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I just recovered my VFR after extensive maintenance was performed. Wow does it feel smooth and fast after the service ! 1) Valve Clearances 2) Replace Fork Oil 3) Replace Rear Shock After reading all the commentary on this forum and others about leaving the valves alone, I did just that. That strategy ( if it ain’t broke/don’t ask don’t tell) worked great for the first 60,000 mi of this VFR’s life. Then the top end started making ticking noises,not bad but enough to make me a bit paranoid. 6 Valves were out of spec and required replacement shims. Because the top end was ticking, new Cam Chain Tensioners (CCTs) were installed while everything was apart. I con-cured with my mechanic that it certainly couldn’t hurt to do CCTs. The suspension maintenance was routine. I had the forks and shock upgraded with Jamie Daugherty components at the 18000 mi mark in 2018 so it was time to do a refresh. Replace the fork oil/seals and swap in another oem VFR Deluxe shock upgraded by Mr Daugherty. I’m lucky to have a talented mechanical group to service my VFR (2TOPIA Cycles in Charlotte). They usually are working on Ducatis, Aprilias, and BMWs but, are willing to make an exception for my VFR. Shame on Honda for making valve inspection/adjustment such a tedious affair. Glad I’m not the one actually doing it ! With the exception of skipping VTEC Valve adjustment/inspection, I believe in regular maintenance. Spectro 10w40 full synthetic every 4000 mi. Oil filter changed every 8000 mi. OEM Honda. A new airfilter (OEM) every 10000 Mi. My VFR has never done a track day but, it does get ridden hard occasionally on the street. I’m still planning to complete the “quest” with it. Ride the lower 48. Brag about having 100,000 mi plus on the Odometer !

