fabio222

Good call. Maybe return the wiring (PC and 02 stuff) back to stock to help with your baseline and then crack on from there. 

Maybe the fuel stabliser hasn't quite done the trick and the injectors are gunked up. Would be worth trying an injector cleaner at a high concentration and see what happens. 

On 6/7/2025 at 1:49 PM, Iain2 said:

Sorry I wish to ask about the vfr750 1995/6. 
 

is there a dedicated relay for the cooling system!

 

I have not asked a question before so If I have interrupted a thread 

 

v sorry

Probably better off making a new thread. This one is verry old and the title won't be of much help to people in finding your query. 

I wonder might it just be the battery. Bad batteries can do very strange things at times. 

On 3/20/2025 at 5:22 PM, AndersVFR said:

I know I'm very late to the party here, but did you get sorted with a proper replacement bolt?  

 

The one that you need(ed) for your 6th Gen is part number 90106-MAT-000.  I know this as I've just had the same thing happen to me.  A mate and I swapped bikes for the afternoon and after we swapped back and he rode off for home, I noticed that I couldn't get first gear.  In fact, although I could change up the box as normal, I couldn't change back down as the stand mount had rotated forward and was fowling the bottom of the gear selector lever.  

 

I managed to pull the stand up and back into place to allow unhindered gear changes again, but when I got down on the floor to have a look back at home, I had exactly the same sight that you do in your photo in your opening post. 

 

It's terrifying when you don't know about the problem and think that the stand has taken the weight of the bike when you're getting off, only to realise milliseconds later that it hasn't and your bike is going down.

It IS terrifying! 

However, I didn't bother getting the "proper" replacement bolt. The M8 bolt I fitted with the nylock nut, as in the picture above, has been doing fine. I give it a visual check every now and then and it hasn't moved. 

There isn't really a riding season in Ireland, it doesn't snow much here and it rarely freezes for longer than a few days but the flip side is that we deal with an awful lot of rain. 

That said....I pulled in to take this pic on my commute to work a few weeks ago and it felt every bit like minus three (Celsius):

Happy to report that the love story is continuing! The new levers have really helped me to bond with the bike a little more and have taken away that wooden brake feeling.

I have a 30km commute home from the office, it's now dark outside, and its pissing down with rain (has been for days...apparently we've gotten 300% more than our average rainfall for this month so far). 

To be honest, on evenings like this, I do like the DCBS and the ABS as a comfort blanket. Never have needed it...but it's nice to have it. 

Meant to come back to all of your good folks on this...

I took the nice milled aftermarket levers off of my VFR 750 and put them on the 800. 

Man, the levers made all the difference! I'd already cleaned and greased the calipers so I knew they were in good shape and the fluid is fresh in both brake and clutch reservoirs. 

The new levers allow me to use the clutch far more effectively and the new front brake lever is more adjustable but, more importantly, allows for far more "feel". I can now feel how much brake pressure I am applying.

The brakes, as they always were, are plenty powerful for me, but I now know what they are doing too. 

Simple as that, new levers! 

By the way, these are the levers. Cheap and cheerful. I've had them for about 7 years now and they've been very nice to use on my RC36. Generic Chinese levers, nothing fancy. 

Original rubber lines. I'd like to avoid changing those if at all possible due to the expense and time involved.

Hi folks,

Anyone else not entirely happy with the feel of the brakes on the 6th gen? They work well, they're effective at burning off speed but I can't feel much through the lever. 

I recently cleaned out the calipers to see if that would help and it has improved it a little. Granted, I didn't take the pistons out and do the seals - the fluid was only flushed and renewed a few months ago so I didn't fancy having to do that again. That said, the pistons were in a good shape, no corrosion, very little dirt, the sliders were a bit sticky so I freed those up, cleaned them, greased them with a smear of lanolin grease (safe for rubber!). Put everything back together and all seemed good. 

However, riding it to work today, the brakes just didn't "feel" great. They work but my fingers have no idea about what the calliper is actually doing! I had the same issue with my VFR 750 (97) but new callipers (I found brand new calipers online, it was cheaper than doing all of the seals!) sorted that and they feel great now. 

