fabio222

Man that RWB paint scheme is the bomb. Nice job on the brackets. When I have my VTEC out on the road I usually just use one pannier. I'd considered getting some Delkevic cans for it so thanks for the info on clearance with the pannier mount!

That's pretty cool, fair dues to you for helping others out. Did tyres a couple of times myself but levering them off of the wheel was so tough. I actually bent a rim doing it one time. I kinda gave up after that and left it to the shop but the prices for that seem more reasonable here, I'm not doing them often, and I can pick from 2 shops within 30 minutes of me. That said, one thinks you don't need to balance the rear and the other thinks you do. I prefer the one that does balance the rear but they also tend to be busier!

Hoping I don't need to go at the clutch itself but it doesn't feel that sort of issue. Feels like a stuck mechanism somehow. You're right, another flush of fluid would do no harm. I have a master cylinder rebuild kit so I'm going to do that job soon. No point leaving it on the shelf I suppose.

When I bled the fluid the other night it was all nice and smooth. Clutch lever felt great. The issue with the stuff clutch lever just happened to come up the day after that. I don't think it's related (the fact I did the fluid bleed and the issue cropped up soon after) because this has happened before and it went away spontaneously. I'll certainly check the slave cylinder too though and check the lifter rod and give that a clean and grease.

Same as the profile pic yeah - 97 750 with 92500 miles on the clock. Clutch fluid was done the other day (it'd been a year since it was last done). It felt fine before and after that fluid change .

Hi all, just looking to see if anyone has an opinion on this.... Went out to ride home from work yesterday and found the clutch lever incredibly stiff. It couldn't be made come back to the handlebar no matter how much I pulled it. The clutch would still engage or disengage but with absolutely no feel and it took incredible effort to use it. This has happened once before but resolved itself after I removed and cleaned the lever pivot point. No such luck this time (and I think that really was just luck). I've ordered a clutch master cylinder rebuild kit because I think it's something to do with that...it feels like something on that end is sticking badly. I rebuilt the slave cylinder last summer and it's all good. Fluid was bled only a few days ago so no air. Any opinions?

Beautiful memories. There's something about how bikes can link us back to memories of places we've been and trips taken. Ten years ago I was stranded on the dock at Cherbourg, France, because the ferry I was catching home to Ireland (an 18 hour overnighter) had a radar problem. Eventually we were allowed to board but I had to leave my VFR quayside. They were basically only allowing us on to give us all a place to sleep for the night. They attempted to empty us out the following morning with promises of other ferries but a few of us hung on and explained that we were entitled to do so under EU law. There was no guarantee that an "alternative sailing" would actually take us and once you've left the boat you're on your own. Eventually made friends with many of the staff, got a tour of the ship, saw the bridge, got the VFR onboard and got home a day late. The poor French lad I'd helped out through this, on a nice Kawasaki ER6, had a day robbed from his tour of Ireland because of it but I managed to get him a cabin so he was comfy (until he got to Ireland where it pissed rain..poor guy). Photo below of the VFR fully-loaded dockside. The two Beemer guys disappeared the morning the ferry was emptied, think they chanced the "alternative sailings" thing. Actually the Larry David lookalike there was riding a Honda Silverwing maxiscoot! One more edit - I'm sitting here now with my baby daughter asleep in my arms and am married to the woman who I was traveling back and forth to France for. We've our own little home, a lovely little dog, and a shed where I can work on/admire my two VFRs. If you'd told me that was gonna happen 10 years ago when that picture was taken I'd have been astounded. Life moves fast.

Nice one. I must drag mine out from the shed soon. Need to do oil and filter, new fork seals, new brake and clutch fluid too. I'm tempted to pull the seals in the calipers and clear out the seal bores and apply some red rubber grease to stop any corrosion developing in there.

I've never considered the VFR to be a knee-down bike on the street. Seems unnecessary. While it'll certainly embarrass full-on sports bikes in the right hands, it isn't a full on supersport but I would argue it doesn't pretend to be and it's all the better for it. See can you get a test ride on one and see how it feels. If you do purchase one there's a great community on here with loads of mod expertise etc. Best of luck!

Stunning paint job. Do you need to change the oil or run a cleaner through the fuel system or anything?

