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It just wasn't black enough.

Last week. Got together with a few mates for a week of enjoying the fantastic roads we have in Scotland. 4 of us for 6 days followed by another 10 arriving on Thursday for a further 4 days. 5 vfr in group 4 of them 8th gen.

Honda is not the only source for sound-dampened front sprockets these days. Ognibene definitely make them, and I think maybe someone like JT does as well... Yup! Ciao, JZH

Whats the trick? The phase that technology marches on is still true... There is still a high fall out of the OEM R/R but that doesnt mean 100% will eat it... but I'm not one to wait untill I need a tow truck... It is well known that the connector R/R to stator is the numero uno fail point and best fix is to solder the wires and heat shrink it all together. Really --- @vfrvCO..... you already know the R/R is junk, suggest that you dont buy another Ricks..... Also you may as well do a full charging system test.... "The Drill" -- verify that the battery and stator is good... Current art on the R/R is to replace with a MOSFET or the newer series design by Shindengen.... source is.... www.roadstercycle.com (Part numbers = FH020AA or SH847AA) It is wired direct to the battery and deletes any use of the weak OEM harness for charging.... For grins one more time... a photo of the upgrade to FH020AA

Every one of five fifth gens I've had has needed steering head bearings. My first one developed a vibration at speed that was first diagnosed by my reliable Honda dealer as a cupped front tire; so I replaced it. The vibration remained. They nexted suggested checking the steering head bearings. Put the bike on the centerstand. Raise the front end by pressing down on the rear. (I put a couple of concreat foundation blocks on the pillion seat. Someone pressing down can also accomplish this if you have a helper.) Move to the clipons and slowly move the wheel/forks lock-to-lock. If you can detect a detent in the center of the back and fourth that indicates worn steering head bearings. That was about 70,000 miles. Subsequent bikes (4) experienced the symptoms, one as low as less than 30,000 miles to as high as 50,000 miles. The reason is Honda used cheap ball bearings in the OEM version. The recommendation iis to use tapered roller bearings. Once installed, never any further issues of this problem. BTW the first bike was KIA by a dear at 105,000 miles.

My dad (Honda F6B), uncle (HD Electra Glide), and cousin (BMW R9T) returned last week from a 4 day trip from Ohio to Maggie Valley, NC. About 1500 miles round trip on my 31k mile 2001 5th gen (AMAZING bike). We rode the Tail of the Dragon (of course), visited Wheels Through Time museum, and rode the wheels off our bikes. Great trip, great roads, and a safe time had by all. Lots of highway time on the way back made me want to upgrade the ol' 5th gen with some helibars, taller screen, and a throttle lock though... Happy motoring! PS - you must eat at Butts on the Creek if you stay in Maggie Valley...we found it on the first night and ate there 3 times.

Due to the cold and crappy weather, had the urge to tinker with the bike. Added a beefy Ground bonding wire, see white wire with yellow lug. Decided to grab a short length of aircraft spec 10gauge wire I had floating around, and install a good bonding cable from the EFI, ECM and stuff Ground point (on the Frame Ground Point just under the rear of the tank - see attached drawing) to the Negative battery terminal. Bad Grounds on bike frames have in the past caused strange things to happen(not with my own bike fortunately) just wanted to avoid that situation ever happening for good. Well, at least it kept me occupied and off the streets for an hour or so Cheers.

My friend Makota San previous job was Chief Engineer Honda R&D who invented Honda's VTEC... he calls VTEC "his baby" and recalls his boss being super skeptical of the idea working at all... Owners have their doubts too even naming VTEC Vacillating Torque Engine Compartment... granted it worked on heavy cars but it's more of a unwanted bump in the powerband on a light bike... Makota San down on cannery row...

Here are the PDF files. There are some duplicates because Honda has different instructions for the same parts in different countries. I think I grabbed most of them, but there might be some missing. REAR TRUNK 33L WAVE KEY 08L71-MJM-A00.pdfREAR CARRIER 08L73-MJM-D10.pdfSADDLEBAG SET 08L70-MJM-A10ZA 08L70-MJM-A10ZB.pdfREAR TIRE HUGGER 08F70-MJM-D10.pdfHANDLE ADJUST PLATE 08R70-MJM-D10.pdfTOP BOX 33L (WAVE KEY TYPE) 08L71-MJM-D00.pdfCARRIER BRACKET 45L 08L73-MJM-D10.pdfSECURITY ATTACHMENT 08E70-MJM-D00.pdfQUICK SHIFTER 08U70-MJM-D11.pdfTOP BOX 45L (WAVE KEY TYPE) 08L74-MJN-D10.pdf12V ACCESSORY SOCKET 08U70-MJM-D00.pdfHEATED GRIPS 08T70-MJM-A00.pdfHANDLEBAR RISER KIT 08R70-MJM-D10.pdfCENTERSTAND 08M70-MJM-D00.pdfREAR TRUNK BASE 33L 08L74-MJM-D10.pdf

Great shot. When I lived on the east coast time off from work meant Skyline-->BRP-->Dragon-->Cherohala. The southern half of the BRP is particularly fun.

