MBrane

I would have to say replacing 14+ year old rubber parts (lines, MC & caliper seals) would help. It did for me.

Over 35K on the 16/43 now. Couple of stiff-ish links, but the sprocket wear is minimal. I'll probably replace it soon with the same setup (DID gold x-ring/Superlite steels). It'll be interesting to see the pin wear on this chain when I cut it up. It has been a trooper.

Pressures are not as critical on a road tire as they are on a track tire. Road tires are designed to handle many more heat cycles, and perform over a wider range of pressure. They also last a lot longer, and have different temp related grip characteristics.

That said I'm pretty good about checking pressures, but I'm not gonna stop & change 'em in the middle of a ride due to altitude, and temp. variations. If you need to do that to maintain your pace you may want to reconsider how aggressively you are riding on public roads.

You need to understand how changing the attitude of the bike affects the handling.

Lowering the front i.e. raising the fork tubes in the triples will make the bike turn in quicker.

Raising the rear will help the bike maintain it's line once it's turned in.

This is of course independent of any other mods like shortening the wheelbase, tire profile, etc, but the range of adjustment on the eccentric is pretty small in the grand scheme of things on a VFR. When I had a 929 shock on my 5th gen I added nearly 1" of ride height to the mount, and the bike held it's line much better. I also had to make sure it was on completely level ground to turn the rear wheel on the center stand. When I went to the Penske shock fully extended with the stock mount I lost a bit of rear height so I raised the fork tubes 5mm. I've had it up to 140MPH, and no stability issues. I may raise the forks a bit more on the next oil change just to experiment, but the bike feels good as is. I'm not wearing the front to the edge, but I'm giving the little Michelin Man a haircut.

You really can't alter the attitude of a stock VFR enough to make it unstable. While the pressures your running are a bit low for street riding that's not going to affect your wear patterns much. That has more to do with geometry, tire profile, and riding style.

Still running PP front PR2 rear on the road, and PP rear for track days. Don't see the point in springing for the PR3 as the only advantage is in the wet which doesn't happen here often enough to justify.

I already know my next set of tires will be the excellent Michelin Pilot Road 3s, but I'm curious if anyone has ever fitted larger than stock on their 5th gen with good results. Are you better off sticking with the stock size, or going slightly bigger? (speedometer issues aside)

I am actually thinking of going narrower on the road since I have a 4th gen rear wheel here doing nothing at the moment. If it doesn't work I can always swap the rubber onto the RT.

I used a slightly bent clip-on handlebar to make a mount for all my gadgets:

Comes off easy, and works with any standard 7/8 handlebar mount. There is a piece of heater hose with some washers, and a long bolt with nut on the end running into the steering stem that holds it in place.

That's pretty slick!

Not much stretch. What did you lube the with ?

DuPont teflon dry lube.

I ran one summer with a 16 on the front! Made a diff in pickup I could tell based on racing the kid...but anyway, It worked nice, a few hundred more revs on highway didnt bother anything, but it ate my chain up way to fast! No more of that, will go up on rear next time I care.

Nearing 30K on my 16/43 combo. No signs of replacement yet despite the rain, and dirt roads. Will replace with same.

Sorry for dragging up an old thread, but this was 1 of the winter projects.

Last night I got the 929 shock installed, using a 39mm aluminum spacer. The shocks reservoir is facing backwards, away from the head & exhaust, under the plastic tray that is the battery box, but also holds the wiring harness loom.

When bolting up the shock, I did notice the reservoir pushing up against this plastic lip that shields the harness. I dont think its too much of an issue. Is there much movement of the shock & reservoir itself?

Another thing I noticed, the lower adjustment screw on the 929 shock sticks out a little long, and is coming awfully close to the 3 point triangular linkage where I fear contact. Has anyone had this issue?

Can post pics if it helps. Any input appreciated.

Mine was that way for a couple years, and I had no issues.

Good to see someone doing a HID install the right way not just replacing a halogen bulb with a HID, and blinding everyone with glare while decreasing their useable field of vision.

I've got Pilot Powers. Two seven hundred mile trips of Superslab riding has created an unfortunate flat spot on the rear, but the front is okay. I will try the Road2 on the back. I don't do much riding in the rain so I don't think I need the Pilot Power Road 3s.

Also, I know some of you use a Pilot Power up front and a Pilot Road on the back. I spoke to a Michelin Rep who didn't see the need to have the Power up front; he thought I ought to get the road 2 set. Maybe he was just trying to sell me something.

I've had a few front slips that very likely could have been lowsides with a rounder, and harder compound front. I like the elliptical profile, and extra stick of the PP up front on the VFR. I do run a PR2 on the front of the RT, but it's a lot heavier, has less available lean angle, and the Telelever suspension is hard on front tires. It would eat a PP in under 2K.

Went -1 on the front, and it's the second best mod I've done to the bike (#1 would be the Penske 8987). The bike is much better in the tight stuff now, and is right around 5-6K when on the highway. Dropped the MPG a bit, but I'll gladly live with sub 40 avg. MPG since I don't spend a lot of time in a straight line.

I paid $125 for my last rear PR2(2 weeks ago)

That's pretty cheap for a PR2 rear! Gotta link? At those prices I might go back.....

Seriously?

A PR2 rear is almost twice the price of a PP rear, and doesn't last anywhere near 2X IME. I run 'em at 40 psi on the street 30 on the track. They don't "flat spot" they just end up more round than elliptical. I run 'em on 2 5th gens with similar results despite different riders.

