Leaderboard

I'm not generally a fan of lighting like this on motorcycles, but I have to say the lights on @SubyRS's VFR are tastefully done. It's not the usual blingy look we see on many cruisers. The placement of those lights reminds me of the the big lifted pickup truck I saw recently that had lights in the wheel wells, highlighting the suspension parts. And while I'm also not a fan of lifted trucks either, I'll admit it looked pretty darn cool. Do what makes you happy and makes the bike look good to you. I added a small Wunderlich frame button to my Beemer a while back. Pure bling, just for looks, no functionality really, and it doesn't stand out, but it makes me smile a little when I see it. 🙂

Heated clothing & gloves is so much better than heated grips. Different ethos, grips are great for slighty cooler than you expected rides. But heated clothing is the thing for proper cold riding. I used to use it commuting on those winter dry days so no ice but very cold less than zero C temps @ 90mph I had to turn the heat down ! 😳

Just to be perfectly clear - SubyRS - who are you calling racist and what specifically did they post that brought you to that conclusion?

I think I've seen lights like that on "Pimp My Ride". 🙂 I figure if you post shots of your bike, then you put up with people who won't like what you've done. And you don't whine about it. Yeah, I don't like neon/LED lights on bikes either.

Do whatever you want with your VFR, If you like it, then that's great and all that matters. But, yeah, there is.

Oh cool you got someone to help you make something up : ) Nobody believes you here now. My Mexican compadres here, many who have homes and relatives in Tijuana, tell me there is nothing similar to "Those" party busses "Down there", and my beautifully lit motorcycle. Your answer sounds contrived and made up, which is ironic because you are not the one that even made it up. You know, if you guys are so bitter and self absorbed to the point where the only thing you can put into a topic is how much you hate on others and what they like about their motorcycles, or how they live, or where they live, I feel so terribly sorry for you. But to add racist bigot to the resume doesn't belong here, or anywhere else. Everybody here that sees the bike loves it and I even received and Ask from an Office Of The Building manager yesterday for permission to use a couple of my LED bike photos for their building entrance lobby : ) Whaaat? That's really cool and very unexpected. Really enjoying my newly lighted VFR800 now every night. Try not to let the ugliness inside hurt to the point where you feel you need to vent it on to someone else. You may have already figured out that it has no effect on me : / Hopefully this added pic of some of the colors my LED Glow lights can do might cheer you up.

Just a follow up on this but I finally sync'd my starter valves to be balanced with cyl #4 and cleaned/rejuvenated my K&N air filter this past weekend. Bike is running much smoother now at low RPMs and throttle openings. VTEC transition also feels smoother, but that may be placebo. Who knows.

Reducing the engine braking makes a real difference to smoothness of the off/on transition. I set it on mine & its great. Re the fuelling I have the latest Bosch wideband sensor & MTB & currently run it at 14.4/1 it runs really good & returns great MPG with no engine temp issues even in hot weather (up to 30c). YMMV 👍

Thank you for the very useful info, that clears up several things. Regarding #3... I only ever notice the issue when I'm stuck going slow behind someone and I'm having to baaaarely keep the throttle cracked open. I end up oscillating from fully shut to barely cracked open with normal small movements of my hand, like from bumpy roads, and it can produce kind of a jerking back and forth motion, but it's really only an issue in this scenario. I think my problem is just that the engine braking is a little more than I'd like... That sudden transition from no fueling at throttle-off to normal fueling when the throttle is slightly opened. My SV650 had a similar issue which I was able to eliminate through a TPS adjustment. What makes me think the engine braking setting might help is this snippet from the software manual: If I understand this correctly, simply enabling the engine braking feature (not sure if it's on by default or not) and leaving it at 0% will still lessen the engine braking from stock, because it is now supplying the same amount of fuel as it would at idle if you fully close the throttle at any RPM, thus reducing the engine braking and make it "jerk" less because you're not decelerating as suddenly by cutting off fuel completely. I'll hook up my laptop to the module when I get home from work and see what's going on. If it's not enabled, I will enable it and report if it improves the issue or not. The RapidBike solved the common lean surging issue where the bike computer seemed to keep flopping from lean steady cruise mode to normal acceleration/fueling. That issue is eliminated after installing the module.

