MisterBill

Bmart, Thanks. Yes, that would work, but I would definitely have to get the shorter levers. Bill Mersch

Hi all, I need some recommendations. I changed my original handlebars over to LSL bars. My first ride went very well. I really liked the bars being more upright and straighter.. This was a lot more comfortable. My problem is that I cannot get the clutch and brake levers at my desired angle due to the banjo bolts hitting the top of fork tubes. (See pictures) I found a pair of Triumilynn brake/clutch assemblies which according to the dimensions would probably give me sufficient clearance. These are made in China and are a replacement model for the Japanese motorcycles. Does any one have experience with these or can you give me some other recommendations? Thanks, Bill Mersch, aka MisterBill cell: 859-466-2174

Thanks Grum. I am about 150 - 175 miles NW (right across river from Cincinnati) away from all the flooding. Those unfortunate folks are right in the Appalachian Mountains.

Hi everyone, I was meaning to post my ride report in May, but other things came up. Anyway, here are the summary highlights and then individual days. I am not getting any younger so I wanted to do a multi-day trip spanning several states and getting as many museums and fantastic roads as I could. I tried to get my 14-year old granddaughter to come along, but she was still in school, and, heaven forbid, she could not miss her 8th grade graduation party. Teenagers, got to love them. Anyway, I will be 69 in August of this year and I am slowing down just a little. Summary: 7 states in 9 days. KY, WV, VA, NC, TN, GA, AL Fantastic Roads: Blue Ridge Parkway through VA and NC; Cherohala Skyway, Rt. 28, Tail of Dragon Museums: Dale's Wheels Through Time Museum, Barber Motorsports Museum Total Mileage: @ 2,400 miles DAY 1, Tuesday, May 17, 2002 Left home (Villa Hills, KY) at 8:30 AM Came down through Falmouth, Mt. Olivet, Blue Licks (site of Civil War battle), took Rt. 32 all the way to Louisa, KY. Stopped and took pictures of Goddard Covered Bridge. Stopped in Louisa, KY at KFC for lunch. Met a local fellow who told me the history of Louisa and about Noah Thompson, a native from Louisa, who is a contestant on American Idol. Last 40 miles into Louisa gets really curvy, hilly and mountainous. Great fun! Crossed into WV at Louisa, KY and Fort Gay, WV. Three rivers and two states converge at this bridge. From there, I headed North and picked up I-64 E to get across WV. Stayed overnight in Beckley, WV at Fairfield Inn and ate at Outback Steakhouse. Beautiful warm weather. Glad I bought a nylon mesh pants and jacket last year as temperature was in high 80's. DAY 2, Wednesday, May 18, 2002 Headed across WV and VA to pick up BRP (Blue Ridge Parkway). BRP is a beautiful, fantastic, scenic ride. If you have yet to travel the BRP, put this on your "bucket list". Stopped at the "Great Valley" scenic overlook and met a local fellow, Damon, who said he comes up there quite often to help relieve stress. He is an Operating Room technician. Stopped at Rake's Mill Pond. Interesting history, no longer in business. Crossed into NC, overnight in Boone, NC at Quality Inn. Many overlook areas, beautiful scenery Did encounter a detour around Roanoke, VA about 20 miles. Had to come into Boone, NC from opposite end I expected. Tip: check for road work on the BRP website before heading out. Also: check for restaurants on BRP, there are at least 3 that I could have stopped at if I had checked earlier. Beautiful warm weather. DAY 3, Thursday, May 19, 200 Encountered other road work getting to BRP amounting to about a 10 mile detour. The maintenance department was scraping off the first 2 inches of blacktop on both lanes for repaving. I had to ride this for about 2 miles at less than 30 mph to pick up the BRP entrance. Boy, was I happy to get off that section of road. The BRP through NC is at higher elevation, twistier, curvier, more ups and downs and has far more tunnels than VA. When I got to the top of the mountains, the temperature was 55 degrees. It was 70 degrees in valley when I started. The fog was blowing straight up the face of the mountain limiting visibility to 50 - 100 feet. This lasted for about an hour to one and a half hours. Speeds were limited to about 25 mph or less. When you went around the other side of the mountain, the view was bright and sunny. BRP is one of my favorite roads. Once the fog cleared, you could cruise in 3rd or 4th all day and just enjoy the scenery. Sit back and enjoy the tunnels. Arrived at MicroTel @ 5 pm. I think we had about 40 people this year. Saw some old faces and met some new people. Ate at Fatz restaurant. Beautiful warm weather. DAY 4, Friday, May 20, 2002 Easy, low mileage ride for the day. It was nice not to have to pack up for the next day. Took a ride to Dale's Wheels