Well, you just never know. I have a friend who just got back into bikes after a 40 year hiatus. Over coffee one day he said both his kids were away this summer and he thought his wife would be fine with him doing a road trip out to Calf. and back for about 30-40 days. Well I had ridden with him a few times and noticed things like going into neutral at stop lights and signs, forgetting to turn off turn signals, relying on mirrors rather than turning for a look, that were worrisome. So I few days later while putting a new chain on his bike I bluntly invited myself along for the first few days to get him started. He really wanted to see Niagara Falls, so I said I'd turnaround there, or visit family in Erie. In 45 years of motorcycling I had never had the urge to go to Niagara Falls, but well, now I was. On Wen July 15th I pulled up to his driveway at 0630. Our destination that day was Burlington VT, only 300 miles but almost all backroads. He had wanted to go through North Conway in NH and ride the Kanc, but I told him that's best done in early May or late Oct as in the summer its a 30 mile long Harley Parade. We headed out and picked up Rt 2 and headed for Berlin in NH through the mountains of western Maine. My buddy had never been there and was surprised at how nice the riding was and we had the roads to ourselves. We skirted Mt. Washington as we went through the White Mountains in NH and then into the Green Mountains of Vermont. It was a great start to the trip for my buddy as it wasn't hectic and I could gently persuade him of the benefits of being in first gear covering the clutch at stoplights. We pulled into the Doubletree Hotel next to College Hill, I've stayed here a number of times before, short walk into town, large clean rooms, and plenty of safe parking for the bikes. As I had been up until 0330 the night before it was an early dinner and early to bed for me, like asleep by 8pm.The pic is of my buddy as we did a liquid debrief of the days activities. Next morning I was up at 0530 greatly refreshed, my buddy shortly after. Since I had fallen asleep he had booked our hotel in Syracuse, it was 15 miles out of town with various fast food as the only local option, hmmmmmm. Well they were calling for hail later in the day in that part of NY and the hotel had no covered parking, so we diched that and I booked the Crowne Plaza. Its within walking distance of lots of great places to eat, there is attached covered parking which they kindly never charge for when I'm on my bike and it was the same price. I've stayed there 9-10 times and never been disappointed. We headed out around 0700 to the south to take the Fort Ticonderoga ferry across Champlain. Well despite checking their web site the ferry was not operating so we back tracked to a bridge that goes over to Crowne Point in NY. From there we hopped on RT 8 and into the Adirondacks. It was an easy days ride through some beautiful scenery. My buddy was quite nervous about the weather and we pushed on as he was unimpressed with my solution of parking up at an underpass or gas station. We pulled into the garage just as the weather hit, there was wind, hail and rain, but it was over in an hour, it wasn't that bad. We walked into town and had dinner at a place called Francescas. At 5 pm we got the last 2 seats in the place, at the bar. The girl tending the bar was tall and blond and less than half our age, so I didn't hear much from my buddy for the next 2 hours 🙂 Next Morning was the big day, we headed out early and slabbed it to Buffalo and the Niagara Falls. With that off the bucket list My buddy had planned on staying in Buffalo, but after a look around he decided to join me on to Erie. I texted my nephew that we had booked a place and stop by for a beer after work. We headed off then got on a small road the ran along the Lake. Lots of vineyards and small towns, nice ride. In one of these towns I saw my buddy's right signal was on, we were going straight, I tried to get his attention when the inevitable happened, a woman in a pickup came to an intersection and seeing the turn signal on his bike pulled out. Well he didn't hit her as she stomped on her brakes and he slid by her front bumper. We had a little chat later at the hotel...... I checked my messages when we got there and realized I had not hit the send button, so I called my nephew and he said "You're where?" Here in Erie I said, come by for a beer. He and his wife stopped by an hour later and took us to dinner. My nephew and I were chatting as my buddy charmed his wife. The conversation turned to his 12 year old daughter, my great niece and how it was a shame we couldn't get her to Maine last year. I had gotten called to a ship and spent most of my summer overseas. Well I said when I got back home I'll make it happen. "Why not on the motorcycle?" he said. Well I was speechless. I had 10 years ago taken my daughter cross country after graduation from HS to Calf where we took Rt1 and 101 from the Mexican border to the Canadian border then back to Maine. She was on for 26 days and 8,000 miles, no problem. I also have high sided and totaled motorcycles on 2 continents, a VF700S in the mountains of NC which earned me 2 surgeries and 4 days in the hospital and a perfectly good Ducatti 750 Super Sport, which was not mine, in the mountains of Wales. The guys I was with would not take me to a hospital as that would involve the men in blue asking lots of questions so I was dragged to the home of one of them to have his nurse wife patch me back up. So I'm not exactly a choir boy when it comes to riding. When my nephews wife was apprised of our conversation she looked at me then her husband "We'll talk". I didn't need my secret decoder ring to know what that meant...…. The next day we hung around the hotel and chatted before went our separate ways, my buddy had 2 days to catch a ferry across Lake Michigan, me I was going to have a look at my nephews sailboat that had some rigging issues, Despite being Sat, he and his wife had business commitments, so I headed of to repair a few things on their new to them 35 foot sailboat. Although I work on ships now I started on sailboats in the Caribbean 39 years ago. I was just fishing up at 530 pm when my nephew showed up on his 84 VF1000F, BTW, riding out to the boat and back to my nephews every single rider waved and they were mostly on Harleys and mostly initiated it. We got back to his place and were having a quiet beer, when I realized we had not finished our conversation from the night before. I leaned over and said I assume nothing is happening with my young niece and I'll head out tomorrow am. "No, no, we talked about it and we're fine" Well I did not see that coming. "Are you still OK with it?" I had a think and said I need to see all her gear she will be wearing and we need to figure out a backrest "No problem, we'll build one tomorrow" The helmets were all way to big so my nephews wife got on the phone, a perfectly sized 3/4 showed up shortly after, leather jackets, nope, nope a snug fitting one, done, Jeans would have to do, at least they were real jeans, not fashion, the boots looked oddly familiar until I was reminded they once belonged to my daughter, check. Gloves were a problem until I remembered I had a spare pair, Kangaroo palms, Kevlar stitching and heel of the palm pad, carbon knuckles and a 3 point closure system I had personally crash tested in Wales with another pair, good to go. I called my wife to fill her in and I swear to God every single person in the neighborhood heard her say "You're doing what!!!!" I'm going to break this up to make it more manageable. Frist pic, liquid debrief in Burlington VT. Second, my buddy loading up in Syracuse, Third, me at the Falls, notice the shirt Fourth, my nephew and I in his driveway 30 seconds before I found out I had a 12 year old passenger going back to Maine.

Sept 14, Just back from the shop. 60163 Mi.

