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This a.m. I looked at my profile and noticed that I joined the forum 10 years ago today. Thinking back, I had not been on a forum previously and no idea what I was getting in to. I also signed up on the "other" VFR forum, but it never quite clicked for me - I've spent most of my time here. Along the way I've been able to take some great trips to attend meets, see things I probably would not have as well as find out loads of information to do mods and repairs that I would never have known about. But most importantly have been the people. I've made some lovely friends that I keep in touch with and occasionally get to ride with - the people on here have been the best! I guess with any forum it's "easy come, easy go" - members simply disappear in to the mist - life or interests change and they move on. Some have been ones I really enjoyed and wish would have hung around, but that's life. However new ones come to take their place and new friends can be made. Mostly I would like to say "Thank You" to Miguel for creating and putting his energy in to this forum for us all to enjoy. I've had the pleasure of meeting and riding with him. I'm not sure he knows how much effect he's had on people's lives by doing this for us. It's a big commitment of time for him - we should all be grateful. Don't take it for granted. I hope we're all still doing this 10 years from now - in some regards I have my doubts - mainly because the tide is turning against what we like to do. So I take every ride as a blessing and consider it a success when I roll back in to the garage with the bike as nice and shiny as it was when I left. 2020 will probably not be a year for us all to be out much, but am looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones in 2021. So a big THANK YOU to Miguel - it's been a great ride! Shiny side up

Bringing this thread back because............I finally finished my conversion - Ducati, 848 rear hub, OZ 5.5" wheel, conversion kit from Extreme Creations in Oz, aftermarket cushdrive and sprocket kit, some Ti hardware as well. About 100mi so far, no issues

So recently, I had the oh-so-common Honda (Goldwing, CBR1100XX, ST1300 and VFR800 combined braking system) rear brake lock up, dragging issue. The rear brake pedal felt mushy like there was air in the lines, and the rear brake barely stopped the bike. However, the rear caliper was binding the rear disc. Starting from a complete stop would make the bike judder like there's something wrong with the clutch. Bike would generally feel sluggish around town. I would also smell burning brakes after coming to a stop from a sustained high speed run. When I put the bike on the center stand and depressed the rear brake pedal, it would mush all the way in its travel. However, when I tried to spin the rear wheel, there was A LOT of resistance. After several minutes the resistance faded a bit, but there was no free spinning the rear wheel for hours. Depressed the pedal again, and rear wheel would bind again. This illustration is EXCELLENT and helped me troubleshoot the issue. (Not sure of the original source of the diagram but I came cross it from our own Courtuk's post). After locking up the rear wheel, when I opened the bleeder for the rear outside pistons, nothing happened; wheel was still locked up. Thus, the problem wasn't with the outside pistons sticking nor the rear master cylinder which is directly plumbed (red line) to the rear outside pistons. When I opened the bleeder for the rear center piston on a locked wheel, fluid came out (pressure released), and the rear wheel was free. Thus, the problem wasn't the center piston itself. When I opened the bleeder for the PCV on a locked wheel, fluid came out (pressure released), and the rear wheel was free. Thus, it wasn't the line between the PCV to the center piston. When I depressed the SMC manually on a free rear wheel, the rear wheel was locked only when the SMC was in the depressed position. Once I released the SMC, the rear wheel was free. Thus, the problem wasn't between the SMC - PCV - rear center piston (blue line). When the front wheel was off the ground, the front wheel spun free. Thus, the problem wasn't between the RMC - delay valve - front center pistons. Everything pointed to the inside of entry port of the SMC. Or what's known as the "green filter". Reading ST-owners forum and an anecdote from our own Duc2V4, simply cleaning the "green filter" or rebuilding the SMC doesn't solve the problem. Honda technician on ST-owners forum, Igofar, recommends replacing the SMC rather than trying to clean it or rebuild it. So, that's what I did... 06454-MBG-425 $132.94 on Partzilla when I ordered it on 4/27/2020... Here's the inlet port (green filter of the new SMC vs the one on my bike)... Look at all that crud in there... Here's the consequence of riding around with a sticking rear center piston... GAWD!!! I put everything back together, and the brakes work fantastic now. Rear disc is still warm to the touch... warmer than the front discs. I wonder if running them hot cooked the seals in the calipers. Might have to rebuild those, AGAIN!!! ARGH!!! There are reports of Goldwings bursting into flames and other bikes blowing out their brake lines from overheating the discs and consequently the calipers and the hydraulics. Moral of the story: If you are rebuilding brakes on a VFR800 with neglected hydraulics, Secondary Master Cylinder REPLACEMENT should be a top priority! The SMC is the weak link when the brake system is neglected. I didn't know that. I rebuilt all calipers, seals and front master cylinder, but I took my chances with an old SMC because I was ignorant. If you are refurbishing a neglected VFR, do yourself a favor and buy a new SMC before it becomes NLA.