Interesting. I don't think I'll end up using that for now as I don't really see a need for it on my end. I just ended up switching over to 93 octane gas and gave up the ethanol free. Been riding around for about 200 miles and everything feels more powerful and very smooth. I'm liking my VFR a lot more now! I figure I'd ask here first before I hook my laptop up to it. 1) On the default RapidBike Racing config for 6th gens, is the ignition timing advanced as far as it will safely go already? 2) Is there any firmware I need to update on the module, or does it come with the latest updates already from the get-go? 3) Though everything is in general way smoother, I'm still experiencing some herky-jerkiness when transitioning from off throttle to on throttle and vice versa. I feel like this is due to the ECU cutting off fueling when the throttle is closed and that it could be likely resolved by adjusting the Engine Braking parameter on the Rapid Bike. Am I correct in thinking that decreasing the Engine Braking parameter will decrease the jerkiness when going from no throttle to some throttle?

The RBR is one of the most "noticeable" upgrades I've ever done, right up there with getting correct springs the first time. Headers open up the top end with it, but the RBR you will notice all day long at low RPM and midrange. And getting rid of bad closed loop behavior is the best!

And isn't that the beauty of having a perfectly tuned V-4 . . . a delicious, meaty power band that's wide from a motor that's smooth - and you don't have to row through gears constantly. I'll never understand why more riders don't get it. And on top of all that, a sound like no other. Just one awesome package!

I went back through the thread, and other people's screen shots of ignition advance doesn't look like mine. And the engine braking screen is completely different now. I don't feel a need to play with ignition (I can see it applied a map with advances up to four degrees in spots already) but would kind of like to figure out engine braking. I enabled "something" but it doesn't seem to behave any differently than before. Closing the throttle down shuts down the fuel pretty quick. Did a 100 mile ride from San Diego to the other side of the Cleveland National Forest today to shake things out. 81 degrees at sea level here, 65-ish degrees at around 4,000 feet there on the Sunrise Highway. Lots of cruising on I-8 at 75-85 mph and rolling through twisty mountainside stuff. The stupid closed loop behavior is gone, and with the power curve smoothed out, it's a whole lot easier to hold speed on top of that. And the mid range power and response is just fantastic. I was able to just stay in 6th gear going uphill on I-8 with plenty of roll-on reserve to get way fast for passing. Before, at sea level, would usually tend to drop to 5th or 4th. On the mountain side, I stayed in third or fourth for reeeaaaally long stretches, using the whole power band just because I could. Definitely did not have to think much about gears, or worry about getting stuck in the wrong end of the rev range somewhere in a corner, or between corners. This is after ~200 total miles or so. As I do more miles I'm watching it continue to self-tune. If I did nothing else, I'd be pretty happy with how the bike is.

Well RB can claim whatever they like. I had my 5th gen running PC3 with custom dyno tune before RB install. I ran it for 500 miles on narrow band and it was nowhere near as good as the custom tune. So I bought a wideband AFR sensor & fitted that to the dash temporarily. I used it to modify the cells where it was out of whack. It got much better very quickly. Would have been better if I'd had a logger. Took it for a dyno run & it was still off a bit. Fitted an MTB & it was much better, next dyno run was much better. YMMV

Yeah, you don't want to use auto-tune with factory O2-sensor in load-zones higher than 80% due to limited 14.7:1 resolution. You'll need richer mixtures in those zones and max-power is generated at ~13.5:1. Not to mention that +/- variations will be much tighter with wideband. Many modern autos use wideband O2-sensor and can hold 14.7:1 at WOT all way to redline. But that's with exact 14.7:1 mixtures whole way, not +/- 10% variations. The 10-20 revolutions of engine at 16.0:1 before correction is enough to cause ping/knocking/detonation and blown head-gaskets.

That's what I did - I just plugged it in and rode it. Same thing - no flat spots, and I picked up a couple of mpg. I don't know why anyone would buy a P.C. these days.

Well that was a successful test ride! I want to see how it does on longer trips, but I think this absolutely defeats the annoying drop/surge behavior with closed loop control. Did a normal start, full ECU boot, and never did the bike obviously lean out power on me. There were a couple times later on in 4th gear around 5K RPM that I thought it was dialing it back just slightly, with the RB maybe adjusting it right back...but it was so subtle I'm not completely sure, where the Honda dial-back is very obvious. Power curve is very obviously filled-in mid range too. 5th and 6th are much, much more useful and I didn't have to downshift nearly as much. Bike wanted to hit every ramp much faster than usual, which is what I think most people are looking for. No more flat spots 😄 Oh, and I managed to shove my tool kit under the center spine of the rear subframe, across both pockets. It'll be awkward to get them in and out but I really don't use them that much anyway. Will post pictures later. Going to be a while, but now I'm very interested to see what the mid range will feel like after I install the VFRD headers. And come back with a wide band O2 sensor of course!