Thanks for the advice guys. As for the question of the age of the shock, I'm not sure. If I had to guess I'd say 10 years old at least. The reasoning behind that is the person I bought the bike from owned it for 10 years and only put 10,000 miles on it. It was clear to me when speaking to him that he wasn't much of a " motorcycle type guy". Who sells a bike and doesn't mention, Hey, by the way it also has an almost $1,000 Penske shock in the rear. several other modifications became clear to me as soon as I got it home. First thing was the color codes on the sub frame say its a blue color. But my bike is all red. I might possibly have the only red 1992 vfr 750 because I'm pretty sure in 1992 blue was the only color option. Please correct me if I'm wrong. This isn't my first motorcycle but it is my first vfr. It also has a dynojet carb kit. Don't know much about that and not sure what stage is installed on my bike. Actually I'm not 100% sure if it even has that mod, but my bike does have the "dynojet" sticker on it, so good enough either way, right? The last mod and probably my favorite is the carbon fiber two brothers slip on that is on the left side of the bike. Not only does it sound bad ass but on the right side no swing arm, chain, sprocket, or muffler. All that you can see on the right rear is a big ol' 8 spoke! Love it! But Anyway, sorry got a little off topic bragging on my bike. The point of that was the second owner, the guy I bought it from didn't mention any of those modifications, which leads me to believe he purchased the bike in that configuration. So back to the shock, its seems it probably needs to be taken out of the bike and operated on, weather its from 200 degree F heat or not, doesn't really matter now, the damage is done. But looking at the big picture something is going to have to be done to remedy the extreme heat coming off the header next to the rear shock. its not only the shock getting cooked but also the battery ,starter relay, and R/R. The rear brake reservoir and lines are looking pretty crispy also. And i cant leave out my leg!! I know I'm not the only one with this problem and I'm sure that someone out there has a cure. Unfortunately I havent been able to find anything yet. This is how much luck i'm having...After I posted my original question at the top of this page I took a break from it all. A couple of hours later I search for "excessive heat rear shock vfr 750" and the first search result is my original post on the top of this page! That has never happened to me before. I think I can say I've come around, full circle. BUT STILL NEED ADVISE
THANKS