enzed_viffer

Nice stories, Leon. I'd almost forgotten I used to have a VF500 (1985). My mufflers rusted out too, so I had some custom stainless steel ones made; the only stipulation I had was "to make them a little louder". They sounded great - loud enough to emphasise it was a V4, without being obnoxious or attracting the wrong sort of attention. My VF had problems with the inside of the tank rusting; even though I cleaned and treated it (with 'Kreem", IIRC), it had one annoying pinhol leak that never went away. Should have had it brazed, I guess.

I love my VFR, but it's not perfect. In addition to the initial specs, the 'dream' VFR would need to have a lighter swingarm than the current / previous models, and a less ugly hub. If possible, a conventional radiator, rather than the pannier ones. Although, y'know, having said that, both the VF500 and VFR750 were hot to ride, so maybe (apart from being simpler), it's not a big deal. Other than that, I don't care.

Is a TPMS really necessary? I've got one on my car (came with it), but on my bike I can feel a 1 or 2 PSI drop in pressure pretty readily. Over 42-odd (and sometimes VERY odd) years of motorcycling, I've had only 4 punctures, all in the back tyre, and 3 of them in newish tyres. Luckily (?) they were all screws or nails, and plugged OK, so I still got the full life from the tyres. Had none for years (ever since I stopped riding in places I shouldn't, like the edges or middle of roads, where all the crap gets swished by traffic.

The weeping hole is on the TOP of the water pump, so debris can easily build up and plug the hole.

Iffen I was you (which I'm not - I'm a separate species), I'd remove that piece of duct tape so you don't get a ticket [insert eye-rolling emoticon here]

I sorted out my own; modified the one that attached to the chain guard, and made an aluminium bracket for the front of the hugger. Nowhere to attach that, so I drilled and tapped a hole in the swingarm :o and put a bolt in.

Of course, because this mod was unsanctioned/unapproved by Honda or VFRD, the first time I rode it, I crasheded, dieded, and immolation of the self-incendiary variety occurred. Luckily, I'm getting used to that, so my asbestos g-string stopped my nuts from being overcooked.

What browser are you using? I was having the same problem, so I did a quick check; Firefox works fine, Internet Exploder doesn't do quotes etc. May be a settings thing?

I can't be bothered going back to the post where this is discussed, but instead of bastardising a K&N to get more airfilter area and better airflow, the airfilter with the greatest area and therefore the least restriction is the Pipercross.

Whelp, for many months now, I've been running a 95/85 thermoswitch (on at 95 degrees Centigrade, off at 85), instead of the standard 106/96 one. It works well. And for a longer period of time, I've run a manual override switch (only on by shorting to ground, rather than one that can also disable the fan). The latter works well, but is rendered almost redundant by the lower temperature thermoswitch. If it wasn't that most of my riding was commuting in traffic, I wouldn't bother with any mods.

I'm going with a thermoswitch with a slightly lower temperature, and a manual override for in traffic. First I've got to take my U/S thermoswitch out, verify it's 16mm with 1.5 mm thread, and then off to the autoparts store. I've already got the manual override switch, which is just as well seeing the thermoswitch died shortly after (because of??) fitting the manual switch.

There is also the 02 sensor which is designed to adjust the mixture but it also again from my understanding keep the mixture fairly rich due to the cat to help keep it cool which is programmed into the factory ECU. I have mentioned this a few times but most of the surging problems people experience is due to the cat which off throttle without major pressure to force gases past it the 02 sensor reads very low 02 content so rich-ens the mixture also is done to keep cat cool by default. With unburnt fuel & the backing up of gases this is what creates the surging feel until there is enough pressure to clear the backed up gases before the cat.

I thought the surging was from the ECU running the mixture lean when in 'closed loop' mode to meet EC emissions testing. Plus there's an issue you haven't mentioned, which is the hesitation when the ECu switches from 'closed loop' mode to mapped mode. Even just fitting O2 sensor eliminators to fix this makes the bike more rideable (I know - I did this for more than 18 months when I was between PCs).

A few years back (lessee.... must've been about 7 or 8), after a crap installation job by the dealers of my replacement R/R, I completely rewired everything south of the stator on my '90 VFR750. I cut off all the plugs, used much thicker wires, shortened as much as possible, and mounted the R/R where the horn usually goes, on 4mm aluminium stock. I gained half a volt by doing so...

Then some dumbass u-turned into me, and the insurance company wrote the bike off ($6800 of repairs on a bike valued at just over $7k).

Hi, Gav. Nice looking bike you've got there!

Hey, if you're really serious about getting the suspenders set up right, and can't find any second-hand stuff on TardMe, it might be worthwhile contacting Robert Taylor at Crown Kiwi in New Plymouth. He fettled my front forks for me, using Ohlins and Racetech parts, and is the NZ agent for Ohlins but also does Penske and other brands.