On normal roads, the bike always until about 110mph, then I'm usually happier in the car. But bike on track at any speed. There was a test done a few years ago, with a sports car & bike, even on a continuous circle test the bike was just a little quicker. But in most performance car V bike race track tests the cars are always significantly quicker in the corners, but lose out on acceleration, so the bike usually wins, by a nose, having slowed the cars in the corners by using its acceleration to get to every next corner first. But the cars are true super cars & 10K for a bike comapred to 150-200K+ for the car, on that basis alone the bike wins.

And it's done... I hope. As long as nothing falls off (crosses fingers). I can't believe the engineers/designers who created the motorcycle and the OEM luggage rack were ever in the same room or even talked to one another. Hopefully my journey is at an end with the luggage but probably not as I will show you a few issues. As I had purchased a used kit I found out I was missing some pieces as this thread details. I received my printed parts yesterday and added the luggage today. Here is one of the printed pieces. It's an elastomer plastic so it has some give and flex but not the same as the more rubbery OEM pieces. It seats pretty well and once you turn the bolts it flexes into place. Time will tell if weather and stress will damage the printed piece. Unfortunately I had other missing pieces, the bolts that hold the grab rails were not included and the stock bolts are too short. I had to go to the hardware store and pick these up, since they are hex-head bolts and not allen head the black caps do not snap into place. If I can find some proper allen bolts I will replace. Here she is in all her glory. Thankfully Honda used the same white paint on the 2006 (the used bags I bought) as the 2007. I may add some vinyl pinstripes or stripes later. Some of the other missing pieces in the used kit were some spacers that sit between the license plate holder and rear luggage bracket. Because of this I could not get the license plate mount and light to lock down properly. It's fastened tightly but because of some play it has some wiggle to it. A very big thanks to TriumphTraitor, my luggage would still be sitting in my house in boxes had he not come through with his contacts and his sample pieces for scanning. I have the 3D file if anyone ever needs these pieces. You will have to find your own printer, I used Proto3000 in Ontario. I should add the crew at Proto3000 were amazingly helpful. I don't know how many small one-off projects they get but they treated me like a big-time customer.

had a fairly productive afternoon yesterday. I managed to get a load of jobs ticked off my list. one of them being a bracing around the headstock -pics: I then realised I was nearly at the point where I could stand the bike on its wheels, so i quickly fitted the forks and built the thing back up: This has been a big motivational boost for me as its turning out exactly as I planned. really keen to get cracking with it now. I can see this 2 to 3 year project being roadworthy by August.

Hey there boys and girls, its time for another update. So I was disconnecting the OEM o2 sensors and in the process I noticed some... fuzz under the throttle body. Yeah, some vermin had crated a nest under there. Packed it full of old carpet pieces and dryer sheets and such. So I grabbed my pick and started pulling it all outta there and guess what? That little bastard was still in there! Dead, but still there. My trusty assistant (daughter #3) was disturbingly eager to get it out of there and quickly returned from my tool box with an air blower, longer pick, flat head snap on screwdriver and ill intent in her eyes. I told her we gotta pull the tank, air box and TBs to get that guy out and she literally said "lets F'n do this"... shes 14... Im so proud. We pulled the tank and then the warden rang the dinner bell. To be continued...

2nd set of front wheel spacers installed, made a little smarter this time. Was able to install the right dust seal and wheel is now perfectly centered. Blue fender looks way better out in natural light. Not a perfect match, but it is damn close and looks good. Also made a new plate mount and rear turn signal brackets, tucked up nicely.

Turning a beautiful golden hue.

