Terry

Cat: I'd push this nice tail cowling off a table and onto the floor if I could. I'm pissed because it is already on the floor.

New flat pads on old dished discs will take a bit of bedding in to be sure. Congratulations on getting out on the road.

I amaze myself sometimes! I had a something related when I replaced the TBs on my 5th gen after installing the thermostat and the throttle wouldn't close fully due to bad hose routing. Glad that you sorted that one out.

I would have a look at the routing of other hoses around the airbox; maybe you have a hose that is catching the throttle cable drum? Otherwise you should remove the airbox base and lube the linkages that connect the front and rear banks.

Happy Days! A little package arrived from Mr James Daugherty, containing new compression pistons and his recommended shim stacks. I spent a little time on Friday evening installing those into the bike, and had a decent chance for a test ride today, with a great near-400km run on drying roads. A "garage bounce" test wasn't encouraging as the forks feel suprisingly stiff at low speed, but the reality on open roads with bumps, holes and tar seams was very good. Firm but in no way jolting, the forks now give lots of confidence and even braking hard over unseen lumps was drama-free, My wrists were also much more comfortable, I was getting home after a couple of hours with quite tender wrists from the jarring of the stock forks. The cruise control also got a bit of a test and passed with flying colours, this takes a lot of the worry out of open road mile-munching by removing the need to keep such a close eye on speed. The CC is a little dozy when it comes to matching undulating territory, being slow to dial in throttle as the incline starts and then holding throttle longer over a crest than is ideal, but otherwise works as advertised and seems to be great value for money. Earl was pretty decent on fuel today, we had an average on the first tank of about 17.4km/L, and bettered that on the second tank at 18.4km/L (where I filled up in a small town and was then on a sweeping open road or freeway most of the way home). I think that is better than I was getting on my ST1300. The photo below was at Langs Beach in Northland, a favourite for a picturesque stop. I got home about an hour ahead of the scheduled heavy rain and thunder.

5th gens were made for 4 years, 6th gens for 12 years; lots more 6th gen bits around as a result.

I am not a big believer in "VFRs run hot". I do think that the side-mount radiators are less than ideal when airflow is low. I think a big problem (especially in the 5th and 6th gens) is the use of digital gauges that read out some Big Numbers (especially in Fahrenheit) and seem alarming. If these were dial gauges, 212F (oooh, scary, that's boiling point!) would be halfway between cold and hot and not worrying at all. My later Hondas (e.g. ST1300, VFR1200) just use bar graphs for temperature, and I suspect the electronics are set so that they readout is in the "warm but OK" zone all the time, unless the temperature is Really Hot. The cooling systems is just like every other system on the bike, it needs maintenance and the components need to work properly. Something as simple as a dodgy radiator cap that won't hold pressure will cause all sorts of genuine overheating, as will a stuck thermostat. I think we need to remember that these bikes were designed, built and tested in Japan. Having visited there during a sultry August, that is one steamy hot climate; if the bikes pass use testing there, I can't imagine Florida or Georgia could be any worse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMnjF1O4eH0&pp=ygUQZmF0IGJvdHRvbSBnaXJscw%3D%3D Does my ass look big in this?

I am not a big fan of the current "weight forward" design trend and think bike design peaked at the 1990 VFR750F... I have had a ride on one of the Suzuki GSX-8Rs and found it to be a very nice package; certainly light and easy to manage, ample power and tidy handling.

The PO put a fender eliminator on my MT-10. This was the result of a wet ride and some road works. I put it back to stock after this.

The marker lights are LEDs that are integral to the wiring harness for the turn signals; I suspect the LEDs are not removable, they're certainly not shown as a separate spare part. I had some issues with getting mine to work consistently and ended up cleaning the terminals where they plug into the main harness.

I just picked around the edge with a pin to slowly ease the screen off the cartridge. It only presses into the groove. I am sure that you cannot buy new parts; AFAIK the cartridge is only included as part of a new SMC. The exact same part is in the SMC for the ST1300 and so I assume any other Honda with linked brakes e.g. CBR1100XX. The screen is only there to act as a filter, if it was missing I doubt there would be any performance issue, unless the compensation port gets blocked up. I think the most important thing is to keep the system well flushed with clean brake fluid regularly.

If you look at the modern design for the ABS pump, there is no channel that needs to be opened or bled as all the action takes place on the open side of the control piston.

The screen should be intact and just press onto the blue part. Under that is a one-way check valve, you can see the ball, there's a spring under that, just plastic pieces that clip together. The whole piece will lift out of the SMC body. There is a very tiny hole in the blue body that needs to be cleaned.

It sounded like a scrape to me, not a slosh. My opinion is that it has to be something within the motor or driveline as it responds exactly to the throttle on or off. Maybe as simple as the chain being pulled tight on the top run by acceleration, then slacking off and dragging over the rubber bumper along the top of the swingarm, so I would be starting there. I guess it could be the camchain tensioners but I thought they're more likely to cause a big rattle rather than a scrape.