- Ian

I utilised the blanking plate in the right-hand switch block, installed a small black momentary switch in there, connected to the garage door opener in the fairing above the headlight by a wire soldered across the door opener switch. Works from about 60 metres away.

The only trouble I've had is the switch contacts don't last long (about a year to 18 months), possibly because of it not being waterproof, so I've had to replace it twice.

I stripped the (white) wheels on my 1990 VFR750 using paint stripper and a wooden scraper, then polished just the machined parts up with Autosol. It took me an afternoon to do both, and made the wheels much easier to keep clean, as the road spooge didn't seem to stick to them as much. They just need a quick wash every other month, then a polish a couple of times a year at most.

VFR750 Shows stripped'n'polished rear wheel, with Avon Azaro tyre.

Sometime in the near future, I'm thinking I'll repeat the process with the VFR800's wheels, as the silver paint / powdercoat? is kinda scratched, in places down to the metal. Next time, I'm not sure if I'll do it myself, or take them to a mag wheel polisher.

My "after" run with Dan's #1 map was 157.8 HP. My final run after fine tuning by Ben at Redline was....wait for it...173.60 HP !!!

Wow! That's really impressive! :unsure:

On the exact same dyno the new BMW S1000RR recently made 168.77 HP in full-on "slick" mode. Yup, my little Veefer has the new Uber-Beemer covered by 5 HP!! Sweet.

There's something wrong with that Beemer; "Bike" magazine dyno'd one on a well-calibrated dyno and got 183.7bhp. That was on a bike that wasn't even run in yet (400 miles on the clock).

Yeah, very very nice! :unsure:

Kal, what are the implications in Oz of fitting a supercharger, from a legal and insurance point of view? Here in Noo Zilund, I don't think there'd be any legal issues, but it might make it difficult to get insurance.

Y'know, I've tried a few times to disable the PAIR valves, and every time I've re-enabled them, because I reckon there's no significant benefit, and that the VFR doesn't run quite as well.

Same as the flapper valve, although in that case, what it does is flatten out the the hp/torque curve, so there's less of a kick at the point just after the flapper valve opens, which makes the engine seem comparatively flat and lifeless. IT's not, of course, but does change the character.

YMMV..

How long is a piece of string? :blink:

Fit an Evo Star shifter kit, some aftermarket mufflers, a PCV (and get some dyno time), heated grips (if you plan on riding in cold weather), a decent set of tires, some advanced rider training at a track school, and that's pretty much it. That gives you a good gearshift before it becomes just another Honda gearbox, a decent V4 sound, a smoother fueling curve, and some reasonable skills. If any of that's not enough, then maybe you could spend some $$$ on some Ohlins and Racetech suspension bits.

I drilled my footpeg hanger brackets and thought it was ok for awhile, then I sorta decided against that later on, so I bought some off EBAY to replace them.

They live on though, I sent them along to Ian in New Zealand and AFAIK, they are living on his blue viffer to this day!

One of the best mods on my bike is the fancy drilled footpeg brackets I got from a nice Canadian VFR owner - they're MUCH better'n my bent ones! :rolleyes:

Unlike The Mailman, I like my one-tooth-smaller front sprocket, but I know what he means about looking for another gear. It's not really a big deal here, as the maximum speed is 100km/h, which puts the bike at 5k rpm, so there's still a fair few revs left...

I was about to bag on my powerbronze rear hugger. I hate the heavy gauge steal mounting bracket and plan to re fab a new smaller one out of aluminum.

That's what I'm currently doing. I bought my powerbronze hugger sight unseen from an ex-member, and it's a piece of crap - seems like they didn't even both to test-fit their prototype against a real VFR. I tried to auction it off, but failed, so decided to just keep it ad make the most of it. I've trimmed it up a bit to give more tire clearance, and next thing is to fab a new bracket. Like you, I've decided to go with aluminum, and I'm going to tap some threads to screw it to the swingarm.

The worst mod by a previous owner would have to be crashing it. It was 'fixed' when I bought it, but not properly, so in strong sunlight the panels aren't the same colour, the footpeg brackets (now replaced - thanks Rob!) and brake pedal were bent, and the right-hand disk is off a different model of Honda, so it was a different colour and pattern. I've since spray-painted it to almost match the other one, but when it gets wet it rusts more as the rotor is a different grade of s/steel.

Oh - it also had a bright yellow headlight protector, which I got the dealer to replace with a clear one before I even paid for the bike.

Still, at least part of the fixit job included a new Satantune zorst, and the PO fitted a pair of heated grips, so these two mods and the blue paint were why I bought it in the first place.

Phantom/Muzzah: I must've missed something along the line somewhere - the last I knew, your bike was black.

[Edit: looked back at the earlier posts in the thread about colour choice. Ahhhh....]

Anyway, it's looking very good! :unsure:

Can't wait for the next exciting instalment.

Doofus here again, coming back for more foot-in-mouth. :goofy:

Whelp, here's what.