The funnest car I have ever owned was the first year Honda CRX. Red, of course. A true go-cart for adults (and for me also). Stock photo below but that is exactly what mine looked like. Check these specs: 1488cc inline four 1764 lbs (!!) 5 speed 2 seater 86 inch wheelbase With such light weight, extremely low to the ground, and normal rubber it could generate incredible g-force! Loved that car. Two years later I was offered a position which came with a company car, so we sold it. Aaaargh. But at least I did buy a VFR that same year...

I'm stuck in the 80's cars too....

Well, after hours of huffing flux fumes, a mild heart attack several more hours of troubleshooting and diagnosing. She's all done! I decided not to flip around the polarizing films after my brief panic attack. I didn't think it was worth the extra stress

I learned that the hard way at a track session on my 6th gen. I thought I was doing really well, peg feeler occasionally touching in the tightest corners, getting a bit full of myself, thinking I must be some kind of hot stuff running the bike near its limit - that is until one of the instructors on another 6th gen went around me and left me behind. WTF??? I never met him, but he put a real whooping on me. I felt about 6 inches tall after that - very humbling. It was what really hammered home to me that it's not the bike, but rider skill that's important. Chuck Yeager once said "The airplane knows when it's in competent hands." The same is true for bikes.

Cages are fast into a corner due to their wide tires and slow to accelerate out of the corner due to their weight... So when I pass a Porsche or a Corvette and the race is on in the bendy bits I slow them way down going into the corner then squirt out of the corner and leave them dead... he he he... that can really frustrate them...

That reddish brown stuff is old brake fluid that turns to paste. DOT 4 should be yellow straw color like crappy light beer. Any shade of brown is not acceptable especially when you have a clog prone SMC. This was the condition of my calipers when I rebuilt them back in December 2019... Every banjo bolt I took apart had this crud in it. That "green filter" and the tiny little hole in the SMC gets clogged with this stuff. It's very difficult to clean it all out if it's stuck inside those orifices. Also, if the SMC piston seals swell out of tolerance, it could impede flow out of the "green filter". Cleaning the green filter and rebuilding the SMC has been reported to work for some and not for others. I didn't want to take a shortcut and learn the hard way. The SMC rebuild kit is $45. I figured I'd spend a bit more and replace the entire SMC for $130. Look at the size of this orifice... Look at the location of the holes in relation to the piston cup seal... Photos are from st-owners forum... https://www.st-owners.com/forums/threads/st1300-secondary-master-cylinder-rebuild-smc.133460/page-3#post-2208421

Thanks to all the replies and kind wishes - even some PM's from you - it just reinforces what I already know about so many of you - a great group of people. How lucky - one of or maybe the best genre of bike ever made and then to have such a great forum to support it. It's amazing that members that have moved on from the V4 formula still visit here regularly. That alone says a lot. But speaking of support, I'm going to put a call out to all of you that able to provide support. We're in a worldwide economic emergency that's been really hard financially on millions in virtually every country. With certainly some if not many members here affected, not everyone is in a position to support the forum - the rest of us that are able need to step up and throw some money in the hopper to help Miguel keep this going for us. He cannot be expected to go it alone. It's a significant financial commitment to rent server space and do all the admin the site demands. We spend a lot more money on going out for burgers each year - by comparison a contribution to the forum is a major return on investment for us. So, here is my ask: Bottom line is that we need people who can to step up and put in their financial support while we still have this forum. There are likely fewer that can contribute this year and maybe even for the next few yeas, so we need everyone that is able to step up. It can't last without that support, so if you haven't so far, look deep and donate what you can and help your brothers and sisters here who are less fortunate. Thanks to all. Cogs

Some photos... Disassembly begins... Fairings are up for grabs Some of the goodies waiting to go on

