enzed_viffer

Often (depending on the bike, and its aerodynamics) going lower will reduce buffeting. You first need to work out what's causing the buffeting (turbulent airflow over the windshield, perhaps? Or where it's striking you?) The worst I've ever experienced was on a BMW GS1200, with the screen in a fairly upright position. The screen itself was causing turbulence behind itself due to a low-pressure zone behind it, which kept collapsing and reforming.

Yeah they have destinations on the front of the harness I'm seeing but I don't know what that bridge connector was. It was taped all up inside the harness but it sure looked shoddy. Regardless, I still haven't found the place where it ends but it's toasted and I can't bring myself to trust this harness. I had to spring for a harness removed from a running bike that claims to be completely unmolested and hope it plugs right in and fires. $50 I didn't want to spend but hopefully my wrap job ends up being significantly less than I planned for. All the ground/earth wires on the VFR harness normally join together in a plastic plug on the left side of the bike, behind the frame, just under the front of the seat. It can be a problem area if the plug gets corrosion in it from moisture ingress, causing random weirdness. On my bike, I pulled the plug apart, joined all the wires together by wrapping all the wires together with copper tape and soldering it all together in a ugly, shrink-wrapped lump. Not the best aesthetics- wise, but seems to have got rid of an electrical gremlin or two... Just make sure that whatever you do with these green wires, you have something going from them to the battery negative or frame.

When I had my VTR1000, I had a similar problem the first oil change I did. The previous owner had rounded the head of the drain bolt, and I had some anxious moments before I managed to get it out, including heating it, vice-grips, panicking, asking on forums. Can't remember what I did in the end, but I think I had to drill it and use an EzyOut, and thankfully didn't need to helicoil it. The VTR drain bolts are quite small and therefore not too robust.

It's true they illuminate the road and upcoming objects like no other and w hi-beams on even moreso.. but they are also part of the 6th gens' stator-frying suicidal tendencies. Led technology in cage headlights has been perfected. Shouldn't be a problem and I imagine is Honda's attempt to rectify the critical failure glitch in the 6th gen's charging system. Less demand and a stator with lower output = less potential overheating. The 5th gen I owned before my 6th gen didn't light up almost anything, so it can't be worse than pre-VTEC models. I'd buy, but am seriously economically challenged at the moment. I reckon it's what the 6th gen should've been, at least the 2006 modified 6.5 gen version. How curious.....in 13 years/160k miles of VFR riding my experience is the exact opposite; the 5th Gen fries the electrics yet has excellent headlights. Not quite as good as the 6th Gen, but bloody brilliant still. 6th Gen has no issues with electrics at all. I wonder if the differences are down to regional differences? I've had no problems with the electrics (still on the original R/R as far as I know), only my second? third ? battery in 10 years, and the lights (55/60 W with adaptor rings) are very good. I've only ridden 1 sixth Gen - that was immediately before I test-rode and bought my current bike. I've had several opportunities to buy a newer bike, but couldn't see the point; what could it do that my current (much modified, much loved) 2001 doesn't do? And I must say the latest iterations of the VFR don't do anything for me. If I was going to get another bike, it might well be a different marque (despite over 40 years exclusively on Hondas, and 20 on V4s).

I run Pilot Power front, Pilot Road2 rear, and it's working very well. I commute every day, rain or shine, and have had no 'moments', even when hammering it on the buslane that sweeps onto the motorway, which probably has diesel and crap on it. The PP seems to be very sensitive to air pressure. I've got Ariete/Bridgeport valve stems, and the front one has always had a slow leak. I can tell straight away if the pressure's dropped below 36PSI, as the steering becomes sluggish at speed, and wanders at slow speed, especially following longitudinal cracks in the road surface. I think it's a combination of the front-heaviness of the VFR (especially with the jacked-up Elka/Ohlins at the rear, and the dropped Ohlins/Showa/Racetech forks), and the PR tread pattern.