One other thing I have yet to try is some aftermarket levers. I have a set on my 750, I might swap them over and see how it feels. 

I'm not gone on doing braided brake lines, there's just so much to buy, and no guarantee. 

2 hours ago, Timuli said:

Well, now I finally got the cylinder home from the oversize bored and coating (alusil)
The pistons are used CBR 900 sc44 year 2000, 
of which the skirt had to be shortened and the legal part had to be lowered a little, 
so that they are in the dimensions of a std piston. The price came to a total of 1000e with postage.

Wow, tis is some project! Be interesting to see what power gains you get at the end. 

There's someone on eBay in the UK who sells them with an angled handle to make adjusting a bit easier. Worth a look.

Cant' say I have but am interested to see what you end up doing because I'm still struggling to get my key slot cover to spring back to cover where the key is inserted. 

On 11/2/2024 at 9:32 AM, Mohawk said:

Usually the surrounding metal is not very thick/strong & poor key insertion technique can bend the cover metal. This can jam the slot flap. I have had a few bikes in the past with your problem & provided the flap is still there & hasn't rusted out. You can use some WD40 to lube the lock & use a thin screwdriver tip to lever up on the cover plate metal on each side of the slot a little bit, this will often release the flap from its constriction. Good luck. 

"Poor key insertion technique"...is that what they call it these days hehehehehe!

I didn't realise this might be due to the surrounding cover plate. I'll give that a try. Thanks!

I think it's 25 years here in Ireland so my '97 will get vintage tax soon. There's no fancy reg plate or anything but you pay a lower rate of motor tax (about €50 for the year rather than the usual €88). I don't think you get any discount on insurance for another few years after that and they'll do their best to wriggle out of covering you.

18 hours ago, bmart said:

I don't know the internals, but suspect a traditional spring or a piece of sprung metal. WD-40 will likely get it clean in there. You may need a tool to put some pressure on it to move it back and forth to loosen it if it is just dirty. 

I'd reckon you're right. I'll give it another soaking and see can I make it move. I'd hate to leave it open.

No one? Dang...

Hi all,

I noticed today that the ignition barrel on my 1997 looked a bit different - the spring-loaded key slot "cover" (I'm not sure what you'd officially call it - see pic attached) doesn't cover the slot when the key is removed.

As such the key slot is always open. I'd like the cover to spring back to close the slot, as it used to do. I'm guessing that the cover prevented too much water ingress (given it rains every day here that's important to me).

I've soaked it with some penetrating oil and I'll check it in the morning but can anyone tell me if it can be easily sorted? Or is something I'll have to learn to live without?

On 10/3/2024 at 3:55 PM, Bobbert1921 said:

Hay guys, my gas cap seized up this morning and it's not looking like I'll get it off without pulling the tank and removing the float. 

 

Now comes the part I need some help with. I've been looking online for gas cap replacements and have found a few but not much info about each. 

 

Do you guys have any advice or suggestions? I'm looking for something keyless that won't brake the bank.

I genuinely didn't think they could seize up like that. 

Probably a bit late but would a liberal soaking with silicon spray help matters? The silicone won't attack the rubber seals. 

Funny how you can get used to modern conveniences to the point where something as analog as the 97 VFR feels difficult to ride! 

Nothing wrong with the lovely bike, apart from it being tough to start because it's not run since late July and there's barely a sniff of petrol left in the tank. The problems were weather and road conditions and me going soft from riding more modern stuff.

I had this romantic notion of taking the VFR to work this week given that the weather was supposed to be dry(ish) and given the nights haven't completely closed in, and the clocks don't get back until the weekend, the weak headlights wouldn't be much of an issue. After giving it a once-over with some quick detailer and a couple of microfibre cloths, the dust was off of it and it looked a million bucks. I've been using Lucas Ethanol Fuel Conditioner in the tank for a while now and it seems to work, petrol doesn't gum up so easily, and the lines are kept clean. That said, it took a while to start once I had it out of the shed but I put it down the carbs being cold, really damp weather conditions, and old fuel. It ran fine after a minute so I let it warm up, shut it off and rolled it out front of the house ready for the morning commute. 

