enzed_viffer

That's probably generally true, but I'm not convinced it's absolutely true. Why do I say that? A year browsing Superhawk/Firestorm forums showed that modifications to the airbox of those beasties was generally counter-productive, due to some cunning design by Honda to utilise Helmholtz resonance and other esoteric physics to maximise cylinder filling. F'rinstance, the airbox has a 'spoiler' just downstream of the snorkel that seems to serve no obvious purpose, yet aids the aerodynamics of two thirsty great crabs (?!?) CARBS (that's better) sucking in air. Remove the spoiler and/or snorkel, and things gets messy from an airflow point of view. Yes, the VFR is not a VTR, and probably 4 stacks make for a more homogenous airflow than 2. Yet there are possibly some minor effects happening. Maybe we can discount these as being insignificant. Certainly anecdotal evidence (has it been quantified?) suggests that removing flapper valves, snorkels and the like is at least not detrimental to performance. Anyway, getting back to the PCII thing: The weird thing is that the bike was running OK on the PCII, then it wasn't. It's now running (relatively) OK with no PC, and because my accountant will never approve purchasing one unless it was at the $35 it cost my friend for this one, it's no big deal for me to leave it off. In fact, refitting it and getting the VFR running wonderfully well could be viewed as a bad thing, because that would be snatched away from me when I return the PC.

It's not accurate, of course, but it went like this: 1. ECU/EFI 'normal': temperature gauge gets to 104C, fan comes on, but only after 10 minutes or so of slow-speed running in traffic. 2. O2 sensor eliminators: Temperature gauge is up in normal traffic, and fan comes on even when bike isn't at slow speed. 3. PCII fitted: as for (1). After two days, bike starts running badly (poor connection? Map not loaded properly??) 4. PCII removed (O2 sensor eliminators fitted): Bike is running at 106C in normal traffic condition. I ride the same route to work and home every day, so I've got a pretty good feel for what the bike does. Last night (4) and this morning, it was running significantly hotter than the previous couple of days. Yeah, it's sort of "seat of the pants" measurement, but it's obvious enough to make me sit up and take note of it.

Well, I'm still keen to do the "quick'n'dirty" FPR mod. After four days of running with O2 sensor eliminators, and three days of trying out a borrowed PCII, I've removed the PCII, because the VifFerraRi starting running like crap: stuttering in mid-range, idling at 1000, and feeling rather unhappy. It's now running as it was before. Curiously, with the O2 eliminators, it runs hotter than when they're not there and it's able to run in SuperDuperlyLeanSavingThePlanet mode. This is rather counter-intuitive, surely? If the sensors are present, the ECU doesn't bother with closed-loop, and the bike is easier to ride because it behaves like a carbed bike all the way through the rev range, not assuming whenever the throttle is closed that it's time to sip Diet Gas. So anyway, it appears to be running a bit lean, and a bit hot, so I'm hoping the FPR mod will richen things up just a tad (metric, of course) and stop the bike overheating.

mpg? MPG?!? Good grief, Man! If I'd wanted an economical bike, I'd've (can I do that?) bought a scooter. Besides, after the VTR1000 GGM (Gas Guzzling Monster), anything's economical. It did worse fuel mileage than any of our cars. No, we want MORE POWER! and BETTER ACCELERATION! and especially MORE THRILLS!

Goodie! I love buying tools and like that there. :thumbsup: Thanx for that - I had an idea that it was as you described, but it may have been flat, for all I knew, in which case the ball-bearing could've distorted the seat. Last question: Does this constitute "fiddling"? The reason I ask is that the co-pilot/co-owner/accountant has expressly forbidden fiddling on our bike. I'm already in trouble for fitting an EvoStar Shift Kit, and while she was away in Murka I fitted (on loan only) a PCII a friend with a '98 lent to me. I've got a few hours to come up with a convincing explanation for that. :beer:

Yeah, I figured that was the case. In the picture of you wielding the finely tuned hammer, are you whacking - sorry - carefully and expertly adjusting the seat with a socket as a drift? If one uses a ball-bearing instead, is this likely to be problematic? I've no idea what the spring seat looks like - would adjusting it with a finely tuned prybar and a non-metric ballbearing cause any buckling of the seat? Does it matter? Which prybar should I use? I have four, and I'm not sure which (if any of them) is metric...

Do you have to use a ball-bearing to push the seat in? (I ask because I've no idea what it looks like). Like, would a socket of the appropriate diameter do?

Road test completed. It works: Snickety-Snick. I'm not sure if it's due to cleaning all the spooge off the bike, the new erl (Mobil 1), or that star thingo (technical term). Should I replace them one at a time till I work out which one did the trick? :goofy:

Anyone here. :blink: I test-rode a 6th gen and my current bike back-to-back, and they were very similar (should be - they share all except gear ratios), and both very slick. The reason I ordered the shifter kit is that most of my riding is commuting around town, which in itself is hard on transmissions (lots of gear changes, lots of accelerating/decellerating, etc.) and I think I'm a serial transmission wrecker. :goofy: The gear change was starting to lose its precision, and as it's the best shifting Honda I've ever owned, I was rather alarmed, so I figured (based on the reports) that the kit may help me retain most of the slickness of the gearbox, and help to avoid further trashing of the whirly bits. I'll post more when I get to road-test it.

All right! My shift kit is now installed and working (yet to be road-tested). The install was pretty straightforward, thanx to Trace's and Jetpilot's great illustrated instructions. The only hard parts were getting the fairing panel off (despite having done it twice before, it was still a pain, thanx to the plastic clips), and removing a vast quantity of impacted chain spooge from behind the countershaft cover. No pix, I'm afraid, as the bike is so embarassingly grubby, and I have nothing much to add to the already detailed instructions previously posted.

The spokes on the 90-93 wheels are roughcast, whereas on the VFR800 they're smooth. Rims are polished on both bikes.

I don't agree, although it may depend on the original colour/type of finish. I had white painted wheels on my 1990 VFR750, and because they were quite chipped and scratched, decided to strip them. It took me about 4 hours to strip, clean and polish (with Autosol) both wheels. I found that they actually took LESS work once stripped, as the road spooge and brake dust didn't tend to stick as much to the polished metal as it did to the paint, probably due to some electrostatic thing with the paint. Instead of needing some elbow grease and heavy-duty cleaner, most of the grime came off very readily with the hose. Also, any grime that was presetn didn't stand out as much. The silver painted wheels on my current bike seem to be somewhere in between the polished 750's wheels and the white paint, and the bikes I've had with black-painted wheels it was easy to ignore the grime as it didn't show up as badly.