Mac Morgan

Having owner a number of bikes during my life and still having a 98 gen 5 since 1999, I love to check back on the discussion site to see what’s going on with you all. The amount of time, money and effort spent on making one’s VFR as fast as Marquez’s Honda is mind boggling. I’ve always enjoyed my VFR and other a few small changes have pretty much left it alone. First thing I did was to replace the stock shock with a Fox twin clicker and then later with a Penske; didn’t feel much difference! Read about lots of folks delinking the brakes but decided against it; I like being able to use the rear brake on steep downhills in the rain! Also better for playing with the ADV crowd wrestling their 550lbs GS elephants down rocky Jeep trails! As for the forks... I’ve used the RaceTech dampers in both a KLR250 and my VTR1000. What a pain it is to take the forks apart to change the damping! Anybody try DMr for some help? Anyway, keep up the good work guys and keep sending in those photos!

I have a feeling that the oem bent flange shownin the photo above is probably the result of overtightening the the exhaust nuts. The torque is only 9 lb.ft. I’ve had my headers off a number of times for jet hot coating and a failed attempt of fitting Delkevic’s version 1 ss system. Their fixed front down pipes weren’t inline with the exhaust ports and the 2 rear pipes wouldn’t fit into the collector. If anyone’s interested, pm me. I’ll sell them cheap! A note about the 6mm exhaust port studs and nuts. It’s possible/probable that one or more exhaust nuts will permanently attach itself to its stud resulting in the removal of the whole shabang! No matter what I tried, I could not unscrew the nut from the stud. Put anti-seize on the stud/nut assy to save future hassles.

I’ve followed this discussion when it was first posted a number of years ago. Since then many of us have come and gone as have their VFRs. I sold my first 98 but kept a second but have quit trying to make it something it’s not. I’ve left the brake system alone, tried Fox Twinclicker adjustable shock (for sale, like new in the box), Penske shock now, GoldValve install- too much trouble to set up to one’s liking. Jamie Daugherty, Daughertymotorsport, makes a great upgrade for our VFR- a fork cartridge upgrade kit. Installation is a lot easier then trying to decipher the Gold Valve instructions and the results are worth the price. Jamie will send the correct weight springs and answer most questions. He also has custom made shocks and does custom machine work.

Having delt with the rr problem on my 98, I'm still curious as to what happens. My experiences all point to the connector from the stator to the rr. I've owned my VFR since new and have ridden it 20,000 miles in most types of weather. My suspicion is that over time, the connector gets some moisture from the atmosphere which inhibits a good connection which creates heat which melts plastic housing. I replaced my original rr last October 07 with one from Electrosport. I had to break the connector getting it apart and ended up replacing the burnt terminals with new ones... no problems during a 4 day, 1500 mile trip. Being the consumant tinkerer, I keep looking for causes and effects. I got a 4 unit Batterytender which I keep hooked up all the time (I also have an SV650 and a VTR). While trying to keep an eye on things, I probably created a poor connection at the terminal block and it ended up melting completely. A call to Electrosport indicated that they were redesigning their rr and would get it off to me ASAP - 2 months went by with no rr! To cure the connector problem, I could either solder the 3 yellow stator wires to the rr or.... use Posi-Lock connectors. I'd seen them reviewed on WebBikeworld (a great site btw) and decided to try them. So far, no issues. I also mounted a small CPU fan to the rr which reduces it temperature by about 20-30 degrees. Have I fixed the problem? I don't know yet. I haven't seen the fuse or the associated link overheat either. Mac Morgan Hockessin, DE