Just wanted to say hi to you all on this forum heard some good reviews about this site.. so hi everyone..😎

For the bikes I've looked at so far the best tells if it was on it's side for me were: mirrors (these seem repainted at the mirror back part) rear brake pedal (usually gets bent in, can't tell from this picture for this bike) the pillon handles (these seem scuffed on the second picture) Fairings might be original, just repainted. Usually you can see this on the inside when you remove them as they wouldn't be fully painted there and can check for repaired cracks form a fall. If the bike was repainted the lacquer finish should be inconsistent and might have a sort of orange peel look at the small and curvy parts which are hard to reach, like under the seat edge of the rear fairing. If it was painted professionally enough so that you can't find anything wrong with it you shouldn't worry, as someone paid good money to have it done right. If it was wrecked usually no one would have bothered to go into such detail.

Batteries can either fade away, or just die suddenly. My understanding is that the inside of the battery has many thin lead plates separated by the glass matt (in an AGM battery) or gel with the electrolyte present. The lead surface develops fatigue from cycling and eventually starts to shed, and the shed particles can form a bridge between the plates and cause the short. This seems to be more common in a hot battery than cold, so the dying battery will seem fine on a cold start but then won't have enough juice to start the hot engine. I can also confirm that crossing the polarity with jump cables is a very bad idea, they melt quite fast...

The battery is the quickest thing to change and would be consistent with what you are seeing. If it develops an internal short, then a jump battery will be struggling against that and the jump wires will get quite hot - been there and done that, on my daughter's car. Try repeating the jump battery exercise but with the original pulled out of the circuit.

Hit this a couple weeks ago on my '04. Bought the bike from its first owner with 4,225 miles on it in August 2006. My goal for 2020 was to see this number on my VFR.

3 VTEC Shims out bf spec. 3 Non VTEC shims out of spec.

Wonderful photos. A refreshing change from ride reports (like mine) with photos of "the bike at the monument or at the gas pump", etc. I have to ask - the curiosity is killing me - what is that long/narrow red attachment to the 4th gen's frame just behind the clutch cover?

