Terry

Yeah, what Danno said. As long as air can pass through the spacer then all is good and no need to go the full Swiss Cheese route.

I was made to think about this in discussions with our local suspension guru who was working on my MT-10 Ohlins forks (which I wanted softened on sharp bumps beyond what the adjusters could do). He went to the trouble of machining down the spacer to ensure that it occupied as little volume as possible, as anything that reduces the air volume over the oil causes quite a steep increase in effective spring rate as the fork is compressed. But you are quite correct that a closed tubular spacer would be OK provided the volume of fork oil was reduced to offset the volume.

Interesting spacer; you would want that to be open to the air otherwise it will behave like you have a very high oil level.

Its been a few years since I did a shock swap on mine (stock out and DMR modified CBR954 shock installed) and I went down the same path as you with the linkages removed and the wheel off so I could easily raise and lower the swingarm to suit. Keep at it as there is a magic combination of swingarm angle that will allow the shock to slip through. If your Bitubo has a remote reservoir, I would feed that through and up before the shock body. I would wrap the new shock spring in masking take to prevent scratching the spring.

I had my last VFR start to reset the clock when I started it hot. It just needed a new battery. For less than $100 it is a cheap thing to swap out if you've not already done so. Cleaning the fuses and diodes is a sound strategy too. Thanks to Grum's help, I figured out that my occasional hot-start problem on my ST1300 was a dirty diode connection. Who'd a thunk that?

While I am all for experimentation with suspension, I don't believe it is possible for us mere mortals to open a shock and change oil or shims. Showa shocks like the Blackbird or VFR have a nitrogen charge above a floating piston at the blind end of the shock body. To open the shock you will need to fight against that gas pressure to get the circlip out, followed by an "exciting" pressure release. How Showa build these shocks in the first place is a mystery to me, but as there are no shortage of sealed gas shocks in the world it must be simple with the right machinery. To do the job right, you need to breach the blind end of the body and release the pressure in a more controlled manner, then fit a valve there so you can re-pressurise after rebuilding the shock. YMMV and all that.

Hi Ross All that will get you is externally adjustable rebound damping, but all the stock setup shortcomings are still there; the VTR damper parts are identical to the VFR, just with the adjustable rebound bleed. My view is that the VFR is undersprung and overdamped as stock, which gives a harsh ride. The main culprit is the compression valve body which is overly restrictive to compensate for an overly soft spring (for less Japanese-sized riders anyway). If money is tight then for best effect I would spend it first on a set of compression Gold Valves, then springs (something like 0.9-0.95 kg/mm seems right to me), then rebound Gold Valves, and last on the VTR adjusters. Jamie Daugherty certainly knows a thing or to and I've used his parts as an alternative to Racetech. Just my 2c worth. Terry

Not correct. The fork tubes are different diameters as you say, but the cartridges are all the same 20mm OD in all the Showa forks that I've seen. There are model-specific differences e.g. in the valve base at the bottom where the CBR has a larger diameter bolt securing it to the fork, but that valve base is still intended for the 20mm cartridge tube. If you work through the Racetech site you will probably see the same part numbers listed for Gold Valves for the different bikes as well. If you want to make your 5G forks externally adjustable you should get the fork caps and cartridges off the VTR1000F Superhawk/Firestorm. That cap will screw straight into the VFR fork, and you will get adjustable rebound. You are right that a F4i cap is 43mm and won't fit the 41mm VFR fork.

Hi Ross I fitted 6th gen triples and bars to my 5G, installed the F4i forks with .95kg/mm springs and re-used the Gold Valves that were in the original forks. The damper cartridges are actually the same dimensions, just with the external screw adjusters. I also bought a 600F4i front fender, although you can get a 5G fender to fit with some creative bracket making. The 5G axle, wheel and discs are perfect as is. I used some 954 callipers and a 600RR master cylinder. The only bit that needed sorting was the ignition lock, the pin missed the socket on the steering head until I shimmed the lock down with a couple of washers.

I put 6th gen VFR800 bars on my last 5G 800 when I fitted the 43mm forks from a 600F4i. Worked like a charm.

Personally I'd take the clutch slave apart and see if it is seized. Boyles law? Sorry couldn't help myself. I've certainly personally experienced that tying the brake lever back to the bars overnight makes for a significant improvement in lever feel and gets rid of the squishies. Not sure that the same would apply with the clutch as my sense is the actual hydraulic line pressure is much lower.

Sounds like a pretty sensible life goal to me. I see you left out the 2nd gen, I recently bought and lightly restored one of these but fell out of love with it quite quickly as while very pretty, it just felt kind of old. I started riding in the era of tube frames, crossply tyres and single piston callipers, things did get much better with the advent of alloy frames, decent forks, 17" wheels, and the 3rd gen onwards would fulfill my criteria for "modern (ish)". Oddly enough I've never ridden either the 3rd or 4th gen, but have owned a VF750F, multiple VFR700/750 RC24s, two 5th gens, and I have ridden the 6th and 8th. I still think a gently upgraded 5th gen is the sweet spot.