Guess we are using more throttle, and lean angle than you?

Well after reading all these reply's I decided to go for the Pilot Powers on both front and back. Seems like the Pilot Roads are longer lasting more durable but I'd rather take the increased performance and shorter life span from the Powers. They say the Dry grip is better from the Powers. I just ordered them so I can not yet vote if they are good or not but it seems that cant be bad as i have read a billion reply's that people love them. Also to note...from another site someone in a review about the powers said the front is triangular in shape which helps the bike fall into turns. Thats Plus for me since I love to scrape on corners.

In The wet is much stronger on the power too, but I really dont care for the rear ppower for a street tire, the road 2 rear is more supportive of the weight IMO. Especially once the tire is past half life, quality of feel degrades too much. I was really dissapointed with Power rear on the back, espcially, being a 2000 mile tire in addition.

The Power front and road two rear is my longevity package to keep costs down, My favorite is the power front with BT21 rear, Its such a Quick turn in package , I have a blast every time I run it. IMO, the BT21 rear, is a better option than Ppower rear for the street.

I've run a Pilot Road 2 on the rear, and did a cost vs. mile comparison. The difference was about $5. I also found that the Power didn't flat spot as bad as the Road 2 due to it being more elliptical to begin with i.e. by the time it's worn out the profile is similar to a Road 2.

Haven't noticed any "softness" in the carcass. When it does step out it comes back without drama.

One of the best comfort mods I've done was heated grips. Not only for the obvious reason, but their larger diameter solved my hand cramping issues when doing the freeway drone thing. The stock grips are too small for my hands. Just another angle to consider.

btw if anyone can tell me how a 5th gen battery box could possibly not need trimming for this mod, I'd love to know.

I added a little ride height (10mm).

You kinda answered your own question there. I added a little more than 10mm to mine ( I have to be sure it's on flat, level ground for the rear tire to spin on the center stand). The reservoir is pushing against the plastic below the fuse block, but it's been that way for 20K+ miles, and hasn't hurt anything. The bike holds a line much better on corner exits under throttle now too.

Damn Linda Carter was just so hot BITD wasn't she?

What were we talking about again?

The VFR battery is common to a LOT of other bikes. No good reason you shouldn't be able to find one.

I would get a AGM battery myself. Some here are using the lithium variant batteries, but I'm still in wait & see mode on those.

Well I guess the ones I used aren't true "spade" lugs since they have a hole not a slot. I simply bolted them together, and covered 'em with shrink tube. The stator/R/R wires are 12G, but you can put 10G connectors on 'em just fine. Just gotta crimp 'em a bit more. I ALWAYS solder too. Don't trust crimping alone to provide a good electrical connection.

The ones I used look like the yellow one on the R:

Thanks for the clarifications.

Re: the soldering, how do you solder after the crimp with that plastic cover in the way on the lug? Do you do away with that? Move it off and then try to slide it back over the now crimped/soldered connection?

Just use a large, hot iron, heat the lug, & flow solder into the crimp area. Work quickly, and the plastic won't melt too much. If you use too small an iron you'll melt the plastic long before the solder flows. You could always just remove it too since it's getting covered anyway.

Interesting. Looks like the splices couldn't handle anywhere near as much current as the wires.

When the GF's 99 melted the near-new Hitachi stator connector I went into overkill mode, and used 10G spade lugs crimped & soldered. It's been fine since.

My 98 still has the replacement Hitachi that I put on back when my R/R fried 2 Decembers ago. Go figure. That will be going away soon though as I feel like that connector is a ticking time bomb....

I was all set to do the "eliminate the connector" drill and direct-connect the stator wires to the r/r wires, but now see that apparently a "standard" connection won't work for long. You used "10G spade lugs" and I found this site/pic that shows those: http://workmanship.nasa.gov/lib/insp/2%20books/links/sections/206%20Spade%20Lug%20Terminals.html

1. How did you use spade lug connectors to make the connection? It looks like these go under a bolt head, or something like that, not attached to one another. Did you have one of these lugs on each side?

2. You used 10G lugs - what is the gauge of the stator and r/r wires? It looks smaller than 10 gauge to me, so wouldn't the lug not fit very well? Or am I misunderstanding?

I just want to do this job right, the first time. Thanks for any help.

Well I guess the ones I used aren't true "spade" lugs since they have a hole not a slot. I simply bolted them together, and covered 'em with shrink tube. The stator/R/R wires are 12G, but you can put 10G connectors on 'em just fine. Just gotta crimp 'em a bit more. I ALWAYS solder too. Don't trust crimping alone to provide a good electrical connection.

The ones I used look like the yellow one on the R:

Interesting. Looks like the splices couldn't handle anywhere near as much current as the wires.

When the GF's 99 melted the near-new Hitachi stator connector I went into overkill mode, and used 10G spade lugs crimped & soldered. It's been fine since.

My 98 still has the replacement Hitachi that I put on back when my R/R fried 2 Decembers ago. Go figure. That will be going away soon though as I feel like that connector is a ticking time bomb....

If it rains often, but not a lot I may do a major cleaning/valve check on the VFR. It's getting new Galfer brake lines, and cylinder/caliper seals for sure.

If it rains a lot I'll be working so no time to wrench.

I still need to figure out why the SV650 is crapping out above 5K, and change the rear tire.

Need to decide if I'm gonna take the GTS back to the track sans bodywork, and if so which parts need to be removed, photographed, and put on eBay. Eventually the whole thing will go there if I don't find another one in good cosmetic condition really cheap.