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Hi all i am the new to me owner of a 2003 6th gen VFR800. I’ve previously owned an RC36 but now living in NZ I thought I would add the VFR to my collection to use as a commuter and sometime tourer. I brought it as a bit of a neglected machine, hadn’t been cleaned or properly looked after in years. Anyhow, 4 days of mechanical bits like CCTs, full servicing, bit of wiring and a damn good clean and polish she is on the road and riding lovely. A couple of little niggles that seem normal for this gen VFR for me to work through but what an awesome machine. It’s up there with mileage being at 163000 kms but seems sweet as a nut. Pic attached, all original panels with a few battle scars and micron end cans. Great to be in the forum and I’m sure I will be asking a few questions. cheers

Welcome to the forum, Johnnie! I've never done track days, but I rode a 6th gen. VFR for over 14 years for a great variety of uses - commuting, touring, sport-riding in the twisties, and even lazy Sunday fun rides for a few hours. In my opinion, the VFR's strength is its all-arounder-ness. It's capable enough to embarrass less experienced or talented riders in the corners, but if they're on newer liter bikes, they'll probably whiz right past you in the straights. But if you're only doing track days and not racing, I think you'd have a blast on a VFR on the track and on the street. The V4 engine is just a terrific blend of power and character, especially when revving it from mid to high rpms. The big plus for many VFR owners are its ergonomics. I can't imagine riding a supersport more than 30 minutes at a time, but on my old VFR I frequently did all-day rides and trips where I rode 400+ miles a day. It's a bike that will get you to the good mountain roads comfortably enough, rather than having to trailer it, so you can enjoy the ride to and from, not just in the twisties. VFRs are not light, but the others above are right - once you're moving the weight is a non-issue. And the additional heft does make it more stable, including in high winds. And as others said above, too, it will run forever. And the wealth of information on this forum is a huge plus to VFR ownership.

Nah. I've done it after a couple days on the 1992 VFR footpeg brackets and pedals.

Nope. The rear reservoir can hang intact. Good idea on the female / male.

Welcome aboard! These are really great machines, I have an 01 and an 09 and both do great for both fun and commuting purposes. I put over 100k miles on my 09 doing the touring/commuting thing and it's still going, although I did end up swapping out the cam chain driven VTEC engine for a 5 Gen gear driven cam engine, Otherwise it was typical maintenance to keep her going.

Congratulations on your 6th gen. and welcome to the forum! The bike looks good for its age and mileage in my opinion, especially considering it was neglected for a while. Thanks for bringing another VFR back to life! 👍

VIN Number is stamped on the R/H side of the steering head. Here's what you should be looking for - a dot stamped just above the J. (Thanks for the pic Skids!)

I actually have 2 VFRs, a 5 Gen and a 6 Gen. I set them up slightly different and for two specific purposes. My 5 Gen is setup for sport/track riding and my 6 Gen for touring/commuting. When I first set them up, the first thing I concentrated on was suspension. For the 5 Gen, I went with a fully adjustable rear shock and added rebound adjusters to the forks. Again, this is for my sport riding intentions. Though I initially kept the rear passenger pegs for my wife, she didn’t care for riding on this bike. But for me, it is great on the track and on canyon roads. On the 6 Gen, more closely related to the 8 Gen 2014 model, I went with a more ergonomic approach and tailored the suspension to touring and commuting. There I added a remote preload adjustable shock, due to my varying cargo I might haul and the on and off my wife being a passenger. With the top case (with back rest) my wife finds it a lot more comfortable. The ergonomics part, I installed Heli-bars, which have a higher rise and more shift towards the rider. This along with a touring wind screen made the ride much more comfortable for me too. All that said, I’ve ridden both bikes at the track and on canyon roads and both are very capable in those situations. Once the suspension was upgraded, I turned my focused on other “performance” upgrades but with just the suspension upgrades, both bikes became much more enjoyable. I hope this was helpful. Cheers, D

One of the times I attended his school in Vegas was right at that time. He used it as his coaching bike. Watched him left hand throttle, knee down, reach under his left arm with his right hand and point at the apex. He said he also RAILED the new aluminum framed Goldwing and scared some of the journalists and Honda reps, 2 up.

As mentioned above, download the manual here or get your hands on a hard copy. It's invaluable if you are a diy type. Once you pull the clutch cover, use a q-tip soaked in simple green or wd-40 to clean the metal shield and the inside of the sight glass. This is the fastest & easiest way I have found after doing hundreds of them. The sight glasses and shields do build up with grime after high mileage and/or infrequent maintenance.

Clutch cover removal is easy. Advise to have a replacement gasket. Instructions are in the repair manual available here for download.

Hey, welcome on board! The oil capacity for the 2002-2006 VFR 800 was 3.1 litres (I think). I'm fairly sure it's the same for 2006 onwards too. As for cleaning the oil sight glass - you can put the bike on it's sidestand, remove the clutch cover and clean the inside of the oil sight glass using some solvent, brake cleaner, electrical contact cleaner etc - if you do that I think you'll need a new clutch cover gasket when refitting. It's possible it's just moisture too and when the bike really warms up and you're out for a long spin that cloudiness will clear up.