After a 15 year hiatus I picked up a 2002 VFR last Friday May 22nd. She had 18k and wasn't pristine but the price was right. She had fresh Pirelli Angel ST's and just had her oil change. A bunch of records from the previous 3 owners and OEM saddle bags. I knew she had been down and had been repaired but looked to be all cosmetic. Went for test ride and I immediately wanted to take her home. Made and offer and after a little back and forth settled on number that we were both comfortable with. Rode her home and started thinking about all the general maintenance items I wanted to do. Fast forward to the Sunday before Memorial Day....even though I just bought the 02, I was still watching Craigslist. Saw an ad for a 01. Less miles and some extras thrown in. Emailed the guy and got a reply the next morning on Memorial Day. Setup a time to meet in the afternoon and later that afternoon brought home my 2nd bike in 4 days. LOL! The 01 was a garage queen and hardly even ridden. Never been down and looks to be very well maintained. The guy was the 2nd owner and had the bike for the past 13 years. Aside from the double bubble wind screen she seems to be all stock. Came with a pair of Gaerne boots (fits!), Aerostich Road Crafter( fits...score!), light rain suit, 2 bike covers, rear seat cowl, tank bag, 4 beat up helmets (he said from the original owner),and the original wind screen. For now I plan on keeping both and going through both of them to get them up to date on all services. I will give the 01 fresh Pirelli Diablos, change all fluids, fresh pads and possibly rebuild the calipers, steel braided lines, and setup the suspension for my weight and then go from there. The 02 needs right front brake caliper as it has tiny leak and I need to replace the oil cooler lines as the metal parts are corroded. Will change all the fluids as well. I'll probably add steel braided lines on this bike as well and then setup the suspension. Hope to glean more info here as I slowly get both these beauties up to snuff. When I first started riding I could not afford the VFR, so I settled for the YZF600R (I hear it was called the poor man's VFR....hahaha). I loved that bike. Now I have 2 of the bikes I originally wanted way back then. I'm also on VFRW under the same name. BTW, is anyone else bummed that there is no MotoAmerica, WSBK, and MotoGP?!

What a nice pair of bikes! Except for the seat your 6th gen looks exactly like my red '02. Yes, I too am really missing racing, especially WSBK at Laguna Seca this year. Maybe MotoAmerica will race at Sonoma however. There are quite a few VFRD members here in the bay area, but we don't seem to have a lot of brand loyalty! I think the rule has been that there has to be at least one VFR on a VFRD ride:

Yesterday I fitted the quadlock stem mount and today a double bubble screen, hopefully get it out for a spin tomorrow to check both upgrades out

Floated Bud around the garage with my new Abba Sky Lift. Worth every penny...

Hi, I own a 1994 VFR 750F, RC36/II. I have lurked on this forum for about a year now. Since I decided to start a youtube channel of me working on my VFR I will post the progress also here. I am not a mechanic but that hasn't stopped me yet. Comments and or tips are welcome. Littlehare Garage YouTube

You want Pirelli Angel GT2 A-spec tires, for that bike. The A-spec are a heavier duty carcass and compound designed for heavier sport-touring bikes, like the VFR12. This tire will much better support the weight during cornering and provide much better wear characteristics than the common tires most have suggested/will suggest. You want to replace them together. Just mounting a new set of these tires, properly inflated, will transform your bike.

I just replaced the tyres on my ST1300; visibly I thought they didn't look bad, but I cannot believe how much easier the bike steers with the new tyres fitted, took me a fw km to trust that the bike was not just falling over on it's side, which was another way of saying I was unconciously holding it down in turns on the old tyres.

A bald front tyre is going to give heavy steering

Howdy from Down Under. So a little while ago I bought a VFR750.. in 1992. It was a 88 model and a lovely bike and great sound, but as a youngster with too much money, 6months later I bought a 93 Fireblade. A few years passed and a bunch of bikes later, I bought a new 98 model VFR. I sold a VTR1000 for the VFR and it was pretty much the same power and I could easily mono it without the clutch like the VTR and with the remus pipe it sounded fantastic. That love affair lasted a year or so and then on it went. Some bikes and years later I bought a 04 VFR Vtec in 2014 but there was no longer love there as without the gear drive I felt an aural loss and the VTEC was not pretty. A friend bought it, who ironically had a 95 VFR750 and now enjoys the occasional blast on the VFR800. With the exception of the VFR in 98, since 96 I have only owned twins. Guzzi - which I have 3 currently, ducati, harley, VTR's, TRX850's, buell, but there was always a good chance that another VFR would come along and today it now sits in the garage. Since I had the Blade in 93, none of my bikes have stayed standard, some a lot less than others ! The Blade got an RC30 swingarm and marvic wheel upgrade in 94, my first guzzi in 96 became what was to become my first cafe racer out of many, and my next guzzi V11 got a lot of changes as well. Possibly the most modified was my TRX850 that I did in 2016. Virtually unrecognizable with R1 forks, triumph speed triple swingarm, hyperpro shock, ducati ducktail and seat, custom pipes, R6 radiator, handmade headlight and triples clamps. Anyways.. the VFR800 is a 99 model with about 85,000km on it, and sounds terrific, but doesnt look so great. But as you can tell I like to tinker and make stuff and thats why I bought it. Over the next year or so, I will be making my style of a modern version of the Cafe Racer concept. I haven't seen too many VFR's that are my style so to speak, so hopefully it will turn out nice. Basic concept is a naked with USD front end, vfr800f rear wheel setup (in the post as I write), brembo rear caliper - strangely enough I made a caliper plate for a VFR800 swingarm that I mounted to a VTR1000 (thats another story..), TLR or similar radiator, some nice rearsets, single speedo tacho classic acewell gauge, suitable ducktail/rear end and a nice set of pipes. Below are the TRX, ST2 duke and Guzzi V11 so you can see where the VFR will go to over time. I'm really looking forward to sitting on this and hearing the engine whir like the precision instrument it is.. come along for the ride too. and the caliper bracket I did for the VTR The builds are on my flickr pages if you're interested https://www.flickr.com/photos/knumbnutz/albums No doubt I'll be asking a million questions, so bare with me. Cheers Neil

