TomG33

Ok, Now I will show you all, my ignorance. I roughly what a Quick Shifter is, But how do you use it and what does it buy you ? Tom

I've made the exact same transition about 6 weeks ago. Don't regret it, for a second. To clarify, I put in about 100,000 Km on my 09 model (purchased in April 2010), With a good combination of long rides, (in excess of 12,000 Km), long day rides, ( 500 Km) with most of my riding between 200 to 300 Km on a weekend day. I had the machine serviced pretty much as on the recommended schedule, but probably skipped out on a couple of the Valve Clearance adjustments, but mostly it was on the prescribed. intervals. As far as the original bike performance goes, i really only had 2 failures. the first was the Alternator stator at about 52,000 Km just prior to the expiry of the 2 year warranty time so the stator and the battery were replaced under warranty. The second failure was the water pump which failed at about 94,000 Km, a few days after I had returned from a 5,000 Km, 7 Day ride through outback Queensland. Apart from these two instances The bike has served me well and given me an enormous amount of enjoyment and satisfaction. In short, It has done me well but i could see problems and expenses looming in the future. HOWEVER, because of my preference for long solo rides in remote areas I started to think about reliability and "What is the next thing to give me trouble" and will it leave me stranded somewhere. In the back of my mind there was the notion that Alternator stator winding was probably close to failing again, (given it only lasted 52K the first time). Without really planning to I saw the new model, and tok a look over it, Organised a test ride, and actually liked the lighter machine weight and the narrower body. I was hooked and signed the contract. In the new model i saw a lot of the modern innovations that I was originally wanting in the 09 Model, but didn't have, even thou I decided to take it anyway, namely ABS, Traction Control, Remotely adjustable Suspension, LED Lighting, Self cancelling Indicators, and other little niceties in the Display area. The heated handgrips are a nice touch. Handling wise, I think you can really notice the 10Kg less weight, and the handling is as surefooted as we expect of the VFR. The transition into "VTEC" is different. The jury is still out on weather it is better or worse. If you take it relatively easy the transition is very smooth, however if you have a handful of throttle , the transition hits with a bit of a thump, not dangerous but enough to make me think, "is there something wrong here?" I've been travelling overseas for a few weeks since then so i have only just completed 1,300Km. The first service completed and Factory Panniers and top box are fitted, so I am now planning a longer ride to try it all out. I apologise for rambling on, but I just wanted to give you some background on the type of riding I do, as I know each of us has different riding preferences and as many different ideas of "Perfect days" as there are people you ask. Hope this helps Tom

zRoYz, This sounds just what I was thinking about, could you give me the actual brand name you ended up using, Tom

I'm also tossing around the idea of these high intensity LED Lights, The trouble with them is finding a good install that does not make the bike look like it belongs on a farm. TOm

Maybe so, But his product was good, I simply LOVE mine. A huge increase in rear visibility.

SMothsailing, , Yes, Do not worry, My first thoughts were that they had put something back together wrong as well. That is why I pulled the plastic off to check EVERYTHING. Just so I was in a position of knowing where it stood before I put the situation to them. It all looked good. (I fix broken electrical equipment for a living so I know what bad looks like). With regards to the "F1" light. This has come on a couple of times about a year ago and then went away again ,but it had no noticeable effect on the bike. So It's appearance and disappearance did not fluster me too greatly, but I was concerned that it was on just after the service. Guess time will tell.

