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I thought my experience in obtaining OEM hard luggage might be informative/useful for others, because things have apparently changed over the years since the bags were in production. When I bought my '07 Anniversary Interceptor a little over a month ago, I knew I wanted hard bags. I was unsuccessful in locating an Anniversary RWB bike with OEM Honda bags, so once I got it home, I started researching. I pretty quickly decided that I wanted the OEM Honda bags... even though they are basically Givi bags, the mounting brackets tuck them in better, and shape integrates better with the bike. Option #1 was to look for used bags (eBay, etc), but I couldn't find anything, so I started researching part numbers. I was able to find the part numbers for the brackets and bags pretty easily, and discovered that there were originally two separate part numbers for the brackets (side mounts and center brace) and additional part numbers for the bags. I was able to track down the center brace on eBay, and found what I believe to be the last set of side brackets in the US at a dealership in Ohio. I was also able to order the bags new from Honda, and was told at the time I got one of seven sets of blue bags left in the US. Side brackets: 08L41-MCW-1000W Center brace: 08L41-MCW-800B (number no longer in Honda's system) Blue bags: 08L41-MCW-1E0 To my great surprise, the bags purchased under the part number above included all the mounting brackets! None of my research had indicated that would be the case, but then again, almost all the threads I found on the subject were at least 10 years old... All in, it's not a bad deal, and only about $200 more than buying the current production bags and brackets from GIVI (not including my extra brackets... LOL). TLDR: there are still some OEM bags out there, and the blue ones, at least, come with the mounting brackets. On to the rest of the story... When I started installing the mounting brackets it was immediately apparent that they were not going to fit with my Delkevic exhaust. The mounting arm that bolts to the center bracket behind the license plate is angled to match the triangular OEM muffler and wouldn't clear the oval aftermarket muffler. I am fortunate enough to have the ability and tools to do some fabrication, so I cut off the offending mounting arm, and modified the center brace so the stay would be horizontal instead of angled, and thus clear the muffler. Then I welded everything back together. The rest of the mounting procedure was easy bolt-up, per the instructions.

4 years ago I found a prisine VF500F2 tank amongst a see of Italian parts... €150 on day 1, bought it for €50 on day 3.....

Nothing 🙂

Make sure it is connected correctly and not jumpered; do not allow the 12v Black/White wire power to the Brown/Black wire as this Will destroy your ECM? ( Grum's 2 April post). Good luck!

I can say this, don't buy garbage. Better to buy used quality items if price is an issue. On the rare occasion that I wear Cordura type products, I use Fieldsheer. Their product line has changed a lot recently, but used is likely very available. I'm not an aerostich fan. for me, they're way to hot, wet, ugly, and the armor isn't where it is needed when you need it. Just too much movement. You could also do what I do for off road, which is full armor only suit (tops/bottoms) under nearly anything with some abrasion resistance. The armor stays where it should when you need it. There's an enormous amount of quality gear available for not a lot of money these days, especially on outlet areas of sites. Maybe some hint on what you think is important could help us.

I don't do as much touring as I used to, but I do like the utility of hard bags, even around town. I think the widest setup I've had was a 1st gen VStrom 1k with Givi bags... definitely needed a 'wide load' placard! I had Givi 'cruiser bags' on my 'Busa and that was a really nice setup. Much narrower, and top opening. Had to pile more stuff on the seat, but it was a surprisingly good touring mount. I run just a small top box on my FJ-09 occasionally, and that was a nice compromise, but the factory bags on that were pretty narrow, so I usually just ran the bags.

Since I also have an Interceptor with GIVI bags in the garage at the moment*, here's a comparison back to back.... The Honda bags are about 6" narrower overall. OEM Honda: GIVI: * My BIL was shopping VFRs at the same time I was, and after a couple deals fell through, I put him onto a bike here in AZ that was my back-up plan if the deal on the one I bought fell through. He ended up making the deal, so I picked up the bike for him and am storing it until he can do a fly-ride or have it transported back to WI. So for now, I have double parked VFRs in the shop...

Wonder if you have a leaky/ruptured Fuel Pressure Regulator diaphragm? This will dump excess fuel into cylinders 3 and 4 via the vacuum hoses. Might also relate to your bad O2 sensor reading especially if its the 3 - 4 one playing up!

Hiya Johnnie... Even though Freddie Spencer had an RC45 during his High-Performance Riding School days he would instead dice with the students on his VFR... I think that the 5th gen VFR (98 to 01) has more sport and less tour than the other generations... Freddie Spencer's RC45 serial number 6...