Amazingly my niece was ready to go at 0615. She wanted a picture of her bike with mine so we set it up. If you look at the right side of the pic you can see the back of my nephews 84 VF1000F. Wish I had taken a picture of it as its in amazing shape. That done with I loaded up and I went over the rules, feet on the pegs always, don't get on/off till I say so, sit up straight, that kind of stuff. I got on the bike, started it up and looked over at my niece. Well the full weight of responsibility hit me like a tractor trailer. I sat there for a full 2 minutes having a think. Right, lets get on with this. I planted me feet and said you can get on now. She put her foot on the peg and the bike started to wiggle and shake, I looked back and saw her lying horizontally on her belly across the saddlebags and seat trying to get upright. For all the world she looked like a baby Seal attempting its first beach landing. Mom and Dad were laughing, I tried not to and failed, and suddenly she was upright. And with that tension breaking moment, we set off with a wave at my nephew and his wife. I felt better as I realized this was going to be a learning experience...……..For both of us. I had picked a route that did not involve a lot of starting and stopping in traffic as I wanted to ease her into this in a pleasant way. So we were on small roads among the vineyards for the first 20 miles or so. At the NY border I headed for the Thruway, limited access, plenty of rest areas, make good time, and on an early Monday morning virtually empty. No 150 miles between stops, I stopped every 50 or so she could stretch her legs, drink some water, etc. At the second stop we inherited a dog for about 15 minutes, which delighted my niece. Being on the slab had its benefits, interesting stories are not one of them. We pulled into Syracuse early afternoon and pulled up to our Hotel. I had chosen a different one this time as I realized no hotels pools, restaurants, bars, breakfast buffets were open, So I chose the Jefferson Clinton which is in the center, a block from the restaurants that were open and some funky little shops for my niece to explore. We were checked in by the head manager who was the nicest woman. She asked my niece all sorts of questions about where we were going, how did she like the bike etc., she was so kind. The Jefferson was built in 1927 and has been carefully restored but many of the original features are still there, its a great hotel. I had only stayed there twice before as I could not normally afford it, but on a quiet Monday night I could and I definitely wanted my niece to have the experience. It had been a blazingly hot day especially on the highway, so I left my niece to shower and primp while I went out and checked a few things on the bike. I called Francescas and was surprised to find they were fully booked, but if I showed up before 5 there might be a spot at the bar. I said I would and thanked them, thinking this will be interesting when a 12 year old shows up. I went up, got myself presentable and we headed out. Walking along we came across a store that specialized in English and French clothing, she went over and was looking at this dress, then walked in. Alarmed I followed her as it looked like something even Cher would not have worn in the 80's. She was pawing through the rack when the manager came up to me and said, "Don't worry, we won't have her size" which were the best seven words in the English language at that moment. Quickly outside again we walked along and she decided she wanted to send a postcard to Mom and Dad, That works I thought. Finally finding one we went back to the hotel and she wrote it out. Walking over to the restaurant she suddenly ran up to mailbox and was trying to put the card in when I grabbed it. Doesn't work that way I said. "Why?", needs a Stamp, "Stamp?" She has lived a sheltered life. We got to the restaurant and the bar was full, but they had a hightop next to it that was free until 630, no problem I said. They were busy and there were Bottles of Prosecco, Aperol Spritz's, Negronis flying by along with Calamari, Mozzarella on impossibly red tomatoes and pasta that smelled like heaven. I have spent about 2 years living in Italy because of my job and I must say this restaurant is the real deal. Well with all the Sophisticates in attendance and the Cosmopolitan atmosphere my niece took notice and when the bartender came up to take our drinks order she looked at my niece who I could see was mustering every single atom of adulthood, or at least teenagerhood in her and said in the cutest little girl voice,"I'll have a Shirley Temple please, with extra cherries" I have never seen a bartender smile so big. She turned to me and I said I need a minute, "stop by when you're ready" she said. I don't even know how to say it, but as much as I love my niece she eternally endeared herself to me in that moment. 12 hours previous I almost binned the whole trip over concerns I had, now I wanted it to never end. About 30 seconds later I went up to the bar, the girl came over and I simply said Thank You, "She's pretty cute" she said. After dinner we went outside, the restaurant has a Vespa parked there and my niece goofed around a bit, then she asked me a question. Well a man has standards, a line in the sand you never cross. For me its things like French rap, Arab rock and roll and sidecars. They do not exist in my universe. Until your little niece asks you sit in a sidecar, a Vespa sidecar no less. That standard evaporated like a keg at a Frat party. As we walked back to the Hotel there were a bunch of bikes parked by the street, all Harleys. As we came up on them we were close enough for us to exchange Good Evenings, 4 guys and a girl in folding chairs nursing beers. My niece wandered over to look at the bikes and the girl called over "what are you looking at?" The seats she said. Well the girl got up and walked over and my niece mentioned what we were doing. Next thing I know my niece has my phone and the two were comparing real estate available to Honda passengers vs Harley. I was the butt of many friendly insults as a result, but the owner of the business excused himself and returned with 2 bottles of cold water as it was pretty warm out still, it was a nice gesture. We sat on the pavement and chatted, my niece is gregarious, me no. She carried the conversation and it dawned on me she finally had a story to tell, and she was very comfortable doing it. It was a great day, the best I've ever had on a bike as it made me think, and think hard early on. Then realize you cannot have days like this unless you are open to them, and that's a difficult decision sometimes. Anyway it was a busy day and I was tired at the end. My niece had the corner room with a king, I had the sitting room with a couch, I could not have been happier. 🙂 Edit, I finally found a picture of my nephews bike, its posted at the end.

Are you hoping to sell it on for $80,005? Because I think you might be disappointed.

The next morning my nephew and his wife and I had a quiet coffee in their back yard. I went through some of the logistics. Although we share the same last name I wanted a photo ID. Passport, check. Medical insurance, card is in the passport, check. Consent form, in the passport, check. Phone? yes. I took out my Atlas and ran them through my route, which was just to retrace my route back. It was low risk virus wise, had lots of Hotels, restaurants and scenery along the way, and points of interest. My only deviation was to spend an extra day in Vermont so I could take her to the Ben and Jerrys ice cream factory. That done I geared up and followed my nephew to his business. He owns a car and heavy truck repair shop and has all the kit needed for coming up with a backrest. after arriving we took off the seat and came up with a plan. We started at 10m and by 2 had the frame together and mounted. No pad yet but he said "I have an idea" We arrived back at the house and shortly after my niece got wind that one of her Teddy Bears was going to be strapped to the back of the bike, well that quickly nixed that idea. So some fiberboard, shop towels and most of a roll of electrical tape stood in for the Bear. The rest of the day was me unpacking gear so my niece had room for hers and checking the bike over, fluids chain that sort of thing. Last thing I said to my niece was please be showered, geared up and ready to go at 0630 the next morning. A couple of shots of the backrest getting made.