Well it happened to me, So now I suppose I can step up my VFR involvement another notch. I thought I would write out the sequence of events in case any one else sees a similar pattern. Fore warned, is fore Armed. It all started on the day of the 48,000 Km service on Tuesday, April 3. Which just so happens to be at the place where I purchased the bike new, Just under 2 years ago (19 April 2010 to be exact). After the service I went to ride the bike away, but noticed the "F1" light was on. The service guy took a look at it then stopped it and started it a couple of times and then took it into the workshop for about 15 minutes. He came back and said that it went away, but the diagnostics did not reveal anything. They said bring it back in if it comes on again. On the ride home I got caught up in the peak hour traffic and crawled along for maybe 30 minutes of stop-Start. Noticed that the temperature was climbing, saw it up to 112C. In order to give it some relief, I turned the engine off at the next red traffic light. When I started the bike again, I noticed that the headlights did not come back on again initially, ( I have Tightwads HID Kit so the battery voltage must get above about 13 volts before they will strike.) They did strike and come on once I started moving with a bit of speed, but by now my attention was well and truly focused. My volt meter was only reading around 10 volts with the machine at idle. Back at home I rounded up my multimeter and removed the seat so that I could measure the voltage directly at the battery terminals and avoid voltage drop errors. The bike had cooled and when I started it, The voltage easily went up to 14.2 volts at around 5,000 RPM. To me this looked ok, and the headlights come on with no problems. On Wednesday I did a quick run down the gold coast and back, at highway speeds, no peak hour traffic, but my fixed voltmeter went up to about 13.5 volts. My thinking was that there would be maybe 0.5 volts drop along that wire, So it would be about 14 volts on the battery would mean that the operation would not drain the battery, but On the same token, It would not give the battery any appreciable charge either. I had no repeat of the earlier mentioned low beam lights not coming on. Thursday I had to go down the Gold Coast again, (about 50 km each way) and as this was the thursday before Easter, you can imagine how the traffic was when I got back to Brisbane. This time I crawled along, stop start for a much longer time, say about 60 minutes. Complacency had gotten to me, so I did not actually see what the volt meter was doing. I stopped at the post office to collect the mail, and when I came out, The bike would not go at all. All the display lights came on, and no F1, The fuel pump pressurised, but when I hit the starter, NOTHING. NOW I KNEW I HAD A PROBLEM. I Managed to get the bike going by clutch starting it down the driveway at the post office, and luckily home was little more then 500 meters away so I made it there with no further problems. Over the Easter long weekend I did a few runs and never saw a repeat of the problem, although my little fixed volt meter never showed the voltage getting above 13.8 or 13.9 Volts. On Easter Monday I stripped of all the plastic, and did a very close inspection of all the plugs associated with the R/R and the alternator, No sign of any discolouration and no bad plug connections. All looked good. I checked the wiring associated with my various electrical modifications to make sure nothing had come astray during the service, (48,000 Km is a VTEC Valve clearance check so they would likely have stripped away a lot of stuff to allow them to do it). All looked correct and serviceable. First thing Tuesday (After the Easter break) morning I contacted the Bike shop and they said bring it down. I did. They inspected it and told me that one phase of the alternator was shot, and started to quote my pricing for a new alternator. I stopped him mid sentence and commented that it should be still in the 2 year warranty period. He checked and said that it still was, (for at least another week or so anyway). Arrangements were made with Honda for a replacement alternator stator, and a battery as well. His opinion ( and it makes sense to me too) is that the high engine temperature either initially caused the alternator winding failure, or just made it deteriorate that much faster. I am away on the other side of the country at the moment, and I will go straight the US once I get back home, so I arranged with them to keep my bike for the two or so weeks, and they will install the new stuff when it comes in. I have to say that the guys at the Honda dealership, were very supportive, and have told me they will deliver the bike back home (35 km away) when the work is completed. I suppose the moral of the story is that as soon as you notice a change in the way the charging system operates, It is time to get it all looked at by someone that knows about it. Tom

You will have a hard time convincing me that is not Magic. The best explanation I ever read was: electricity=FM (fcuk'n majic) I hear ya, It is a bitter pill to swallow, but by my experience, it is pretty much proven, although there has been a time or two when I have considered consulting a witch Doctor :o)

Sounds like you need to re-label your charger to "NSSBT" Not So Smart Battery Tender. But seriously, Thank you for the post, and it serves to remind us that, when dealing with electricity, it does not work by magic, All the odd things that happen do actually have a logical explanation, We just gotta keep looking in different places to find them, sometimes. Tom

Interesting, Solomoto, HOWEVER................ I'll wait till you have used it for a year or so to see how you feel about it then. I may be a little old fashioned but when dealing with electronics, it NEVER pays to put all your eggs in the one basket. Issues, mentioned above, such as Waterproof, working outside the cellular network, using it with gloves on, are all valid, however I have worked with electronic gadgets ever since the first HP35 Calculator (yes, way back in 1980) and they are ALL prone to just quitting when you need them the most. Just this weekend I destroyed my Apple MacBook Air, when I hit a disguised pothole at 100 Km/h. Lucky for me I still had my trusty Strike genius sitting there working away like nothing had happened. It may be dated and the features not as extensive as some of the more modern wizardry offers, however a slightly dated working model, is far more useful then a broken one with ALL the gadgets included. Tom

This is a great addition to my 6th gen, but for some reason the LHS Ballast never really adhered to the body. I suppose I never really located the correct flat spot to stick it to. Nevertheless everything works just fine with it just drifting around in that cavity. The only trouble is when I remove the front cowl I have to be careful when putting it back on again that i don't catch the wires on something. So, after 30,000 or so KM with it like this, no problems. Tom

That's good to hear, Dave, 10K miles in 3 or 4 months, is a good bit of riding. It's good that you can get out that much. Just a couple of questions, thou, if you do not mind. What year is your Viffer? Does it have the R/R up on the front right hand side of the frame, or is (was) it down the back. ? I know they changed it at some stage as mine is on the front, (2010 model). Tom