There are two advantages I see in a sports car over a motorcycle in the twisties. Deer collision is the obvious one, the other is sand or debris in a corner. The only sports car I've owned was a 1980 Triumph TR8 (a TR7 with a 3.5L aluminum block V8). Fun to drive and motor with the top down but a pain in the rear to own and maintain - it spent as much time getting r/r as it did on the road. I was very well aquainted with the Prince Of Darkness. But it was nowhere near as fun or as exciting a my fifth gens are. (I do love to drive. And my eighth gen 2008 Honda Civic 5 speed is adequate for entertaining driving. But it is only transportation. Being a life-long devotee of "Small Is Beautiful" philosophy, a Mazda MX5 would be a top contending candidate for a sports car if I could afford one and live without the passenger and luggage space.) Likely because humans, whether with guns or vehicles, are their only main predator. What really pisses me off is when their only natural predator, wolves, is hunted. HooRay for wolves - boo for deer.

The '13 MX5 is my remedy for a deer collision. It took some drastic convincing for me to swap my VFR800, CB700SC, and DRZ400 for this Miata. At 60 mph the deer came over the handlebars of my DRZ400. On my first multi day group ride after a year of recovery I came within inches of striking another deer at 75 mph riding my VFR in Oregon. This was on the same road that a fellow rider was killed by deer the week after my near fatal deer collision. After 42 years and over 200,000 miles of riding I decided I could not justify the anguish I was causing my dear wife by continuing. I reasoned that I had been everywhere and done everything on a bike, it was time to move on. I still have my old DT175 Yamaha Enduro which I have ridden a few time off pavement. So I have moved on to the MX5, photography, mountain biking, and chasing around 5 new grandchildren. In early March I thoroughly enjoyed some twisty mountain roads in NW Oregon on a spirited Miata group drive. I would like to get out and do that more often. I have to drive out of the Seattle area for the best empty roads. I know where they all are from years of motorcycling. The MX5 handled remarkably well and stayed very much in control as I pushed it. It was quite close to the thrill of the VFR, I have to drive fast enough to almost scare my self as I did riding. I do wonder what it would be like to chase some of my riding buddies on our favorite roads.

So.... Being on this whole social isolation thing got me going a bit stir crazy and I ended up doing a thing.... I ripped apart my gauges and started playing with the LEDs and swapping over to white from the dated amber... I'm not sure if I want to go as far as flipping the polarized sticker to invert the colours similar to the 8th Gen.. But it is tempting. Hopefully get this all finished up tomorrow!

Ive been using OEM filters and it’s happened twice where the oring from the old filter sticks to the case. My bike dumped out the oil after an oil change due to a “double oring”. I would check that.

Love it!

Traded in the VFR and got myself a Cow-A-Saki. Mows the grass real good.

