SportTouringCZ

Just to follow up. I have bled all brakes as per manual. There is something seriously wrong with one part of the system. On one bleeder connected from middle rear piston to rear brake there is no pressure going from lever to brake piston. I will dig into it and share the results.

That is definitely going to happen, VFRness is in, meter is next. FYI: Tourmax are Japanese made spares. I have used their steering head bearings and fork seal kits and I like them. Hopefully the quality of Rec/Reg will match. Thanks for help.

Here are the promised numbers Battery :12,91V (new) Idle: 14.36V Slow idle with lights: 13.2-13.3V (12.8V at 80° engine temp... All other readings same at 80°C engine temp) 3.5k revs without lights: 14,43V 3k revs with lights :14.38V battery after test: 12.99V reg unit is Tourmax

Hi VFRD, I have a question regarding the linked brakes (no, I will not de-link). I have ridden the VFR after winter pause and I noticed something. If I apply the front brake first, than the rear brake and let go of the front... The rear brake lever falls down by a few centimeters as if there was not enough brake fluid. Normally I would not ask but I don't remember this happening before winter and the bike just had a fluid change. It is either a bad fluid change or my bad memory. The latter being slightly more possible. So can you please go out and try this on your 5th gen? PS: My thoughts are that this should happen because of how the secondary brake cylinder works but I need it confirmed.... You know... I sort of don't want to crash...

Thank you, I completely forgot about "the Drill" article. Did the drill, it pointed towards Rec/Reg. I have consulted this with my mechanic who seconded the thought. I have just installed the new one and will measure the current after the VFR cools down again. However I think the problem is solved.

Hi guys, My VFR has been perfect so far but today it left me stranded for the first time. Situation: I have the VFRness installed. 13.4V at idle is my charging current. I have done about 150kms after winter break. (trouble free). Today I washed the VFR and some symptoms appeared. 1) When I turned the blinker on speedo and tach died for a second (dead while the bulb of blinker was on for the first time) 2) Speedo and tach dead when I turned the blinker on every time the bulb turned on. 3) Speedo and tach dead every time I pressed brakes. - I stopped at the side of the road. VFR refused to start again. Pump primed but starter didn't move after the button press. After I pressed the starter button pump primed again as if I turned the ignition on and off. 4) My friend came to rescue me with a new battery. (12V-12Ah insted of 12V-10ah) bike started right away and finished the 12 km journey home without issues (lights were off). When I came home I tried blinkers again, no issues. New battery had 12,4 V (engine off), 13,1V at 1500 rpm The old battery had 11.6V and is now charging. My questions are: Why? What happened? Is there an issue with Reg/Rec? (it is charging now so how can that be?) Could it be water from the washing? Thanks!

Hi, I found this in a thread somewhere on VFRdiscussion. I cannot however confirm this as a fact as my car had died on me and the conversion money went somewhere else. Give me a week or two to earn some money for the mechanic and I 'll post photos of finished product (and tell you if the cables are long enough)

Hi, I don't know about the mechanical side of things but do you have your kill switch in correct position? ☺️ *EDIT* Ok, this is NOT an option if the fuel pump primes, sorry, missed that.

Great story and great bike. I am really looking forward to more posts/ pictures from you. Wish you good luck and a big discount on variety of cleaning products in your area 😀

This hurts. Sorry you just can't put car oil in your motorcycle. If it was Ducati with dry clutch? No problem at all. But this is a wet clutch system which uses the same oil for engine and the clutch. The car oil has special additives which should make it as slippery as possible to reduce wear etc. etc. but this is the last thing you want in your clutch assembly which has to grip as hard as possible. Motorcycle oils are expensive for a reason. They have to make the pistons “slide well” and not let the clutch slip. They are VERY specialised so you just have to use proper motorcycle oil if you want happy bike :) . One example...The car only stresses the oil in one environment which is under the pistons. In your motorcycle is is under the pisons (under higher stress and temperature because of the higher revs) in has to be in the near the clutch and not ruin its efficiency AND it has to go through the transmisson which is by far the worst thing. The viscosity modifing molecules have really long strands and they get physically crushed in the tranny, therefore oil breaks down faster and does't do its job. The only reason why you would not use purpouse created fully synthetic oil is price, otherwise the are no drawbacks for this type of oil and I really mean none. - You should at least read the user manual. It will give you a general idea and usually direct you to the qualified mechanics for maintenance. When you get bored of reading "You should give this job to qualified Honda technician." Read the shop manual as it has almost all info about your motorcycle. (It was boring for me sometimes as I am not mechanically inclined. I just love the science behind it. However I've read the full shop manual. I am not saying you have to do that the same way as me BUT when you want to take a peek at something on you bike, just take the shop manual with you and read the part concerning the thing you want to take a look at. It will save you time and in some cases a lot of money.)