Out playing today. Was pissing down earlier in run hence waterproofs.

You could always do this 👍😎 Works a treat. Same both sides oem fan is long gone these are IP67 rated fans & the combined FPM is 50% more than the OEM fan & both suck air outwards through the rads. I have 90C thermal switch which resets at 80C. Works great. Plus if one fan dies there are 3 others still working. Just needs a little sculpting of the outlet vents where they cross the fan frames. This is not visible from outside. Have fun.

After a few years of riding naked bikes- I was bitten by the touring bug, and presto! A new 2015 VFR appeared in my driveway. I've already added bar risers. Hard luggage and a pipe are soon to come. I'm super stoked that such an expansive community exists for these bikes.

Absolutely agreed on the MOSFET R/R... again. It's a better R/R, and you eliminate the connector entirely. While you're working on stuff, install a voltmeter. Digital lcd voltmeters are so small and cheap at this point that there is really no good reason to not have one. Probably would have warned you of your developing problem before you were stranded... Yeah, I know, "Thanks Captain Hindsight..." You don't even need any water beyond that in the atmosphere. Also, all that heat you mention is also happening in the windings of your stator at the same time, so it potentially self destructs as a bonus. Your charging system is all interdependent... Battery, stator, R/R and the interconnecting connecting wires (and connectors): any one in bad shape is hard on the others.

Looks to me like the primary failure is just as Mello suggests, the connector. If you get some water in there you will start to see corrosion, the corrosion gets in between the connectors and increases the electrical resistance, at which point you start to generate excess heat which ultimately melts the plastic in the connector and possibly the wire insulation. I assume once the bare conductors touch you potentially cause damage to either the RR or alternator or both.

"I tinker, therefore I am" -Renė Descartes

Take your bike and whilst riding around 40 mph in a straight line... let go of the bars. Do they start into a headshake? This is a classic sign of worn out steering head bearings. Mine were shot before 12k miles (when I bought it). Just had my ZRX experience the symptom from above and sure enough... with the front end off the ground I get some play. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can’t help with the source but the phenomenon you are encountering is called “beats”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_(acoustics)

By any chance could you recommend a good source for these?

Not sure I would want to deal with a company that shits internationally 🙂

you're going to need a new riding outfit for that...

Out with the old, in with the new 😎 Easy if u have the right tools pan widget

I'm willing to bet you're not giving enough throttle input. The less time your rev counter spends in the transition zone, the smoother it becomes. Change your shift points accordingly.

Hi VFROZ. 8gen is very different. There is no temp switch on the radiator. The ECM sees coolant temp from the ECT sensor and sends a grounding output from the ECM to a Fan Relay to energise it. Cheers and Regards. Grum

Hi Rollos. I'm still a little concerned for the Fan Relay. The tests you ran getting the engine excessively hot and the Fan did NOT come on is a concern. I just wonder wether the Relay is intermittent or developed high resistance contacts that could slow your fan down. Maybe with the replacement fan, the Relay could or should also be replaced on spec as well. Perhaps you could mention this to Honda. Just a thought! Good Luck and hope it's all sorted ASAP. Cheers.

You don't know the age and state of the battery, it may be a simple issue of a dead battery, charge and load test it and once you can start your engine check your charging voltages. You may not need a new R/R yet!

Well it took a while but I finally found time to finish the install of the new FH020AA . I am impressed to say the least I wired in the stator wires as close as I could to the stator end and sealed off the old wiring. I then wired in the regulator and shortened the battery wires so they fit neatly Today I installed the rebuilt carbs and fired her up for the first time in months I was impressed, my volt meter showed 14.4 volts at idle I ran the bike for 10 minutes and the new FH020AA was as cool as if it was never started, if that had been the old regulator I doubt you could have touched it Now to sink the carbs and started putting the body panels back on

Come by the house, I can put on a new set with 2019 date code Dunlop Roadsmart II in less than an hour.