Through Time Museum. Yeah, it has a lot of old Harleys, but it is very interesting to me to see the evolution of motorcycle and other engines over the years. Very worthwhile visit. Ran into Ken at museum. He has a blue Triumph Tiger 800. We ate at Three Butts on the Creek BBQ place in Maggie Valley. Very good food. Took BRP back to Cherokee, NC and then picked up Wayha road. Nice ride in woods and along a creek, shady, curvy. That was my first time on Wayha road. DAY 5, Saturday, May 21, 2002 Tom Fulton, Dimitri, Miguel and myself opted to take an easy ride on RT. 28 to Deal's Gap. We then headed down to Tapaco Lodge for lunch. Great place and the view is fantastic. Quite a few kayakers came down the river as we were eating. Where else can you ride motorcycles in the national forest all day, stop for lunch on a river and watch kayakers come down? Put this restaurant on your "bucket list" also. When I sent pictures to my family, there response was, " I thought you were riding motorcycles, why are there kayakers"? Little bit of everything down in mountains. Dimitri headed back after lunch as his shoulder was bothering him after a fall from the day before. Tom, Miguel and I headed for Cherohola Skyway. We encountered a Jeep parade of about 8 - 10 Jeeps who would not pull over and maintained a 40 mph pace all the way to the Skyway. Miguel and I had too much of that so we turned around and came back through Robbinsville. Tom kept going. Dinner at Fatz restaurant. Leaving for GA for two days. Staying overnight with Tom Fulton. DAY 6, Sunday, May 22, 2002 On Sunday morning, Tom Fulton and I headed for Peach Tree City, GA. I was spending a couple of days with Tom and we intended to go to Barber Motorsport Museum the next day. The morning was fine and relaxing. We took backroads through the national forest, ran up and down Blood Mountain, very nice ride. The afternoon was miserable. We had to take a major four lane across GA and then pick up expressway. Traffic was extremely heavy and congested. Let's just say I absolutely hate expressways and expressway congestion. Ate lunch at Zaxby's Chicken, good chicken. Arrived at his house about 4 pm, showered, went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. Oh! Tom's house which was built by his grandfather is right on Peach Trees City lake so we took the ski boat out for a short tour of the lake. Very relaxing to just sit on the dock and look at the lake. Day 7, Monday, May 23, 2002 Off of the motorcycle! I get to rest! Tom and I headed to Leeds, AL in his car to visit the Barber Motorsports Museum. It was raining almost the entire day, but who cared, we were in a car. This museum has over 1,000 motorcycles and early Formula 1 race cars along with some other unique collections on five floors. It is OVERWHELMING AND AWESOME!!! If you like motyorcycles, GO VISIT THIS MUSEUM!!! This is definitely "bucket list" material. I had been wanting to visit this museum for about 50 years and I just finally made up my mind to do it. Of course, being retired now, you don't have the constraints of a job or asking someone if you can take vacation. And it is also home to the Barber Motorsports Car Track. At the time we were there, quite a few cars were having a track day - corvettes, porsches, camaros, mustangs. I really enjoyed the dirt bike exhibits. I raced off-road motorcycles from 1970 to 1985. I either owned or raced against probably 60% of all the dirt bikes that were exhibited. One that stands out is that they had "my" 1983 Maico 490 Spyder. Ate at Carraba's Restaurant for dinner. DAY 8, Tuesday, May 24, 2002 Said thank you and see you next time to Tom and headed north through GA, TN and KY. Made it to Somerset, KY. Beautiful warm weather, no rain, easy ride, light traffic, gentle rolling hills and curves, nothing really difficult or technical. It was a fun ride. Basically, took US 27N and US 127N all the way. Stayed at Holiday Inn Express. DAY 9, Wednesday, May 25, 2002 Beautiful weather again, upper 80's, no rain whatsoever. Took US 127 N basically all the way home. Took the bypasses around the major cities on route. In Florence, stopped in Kerry Toyota and visited my son, Jonathan. Also, wound up talking to the Service Manager who is a motorcycle guy. Got home about 2 pm and showered and rested. All in all: a very good trip. The bike ran beautifully, no issues. I did put a new chain and sprockets on over the winter. Tires held up remarkably well, no oil leaks. No rain. It was suggested that I replace the stock bars and get a cruise control. I think I will do this. Thanks for reading. If you are contemplating a long trip or a destination trip, just do it. I am glad I did and have no regrets. I just wish I had someone as a passenger or another rider along. Bill Mersch, aka MisterBill 2007 RWB Honda VFR 800 910515876_20220521_1238561.mp4

