CraigG

Looking at exhaust options for clearing a fireblade swing arm on a 5th gen, and got to thinking. would an RCV style split exhaust work on the 5th gen? so the rear bank being joined together, and the front bank being joined together, with separate end cans for front and rear. one exiting under the foot peg, the other up high at the back. Not settled on a seat unit yet, I have an SV one mocked up, but now thinking maybe a CBR1K seat unit with the under tail exhaust to service the rear bank? looking at buying a 8th gen downpipe set to allow the front mount intercoolers, but only using the head pipes and discarding the collector unit for custom (asked both Lextek and Delkevic if they would supply just the 4 pipes but unfortunately not).

Out of those 3 id say Blackwidow is the best quality. They have excellent customer service also

Are there any bolt in options that are a bit longer than the stock unit? seen some chat about CBR1000RR ones, but nothing concrete if they actually fit without a custom bracket?

Amazing.

Disc to disc distance is 138mm Fork centre looks about 215mm measured from the top caps

Disc specs for the VFR1200: https://www.galferonline.es/Sites/galferonline/paginasPersonalizadas/Modelo4/articulosDetalle.aspx?cod=DF093CW Axle Diameter is 25mm ill grab the disc-disc distance tomorrow

the head bearings are the same on both 5th and 7th gen, so i just ordered 5th gen bearings from allballs racing, and ran them i wouldnt run a spacer below the lower bearing as i dont think you would get the bearing fully seated if you did so. i made up new lock stops on the lower triple, as they didnt line up at all, i did lose a bit of turn lock to lock, but there still plenty. the forks do clear the inner plastic fairings, and the bars dont hit the tank i was running the stock 7th gen clipons above the top triple, and the forks were still 5mm proud of the clipons, so plenty of room

i have 1200 forks fitted to my 5th gen, i used 5mm washer on top of the bearing lock nuts, as the top nut thread was sitting proud of the nut after being tightened, I'm due to have the front end off again soon, so i can measure the stem when i do

yea it does seem to be functioning fine, apart from the bite point, but then I'm getting used to that now also, it was probably just my totally worn out old clutch, seems original and the bike is on 55k!

Replacaed my clutch yesterday, and have a question about the differences in the years.... my bike is a Wreg (2000), so i bought clutch friction discs/plates and springs for an FI-Y model thinking that was right... Turns out, the bike is actually an FI-X.... so it has the skinny inner friction disc with the spacer/spring, i only found this out when i had the old clutch out, oops. I had a look through an online Honda parts catalog, and it seems as though the basket and the outer spring plate is the same between the models, so i went ahead and assembled it with the new "wrong" parts and it seems to be working just fine, apart from the bite point being much earlier than before, but i am thinking that is just new clutch effect? So, is there anything else different between FI-X and FI-Y clutches? or is it just the inner plate/spring configuration? Is it alright to fit an FI-Y clutch kit to an FI-X assuming you replace everything?

I am a tall, heavy rider, i went with a used VFR1200 shock and a 4mm shim to get back to the stock height. its a major improvement over stock! i picked it up for 75£ on ebay (4£ for the shim) it did require some easy adjustments to fit, i had to rotate the piston 180deg to get the rebound adjuster pointing out the left side, and i had to rotate the line going to the preload adjuster so it pointed towards the back of the bike. (i put a thread on here of me fitting it with pictures)

I have the same system fitted to mine (although the full carbon), i found the clamps to be a bit crap, and i had to use assembly paste on the joints (i have the Blackwidow headers as well) It sounds awesome though, and i love how tucked in it is. now i just need to work out how to get my 6th gen panniers to fit around it, think ill need to fit that Givi rack and then make mounts from that

yep i am running the VFR1200 calipers (i had mis measured the caliper spacing an hoped to use some R1 calipers @130mm, but as you said, they are 126mm spacing), I have drilled a hole through the piston wall to connect the two circuits (much like you would do for the VFR rear caliper delink) and i have got a couple of bolts to block off the extra line holes. so they will function as standard 6 piston calipers. I am using an 11/16th front master from a CBR600, which i calculate to offer the same braking force with all 6(12) pistons in operation as the VFR1200 M/C running the 5(10) pistons. I am really happy with the rear shock, its properly tightened up the rear end, even if its currently sitting low. I have both a 4mm and 6mm spacer to play with, although i think im going to run with the 6mm one funny, i had suspected that it would around a 1000lb spring, but i didn't have any hard facts, i was working backwards from the bike's kerb weights (comparing VFR800, CBR1100XX and the VFR1200) i had spring rates for the VFR and XX, but not the VFR12.