It's been two and a half years since I bought this bike and put it on the back burner. I had three other projects in the queue to finish first, so I mostly left it alone. While I was finishing up my second '83 CB1123 Rest-mod, I started pulling parts off this one to prep for powder coating and rebuilding. So far the entire brake system is done, along with the rearsets. Brake rotors were surface ground and then I PC'd the centers. Carbs went off to Mike Nixon for rebuilding and are now waiting to be installed. I still have to adjust the valves and PC the valve, clutch, and alternator covers, along with the wheels and fork legs. I'm in no rush to get this one done, but I expect to be finished a year from now. In the meantime, a good friend in Texas who runs a Chevrolet body shop insisted that I ship all the bodywork down to him for repainting last year. In exchange, I did PC work for him and provided parts for his 900F and 1100F projects. My bodywork looked decent front feet, but there were some scrapes, cracks, and broken tabs. He started out by fixing all the cracks and made new tabs to replace the broken ones. He has the same bike, so he used it for checking decal alignment after painting. All that's left is the decal for the rear cowl and clearcoating, then he's giving me the bike and shipping it up to me with the new bodywork installed. This is actually safer than boxing everything up and shipping. When I finish my bike, I'll sell the spare to recoup the shipping cost. (It was a runner.) I may not have any updates for a while, but thought I'd share a picture of his beautiful paint work. I just wish he was local so he could help me paint an old car I'm restoring.

Hi! Bit of a lurker these days but had myself a 2002 model that I put 200,000km on and burned up a stator or two. The stator colour is not indicative of it being burned out. Due to the oil levels in the crankcase, half of the stator is permanently cooled by the oil and the other half is not. Ergo it gets a burned appearance to it. It's likely that's where the failures occur due to the higher heat but it doesn't immediately mean anything. The stator fails in basically one of three ways: Short to frame Short between phases Short within a phase The way that the stator works with regards to the above is that there are 18 separate poles which make up the three phases (6 for each phase). Each pole has heaps of insulated wire wrapped tightly around the frame of the stator in a coil. This wire is thin copper wire with integrated insulation, similar to speaker coil wire. The wire needs to be a tightly wound coil with no shorts in it in order for the magnetic fields to work. Around the outside of the wire is an epoxy paint coating to protect the coils of wire. This epoxy coating is what is becoming discoloured. Anyway the shielding around the coils of wire can break down. This either shorts the coil to itself, to the frame of the stator (and therefore the frame of the bike) or between coils. Either way, what happens is that the stator can no longer generate enough energy. The regulator/rectifier is sent three separate alternating current feeds from the Stator. It takes each one and rectifies them to DC using a bunch of diodes, and afterwards regulates the voltage down to 14.4 volts or so (P.S. it's the regulation from high DC voltages down to 14 volts that heats up the regulator and causes it to burn out). If one of the phases is producing a low voltage, the total final output of the R/R into the bike's charging system drops. You can have a weak phase (short within a coil to itself) where the voltage is reduced or perhaps an entire phase going dead. None of this discusses failure of the R/R itself, and there is plenty of material (some it mine from pre-2011) here on the forum about different models of regulator/rectifiers can be installed to manage this problem and reduce or remove the risk of R/R failure.

best way to avoid storage-related carb problems is to DRAIN the float bowls b4 storage and crank the engine over a few turns to suck fuel from idle jets. sta-bil does nothing to prevent clogging and may cause corrosion of carb alloy. https://www.hawkgtforum.com/forum/multimedia/videos/911066-fuel-storage-damages-aluminum#post911197 notice that your owners manual instructs that carbs should be drained for storage !

That just proves you got a smart ass.

Pretty pedestrian list, and more than a day as I've been juggling chores, weather and the bike. Removed Swingarm, sprockets, chain. Cleaned all, inspected and greased bearings and reinstalled a couple of days later. Removed clutch rod, buffed, greased and end for ended. Cleaned output shaft area and put all back together. Reinstalled airbox with new filter. Cleaned and reinstalled all footpegs, polished right side heat shield, partially disassembled seat lock mechanism and lubed cable and lock. Re-installed battery box, coils, solenoid. Chased down fault on 12 volt external power outlet. Removed wiring and controls for heated gear found in harness. (PO I guess). Removed, disassembled rear caliper, and sent through the Ultrasonic. Drying on bench.