Leaving tomorrow (Tuesday, 05/17) through KY and heading to WV. crossing at Louisa, KY. Then will be picking up Blue Ridge Parkway for 2 days. Arriving in Franklin motel on Thursday @ 5:00 PM. Riding Red, White, Blue VFR 800. I know it is way late, but if anyone wants to do BRP, call or text 859-466-2174. Bill Mersch, aka MisterBill

Hotel reservation booked. See y'all on the 19th. Bill Mersch, aka Mister Bill

MRA.XCA.1 X-Screen Tour; made in Germany, excellent quality and fit, fully adjustable, comes in clear or smoke From my label on the box, it was ordered from Twisted Throttle I do not believe it is the one in your post

Hi MisterBill, Thank you for your donation of 50.00 USD. We look forward to improving the forums with your donation. Thanks VFRDiscussion

Hi everyone, 2007 RWB VFR800, 33,000 miles, completely stock, no modifications I will add my experience to this thread. I just tuned the starter jets on the four throttle bodies this past weekend. The bike was surging terribly, idle went from @ 1,500 - 1,000.. I bought the Carbtune equipment, printed the manual and dug into this problem. After preparing everything and finally getting the Carbtune PRO tool hooked up, I started the bike. Well, looking at the Carbtune PRO tool, it was an OMG moment. No wonder this bike doesn't run right. Let's just say they were not in alignment. After about 30 or so minutes, finally got all throttle bodies to within .5 cmHG of each other. (Had fan blowing on engine ) The bike idles smoothly and twisting the throttle is very responsive. I am thrilled.. 🙂 I also noticed that my bike had two short stacks up front and two long stacks in the rear. (Bought new, this is how it came from factory). Others had commented that this was not correct and indeed the manual shows a short, long up front and a long, short in rear. I changed them accordingly. I am thinking the worker doing the assembly just put short in front and long in rear. Thanks for all previous comments and help, Bill Mersch aka MisterBill 20200824_192318[1].mp4

Hi MisterBill, Thank you for your donation of 50.00 USD. We look forward to improving the forums with your donation. Thanks VFRDiscussion

Hi everyone, Just wanted to say that my son and I bled all the brake lines and clutch line this past weekend on my 2007 VFR 800 RWB. We used this EXCELLENT guide from jay-d with no issues at all. All the lines were bled in proper sequence and everything worked as stated. We did it the old school way (no speed bleeders). Be patient, don't skip any bleeder screws as this will only keep old fluid in that section. It does take several hours to do this with two people. The one bolt that took the longest to remove was the forward bolt on the rear brake caliper backing plate. A straight wrench worked okay, just took several minutes to finally get it out. A short socket could not fit and a deep well socket was too long. I saw in the thread that someone bought a socket with a length in between the short and deep well. Good idea. Alternatively, we considered removing the rear sprocket. This looked like it would give a straight shot to the rear bolt with an extension and socket. Once again, thanks to jay-d for this excellent procedure and instructions. Bill Mersch aka MisterBill

Hi MisterBill, Thank you for your donation of 50.00 USD. We look forward to improving the forums with your donation. Thanks VFRDiscussion

I was so inspired after TexasMac, I came home and performed the following modification. Added a windscreen from Twisted Throttle, applied my personal touch. I also took inspiration from my favorite T-shirt, note the autograph. Enjoy.

I went from 43T to 45T on rear and did not have to add any chain links. '07 VFR. Made the bike more rideable for me. Before the switch, I was stalling or slow to take off from start. I felt the stock gearing was too tall. You will never know unless you change it.