MadScientist

As said before, the temperature switch is in the left side radiator. It is a goldish metal nut looking thing with a single wire coming out of it on the bottom of the radiator. If you want to check the switch, unplug the single wire from the back side of it and use a paper clip or some other conductive item to short the wire to ground (the frame or engine case works fine). It doesn't matter what temperature the bike is, just as long as the ignition is on. I'd have to consult a wiring diagram, but the engine may have to be running. Under normal conditions, everything up to this point is provided with battery voltage. When the temperature crosses a certain threshold, the switch will provide ground to complete the circuit. Only one wire goes in because the radiator itself is the other "wire" as the radiator is grounded. If the fan does not turn on at this point, then we have narrowed the fault down to the fan itself or the wiring connected to it. While the wire from the thermostat is removed from the temp switch, use a volt meter to measure the voltage between this wire and ground. Your should see about 13v on the meter. If you see zero then keep working your way up the wire until you get to the fuse box until you see 13v. Once you find 13v, then you will have identified the region where the fault occurred.

Not 8th gen specifically, but I've been told the rubber strip around the outside of a windscreen helps re-route rainwater that lands on the screen. Without the strip, rain tends to blow up to the top edge then back at the rider. Lots of bikes don't have them, of course, so not really sure effective they are. I've never tested it so no direct opinion and as usual, YMMV.

Not sure Mohawk's current primary setup can be compared, I know he's got a build thread with various dyno graphs after certain mods. Anyway, I'm not sure that the pipercross flows more or less air than the stock/K&N replacement. Depends on the specifics of the filter material, I'm just saying that to flow as much or more than stock with a foam filter, there would have to be compromises made that I wouldn't make on a daily driven street bike. I don't have a flow bench or filtration box at my disposal any more; I already know how these tests can be manipulated to show things manufacturers want to advertise and comparing "specs" between manufacturers is almost impossible when they don't publish all the testing variables. For example: "High dust capacity Our filters have undergone independant MIRA testing and results showed Pipercross foam has the ability to hold more than twice the dust particles of that held by cotton-gauze filters, without affecting the airflow efficiency." Twice in what regard? Filters of the same area or filters of the same weight. If weight, is that with or without oil? What size dust particles? How much was the cotton gauze airflow efficiency affected? See what I mean. Multi stage filtration like that used by Pipercross will be able to handle larger particles better than single stage paper or cotton, but are these the particles that are most common in an on-road vehicle filter? Are these the particles responsible for the most engine wear? I can ask questions all day because of the lack of transparency.

I performed simulation and testing of HVAC systems once upon a time (google DARPA Immune Building). Needless to say, there is no free lunch with air filters, even with fancy engineered synthetic fiber media. At the scale of a motorcycle or automotive air filter, there is very little gain to be had as far as flowrate vs pressure drop by switching materials at a constant particle removal efficiency. The only ways to make real flow gains are to a) increase filter area, b) increase pore size, c) increase the pressure across filter (pressurize unfiltered side). So we are limited on filter area by the airbox itself. Ideally, we would want to maximize the filter area within our constrained space. A foam filter looks like it does this because it covers the whole opening, but this is false. Pleated filters may appear to be smaller, but once you flatten out the pleats, the area can be much larger. In order to flow more air with foam of less area, we must then make the pore size and porosity much higher wider and higher, but this kills the particle removal properties... so we add oil and multi-stage filtration to increase our capture efficiency and reduce the thickness of "fine" filtration which we can't afford to block with large particles. This isn't free either though, we have to choose between clogging up every ride, or letting some particulate through. You can make design decisions to let particles smaller than a certain size through, and this is how gains are often realized with oiled cotton or engineered synthetics. I didn't work on filtration for internal combustion engines, so I don't really know the design specifics but there is often (but not always) some sacrifice in filtration efficiency with a new filter because you want it to have a reasonable service life. I just realized this is turning into an air filtration treatise, so I'm just going to post it. But I'll get to the point real quick below Dry Paper/Synthetic Fiber - Best choice for engine longevity, reasonable flow, and particulate capacity Oiled Cotton/Synthetic - Sacrifices allowing some smaller particles in = (marginally?) decreased engine longevity, increased flowrate, theoretically higher total holding capacity Foam - Major sacrifices in filtration efficiency because construction demands lower total area, flowrate? depending on pore size and porosity, lower total area = lower holding capacity On racing machines that are rebuilt frequently and have fresh filters before every race, foam has some performance benefits. If the foam is designed with the level of protection required by a daily driver, then you will be lucky to flow as much as stock even with reduced filtration efficiency. For a daily rider, this would be my last choice. Ideally I would have a dry, pleated, engineered synthetic fiber behind a foam pre-filter. The foam would protect the expensive synthetic from large and macroscopic particles but would need to be washed monthly, allowing the much finer filter to have a reasonable service life. I don't know of any filters like this on the market though.