The main causes of pistons not retracting/pads staying in contact with the disc are either sticky piston seals (trapped dirt or corrosion on the piston), poor movement in the caliper slide pins (lack of lube) or fluid pressure not releasing. If you can release the pad binding by cracking the bleed nipple, then it most likely is the latter. You may need to check the secondary master cylinder to ensure that the pushrod is moving in/out freely i.e. not seized. Then there are some very small ports in the master that can clog and these will trap fluid pressure and cause brake drag. In the SMC there is also a plastic one-way valve/filter that has another tiny port that can clog. If you remove the hose fitting where fluid enters the SMC you will find that one-way valve and also the compensation port. Here's a link to the ST1300 owners site, these bikes use a very similar brake arrangement and have all the same issues as VFR800's.... https://www.st-owners.com/forums/threads/st1300-photos-of-dismantled-smc.157318/#lg=post-2000958&slide=21

Just thought I'd put closure to this thread. I'm getting the Sargent Seat for the Interceptor. Just making a deal with someone over at VFRWorld for their slightly used seat, going to actually save about $150.

All great comments but I want to highlight this, Miguel and the other moderators run a great site. I bought a Ducati about 2.5 years ago and they've got a good forum, https://www.ducati.ms/, but I spend 4x the time here still. My own 14 year anniversary on vfrd is in a few days. Thanks all.

Happy anniversary to my Swell brother. Very well said about this fabulous website. I feel the same regarding the genius of Miguel. VFRD has become a second family for me. And it has been my pleasure to hang with you at the SumSum s. I was just recently reliving the ride up The Black Canyon of the Gunnison River with another Honda rider (Goldwing) in my neighborhood. That was one of the Rides Of My Life. The hares on the back of my neck still rise when I think of that trip. Take care and ride safe Cogs.

Fans won't stop a reg/rec going duff. They don't burn out because they get hot, do they? No, they get hot because they've burned out! At least you've had fun wiring up a whole bunch of electrical stuff! Ciao, JZH

How about a combo of their names to keep it short and simple "The Larryl Header" I guess it sounded better in my head. LOL

Good afternoon VFRD. Well kids, its time for another build thread so gather round, bring your popcorn, a sense of humor, and a hefty portion of thinly veiled sarcasm. Hopefully this one wont get derailed like my ill fated SV650 build over on SVRider but we shall see with life in the midst of the COVID crazy. Here we go... Back story: I was the proud owner of a 2019 KTM SuperDuke 1290 R. It was a present to myself and I loved it. It had TrackPack (wheelie control disable, track mode, TC adjustment), Full Akra Ti exhaust, little Rizoma bits all over, etc. In short the perfect hooligan bike. New years eve it was stolen from my driveway never to be seen again. I cried. Fast forward a few months and insurance has paid out on the SDR so Im on the hunt for a replacement. I decide a $20k bike is not something I want to do again so soon (wife helped that decision) so I settled on a VFR. Always liked the engineering in them, the cam driven gears, single sided swingarm and of course the howl of the V4. So 5th Gen hunting I went and I found one just up the road in Ocala FL. Single owner, 1900 miles and everything original. I was dumbfounded. A 20 yr old brand new VFR was soon in my garage. The build: Ok so its practically new, but its also 20 years old, with original everything. Tires, brake and clutch fluid, chain, hoses, you fill in the blank. Needless to say it needs a through refresh. While Im at it I figure I can do some performance upgrades and make it a bit more my style which if you didnt infer from my Super Duke R, is naked roadster. Ive got a rapidly growing pile of new and gently used parts for the project and Ill outline the general scope of the build as a list so this doesn't get too run on in the first post. 1. New fluids. Motul RBF600 will satisfy brake and clutch fluids and engine ice for the coolant. 2. 2005 R1 fork swap with matching wheel and Yamaha brake calipers. Forks will be receiving a full service from Traxxion. 3. Custom triple clamps from SebSpeed. 4. Brembo RCS19 brake MC and RCS14 clutch MC 5. VFRD Two brothers replica exhaust headers with PCV and Attack performance PCV map (will be testing the PCV patch for suitability on the Y2K-01 5th gen) 6. SC Projects Conic 8th gen VFR exhaust silencer. 7. Dunlop Sportmax Q3's 8. Penske 8983 Double clicker 9. 6th gen tank 10. 08 CBR1000RR tail and subframe OK thats about the size of it for now. Im definitely forgetting things and there will be items added or subtracted as the build progresses and I get input from yall. Feel free to comment and lend a hand! See you guys and gals real soon with updates.

This problem is usually loose battery cables or similar.