ShipFixer

I had LASIK done later, but why did I finally make the leap to contact lenses? Motorcycles, that's why. Glasses are a PITA. If there's even a chance of you considering it, the explosion of peripheral vision accuracy that comes with "normal" vision from LASIK, plus some other things makes a lot of things two-wheeled better. Can't get that with contacts...

I went back and looked. There is a "Cogswell" in one of the VFR groups but I don't know if it's the same one.

I think I see him on the Facebook VFR groups. But I hate the Facebook VFR groups...

Can't prove this, but as quiet as my 8" Delkevics are with the "quieter" baffles, I'd imagine their regular 12-14" cans with the same baffle are absurdly quiet while still improving sound.

You can order a Rapid Bike Racing instead of the PC5 and receive it in California 😉 I checked, I ordered and received my Delkevic exhaust (mufflers) from their eBay store. And I ordered the "quieter baffles" from them on Amazon. No problems with either.

I have a big tub of fancy ceramic brake grease for my truck I will never get through. I would use it on the bike if I needed to do the sliders, mostly cause I have it.

My audiogram is the same at 45 as it was at 22, despite a previous life in diesel engine rooms and my last office sitting under the three-wire on an aircraft carrier 😉 I know what loud is like and generally avoid it (hence my audiogram results). It's a high point of the VFR and Shoei for me that they're relatively very quiet. Better believe I was ready to shove as much extra baffle length in the Delkevics to get to "manageable!"

I have the Delkevic 8" pipes. I have heard them next to another 6th gen that also has the VFRD headers with gutted stock mufflers, and I prefer the Delkevic sound. It's got that throaty V-8 rumble at low RPM and idle, but shrieks like a superbike up high. Has caused several beginner riders near me to panic (not intentionally!). Agree the gutted stock option sounds tinny and odd, Delkevic is a great option. Couple notes though, with the headers, it was too loud for riding without earplugs even with baffles. Delkevic does sell a "quieter" baffle which gave me the extra 3dB I need. Bike is louder without being obnoxious now. If you Google around you will find other people have home made even quieter ones by extending the baffle further. It may be fine with the cat installed but with the straight pipes, 8" just doesn't muffle well by itself. The Dekevic intermediate pipe that connects to the header is sized for the stock header. When you get the VFRD header, it's wider (hooray!) so be prepared to take it to a shop to have it expanded a tiny bit. The do it yourself expander broke, it's strong enough (also hooray) that it needs a proper hydraulic expander.

I did not remove my center stand to replace my 6th gen headers. Bike stayed on the center stand the whole time. I don't recall thinking it would make a difference, either. The header comes in three pieces - the front exhaust exits and merges as one piece, and then the two rear exits are separate pieces, but they route around the center stand. The post-collection exit to the up-pipe for whatever muffler system you have (Delkevic pipe shown here) routes through the middle of the center stand. You can see it in this photo of my bike right after I finished the install. Note the springs fastening the two rear cylinder exhaust pipes to the main header assembly, and where the header connects to the up-pipe heading to the mufflers. If and when another group order comes together, if your bike has some miles on it, I would consider pre-ordering the studs and nuts for the exhaust flanges from Honda ahead of time. At least a few of the nuts on mine were fused to the studs, which of course is better than fusing to the engine block I suppose. And of course, they were backordered everywhere. This added a week or more of downtime to my install, and I ended up ordering from three different places and waiting to see which ones would get here first. There is someone on eBay in the UK who sells stainless VFR exhaust flange studs, but doesn't ship them to the US.

The headers take a bit of patience. You won't be slapping these on as quickly as a slip on. It takes a combination of ratchet extensions on a torque wrench to get the rear exits seated correctly, and as you methodically tighten each lug down a bit at a time, all around the bike, to the final number, you also have to make sure the header is not contacting the frame (I used wood shims). There is nothing particularly difficult about it, it's just a little fussy. You will want a garage or spot where the bike can be worked on for at least several hours, maybe a few days depending on your pace. And one or two universal joints and an extension set for those rear pipes. Also...it's totally worth it 😁 The bike is waaaaaay more open above 7K RPM.

I vaguely remember this is how I was supposed to install my All Balls tapered rollers 10+ years ago. Improvement in the front end was noticeable. Increase in natural frequency going from "pseudo-pinned/pinned" to "pseudo-clamped/clamped" kills chatter and other bad oscillation behavior.

Short version: yes, you can buy whatever muffler you want in California and get it via mail. The Scorpion will be fine. I have 8" Delkevics and their "even quieter baffles" with the VFRD headers. It's not like cars, where there is a strict emissions test and visual inspection, where they look for CARB stickers or documentation on parts. That's what you're probably thinking of. The only motorcycle inspection requirement in California is an engine and VIN verification which can be done by shops with licenses. Not going to lie...I've held onto my stock cat headers plus mufflers just in case California goes full on crazy, but I suspect they're not going to start by going after 20 year old motorcycles.

What did he do to make them decide he shouldn’t have access to header buys, that’s the question… 😜

Okay and this is “something @SEBSPEED did for my VFR that I haven’t installed yet.” Cerakoted upper triple clamp and brake calipers. I have red Galfer stainless steel brake lines to go with them, as we all as a red Oberon clutch slave piston upgrade.

Last week…but new Michelin Road 5 and a whole lot of cleanup on the rim. I also hit a lot of the trim pieces with Cerakote ceramic trim wipes. Highly recommend them!

I have one sitting downstairs, haven't installed it yet but hoping for the same. Will post when I do and let you know!

I see a lot of VFRs in San Diego, and I wonder how many of you there are here. I want to tackle a couple reliability concerns (stator and oil cooler lines) before I go for long coastal rides or something, but I would be up for a VFR loop around the county if someone puts it on.

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

I would jump on that. Watch the pick up game of people haggling over sixth gen top cases and invest early 🤣

I actually didn't realize Givi makes a similar thing. But, yeah...prefer the look of SW Motech's. I can verify mine doesn't touch at all, it looks like it's fitted to the curves but there is a gap all the way around and under the bag. It's rigid enough it's not going to bend and rub it randomly either.

I started to go down that road when I first took the tank out of the box. Was going to be too hard to get coverage everywhere, make it look good, etc. Now that I've got it on I like it more than I thought I would.

Installed a new tank and missed my tank bag, but for sure didn't want magnets touching the paint. SW Motech seems to be the only game in town. Doesn't touch the paint, and their red on black scheme happens to match the VFR pretty well. I really like it. This is the "micro" bag, will probably get the Sport bag at some point.