My last 5G was a red 99, and I really wanted to find another just like it. However, at the time I was shopping, there were no decent red ones, only this one in yellow. I wasn't sure that I wanted a yellow VFR, but I am now absolutely smitten and think it might be the best colour ever. Actually called Pearl Shine Yellow, it has a very fine pearl mixed into the yellow, and looks awesome in the sunshine. On the downside, it sure does show up any bugs that are magnetically attracted...

AFAIK the reasons forks seals leak are: 1. Sinple wear and tear, but you'd expect 10's of thousands of km from a set 2. Rock damage to the stanchions, they cause craters with raised edges that cut seals, and cut new seals quickly if not addressed 3. Time sitting still; strangely enough, for bikes that don't get used enough the seals maybe dry out and stop sealing. Hasn't happened to me yet... 4. A piece of grit getting stuck and holding a seal open; these can be dislodged sometimes with a really fine feeler gauge inserted between the stanchion and seal But you need to find out why the seal is leaking first.

According to an good online source the stock valving should be as follows: Front forks HMAS Compression valve 12 x .1 17 x .1 17 x .1 16 x .1 16 x .1 8 x .2 clamp 11.5 x .4 spacer HMAS Rebound valve 17 x .1 16 x .1 15 x.1 8 x .2 clamp 11.5 x .4 spacer My personal opinion is that the stock valve bodies are a poor starting point for mods as they have restrictive ports, so the shim selection has less of an effect than on say Gold Valves. I run a stiffer compression valve set up on GVs and yet the ride is much better on sharp hits, because the shims can deflect and allow faster flow though the bigger ports.

The wax units are ubiquitous across lots of early FI Hondas, I know the ST1300 and SilverWing scooter use the same set-up, and have the same issues with blockages to the coolant passages from time to time. Not sure how else you can provide an auto cold fast idle system prior to the introduction of RBW throttles that allow the computer to drive the fast idle sequence.

BT023's were great on my ST1100, but I moved to 31's on my ST1300 and they were awesome. Currently running PR5's on my MT-10 and they are great, this is after 6000km of enthusiastic corners, wear is very even across the profile and they still feel good.

I don't recall exactly but my gut feel is that there quite a bit more preload on the stock springs than you would want with 0.9kg/mm items. Racetech's standard advice is to set the spacer length so you get 10mm of preload with the preload adjusters backed out fully. To work that out put the springs and washers in place and extend the fork fully, then measure down from the fork top to the top of the washer. Back the preload adjuster in the cap fully out and then measure the distance from the point of contact with the fork top to the underside of the cupped washer. Subtract one from the other and that is the no preload spacer length, and add 10mm to that. Then check the sag when you sit on the bike which should be around 1/4- to 1/3 total travel, adjust with the preload adjuster or change the spacer if needed. Changing the oil level won't make much difference to the fork feel excepting bottoming resistance. With decent springs you should also at least consider replacing the compression valves with a set of Gold Valves or their equivalent. That will make the biggest difference to the ride comfort and take the edginess off the bump absorption.

View File 1986 VFR750F RC24 sales brochure Dug out from among old magazines... Submitter Terry Submitted 08/23/21 Category Owners Manuals and other  

Like this... https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/honda/motorcycle/1999/vfr800fi-a-interceptor/frame

The VTR and 5G definitely use the same bearings, but the steering stem length could be different, as could the yoke offset. I put 6G yokes and CBR600F4 forks onto my 5G as I was confident the frame/geometry was largely unchanged between the 5 and 6G, and the only issue I had was getting the steering lock pin to align with the socket in the frame, which required the 5G lock mechanism to be shimmed down off the 6G triple.

A bigger diameter MC should give you a more wooden brake as there is less hydraulic advantage over the calliper pistons; not a bad thing for a rear brake in my view.

The axle and spacers do not need to change. VTR cartridges/fork caps are much the same as VFR certainly from a dimension, threadsize etc perspective, and the damping parts are just the same (with an added adjustable rebound bleed) so just as poor, and you ought to at least get a GoldValve for compression. VFR springs would be OK but you may need to adjust the spacer length, some PVC pipe is perfect for this. Or buy some decent springs from Somic, Racetech etc that are specific to your weight. Use of CBR calipers requires removal of a little of the lower mounting bracket on the fork, a few minutes with a hand file. They also need to be spaced off the fork by something like 2-3mm, I used a couple of SS washers superglued in place. You should definitely get a master to match the calipers, to keep the correct hydraulic ratio. You can't use a VTR guard as the fork leg spacing is different on the VFR (wider) so use your VFR guard and make up some small brackets to mate to the VTR legs.