Leaderboard

You have to remove the entire rear tail assembly.. It's not that bad of a job. You'll also need to remove the radiator overflow tank. This will get you all the access to replace the rear brake lines. Also removing the rear wheel will give you good access to the rear wheel line too. Of course, you'll need to remove the rear master cylinder too.

You guys should see brake lines that are really worn out and feel them expand in your hand...it makes it much more obvious what's going on 😄 All materials in nature respond to force, pressure or otherwise. Even when you're pressing your hand against a wall. It may be imperceptible or trivial, but they do. In the case of brake lines, expansion of the brake lines under pressure reduces the overall pressure. This will reduce the overall pressure going to the piston and we'll feel it as "sponginess" or similar words. The ideal brake system has zero movement at the fluid boundaries except at the master cylinder and the piston. But that's impossible in the physical universe. So higher end brake systems will have higher degrees of stiffness at the boundaries, whether it's stiffer fluid lines, single piece vs. two piece calipers, etc. Anyway, yes...SS braided lines do increase overall force to the brake system and reduce sponginess. Whether it's a trivial or significant amount is both a math answer and a subjective one. I'm pretty happy with the stock 6th gen lines at 18 years old, although admittedly I'm not pushing them very hard. But I've changed lines on bikes that desperately needed it. My truck could really use some SS lines, along with a couple other things.

Meh.... To each their own.... I do agree on "Power Mods", but looks and suspension...... Before and After......

I was under the impression that ss brake lines did not expand with use while 'normal' lines did. So that, when you squeezed the brake on normal lines, some of your force went into that expansion, like squeezing on a balloon. With steel lines, all your levered force went through to the pistons. So it not only would feel tighter, but would actually be tighter. But as usual, I'm talking through my hat. I've never had the circumstance to know any real difference. Granted the piston and pads are predetermined, but maybe lesser force would be required with ss lines to achieve the same braking performance?

Ah yes - the joy of working on Hondas. I've wrenched on some Suzuki's and a few other brands, but IMHO Honda seems to have mastered the intricacies of either 1. Attaching each and every part of the bike to every other part or 2. Hiding pieces behind a byzantine array of brackets or major pieces that can make it an exercise in frustration to get just the smallest bit removed. On a 6th gen ABS, just to remove the rear shock is an all day project - non ABS? maybe 20 mins. Honda must hire design engineers who formerly worked on those wooden puzzles that start out as a cube and you have to figure out how all the intertwined pieces come apart. Don't get me wrong - I my Honda's. However . . . when working on them (like right now), I'm often reminded of the Joan Jett song "I hate myself for loving you" . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpNw7jYkbVc Stick with it - you'll get it. The benefit of it you can't see at this moment is that once done, you'll know the bike way better and will be the subject matter expert for others that follow.

When I did mine, it was daunting because I didn't know what to take off? But now that I've done it once, I can tell you... dissemble the entire rear section... take lots of pics and videos. You'll find out that Honda did a lot of smart things.. I think the biggest pain was making sure YOU NEVER drop a bolt!!! AND VERY IMPORTANT.. .inside the rear swing arm you'll see a square hole about 2" x 2" YOU HAVE TO TAPE that hole up so anything you do drop doesn't go inside. Ask me how I know?LOL!! Fortunately, I had a flexible magnet with a light and the bolt was magnetic... But the bolt ricocheted and went right into that hole and was inside the hollow swing arm LOL!! I was delayed by about 15 mins, but it could have been a lot worse.

Hi Skids. Ok it does appear the previous owner would have had this done to lower the seat height. You can purchase lowering plates that do the same job but hopefully they wouldn't block access to the adjuster. So it does appear yours needs a rotation of one position clockwise to have it back to normal position. My 8gen is exactly as your last drawing and the small arrow must point forward. Can't offer more than that!

One of the things on my list for this new to me bike was to CLEAN it, I only own one other full-fairing bike and I forgot how dirty the frame and components get under all of that body work. When working on things I tend to clean as I go, but then you make a clean spot and end up spending the next 3 hours with a rag and some cleaner and sore the next day. I knew the VFR was easy to work on, just unclip the fuel filter and the entire rear fender assembly comes out with 4 bolts.....(makes cleaning easier). A lot of the work was cleaning up old chain grease while changing to new sprockets and chain. Ended up taking the shifter and side stand assemblies off the bike to clean them because they needed a more serious degreasing. Bike is pretty clean now. Will just need to clean, wax and polish the plastics and tank when that all goes back together.

