Rectaltronics

Did we ever figure out what that bolt was for?? Just curious.

Good friends of mine raised his daughter in a manner that would give over 99% of parents massive coronaries. I'm not even a parent and I certainly raised an eyebrow. Well, the kid turned out to be very well-adjusted and very successful at everything she tries. And, a lot more aware of the world around her, with ten times the critical thinking skills of anyone else I know except for her parents. So was their parenting "good" or "bad"? I guess what makes viewpoints like these intriguing is that "good" and "bad" are sometimes rather arbitrary terms, defined perhaps by norms that folks just cheerfully march to. Maybe it's too much work to challenge prevailing ideas. Oh, and for what it's worth, last year I had my 8th gen at the dealer for the full maintenance routine. Valve check was part of that. Bike comes out, I get the bill, it's surprisingly small. Hmmm. No valve check. I inquire. Old-skool wrench comes out. I should mention he's a well-respected fellow around here who also races on weekends, and it's usually friends of the shop who get this guy out of the other six to have their bike worked on. I ask him about the valve check. He says the first check is never necessary on these motors but he did check them... using the ol' screwdriver stethoscope trick. Your Mileage May Vary

Ahhh, yeah, no wonder he doubles his hourly rate.

Two hours of labor?! Robbery...

I own a 2014 that I bought new in New York. I have in fact run the gasoline tank to empty and can confirm that the tank holds a full 5.6 US gallons and then a bit. I can also confirm that the reserve light goes on at pretty much exactly 1 gallon. That the US Honda Powersports web site has had the wrong specification for tank capacity since the VFR was announced is fairly well-known and was mentioned in a review I wrote shortly after purchasing the bike.

If every dollar counts you could take a bus to KC but that's a whole day of travel. Air fare from ATL to MCI doesn't seem very costly. The ride back should be nice if you have warm enough gear. Given your comments about seat time, you'll probably want to take two days to make the trip back. Depending on how much [dis]comfort you want, choose a hotel, motel or truck stop. If you don't have warm enough gear, a 400 mile day could kick your ass. Do the math (airfare and buses/taxis, lodging, gas, maybe electric clothing) and you may discover that shipping the bike could be a toss-up. Of course your sense of adventure may figure into the calculations. 😉 Be safe!

Interesting. Intriguing that they kept the bronze engine covers with that scheme...

LOL, yeah, you're absolutely right, thanks. FWIW the mileage seems fairly consistent with past experience with the 4th gens, maybe a bit sooner but my riding has been more commuting and less fun so there's that. .

I always got the sense that most riders wound up with EBC pads because that's what the shops stocked. I always bring a set of OEM pads with me to the shop. 😉 At 17,000 miles I got my first replacements put on. Front and rear wore evenly and were almost down to nothing. Fronts were so far gone, I had to ride using only the rear brake getting to the shop! Mostly city commuting, my brakes get a really good workout. Your mileage may vary. First pull up, then pull down. Etc.

I've never been a huge fan of Simple Green. Very tough on finishes, doesn't cut the mess as much as I think it should, and don't much care for the smell. But it does help get the pigeon s*** off our balcony. WD-40 - kinda' forgot about that stuff - maybe I'll give that a try, and then use the car wash concentrate to get the leftover WD-40 off the wheel. I just hate having anything resembling lube (not gonna start a "what is WD-40" war here) getting on or near my tire treads. Which reminds me, mostly unrelated story, some years ago my back was out so I got our garage attendant to wash the bike for me. He was super-proud of the job he did. He even sprayed Armor All on my tires. f************k... LOL Have fun everyone and thanks for the ideas.

Fun stories. Brake drag is a more frequent issue than some folks think. You just don't notice it until it gets REALLY bad, usually. Pen-style IR thermometers can be had super cheap I received this one as a gift but others can be had for as little as $10 They can be useful for spot-checking calipers and rotors after a ride. Up front, check left vs right. Then for the back compare to front after stopping using mostly the motor and a little front brake.

Turns out finding kerosene in NYC can be a little tricky. Next time I take a good road trip... Thanks.

Brief tangent - forgive me - but with so many of these pics showing what appear to be incredibly clean wheels I have to ask what you folks are using to get them so clean. I ride in NYC so the battle against filth is epic. In addition to the brake dust and chain fling I have to deal with home heating oil particulates, construction dust, dog pee and only God knows what else. It comes off the bodywork and frame easily enough (Costco bottle of Meguiars car wash) but I can't seem to get the wheels back to their showroom sheen.

So the Pilot Road 4 tires served me well. Almost 15,000 miles, not too squared-off, fair amount of tread left front and back, and minimal front scalloping in spite of my well-known tendency to brake well into corners. Props to the local shop (New York Honda Yamaha) for discounting the expensive new rubber to close to mail order prices and discounting installation, so most of the price difference was local taxes. Minor criticism: Next time remove the adhesive from the old wheel weights, thanks. Double-checked inflation, put it to 36/42 and went to town. Had a few puckers in the first fifty miles or so but they're kinda' broken-in now. The Michelin Road 5 tires seem to offer a slightly less harsh ride. They also exhibit slightly more rolling resistance that I can feel when coasting. At least as grippy as the tires they replaced, but I'm not feeling any improvement when rolling through expansion joints while leaned over. Plenty of warning if they're gonna skate. Feel very planted, not quite as wallowy as the PR4 tires were when leaning over on crap pavement or suffering my crap throttle control. No nervous moments in the rain but I haven't pushed much yet.

So... which gen bike is that exactly??