THE CHOICE The choice is yours but I'd start plugging because there is mounting evidence that plugged tires work and are safe... I have yet to note anyone armed with first hand knowledge to the contrary... REPAIRS Minor tire repair is limited to an area of three quarters of the normal section width. The maximum diameter of penetration damage and/or cracking at the base of the injury should be no greater than 3mm. The repair patches must not overlap. For permanent repair,it is only recommended that small punctures restricted to the tread area be repaired, using a rope type plug. The current condition of a tire is important in determining whether a tire is suitable for repair. Some damage limits include: if the tire has reached its minimum tread depth as indicated by the TWI (tire wear indicator); ply separation, separation of inner liner and or cutting of ply cords by penetrating object; brittle or cracked rubber caused by exhaust heat; broken or bent bead wire, damaged bead zone; damage caused by under-inflation; softening or swelling of rubber due to oil or chemical attack; punctures too close together; damage or previous repair of a puncture outside of area specified for suitable repair. MY EXPERIENCES My screwed Rennsport... boo hoo... My plugged Rennsport that covered 2K miles and not in moderation either... it's seen over a 140 mph more than once... Inside the Rennsport for proof that the rope type plugs stay intact whereas my mushroom type plug started to come unstuck You can see by the diagram that Safety Seal plugs that are installed properly establish an mushroom shape inside the carcass that holds fast under pressure... you'd have more luck pushing the plug inside carcass than you'll ever have it pop out under pressure... I don't recommend the inside mushroom type plugs because they can become unstuck... Technically speaking the inside patch is solely dependent on a bond between a plug company's material and the tire manufacture's rubber compound... thats a crap shoot the two chemical compounds are compatible enough to hold a bond when the rubber is stationary and at room temperature... but tires are elastic bodies that flex from completely round to completely flat at every rotation... every rotation builds heat that works against that bond... every rotation flexes that mushroom patch from round to flat that works against that bond.... so we have heat coupled with flex working against the two competing chemical bonds from being as consistence as a self vulcanizing rope plug installed from the outside... Staying stuck and holding air is all you can ask for in a plug installed by the masses...

Since you have no idea how the chain was maintained, and unless the sprockets are severely worn, you won't be able to tell if the sprockets are going to ruin your new chain. Considering all that and a chain is lots more money that a couple sprockets, I'd bite the bullet and change out all three. Then you'll know where you're at drive train wise.

Every town’s got one.

As others have already said, I like the "new header" enough that I'm willing to live with a little inconvenience. Here are pictures of my work to provide clearance for the header from the #4 cylinder. I imitated sfdownhill's solution to the problem, I used a heat gun to soften up the plastic so it could be re-formed with an outward bend that gives the #4 cylinder's header about the same amount of clearance as the #2 cylinder's header pipe. Installed on the bike you can see that I've managed to achieve the same amount of fairing-to-header pipe clearance on both the #4 and #2 headers. I happened to have some high temperature heat reflecting tape on hand so I added it to the work I did. I figured why not, regardless of whether the situation really needed this amount of protection Maybe I got a little carried away with the heat reflective taping...

After 2 seasons riding with the CASTROL vodywork, decided to revert back to OEM. Just for a change...

You're asking a lot there. Not very surprising this thread turned out the way it did. Bottom line: do what your head tells you to do.

Poor mike on camera.... sp_Gemiddeld.mp4

I didn't test any wheels, BST the company that make them put them through the TUV acceptance tests as required to sell them in Europe, as do all other manufacturers. But the point was BST have enough faith in their product to use a single wheel for all seven tests. Where as every other manufacturer uses a single wheel per test, as they don't believe their wheels could survive all the tests ! Light does NOT mean weak, check the next plane you fly on, not alot of steel there. Any older 737/757/767 or 747 you fly on, I & some colleagues made the carbon material for our sister factory to make the floor panels that your seat is attached to & that you walk on to it. They have had millions of feet, thousands of flights/landings & are still going strong. Just because certain cycling parts are made a bit flimsy, does not mean all carbon parts are. BST wheels have a 400Kg weight rating ! https://intheknowcycling.com/2018/10/14/carbon-road-bike-wheels/ The other major difference, is that alloy or metal wheels have ZERO bend tolerance, so hitting a big pot hole or large rock, will dent them if the tyre deflects enough. A carbon rim has some structural flex in these extreme circumstances, so is less likely to permanently deform, plus being lighter, they experience less impact force to begin with & the suspension can deflect faster due to their reduce inertia. Bicycle rims, have basically NO tyre suspension, racing tyres are pumped to silly pressures, to reduce rolling resistance, which means most shock gets transmitted straight to the wheel rim, especially hard edges of pot holes for example. Motorcycle tyres have a good depth of tyre to absorb a lot of impact & are attached to suspension where as most road bicycles don't have suspension. I've dented a few steel & alloy bicycle rims in my life, plus a couple of motorcycle alloy ones too. But yes, feel free to use what suits you.

A good 3 seasons later

The wheel colour in your photo has me reconsidering what to do the next time I repaint my VTec's wheels. It reminds me of the wheel colour on my '91 VFR750.

I've always been partial to white, but bronze has seriously grown on me. Can't bring myself to powder coat these white so I'll snag a spare set to powder white and keep an extra set of tires mounted and balanced to swap between.