You should try a DIY air filter. I'm pretty sure Mohawk or sa1713 pioneered this technique, but I'm having trouble locating the post. Briefly, the stock filter backing plastic is used with the paper element cut out. Ideally the hole is cut to the size of the largest K&N generic filter that will fit inside the backing plastic. I wanted to find the thread, since it notes what K&N model fits best. It's known that the stock air filter has a much larger area than the K&N. I believe K&N themselves have said that the replacement filter for the VFR is smaller in area, but flows more than stock paper. This leads to roughly the same total airflow as stock. As below from the gallery of Serenity_VFR:

Yeah, not discontinued as far as I can tell. Front (17T) - 23801-MAT-760 Rear (43T) - 41201-MBG-000

No close up, but looks like a cut and re-weld was necessary. IIRC, the TBR collector output is positioned slightly different from OEM so simply expanding the midpipe was a no-go. Job looks clean, you going to polish it back up?

Likewise, I loved mine and I've been going through other bikes to replace it. The valve service talk is a little worse than reality. At least in the Monster community, people report that the valves are usually settled in by 16K miles and usually will not require another shim change until 50+. This is pretty similar to most other bikes. However, the price of the shim kit is appalling. Your basic 2 valve motor shim kit runs about $250-300, whereas I can find shim kits for Japanese bikes under $100. I checked my 2v heads at 8k (or 6k?), whatever the interval was back then, and they were ok. It was absolutely no picnic, especially on the vertical cylinder. Installed the belts myself, then took it to the dealer for tensioning. Guess what....$300. I doubt many of you are surprised, I wasn't.

Not sure exactly what you are asking here - If you are swapping the whole dash, it isn't very difficult. There is a good amount of disassembly of the bike required, but swapping the dash, electrically, is a matter of unplugging a couple connectors and re-connecting them to the new dash. If you are talking about swapping just the LCD portion of the dash it gets a bit trickier, but I can try and walk you though that.

Part of the reason I sold mine. You would think a timing belt should last for more that 2 years, I mean the one in my car lasts for 80k miles. But then you get nervous about bending valves at the least and lunching a whole motor at the worst. That and the difficulty and lack of specification for setting belt tension on your own, the dealers use a frequency counter. Valve shims for opening AND closing... I would say you made a good choice, but then I sold my Duc for a VFR.

The SV is a much better choice for racing due to the linkage type rear suspension, tuning will be much easier in comparison with the 599's direct swingarm attachment. I'll be checking the R/R and stator outputs also. Might slap an FH020AA on as preventative maintenance, but I honestly have other things I'd rather spend $120 on.

Nitron out back, DMr up front here. Came from a 929 rear and I did notice an improvement in ride quality. There might be more benefits near the limit but my riding almost never takes me there. I went through Pro Pilot suspension. They are predominantly an Ohlins dealer, but they sell just about everything. After discussing with Jim the features and construction available on the Ohlins and Nitron units for the 5th gens, the Nitron seemed to be nearly equal for about 30% less cash. Now might be a good time to look at Nitron with the current GBP to USD exchange rate. Might be cheaper than when I bought mine in 2015.

It does really feel light compared to the vfr in the garage, and even on the road. When I switch back and forth the VFR is much more comfortable and sure footed where the 599 feels more lively and willing, it kinda feels like a toy in comparison. Until there are bumps, then the 599's like "Just kidding!"; then it really feels like a toy, and not in a good way. Mine stranded me 2 days ago, something electrical. Wouldn't stay running after jump start, had it towed back home (Thanks AMA). Guess I get to do "The Drill" on the 599 next week, but I'm pretty sure the battery is done at 7 years. If anyone wants to re-live the glory days, mine is always for sale. It's not quite stock, but not half as wild as nismo's. Just out of curiousity, how did you go about the painting of the engine? It's been something I've wanted to do since there are so many different shades of silver on the motor and suspension. I painted the side covers and valve cover since they are easily removeable.