I'm trying to get out of the house this morning and, where I'd normally hop on my 2007 NT700V, hit the starter button and ride off without a care in the world (thing doesn't even have a chain to worry about!), this time I'm thinking "how much choke do I need again?" and "I need to get this tank filled asap" and "did I oil the chain last night before I rolled it out here". I'd done that, along with tyre pressures, so we're all good. Except we're not. The damn mirrors are folded back and these aftermarket 1998 800-style ones, need to be tightened with an allen key or they flop a bit. As I remove my gloves to find an allen key I keep just for this around the side of the house, the skies open and the rain buckets down. Damn it. 

Mirrors sorted, I jump on but it takes a while to start and I'm worried I'm draining the battery and overheating the starter. Sometimes fuel injection is just so handy. The carbs eventually get some fuel into them and I ride 3 minutes to the local fuel station where the VFR swallows up a full 22 litres (so, essentially, it was running on fumes, no wonder it was hard to start). At this stage I'm late for work but no meetings this morning so I'll get over it. The concrete floor of the garage is wet and slippy with remnants of diesel (why can't van drivers and diesel car drivers avoid spilling drops of the stuff on rainy mornings?!). I gingerly ride out, get on the road proper, and it doesn't have the usual lovely VFR feeling. I'm too tense, there's a line of traffic in front of me stuck behind a truck, the rain is annoying me and I know the tyres aren't going to be anywhere near temperature, not that I can use their grip anyway. 

The brakes feel good, but the roads really are slippery this morning, covered as they are with a mix of fallen autumn leaves on top of watered-down diesel and grease. Hard to spot the worst of the potholes in the city too, the few I know of too avoid are full of water, and as I ride alongside the river it's at the same level as the road....high tide....no wonder those drains are so full. The clutch bite point is so different to the NT700V, it's far out on the lever travel and seems more akin to an on-off switch today. I get used to it quickly but remain on alert to feel that point where the lever seems to stick as I pull it - I rebuild the master cylinder with new seals back in July and bled the system (I had done new seals in the slave cylinder a few months before) and this seemed to cure it but it hasn't been truly tested. 

I get caught out by every traffic light on my usual route within the city so, despite the weather drying, this just isn't flowing. I suppose it's like taking an old-school supercar through heavy city traffic! I have often thought the VFR is a bit like Honda's original NSX. The supercar your granny could drive. Slight exaggeration perhaps, I can't imagine it enjoyed city traffic either. 

At last I park up in the underground carpark, some fecker on a scooter has my usual spot, so I squeeze in beside him and a lovely Moto Guzzi. The crowded space means I can't quite look back to admire my VFR like I usually would. 

Maybe the ride home will be nicer. Still glad I brought it in. 

On 9/13/2024 at 12:38 PM, Thumbs said:

Fowlers in Bristol will have it and no extra postage 

Used to use Fowlers a bit before Brexit but now I get caught for import duty on stuff like that. Usually it's not that much but it delays the arrival of the part etc so if I can't find it natively in Ireland I look at other EU sources first. That said, I could get it posted to a friend in London and have him post it to me and avoid all of that 🙂.

Keep an eye on ebay as well. 

11 hours ago, Grum said:

Hi Cogswell.

The switch you are referring to is the H.I.S.S "Useless Switch" !

By default the HISS Light (in the Tacho) will flash at a two second rate for 24hrs once the Ignition Key is removed, then turns the light off, a kind of security deterrent.

The switch allows you to disable or enable this function. With the three previous 6 gens I've owned, all with HISS, I've never bothered touching the button, completely useless!.

I actually quite like that feature and wish the HISS light would flash for longer than 24 hours. Its a great deterrent to keep scumbags away from your bike - they see the flashing light and just move on to something without a light that seems easier to take.  

I don't think mine has any vibration through the seat when transitioning to VTEC. Not sure why that would be happening. 

Thanks for those links! I don't think Partzilla send to Ireland but I'll use the part number to look at CMNSL or some other supplier over this side of the water. For the moment my stainless steel bolt and nylock nut seem to be holding up fine. Parked in work the other day and left it on the sidestand and all was well 8 hours later! 

Thanks for those replies folks!