ShipFixer

Lawyers have a term I like - "magic words." People string a bunch of things together hoping they mean something legal-ish and compelling.

Normal for a VFR in a hot summer tbh.

If you've never disassembled your clutch or replaced the piston/seals, that could be it.

WARNING LABEL: Refer to Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design, Chapter 12, or a qualified Mechanical Engineer before taking any advice on lubrication from this thread. 🤣 For the OP...no, not related.

PSA: clean injectors and a new fuel filter plus RBR is pretty swell! With the full exhaust, once my RBR settled my mileage was just "okay" and the bike really liked bottles of Redline SI-1 fuel system cleaner. I haven't refilled yet but past the time where the RBR should have re-settled and I'm going to guess it's easily 40+ with saddlebags. Bike starts like it's new and is a lot smoother across the board.

My bike produces a *lot* of This. Water vapor looks like "white smoke." My VFR produces a *lot* with a full exhaust (catless and mufflers). Stock pipes are labyrinthine and do not produce nearly as much. The thread the OP is linking to is talking about blue smoke while running. Definitely oil. If its a puff of white which goes away once warm, and is not linked to any other "thing" or transient event, then you're 99% likely ok.

To be fair, the 5th gen and 6th gen are different problems so OP should have an easier time. Just how the 6th gen tab is constantly flexed a little to get over the button...I think it's made to fail eventually. I'll have to dig it out of the "parts closet," I plan to try to fix it myself just also don't desperately need the cowl. Pretty sure someone tried to fix it by just slathering JB Weld or something on both aides. Been thinking of painting a carbon fiber one from MDI instead as a final solution, but gotta complete my fuel system and everything else before I get to that!

I wonder if anyone has successfully replaced the tabs on any seat cowl? I bought a red one for my 2002 and it was advertised on eBay as not broken. Sure enough, it was actually plastiwelded and broke right away 😕

Aaaand I don't have it anywhere. I think I bought my kit from a local suspension shop which no longer exists, but they gave me a lot of advice and even checked my assembly before I put my fork back together. Maybe call some Racetech vendors and see what they suggest with the stock valves. One thing they suggest which wasn't in any instructions - polish the damper rod with steel wool, etc. while you've got it apart. There's a lot of seal drag in the damper and this reduces it significantly. Good luck!

I'm guessing if Racetech specified a 1kg spring rate you and I are around the same weight. I will see if I can dig up what Racetech specified for my gold rebound valves but that was a looooooong time ago and I don't think I have it anywhere. Also, the Racetech piston ports are a lot different than the stock ones, that's part of the magic. They shift a lot more of the damping from orifice restriction (hydraulic choking) to the shim stack. So maybe start something less than what goes with the gold valves. FWIW I don't recall stock rebound being as terrible as stock compression valving. The Racetech setup opens up high speed compression a lot so square edge hits and potholes are much, much smoother.

I've removed the ignition lock cylinder on my 6th gen to clean the switch at the bottom. It's non-trivial effort to get under and through the upper triple clamp with an allen wrench and remove it without disassembling the front of the bike. I see what they were thinking with yours...doesn't look like they knew where the screws are. Someone tried to steal my bike a few weeks after I bought it back in 2003. They cut the ignition cables and clearly thought they could hotwire the bike like on TV. I don't think most wanna-be bike thieves really know how all of this works, let alone enough of the inner workings of something like this. "Real" vehicle thieves are just going to pull up with a flat bed truck or trailer and take your vehicle to be stripped elsewhere, in seconds. Anyway, like others said, these security bolts are going to make your life harder than someone else's. I can say some of my starter circuit issues were due to dirt and grease washing down through the whole cylinder into the switch at the bottom over time. So there are circumstances for elderly bikes like our 6th gens where you don't want to preclude yourself from getting into that switch easily later.

Welcome back! I bought my 2002 back in 2020, after selling it in 2011 😁

Weird... 🤔🙃🤷🏻‍♂️

Are you going to remove the forks from the triple clamps, or are you asking if there's a way to change the fork oil while still installed on the bike? The latter can be done with some tricks, but if your oil is very old it can be sludgy in the bottom. The "drain bolt" in the bottom is also the bolt that holds the bottom of the damper inside the fork assembly, so you are halfway to completely disassembling the fork at that point. You already have the front wheel off and the bike on centerstand to get this far, its better to remove the fork and flush everything with degreaser and then fill with clean oil. If you are suctioning out oil and replacing from the top cap and there's sludge at the bottom...well, no point to the oil change. If you set out to disassemble the damper, thats when it becomes tedious and sensitive to torque values in reassembly. But you can just flush that out really well and get by. The only things left for "full service" are the bushings and seals, which are super duper easy to change. Easier than my mountain bike seals to be honest, which have to be pried out carefully 🙃

I'm a little under Presson's weight. I could get sag in the right place with the stock springs, but the rates were too low. I now have Racetech fork valves and a full Hyperpro shock in the rear, but I was pretty happy with Hyperpro springs alone at both ends. Eats bumps and pot holes mid-corner, leaned way over, no problem: https://hyperpro.com/