I've got only one thing to add: don't just wash your rear wheel; get a rag with kerosene or WD40 on it and wipe off any chain spooge first. I found out that using spray-on / rinse- off wheel cleaners was causing the emulsion to run onto the tyre and soak into the surface of it. It does wear off after a bit of riding, but if that riding happens to include damp or wet roads early on, then your ride may be a lot more exciting than you expected. My bike is lucky if it gets washed once a year, but I do wipe off some of the worst road grime occasionally, and give the paintwork a bit of a wipe over with Plexus or whatever is handy, like Lemon Pledge.

Whelp, last night I did some research, and suddenly (actually, it was s-l-o-w-l-y), the light went on So... I went out to the garage, and disconnected the plug from the PAIR system. Put the fairing panel back on, and went back inside to do some more VFRd research. And my laptop crashed, died, burst into flames, and died all over again. Well... actually, it just flashed up a lovely white screen with thin black lines, and that was that. So, I went for a ride, and it seems that the was right, coz the herky-jerky was gone. Just wish I could now load some better maps, that don't have heaps of fuel added to counteract the air injection from the PAIR system. Asked my VERY techy son for some help, and he just laughed and said, "Your GPU is fried". Gee, thanx, Dave. Luckily (or prehaps not), I have a very old Compaq 'portable' (in quotes, because it weighs a ton, being made in the time of Noah, and carved from solid granite by the feel of it), which is useless for anything but 'bike stuff', as all that is on it is Power Commander s/w and the VFR mainteance manual. Unfortunately, it can't connect to teh interwebs, so I dunno if I can get a sensible map onto it, unless I can copy some onto a CD. Technology, huh?

So... I deleted one column from one table, and it made it much worse. Still don't know if the tables are additive/cumulative. Still don't know how to tell if hesitation/stumbling means too lean or too rich, or too much of a step between adjacent values. But hopefully I'll get there eventually.

And why would they? It has a very modern look now. That's one sweet ride, Sir! :wub2:

OK, now I have a nuther question. After years of trying many maps, modding my own, etc etc., my current map (downloaded from this site the other day) is the BEST map I've ever tried, except for some small hesitancy at around 5%-10% throttle. "Who rides at 5% throttle?!?!?" you cry. Well.. it turns out, *I* do, and surprisingly, a LOT of the time. (I know what the throttle opening is, as I put marks on the twist grip and housing while looking at the PC screen). Anyhow, looking at the map, I found something odd that might account for there being only one glitchy bit of fueling on an otherwise great map. The 10% column has figures in it on two different tables (I can't remember which ones, and I'm at work at the moment, but either table can be used for this same RPM and throttle range). It seems like when the ECU / PCII moves from the 5% to 10% column, this is causing the hiccup. So how does the PowerCommander interpret this? Does it use both together, or does one table take precedence over the other? How do I choose which table's figures to remove? Never mind; jolly bad form I know, but I think I'll answer my own question. "Why don't you just delete the numbers in one column, and see what difference it makes? If it's better - great, otherwise reinstate them and delete the figures in the other column." Thanks for that; I think I'll do that when I get home. (What do we call this - "self-foruming"? Does it make you go blind? [Can't tell if it makes you go mad... too late for that...])

How come you didn't mount it on the left footpeg bracket? That's where my Elka/Ohlins hybrid's remote is mounted and it works really well there.

Yeah me too - get well soon, Jim. And cellphones ARE banned here while driving, but you still see people talking on them while driving, or - worse still - texting. And they still have crashes, but are quick to hide the cellphone, but often get caught out because the police will check the phone records if they're suspicious.

I was quoted 28 Euro by Mr Thurn-Motorsports for shipping and insurance from Churrrrmini to Noo Zilund, so to the Netherregionsland must be practically free.

I agree - I too tried the US maps and they weren't ideal, but the Yurpeen ones were better. What's a "RapidBike RB3", where did you purchase it, and how does it work?

Something occurred to me yesterday, when trying to sort out a suitable Power Commander map for the VFR. In the past, I've tried all sorts of maps that were supposed to be really good, yet made the bike worse. My question is this: Do VFRs for different markets come with different factory ECU maps, to suit each country's fuel, etc., or a unique map for each individual bike, or does the factory map all bikes for a particular year with the same settings, regardless of which country they're shipped to? If either of the first two cases apply, then it would explain why when I've loaded a map that someone else with a 2000 or 2001 VFR has said was brilliant, it was 'less than stellar' when I loaded it. I've actually found that apart from the last map I loaded, every map I've tried has been worse than just running O2 sensor eliminators and no PC.