That's why I asked about the 1st gear clunk :) . Just ride and you will get the feel for the clutch and proper shifting. btw: If you want to practice a bit, find a parking lot and practice slow speed maneuvers. (I did this to prevent embarassing traffic light stalling etc. 😀😀 ) 1) Just stop and than try to get the bike moving without using the throttle (to get the bike moving by just using the clutch). 2) When you can do it, start like this, get the bike going (still no throttle) and try to feather the clutch. The clutch will slip a bit and you will hear the revs rise and the speed will drop. 3) Mix in brakes and throttle. 4) try the slow speed part of the excercises which are required to ride bike of this size in Europe (you can easily find some videos on YT with these tests recorded. Also the ones I wrote down are about half of what you have to do to get license here) a) slow driving (you ride slowly at a walking pace...In the exam the examiner would walk next to you and you just couldn't pass him or you would fail the test) b) figure of eight exercise (just do the figure of eight, it is basically the same as the U-turn excercise) c) slow speed slalom d) Stop and go riding. In this one you set of (both feet at pegs) and than stop (one leg on the ground), you set of again (again both feet at pegs) and stop again (the other foot on the ground) It may sound boring but it is worth it. Also it can be a challenge on big motorcycle which is still kinda foreign to you. I did these things to familiarise with my VFR right after I got my license and it made me way more comfortable with it in traffic and parking lot maneouvres. The rest requres time 😀 *EDIT* HiFlo is a great brand. I am not a long time user YET but other riders near me use their products for a long time insted of OEM and K&N ( both oil and air filters).

Hi, congratulations on your VFR. I am a bit late to the party but still I've got one question for you Joel (might be stupid, but I want to rule something out ) Do you hear the same “clunk” noise when you shift from neutral to 1st gear at idle? BTW: Take the bike to a Honda dealer/garage with good reputaion just to have a look at it. It will not cost you anything (or just a few dollars) and you’ll know for sure that trained technician marked the bike as healthy.

Few days ago I found out that VFR 800 5th gen pads should be sintered from factory... Soooo I am not going to argue with mr. Honda and his engineers. (*Edit: And with you guys, of course! ) As for the EBC. They are on the "to do" list and I'll get them when the time comes. It may have just been me. I've been riding a lot and have gotten used to the brakes. Even the slow-speed maneouvres have improved in a huge way. Maybe just the jump from "old" to "new" motorcycle (2001 is new for me if you wanted to know ☺️ )... It seems I have been using too much power with my leg, now I just lightly touch the lever and everything is all right. The VFR is just lovely!

I searched site which sells OEM parts and the part numbers are different. Same number of pistons but the construction is slightly different. So no good news, unfortunatelly. btw: What a shame, it seems to be well suited for American market. I've read up on them and it seems that the increased wear on the rotors I've been worried about isn't that dramatic so I'm going to listen to your advice and go EBC in the future. (as I said ATM. the pads are in good condition)

Just FYI. I asked my friend about the brakes and they seem to be exactly the same. At least in setup and the way they work. He doesn't know about pistons etc. Still this COULD be a good source for parts as Varadero bits and pieces are half the price compared to VFRs (form the same era)

I designed a full schedule during the time I was chatting with Kevcarver 😁 That's what I'm aiming for, I want to do it by myself BUT I am not confident with bleeding and changing the bearing so those two jobs will have to be done by the mechanic. I'll tackle the rest by myself. Bars first, than supporting mods. Thank you for the estimate BTW, it was a huge help. Yes, exactly. If that is the case it will have to be done after payday. The kits are about 100$ but I will gladly pay it if needed. On other hand I don't think it is going to be necessary. The PO gave the bike to a really good mechanic so my hopes are up ☺️ We'll see. Those are sintered metal pads, right? Aren't they a bit overkill for the VFR? I would have bought semi-sintered if you didn't write this. Can you please tell me why go sintered over semi-sintered on the VFR? One more thing, I sometime find the brakes have too much power to them 😀. Especially in very slow sped manoeuvres on parking lot. (sometimes I am practicing the routines required to pass the A licence in the garage)

Ok KevCarver, thanks. I'll try it out when there is time to get the bike apart.