Fair enough ! Here's my bike. Thanks for the warm welcome.

Great write-up FromMaine, brought me back to my New England riding days. With me in western MA, my brother (ancient K75) living between Augusta and Belfast, and my best riding buddy (new bike every other year: 5th gen, 6th gen, FJR, ST4...) in Lexington MA, I spent a lot of time on those roads. One summer near the Maine coast we noticed that the rear Dunlop on my 6th gen was now a slick. Emergency calls led me to the Harley dealer on Rt. 3 just east of Augusta. Got me in and out in an hour, cheap, one of my best dealer experiences ever. You just never know.

Me neither, I zero my trip meter at every fill up and usually gas up again around 180 miles or so. I should one day take it past 200 miles, but I haven’t done that to date.

It can be welded. Have to find someone who tig welds and knows what he is doing. Looks like that piece could be stainless.

Used a maxi-sized 30 amp fuse holder to replace the B fuse. Mine was getting discolored.

I don't know of any online VIN checkers that give anything other than the most basic information--which does not include the market designation. But, then again, I'm old school and have paper Honda Parts Catalogues for all of my bikes, so how would I know! I found a .pdf of a ROW 2002 VFR800 Honda Parts Catalogue in my files, however, which confirms what I would have guessed based on my experience with VINs of somewhat older Hondas. In your VIN, "JH2" indicates that the manufacturer is Honda, "RC46" tells us this is a VFR800, "A" I will get to in a moment, "X" is the VIN check digit (which you can ignore), "5" refers to the model year 2005, "M" refers to Honda's Hamamatsu factory, the "7" in the serial number section tells me that model is from the eighth year of RC46 production (1998 to 2005), and the "00055" says that this was the 55th [something] to roll off the line when it was manufactured (probably actually in 2004, but that's irrelevant). Now, back to the "A" I mentioned above. That is the fifth digit in the Vehicle Descriptor Section, and this is the most critical digit in the entire VIN if you want to identify the market for which it was originally designed. "A" is usually the letter Honda used at that time to indicate a model intended to be sold in Europe or the UK, but the exact meaning of the letter or number in that position in the VIN changes from year to year, so you really have to look at the Parts Catalogue for the specific model to know what an "A" means in a given year. Because an "A" usually means a European bike, I would have said it was not a Japanese model because of that, but then I found this: Looks like there were J-spec 6th gens (these are photos of the Japanese version of the bike's Honda Parts Catalog from Yahoo! Japan Auctions): But, look at the last photo. That page from the J-spec Parts Catalogue shows that all of the Japanese models had Frame Numbers and Engine Numbers, not 17-digit VINs, so a genuine 2005 J-spec VFR should have "RC46-14xxxxx" stamped on the frame. So, that bike is not a Japanese model. (Note also the identification picture: they also had standard Honda wings on the tank.) So, what market was it originally intended to sell in? Most likely, somewhere in Europe, based on the "A" in the VDS. But you'd need to ask Honda or check the VDS code in the 2005 ROW Honda Parts Catalogue to know for sure. Ciao, JZH

Check out the classifieds now, I have and Ohlins rear shock and a full set of Race Tech gold valves for your 02 for only $500 plus shipping. Funny I started this thread way back in 06 and it's still a good one.

The bracket was a mistake to order from roadstercycles, Mellodude (here on VFRD)makes a much nicer bracket that doesn’t need to be cut or modified and I could have oriented the connectors towards the back of the bike. Contact Mellodude for more information via a private message. No good! Locktite! Crimped and soldered this had to be taken apart to fit through my chosen path The circuit breaker will reside here Mounted in place All’s is good here Final connection’s shown here