Go one better. Have both 😂. I see it as a typical Honda technological willy-waving. "We believe we can do this so we are going to do it" - same with oval pistons, same with linked brakes, same with VTEC.

I wonder were sone VTECs worse than others? On a per-bike basis. One 2003 model feeling different to another 2003 model. It happened with rear suspension/weaving issues on Pans of that era.

I like your attention to detail! Do the license plates have to be that size, legally, in Finland? If so, is the plate size strictly enforced? Here in Ireland it depends on the Garda (our police). Some don't care, some will use it as an excuse to pull you.

Fantastic information here, thanks everyone. I've got a 4th gen and a 6th gen. Both have their merits but I was reading recently about the differences between the 4th and 5th gen but just didn't know as much about the differences between the 5th and 6th gen.

Hey, Just doing some thinking (dangerous stuff, I know) about the differences between the 5th and 6th gen VFRs. So far as I can tell the frame is, basically, the same. I think the swingarm might be different??? The braking setup is a little different I think, although the calipers are the same. The suspension is a bit beefier on the 6th gen (I think....thicker forks maybe?). Now, to the heart of the bike, the engine. I've read that Honda used the RC45 tooling to make the engine for the 5th gen VFR 800 (and this meant there would be no more RC45s as the tooling had to be modified to such an extent that it couldn't be easily changed back). That 5th gen had gear driven cams mounted on the side of the engine. I know the BIG change between the 5th and 6th generation was that the 6th gen did away with the gear-driven cams and, instead, used a conventional chain driven cam setup. The other BIG change was the inclusion of the VTEC system within the head of each bank of cylinders. However, were there any other modifications to the engine between the 5th and 6th gen? Did Honda have to do a full redesign to accommodate the VTEC and cam chain setup?

Hey, welcome on board! The oil capacity for the 2002-2006 VFR 800 was 3.1 litres (I think). I'm fairly sure it's the same for 2006 onwards too. As for cleaning the oil sight glass - you can put the bike on it's sidestand, remove the clutch cover and clean the inside of the oil sight glass using some solvent, brake cleaner, electrical contact cleaner etc - if you do that I think you'll need a new clutch cover gasket when refitting. It's possible it's just moisture too and when the bike really warms up and you're out for a long spin that cloudiness will clear up.

Nope I haven't. I have a small child to raise, a job to hold down, a house to run, bikes to maintain, so I don't get to forensically analyse every thread. Did I break a rule or something??? You barked at someone else for not having read back through loads of pages too, seems you've an issue with that?

Wonder how much it actually costs to fully transform an RC36-2 into an RC30...

Lads that Honda Britain special is actually quite nice! Far better than the red and silver 50th anniversary special.

On mine there are two relays under the nose cone (behind the dashboard really). One for each head light. I don't think they're fed directly from the switch in either case. In the attached pic you'll see a rubber cover which isn't holding anything. I think one relay is held in here and another identical one on the other side. I'd an issue once before where the headlights just completely failed on me after exiting a motorway toll booth just as I got into darkness and hit full beams. Scary as fuck when you're tipping 120kph. Never happened again and could never find the reason why it happened but this pic was taken during my "investigation".

You've probably done this already but have you put everything back to stock? Stock fork internals and air gap and oil spec? Stock shock with no shims to mess with height etc? That's what I'd do and see what happens from there. Might be a daft thought but I'd check the chain and ensure that's not causing any swingarm issues. Maybe remove the centre stand as well in case that could be the cause of any issues.

Hmmm that sounds strange. I thought they were all twin headlights! Mine certainly is, but then mine is a Europe or UK spec bike. Mind you, unless I have it on full beam it's pretty terrible. Very dull and dim. Like myself.

I'd say any gloss black would look fine.

It's amazing how much better brakes become when you open them up, clean out the crud and corrosion behind the seals and put in nice new seals with cleaned up pistons. I'm not sure if it's braking power increases or brake feel but, either way, it's really worth the time to do!

Think of the ABS light as the system doing a self-test on startup. It shouldn't need to do that self-test every time you go below 6mph. Thus, the sequence in bold, above, is correct. Sounds like you've sorted it out, well done!