Front: when the forks went back for the springs to be changed and damping recalibrated, the technicians rushed thejob, and didn't cut new spacers for the shorter Ohlins springs. So... to get the preload in the ballpark, I had to wind them in a long way. I didn't want to end up with no adjustment left, so I ended up with not enough preload in the front. This morning I wound in another turn: much betterer. :cool: When I have some spare time, I'll cut some new spacers.

Rear: I haven't checked it carefully (too many vehicles in the garage, not enough space, not enough time), but my quick check of the preload made me realise the free sag was a bit on the low side (Racetech CKT recommended 10-20mm, and it was barely 12). So, I wound that off by about a turn. It now feels more compliant to my untrained butt. I'll check that properly (winding the damping off to zero, BR!), and when that's set, at least I'll have a proper base setting to work from with setting up rebound and compression.

Now let me get this straight - you're saying if the springs are too soft, then in order to get the rider sag (suspension positition of rider sitting on bike minus position of bike with suspension fully extended?) correct, there's so much preload wound on that the spring is effectively topped out?

The shock is topped out in this situation (no rider on bike).

Yeah, that's what I said meant. :unsure:

Bailey Rock: as for the damping being at zero, no - I didn't do that. I can't do it with the front anyway, so I don't think it's gonna be super critical. I just bounced the bike a few times and checked the measurements several times to make sure it was consistent.

BTW - it's unbelievable how compliant the front end is. With the Ohlins oil, and the work that was done to make sure the internals were set up right (concentricity, checking components, etc.) there's almost zero stiction. I guess to give the Elka a fair go, I should really drop the rear swingarm and remove linkages etc and check everything's properly lubed and lined up. (I did remove the dogbone, check the bushes, lubed everything, but I wasn't a perfectionist like the Ohlins guy was.

I would bet you can walk over to your bike right now (on the side stand) and give it a tug on the rear end it most likely won't have any movement.

Yeah it does, so you bet wrong(see my reply to BaileyRock below).

What valving do you and did you have in the front? Compression and rebound or just compression?

To be honest, I don't really know. The Ohlins guy fitted Gold valves and a modified shim stack, and the ultra-slippery Ohlins fork oil, as well as the new bushes, shims and seals I supplied.

Then I sent the forks back again, and he replaced the springs and rejigged the valving/shimstack to match, and put another NZ$51 worth of Ohlins BabyAfghaniLesbianPenguinFurSealWhale oil in.

I can just about bet that w/your 900lb spring and 30-35 mm of rider sag you have ZERO free sag.

I'll send you a dollar if you have any measurable Free sag w/a 900 lb spring on your VFR.

Only a dollar? You're not very confident, are you? :beer:

It's actually 12mm on the back, and around 20mm on the front. (That's the difference between suspension fully extended, and settled with only the bike's weight compressing it, right?)

To be honest, I should also remeasure the rider sag, as I may have adjusted the rear end a couple of months back, without checking sag.

Now let me get this straight - you're saying if the springs are too soft, then in order to get the rider sag (suspension postition of rider sitting on bike minus position of bike with suspension fully extended?) correct, there's so much preload wound on that the spring is effectively topped out?

Is your expert an VFR expert or just using a faulty Calculator like most are using for the VFR and coming up with bogus numbers, I'm not saying these experts don't know what their doing, just do few VFR's and are using bad calculator formulas.

I'm sure there all Spot on with GSXR's, R1's, CBR's etc. because they do a million of them and everyone Races them, not the 1% of VFR's they do. :angry:

A VFR expert? I don't know, but I do know while most of his work is with setting up race bikes, he also does a lot of road bikes (inclduing numerous VFRs). He's also very much aware that setting up road and race bikes are very different, given that most racetracks are smooth, and NZ's roads are usually far from smooth.

As such, Racetech and Sonic Springs' spring rate calculators usually come up with rates that are fine for racing, but just don't work on NZ roads and conditions.

Having said that, he told me Ohlins' recommendation for fork springs for my bike were 0.80kg/mm, and I just can't see that. I suspect the ideal may lie between the Ohlins he fitted (0.90) and the Sonic Springs (0.95). Either that, or Sonic Springs sent me the wrong springs (or they're rated wrongly), or the fact the Ohlins are shorter springs makes a difference, but I doubt it. Either way, I'm surprised how much difference there is between the 0.95s and 0.90s.

In any case, his work is guaranteed: if a customer's not satisfied, he'll fix it FOC, multiple times if necessary.

Did your expert actually set the bike up for you or just provide a Shock with a spring on it?

He set it up based on the info I gave him, and using a suspension dyno, to make sure the valving was correct. He would've prefered to set it up with the bike, but I couldn't afford the time off work, as his workshop is 3.5 to 4 hours ride away from here. Plus the courier was MUCH cheaper than fuel etc.

He's coming up here in a few weeks, and is going to check the bike out then. He's offered to replace the spring (if he can get one to fit) and change the valving on the Elka, if it looks like being necessary.