Darrenk

Wife and I really got into off road riding while wintering in Yuma, Arizona. Just brought this home. 2021 CRF300L Rally, the Africa Single: Evidently, I got one of the first delivered in the U.S. and I only waited about a week after ordering it...

Left hand operated rear brake is actually getting kind of popular among serious dirt bike riders. Maybe browse the adventure forums for someone more familiar with what it takes. To go along with Magento's comments above, a small dirt bike or scooter master cylinder/lever/hose/caliper assembly is very affordable if you wouldn't mind tinkering a bit...

I had one fall off, but it was my mistake. The rear hook wasn't properly seated. Frankly, I'm surprised that it latched all the way closed. Wife and I were leaving a hotel parking garage when it came off. We'd only moved a few hundred meters at a pretty slow pace. Sounded like something exploded behind us with the echo in the garage! I stopped, picked it up, and made sure it was properly hooked on, and then drove 200 miles home with no issues. When I got home, I inspected the bag closely and realised that the bag had been rubbing on the edge of the rear wheel. The bag looked like someone had cut a slice into it with an angle grinder. I filled the hole with plastic filler putty and painted it flat black...no proof of my mistake anymore.

Wife and I decided spur of the moment to head up to Maggie Valley for two nights. Found a place to board the dog, set extra food and water out for the cats, and we left Tuesday morning. First, a quick stop for gas revealed a battery on its last legs, so we headed to Carolina Powerhouse Honda for a new one. 20 minutes later, we were on our way. As far as slab miles go, one could do a lot worse than Interstate 26 West from Columbia to Asheville, and we made decent time and most importantly arrived at the Quality Inn in Maggie Valley safe and dry. The hotel has been recently refurbished and the room was clean and exceptionally quiet with fast, free wifi.. We walked around the small downtown area, had a decent burger and calzone for dinner, and then ice cream. I'd like to say we got up at the crack of dawn to hit the road to the Tail, but that doesn't happen. The route to the Tail from our hotel was quite spectacular. We had to stop and don the rain gear for 20 minutes or so while on Moonshiner 28, but what a beautiful, well maintained road! We even cheered on a maintenance worker sweeping wood chips off the blacktop. When we arrived at the south end of US 129, we stopped at the Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort for a quick break and to get the lay of the land, so to speak. Wife wanted to go in and get a T-shirt, but I told that it's bad juju to get the T-shirt before we did the ride. It was probably 2:30 before we actually started up the Tail of the Dragon. After just a mile or so, I could tell this was going to be an epic ride! The big Viffer was in it's happy place, even with someone as inexperienced as me. Hell, a rather obese guy on what looked like (and smelled like) a 70's two stroke 500cc passed us. After a few more miles, other vehicles coming back down were giving us the slow down signal, so we knew something was up. Turns out somebody on a 2020 Harley trike went over the edge. When we passed, she was up near the edge of the road, laying on her back, but moving. We found out later that she died on the scene. https://myfox8.com/news/the-dragon-woman-dies-in-motorcycle-accident-on-popular-scenic-mountain-drive/ We finished the rest of the Tail without incident, but certainly had a great time. On the way back down, we had to stop for quite a while while the accident scene investigators did their job. It was quite a somber atmosphere among all of the riders. We did get out T-shirts, and then started the long journey (felt that way after the riding we had already done up to this point) back to Maggie Valley. We followed a pair of Harley riders along Moonshiner 28, and they both did an admirable job through all of the curves. The roadway was still wet from the earlier rain, and they had just cut the grass, so there was a lot of wet clippings on the road, so nobody really pushed it too hard. As we were descending the mountain back into Maggie Valley, it started to rain again. Rather than don the gear again, we opted to stop for dinner (another calzone and a cheese steak this time) and of course, more ice cream. All said and done, we had a great time. We're already planning to go back, probably in early September. I think we'll definitely look for a hotel closer to Deal's Gap, because that seems like the starting point for so many great rides. We totaled about 600 mile of HARD riding in three days. One day of riding the great roads in the Smokies just isn't enough to do it all...

Welcome back to the fold! I've always been fond of the blue color...what exhaust is that?

A quick Google search of "VFR800 rearsets" yielded hundreds of results. Some can get pretty pricey...

I have very similar scrapes on my fairing. A tipover at the top of my very steep driveway resulted in a 15 foot slide on concrete. When I eventually get a touring bike and put the big Viffer back to pure sportbike, I'll probably get a set of aftermarket injection molded fairing and get them custom wrapped or painted (I'm thinking Repsol livery). For now, a little Bondo body filler before you paint may help the larger areas. On the passenger grab rails, I just used a black Sharpie; like you said, just less noticeable from afar...

Wife and I went out for a short ride yesterday. We were headed north on U.S. Route 1 (Two Notch Road) near Pontiac in NE Columbia. A solo rider on a red VFR1200 with side bags passed us headed south. I waved, then realized it was another 7th gen, but the wife wouldn't let me turn around and chase you down...

So after 5 years, 30,000 miles, and a few gas station and garage tip overs, I’ve found that my fairings have taken a bit of a beating. I looked into having the original set repaired and repainted at a local shop and it would cost as much, if not more than replacing them with all of the filling, sanding, and other prep. So then I looked into replacing the “left and right middle cowls” as Honda calls them, with OEM parts. The least expensive I can find for my color code of NH463M is $577 each! I found the candy prominence red for $286 each. Why the huge disparity just for the color? Would it be worth it to buy the red ones and have them resprayed locally? What are your thoughts?

Tracked down a pesky coolant leak...turns out the water pump weep hole is more than weeping, so I ordered a new one. At least I’ll get the coolant flush and refill done at the same time...

I have no idea, but I can count on one hand how many others I’ve seen “in the wild.”

Definitely looks like the rear brakes were dragging...I’d also bet money that the original brake fluid is still in the master cylinders, and that’s what caused it. Should be changed every 2 years...

Being still has MotoGP 😭

https://soupysperformance.com/honda/vfr1200/vfr1200-single-style-threaded-lowering-link.html I can’t tell you if it works or not...

Changed the front pads and fluid yesterday. It was a fairly easy process, the hardest part keeping those damn retention clips in place long enough to get the guide pins in. Almost need three hands for that, but finally got it done. Brake bleeder made easy work of changing the fluid. Hopefully, the new pads will be good for another 20,000 miles.