Napa 41356 or Amsoil Ea15K13 Further reading: http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index.php?/forums/topic/40382-oil-fiter-options-for-the-honda/&

It's not the welds on the outside to worry about so much. This is an example of their past work: Maybe it's better now, maybe not. Do you want to spend $300 to find out?

The reason I think there is more to it than a semiconductor is the use of a relay. That relay is rated to 20A, which would be MASSIVE overkill for input to a logic circuit. Even if supplying voltage to a power MOSFET gate, where you will have some input capacitance, a relay would help with the input current spike; but why spec one so robust? I have 2 thoughts on the issue: 1. Bulk pricing - all 6 relays on that bike (next to each other on the wiring print) are the exact same part. 2. Spare parts - you are on the road and you lose a critical relay (Engine Stop, Fuel Pump, etc...) you can sacrifice the high beams to get yourself home.

I went the other way round, had the VFR before the 599. I've actually considered replacing the 599 with a 3rd Gen, but I want to go back to a liter twin for my commuter whore. The buell and 599 were both replacements for the Monster, and shitty ones at that. And you got 2 8-spokes... lucky

LOL, I started a green belt certification course back when I worked for Honeywell around the time of the GE acquisition that was blocked by the EU. After the deal fell through, I made sure my other job responsibilities prevented my completion of the course. Some of the content was reasonable, but you are right. The course emphasizes the maximization of profits within "acceptable" failure margins. A lot of the problem comes from the definition of the failure margins. It has a good heart, if you don't start with a fixed failure margin but instead design to just before a point of diminishing returns. Remember though, repairs are big business so a company building things "to last" is not necessarily in the best interest, especially when your customers want to minimize initial purchase costs. OK, I'm going to stop now since this is hugely OT and I could talk for hours about the subject.

Hmm, that is curious. I agree with the above assessment that the arcing concerns may only occur at disengagement depending what kind of reactive load is presented (capacitive and inductive load presented by the LED driver box). I would be curious how much current actually flows through that switch - be careful with a meter though, you could easily damage it if the inrush current is high. We don't know what the LED driver box actually has connected to that input, it could be another internal relay or the gate(s) of a MOSFET(s). I would also be hesitant to separately wire the supply to the relay contact since downstream circuits in the LED driver may be expecting a slight voltage drop from the headlight switch. This is all conjecture at this point, since the switch and relay are powering a "black box" of unknown operational characteristics. We can probably surmise, based on the non-standard use of the relay, that this black box load is not analogous to an incandescent headlight.

RVFR - Any chance your builder does ceramic coating? If he can (or has a preferred local shop to do it before shipment) that would be convenient for me and probably some others on the list. Can't hurt to ask, I figure.

Well there is a set on Ebay right now for ~$500, which is maybe a little high for their condition. Otherwise, you can go with airtech: http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index.php?/forums/topic/82225-my-airtech-adventure/#comment-1015356 http://www.airtech-streamlining.com/hondaz/VFR7501994-97.htm#price I would prefer the one piece design of the airtech over the house of cards that honda went with. Factor in having it painted and you will still probably be ahead $ wise unless you get lucky on OEM or don't mind cracks and rash.

I am against the stock size outlet. If we want a performance system, diameters will have to increase. It is easy enough to take your midpipe and have the outlet expanded, or just buy the tool from harbor freight. We are talking 2ish mm here, which should be doable.

Yep, that's the gasket in both of the above posts. My micron low and mig high both attach without the gasket (the inlet to the midpipe is smaller in diameter). This will be an issue for systems that use the gasket (stock and aftermarket) if you intend to have a larger diameter outlet from the performance system than the inside diameter of the gasket. Obviously now the gasket won't fit and the midpipe will need to be modified to fit whatever outlet comes from the performance headers. This can be avoided if the outlet diameter of the header is the same diameter as the outside of the gasket. Then you just run those systems gasketless.

Does the staintune use the stock exhaust gasket? Some slip on manufacturers (Micron for sure, IDK about others) went with a direct connection.

I like this idea. PM me an address too.