I had bad atrial fibrillation in June 2010, after I had open-heart surgery to fix my leaky mitral valve (which neither I nor my doctor knew about, until I asked him to listen to my ticker, because I had chest pain, which turned out to be indigestion). To fix the a-fib, I was first given Amiodarone tablets, then after I was discharged and went into a-fib again a few hours later, stuck into the local public hospital and (eventually) put on an Amiodarone drip. I was on warfarin tablets after discharge, but only for a week. The a-fib came back a few weeks later when the meds wore off, which freaked me out until the doctor pointed out why, but it's no biggie, comes and goes but no real problem. So apart from daily 10mg aspirin for the rest of my life, I'm on no meds. Yay! But yeah, if I was on blood thinners, I'd still ride.

As of today, I (very nearly) disagree with myself. The 3M earplugs I had in were slightly too quiet on the way to work, and when I turned the Sena up, it beeped to say, "Th-th-th--that's all, folks!" So, on the way home, I didn't push them in so far, and was able to turn the volume down a bit. Next thing is to find some slightly less efficient plugs...

I've spent a bit of time (and lots of money) fiddling around with my Sena SMH10 and various options for earbuds (I've about 5 or 6 pairs). Gave up in the end and went back to using the standard in-helmet Sena speakers and some 3M earplugs. It works great - the earplugs block out the wind noise, and there's enough volume to hear the music or phone or intercom with the plugs in. The best thing is not having to try and get the helmet on and off with the plugs in. I love the setup; put plugs in, XR1100 on, tap the phone button and jog dial to turn the Sena on, wait 5 seconds for the phone to pair, hold the jog dial in for a couple of seconds, and the music cranks up. I've taken to using it every day, even though the commute is only 15 - 20 minutes each way. There's only so much entertainment that can be derived from lane-splitting past slow cars and lines of commuter buses, and racing other bikers...

Welcome to VFRD! By the way - your new bike is not a VTEC. But! (however), unlike the Vtec models, it does have gear-driven cams, and it doesn't have Honda's crappy camchain tensioners, so the motor is pretty bulletproof.

I don't get it... Are you sure the wear is just from being on the pegs? You're not dragging them on the road at all? I've had my StylMartin StylSafe boots for over 7 (seven!) years now, and if the zips hadn't blown out, I'd still be wearing them. Soles (and the rest of the boots) are fine. Shame, as I've loved their carbon fibre goodness (7 CF plates in each boot) and super comfort. Anyhoo - new boots (as of last week) are Forma Cape Horn, and the soles are pretty gnarly on those. I defy you to wear those out! (And yes - they are available in the US).

I've got two, plus the helmet clamp kits for using earbuds and choice of microphones, PLUS an SM10 stereo transmitter. So... my SpousalUnit and I can both talk to one another, answer our cellphones, and either listen to music on our phones or plug in the Walkman to the SM10 and listen to the same music.

I had baffles made up for my VTR1000 that a previous owner had bored the muffler cores out of. The whole time I owned the bike they were held in only by high-temperature black silicone. Not only did it seal the gap between the baffles and the muffler bodies, but being flexible it didn't crack or work loose.

I am somewhat bemused by the complaints about having to use premium fuel. You guys have no idea how lucky you are to have cheap fuel. It's just hit $2.27 per litre here, for low-octane gas. Cost me nearly $40 to fill up this morning. If the Honda DCT is as good as the DCT on my car, I'd be interested. But even with the heavy Honda clutch in stop/go traffic, I'd prefer a manual transmission.

I've got a waterproof manual fan switch on my LH switchblock, mounted on the soldistate heated grip controller's bracket (was running out of other places to put things). Last week I fitted an automotive termo fanswitch, as my Honda one stopped working months ago. The new one is suppsed to come on at 95C and go off at 85, but in fact it comes on at 99C, and goes off at 83C. Near enough. It was NZ$23 cheaper than a Honda one, and took only 3 days to arrive, as opposed to 3 weeks...