Hello Gebruiker, Thanks for the kind words. I'm not sure what type of plastic was used for the original heat shield but I think the Kydex brand of plastic I used is a more modern composite. Kydex is super strong, drill-able, easy to shape and one of the key features is that it is easily heat molded. It is used to make modern (non leather) pistol holsters and knife sheaths. As far as the intake, I would guess someone was doing some tuning. It is not unreasonable that if you want to check and see if you are running lean to block off part of the intake and see if a more rich fuel mixture is what is needed, I just think their execution was poor, doubt it did anything. I'm running wide open snorkel !!

No hardly. Batteries are multiple lithium cells of certain capacity and size. Take apart a battery from a power tool/drill you have, many are rebuildable and there are businesses that do just that, cheaper than OEM.

Grum, unfortunately the Galfer braided line kit seems to come with all of the Viffer hydraulic lines. Maybe a marketing ploy. We all know that braided lines are an improvement, but like you I doubt I would get much benefit out of a rear line or clutch line. Fronts are a little different and make the bike feel tight.

There's been enough empirical evidence from millions of users that lithium batteries are plug-n-play compatible with lead-acid. I've used same Shorai lithium battery for past 10-years without any issue on factory RR on my CBR600RR. Only issue I had was when I transferred el-cheapo $45 4-cell lithium battery from my Ninja 250 race-bike to Ninja 250 street bike. I left lights on when walking down driveway to get mail. Talked to neighbor for about 25-30 min and headlight had discharged battery below limit. It couldn't be revived no matter how long I charged it (didn't have over-discharge protection circuit). Of course it worked fine in race-bike for 3-yrs because I didn't have headlights to leave on. RR has no idea what battery it's charging. No one's posted any real numbers. How about fully-charged voltage of batteries: Lead-acid battery is 12.6-12.7v (13.8v fresh off charger). LiFePO4 battery is 13.3-13.4v (14.4v fresh off charger) Regular RR will tend to undercharge lithium battery. But that's OK as long as it has enough juice to start engine. Charging up to 80-90% will yield maximum life out of lithium battery. LiFePO4 batteries can also accept charging-rates 10-30x higher than SLA. So you can connect them to auto-battery charger without concern like SLA moto batteries. The main differences between them are how to charge them while in storage. Trickle float-chargers that keep battery at 100% charged state is not good for either type. You'll want to use newer 8-stage intelligent chargers that has 8th-stage of "long term storage" that actually turns off charging until battery self-discharges down to 90%. Then charges it back up to 95% or so, then disconnects again and waits. https://www.power-sonic.com/blog/lithium-vs-lead-acid-batteries/ https://www.power-sonic.com/blog/how-to-charge-lithium-iron-phosphate-lifepo4-batteries/ BTW - I've built my own LiFePO4 batteries from scratch from individual 26650 cells and PCB charging/protection circuit. There's no rocket-science here and you can save a tonne of money and weight with DIY. Even carry one in glove-box of auto for emergencies.

I flip my VFR on its handlebars when I change my tires. Like this. 😉

I sold my 6th gen VFR today. Very sad to see it go, but it was time. I'm so grateful for the tens of thousands of miles' worth of amazing experiences and memories made on that wonderful machine. I had seriously considered a couple other bikes when I bought my 2004. Specifically, a 2nd gen Yamaha FZ1, a Honda Superhawk, and a Kawasaki ZZR 600. I know without a doubt I bought the best possible bike for me, and it was terrific for almost all of the 14+ years I owned it, and the 96,700 miles I put on it. Also, I'm very happy I rode my VFR enough and kept it long enough to see 100,000 miles on the odometer. That had been a major goal of mine for several years now, and I'm glad we made it there this fall before I sold the bike. I'm also grateful for this forum. VFRD has been very important to me, not only for the technical knowledge, entertainment, and commiserating with fellow VFR owners, but for the friendships I've made, and the riding experiences with other members. Huge thanks to Miguel and all the Mods for making this one of the best sites on the net. With the sale, I am back to a single bike again - the new BMW R nineT Pure I bought a couple months ago. I'll be modding it over the winter to make it the all-arounder I need it to be to replace my VFR. But I'm not ruling out buying another VFR someday. Also, I'll still be around VFRD once in a while, and still hope to make a group ride here and there. Happy riding and be safe, folks! 🙂