face I decided to get the filter out of the bin and rip it open to look at the filter. Now you have to understand that my VFR is a 2002 model with only 61,000 km (38,125 miles) on it and I have put the last 6,000 km (3,750 miles) on it since I purchased it in 2016 meaning on average the bike has annually only covered 3,500 km (2,187 miles) a year. I don’t think this filter has ever been changed in 17 years. On ripping the filter can open I didn’t find any debris but once I opened up the pleated paper I could see the issue. The filter paper, dirty side, was covered in brown lacquer. The clean side had no lacquer build up at all. I actually got an airline to blow through from the clean side to the dirty side and it Hardly made any difference. Dirty side of filter. You see the area I used an airline on to try and see how dirty it was clean side Close up of area where I tried to clean with the airline. If anyone conducts this filter change don’t bother buying the pre filter as it is just an aluminium scouring pad that I could have bought from Woolworths for $0.99 cents. Not Honda’s cost of $15.00!!!!!

The setup: A friend of mine calls me up and tells me that his rear caliper on his 5 Gen locked up on him. He asked if what I thought the issue was and I could check it out. My first thought was either the SMC or the main MC had a blocked return path or that the caliper pistons were stuck/corroded. He asked if I could help him with a rebuild and would it make sense to do a SS line replacement at the same time. "Yep, best time to do it" I told him. So that was the task. So, after replacing the seals on all three calipers, then rebuilt the clutch MC, the front MC, the rear MC, the SMC and replacing all the OEM rubber lines with SS lines, all appeared to be going great. Bled the clutch, bled the fronts and then bled the rear. Clutch, works great, the fronts, work great, the rear...not so much! The same issue, the rear caliper stays locked. Note we did have a couple of pistons in the right front caliper that didn't want to come out but using a little compressed air and using a pair of spreader pliers, we were able to coax both of them out. Both were replaced for good measure. The Issue: Here are the knowns... 1. When pressing the rear pedal, the center pistons on both the left and right front calipers will engage. 2. When releasing the rear pedal, the center pistons on both the left and right front calipers will release. 3. When engaging the SMC (doing this by hand), the center piston of the rear caliper will engage. 4. When releasing the SMC, the center piston of the rear caliper will release. 5. When pressing the rear pedal, the two outer pistons of the rear caliper will engage. 6. When releasing the rear pedal, the two outer pistons of the rear caliper will NOT release. Doing a little trouble shooting, when pressing the rear pedal and holding the caliper where we can see the pistons, only one wants to come out right away, the other barely moves. If we hold back the one that moves right away and press the pedal again, the one that barely moved, will move slightly and with further presses of the pedal will then move it out more. However, if we try to push the pistons back in, both are a little stubborn but the one that barely moves takes a lot more force. The conclusion: So, considering that the SMC engages and releases no problem, as well as the front center pistons engage and release no problem when using the rear pedal, I have to think that it is NOT the rear MC that is the issue but the either one or both rear main pistons are the culprit. Considering that the lines are new, the MC was just rebuilt, the caliper seals are new, plus the issue we had with the right front caliper and all other aspects of the braking system seems to work as intended, would you agree with my assessment?

Spring is in the air

Due to the unusual warm spring, I pretty much missed the flowerfileds this year. The value for the growers is in the bulb, not the flowers. Hence they "kop" them. Pretty much, but not completely...

For my purposes, it's entirely about heat management. These bikes, especially the 6th gen, are known to run on the hot side and have electrical issues. Since the radiators, R/R, electrical connections, etc... would all be happier in a cooler environment, the idea of keeping every bit of heat inside the pipe you can seems like a good one to me. I've considered getting my stock 6th gen header coated for just these reasons. Anyhow, it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but was recommended against by the fabricator. I'm sure he has his reasons, and from his point of view they are probably very good reasons. If I had put the work into a set of pipes that he obviously has here, I wouldn't be eager to recommend that Billy Bob cover them with goo he bought off the interweb. Anyhow, I apologize if this was perceived as a thread hijacking. I've said my piece and believe my reasoning to be sound.

That's why I researched it. I'm still trying to figure out why my bike runs so hot and what can be done about it. I chimed in because I don't think you can properly ceramic coat these on the inside, so there's a potential risk compared to leaving the SS on its own (which we know will last).

This one gets its own post. Watch your torque! You don't need much. It's 9lbs/12nm. That's like 1/8 of a turn past finger tight. Both the Honda and the Haynes manual say this, so there's no excuse to overtorque. Here's a picture from the Haynes Book of Lies: 12Nm is less than 10lbs. Very little. What can happen if you really crank is that the flange will bend, and this will spread the studs. One of my front cylinders had spread studs, obviously a byproduct of the PO's first attempt at installing the Delk headers I yanked off. I had to tap the flange over the studs to get them down, then walk the pipe into the port with the nuts, which is sub-optimal. If this is the case for you, what I did was go back and forth, a couple of cranks on the ratchet here, a couple there, until the resistance started to increase. Then I gave them 1/4 turn each and was done. I actually think this was too much torque, even, as Lance and I talked about how much 9lbs was and how little it takes to bend a flange. I got NO leaks. I rode the bike for a quick Italian Overhaul to set a baseline for my rapidbike and checked for leaks. None. I then ran errands letting it heat up and cool down 3 times, then checked for leaks and found none. 12Nm is plenty.