Any VFR1200F shock will work, just not the 1200X (crosstourer thing) mine came off a 2010 bike

I'm in Livingston, so not far away :) (although everywhere is "not far" in scotland :P)

sorry chaps! ok so holy cow its WAY WAY better, really showing up the front end now (in progress!) it has lowered the rear end as expected (roughly 780mm seat height now, with me trying to measure it myself balancing and measuring, so probably not accurate), i have ordered a 4mm shim (although now thinking i need 6mm..) to fit between the clevis and the frame to make up for the shorter length. pics: you can see the hose running off to the adjustment knob, its in perfect position for bolting to the subframe with a straight bracket, it fits perfectly! I will be installing a VFR1200 front end at the end of the month, so when that happens ill get the 6mm shim installed and check the sag etc

So figured i would post up a thread about what i got up to at the weekend. that is, unexpectedly fitting a VFR1200 shock to my 5th gen. I had been looking for a budget upgrade to the 55k mile rear shock on my VFR, and looking at the numbers i figured that a VFR1200 shock would be a pretty good match. I managed to snag a VFR1200 shock off ebay a couple of months back for 70£ (mint condition too, bargain!) and i was planning to do a complete overhaul of the bikes suspension, with VFR1200 front end, and the rear shock to match, i have been gathering parts and planning the work to commence towards the end of April Then on Saturday, while recommissioning my SV650 from its winter hibernation, my VFR decided it was jealous, and decided to spill its rear shock guts all over the floor when i pulled it out of the shed, so after giving the SV its once over. I spent the rest of the day removing the rear shock, and mocking up the VFR1200 shock. side by side, the shock is about 4mm shorter: Apologies now for the lack of pictures from here, but i was intent on getting it fitted before it went full dark! installing it "out of the box" as it were, the pre-load adjustment platform banjo makes contact with the exhaust header, so that wasn't going to work. rotating the shock through 180deg fixed that issue, but brought about 2 more. 1. the rebound adjustment at the bottom of the shock now faced inwards, towards the rear brake pedal and above the exhaust collector, this makes it not easily accessible for making adjustments. 2. the hose coming out of the preload adjuster now pointed forwards, which meant there was nowhere to mount the adjustment body. so, with the top mount clamped up in a vice i rotated the damper portion of the shock 180deg(it will spin freely, but obviously has a large spring pressing against it, a large adjustable spanner assisted), so that the rebound adjuster now faced the same way as the outlet of the pre-load platform. then, i cracked off the banjo bolt going into the preload adjustment platform (just enough to allow me to forcably rotate the union, but not enough that anything leaked) and rotated that pipe 180deg, so when fitted it now exits towards the back of the bike, i also did the same to the banjo going into the adjustment knob, so that the mounting tab sat pointing upwards this will let me get a simple bracket to bolt the adjuster knob to the bottom of the subframe. I still have to fabricate the bracket to hold the adjustment knob, for now its just cable tied to the subframe. and i have ordered a spacer to fit between the clevis and frame to make up for the 4mm difference in length. it was dark when i finished, but i will get some pictures today when I'm home i have not been out for a ride on it yet, but sitting on it (jumping up an down on it too), it feels a billion times better, it will be amusing to see how the ancient front end compares to the new rear out on the road, needless to say i cannot wait to get the front end sorted as well.

whats the bits you've created look like? show us the working man!

perfect!

Bought a VFR1200 front end for my VFR, but the axle has turned up without the spacers. i know they are the same size on each side, i just cant seem to find out how wide they are. does anyone know?

Just to add to this, i have found that the axle used on the 8th Gen VFR800 fits into the same drive hub assembly used on the 5th and 6th gen bikes, seen here: https://www.bike-parts-honda.com/pieces-honda-detail-72860-72860-VFR800FE-2014-F_19-VFR+800+F.html part numbers 7 and 9, are common among all VfR800 from 1998-present. which means that part number 5(the 5-stud axle), will fit into any bike with that hub assembly. could be a much easier option than welding and redrilling the existing flange.

Wondering if anyone has information on this, on searching there are a couple of suggestions that people have done this before, but then links are all dead so i cant actually have a look. I much prefer the look of the Honda luggage compared to the Givi E41 for instance.

You don't happen to know the spring rate on it? what would you be looking for for it ?

Hey all, Has anyone looked at fitting a VFR1200 shock to a 5th gen? I'm needing to swap out my shock, and want a stiffer shock to cope with 2 up riding. the Blackbird is one option, but the VFR1200 looks like it would fit too, and its seemingly 320mm (according to the YSS off the shelf replacement), so it could be brought up to length with a spacer in the top mount. I have found that the blackbird spring rate is 16.9kg, so a bit of an improvement over stock, does anyone know the stock spring rate of the 1200 shock? The 1200 shock also has the nice pre-load adjustment built in, so that would be preferable over the blackbird shock Also, I am in the UK, so "get a 929 shock from Jamie" isn't an option! :D (also if i was spending that sort of cash, it would be a custom Nitron)