That's why I'm asking and thanking you again. I needed a little push to do the calipers. ☺️ Regarding the condition of the bike....Bought it few months ago as my first "big" motorcycle. I live in a block of flats and my garage is public so it is rather hard to work on the bike but so far I've changed the oil, oil filter, flushed the radiators+ gave it new fluid, got VFRness and added all the missing bolts (few plastic fairing screws were missing) and changed non-oem bolts and nuts holding rear sprocket for Honda originals. The bike is pretty mint actually... I didn't touch the brakes because I had planned on this upgrade ever since I'bought the bike. Pads are thick and the PO gave the motorcycle to well known mechanic (PO personally didn't do maintenance and he said it before I bought the bike so I knew the chain had to go) I wanted to do some work on it to get to know it better and start my own service intervals rather than continue based on what the PO had written down (from what I've gathered you should take everything the PO claims with reservation 😀) I could probably do that on my own! Thanks for the tip. I can at least take a look.. BTW: How would I push the pistons back in without damaging them? Is flat head screwdriver OK? (because it seems a bit harsh to me) I'll ask the mechanic to check the calipers thoroughly anyway if there is anything "dirty" down there. I had to google those as I've never heard about them (previous bike had drums even at the front 😀😀 ). Are they the same thing as "guide pins"? That sounds nasty. I wouldnť feel comfortable on bike which did this. Luckily the brakes are really smooth from what I can tell from riders seat. Thank you but I have ideas without any real experience to back them up so I need someone to "back me up" if you know what I mean. WFRworld doesn't seem all bad to me. One of the post there got me closer to VFRs ( http://vfrworld.com/threads/refurbishing-my-99-5th-gen.52488/ ) but people here seem to be much more active and I respect that.

Is it the part that pushes in when I start breaking the front and activates the rear brake? I do have it and I will bring it to him. Um...When I asked on VFRWorld I got the opposite answer 😁 . My slightly OCD side wants the brakes rebuild but the greedy me want to skip this step and ride the bike already... Soo, Is it possible to half-ass the job by, for example, just removing the pistons. Checking them for issues, re-grease and put back together? I don't even know if this is possible but could it to the trick and avoid seal damage? Thank you, as I said on VFRWorld... This is new information for me so thank you very much for it! I have ordered the chain online and it is not riveted at the moment so I think I'm going to give the chain job to the mechanic and buy a riveter for my future jobs when I have some money to spare. Thanks for the offer 😊. I have read the posts and it seems doable for me and I really want to try it. On the other hand I'm worried about the VFR. I don't want to damage anything or mess up because I like it too much 😁. Anyway, thank you very much for your answers. You gave me a lot to think about.

Well as I said, I am no mechanic or expert. Maybe wait some time for others to confirm my theory 😊 I don't want to waste money on compression test just because I had the idea and it suits the "symptoms" Good luck!

Hi there, I am no expert but if you have fuel in oil it may not be electrical/ bad gas. I can give you a few suggestions (I am no mechanic, just my 2 cents): 1) How about piston rings not sealing properly? Maybe you are burning oil mixed with fuel. (the smoke would be white with blue-ish tint) A compression test should do the trick and tell you if your bike is healthy. 2) Worst case option would be cracked engine block. That could lead to burning coolant and all sorts of problems. - Did the bike warm up enough to let the coolant flow to the radiators?

Hi VFR owners and enthusiasts, will you please help me with my dilemma? I saved up some money to put into my VFR (Fi 01) and I have bought a few upgrades for it (future birthday gifts, you know). I wanted bars and stuff that goes along with it 😀 so I got : -LSL superbike handlebars conversion kit (+some bar weights to go with them...I want to keep the stock ones in case I want to return to original form) -Fren Tubo custom braided brake line kit (longer to be able to route them "stock" way even with higher bars) -New steering head bearings ("tapered" set from Tourmax to rid me of old sticky "balls" I've got...😁No pun intended, when I first wrote this) -New (read longer) throttle cables (from 1100 PanEuropean) to keep the cable routing original -And finally new chain and sprockets I've got several questions for people who have done similar mods or just have more experience than me, please. I can do the handlebar conversion by myself BUT I cannot do the other "supporting" mods because I lack tools and experience with them (riveter for the chain and I definetely cannot bleed empty brake lines without tools or set the bearings properly without messing up) 1) In which order should I tackle the mods? All at once, or in small portions? 2) If I give this job to a mechanic, how much should I expect to pay? (maybe I could work with him and help him? ) 3) Clutch hose was promised by supplier of the LSL kit but none arrived, when I contacted him he said it is a mistake on his web (confirmed by LSL that they do not supply the lines)... I want to do the mods with the stock line which should be possible... If I have to change the line, I will go with braided line as it has to be cheaper than OEM Honda line which costs more than 100$ here. The question is: "Are there any differences between hydraulic clutch line and brake lines/ fittings? Which fluid is used? My guess is it is hydraulic but haven't checked the manual yet. 4) Should I watch out for some specific problems?/ Should the mechanic be prepared for something? He services my friends Varadero (also linked brakes, similar year of manufacture) which he rebuild after a nasty crash from bottom up and he knows his stuff so I trust him but still... VFRs have their specific needs 5) I own the bike for a short time so I don't know much about previous service history. Should I clean the calipers even though they work fine just because the brake lines will be apart? I will definetly remember something right after I post this so thank you in advance for your help and please have patience with me. Martin

Hmm, interesting. I would like to know if the high volts are because of the VM placemet or because of the bulbs. Maybe I will get some in the future. Do you have LEds in your dash as well or just taillights, indicators etc? Btw: even the front lights are LEDS? How are they? Do you have photos?