VFR78

Magnificent Tirso, a great find. The Viffer will stay in the shed until I can get it back to 11 N-m. The frame issue is the real worry.

I have no drag. We should remember that these are not wheel bearings, so the loads probably are not quite the same as for high speed spinning.

All balls say OEM spec, which is 25 N-m for the Viffer. The Goldwing site says 21 ft-lbs or 28 N-m. I’ve used 25 N-m.

Checked after every ride. Steering is smooth with no binding at all, and there is no for and aft movement in the forks. Spent a great deal of time ensuring that the races were fully seated before final install, so I doubt that they have moved. I’ve done about 500km, since the work, and the bike is handling beautifully. It’s quite hard to find definitive torque data and a lot of information on the net seems to come from individual experience. I did find some details on tapered roller headsets for Goldwings that recommended using OEM torque for tapered rollers and notice that Allballs also recommend OEM torque settings for their headset tapered roller bearings. I am going to have another look at them soon, just so I can sleep at night😳

Seating the lower race is PITA.

I have just replaced my steering head bearings with tapered rollers and used the same torque settings as the manual states for ball bearings. It moves freely with no movement when pulling the fork legs. I did not use AllBalls, but got Japanese replacements. I would have thought that the greater surface contact area of rollers would have allowed rollers to tolerate the standard torque settings, without pitting, unlike balls.

If you hit a savage bump, isn’t it likely that a connection has become dislodged somewhere in the bowels of your Viffer. I would check that all connectors are firm.

More reliable, I hope.

It’s a bit like art or sculpture. Some like pieces, some don’t. It’s not my cup of tea, but given the $577 price tag, you’ve done well. You could give it a fancy name and sell it to a gallery, for millions.

Third check done now, with 74,000km on my Gen 8. All still within spec. I’ll have to keep it for another 74,000km, to justify all the expense!

What significant preventative maintenance have you done to get to there?

Thanks Ducnut. I had noticed the dodgy merge, but getting the VFRD headers all the way to OZ, at an unknown cost and timeframe, had me looking at the Delkevic. The full Delkevic system, muffler included, is only about $550 USD on “Fleabay” in Oz. I guess that all the Delkevic does is remove the cat, without considering a tuned layout. Maybe best just to stick to OEM with Arrow slip on. Its lasted 74,000km,so far.

Are they better than the Delkevic? What is the cost? How much extra tuning is needed to make them work well? Might be interested!

Finished and no tankslapping at 110kph.

Front end refresh at 73,500km. New tapered roller headset and fork seals etc. Nothing wrong just felt it was time. 9,000km ride coming up in October.