Grum

Is that where all broken down Harleys end up?

Sfdownhill and Duc2V4. You guys deserve some form of VFRD Service Excellence Award. What a Great job you guys have done in organizing the exhausts and handling all the logistics, must be a PITA. Once again Great Job guys. Its people like you make this such a terrific forum. Cheers to you.

So has replacing the wax unit restored your idle speed? Your battery might be the original and probably due to fail. Check your charging voltage. The 8gen R/R provides a very stable 14.5volts. You could have your battery load tested if you have any doubts, but suggest its probably due for replacement. You are unlucky to have a wax unit fail on a 2014 and batteries don't last forever so don't be too disappointed. The 8gen has the best electrical system of any VFR and has proven to be extremely reliable.

After many years of using various high quality polish products on my VFR's I feel I've really struck gold with this one. All my motorcycle buddies know how fussy I am with my bike apperance! Not sure if its available overseas and ok, it is an Australian product(no commercial gain to me). It's just the best and easiest I've found to date. Bowden's Carnuba Body Wax. This product goes on and off sooooo easily AND leaves no annoying white polish residue on your seat or any other black surface. Bike photo, just given a quick once over polish with this stuff. She comes up nice having done 80,000kms. Cheers.

Mate PLEASE, change your braking technique. Proper coordinated use of both front and rear is what pulls you up the quickest when needed. Not to mention the importance of the rear brake under certain cornering conditions and the feathering of the rear brake in slow walking pace riding etc. And especially in wet conditions. In an EMERGENCY proper braking technique of both front AND rear, seriously, could save your life!!! 72,000miles on the OEM rear pads, and mostly unused is Extraordinary!!!! Safe riding.

Me too. I always try to get what I can out of the rear wheel braking and maximizing what I can from front, always aiming to achieve optimum brake balance. That's what I've been taught by the experts.

Holy cow! 115,872kms! That's Unbelievable, do you actually use your rear brake? Must be a hell of a lot of highway riding with that distance surely. My 8gen OEM rear pads were spent at 49,000kms, I thought that was good going! Fitted EBC 488 HH's

No wonder people could think they can use the nut to tighten the filter.!!!!! This is what web sites selling these things are telling people. And a heavy duty can!!! Just as well you can saftey wire the hex nut to your bike, yep sure can, that means when the nut blows off the filter at least you won't lose it. "All K&N spin-on filters feature a heavy duty metal can with a nut affixed onto the end. This nut allows easy installation and removal, and is also crossed drilled so racers can safety wire it to their bike."

Hey Mello, perhaps you should have said. "Don't forget to fully torque up the filter to spec using the nut"! Then the nut may have smiled back and thanked you!

Mate that sounds terrible, you could have been killed.!!! There's a long history of failures of these pieces of shit! As you have shown, you don't need to tighten them using the spot weilded nut to still have them fail. I cant believe K&N haven't been sued over this. Never ever use these K&N filters with the spot weilded hex nut.

How high is high? Have you tried adjusting the base idle adjustment and does this have any effect? Did you notice this after any maintenance or shop service or it just suddenly happened?

Thanks again Cogs.

Wow! Thank you Sir for your comprehensive reply Cogswell, you are the best! Shall seriously look into this, might actually look at the Oil Filter magnets for both car and VFR. Cheers.

Hi Cogswell. Great post and I like your suggestion of the magnetic drain plug. Can you or anyone suggest a top quality plug for an 8gen. Just don't want to fall into the trap of something cheap and nasty that could potentially fail, leak or damage the sump threads. Muchous Gracious.

Mate. What a Fantastic trip and write up, photos are outstanding as well. So glad you dodged the covid bug and the 8gen with its new fuel pump served you well. Thanks for sharing such an amazing trip with us. And don't forget....The Eagles are the greatest band EVER!!! Cheers

Impressive lot of graphs RC79. I bet you've probably got the matching fuel economy ones to go with them! Not a Statistician by profession are you?