Hi all,
Very new to this forum and only owned my VFR 5th gen for 3years now, but been a motorcyclist all my life and they've been my primary mode of transport for the past 20years. I always wanted to own a V4 and the 5th gen always seemed to get great reviews so decided to buy one to see what all the fuss was about.......That's the introduction over.
Where do I start with the front end feel, or lack of, from my bike!! I've fitted a new Hagon rear shock (built to my weight) and have serviced my forks with new 7.5w oil (as factory) in the past month, I've also got new Pirelli Rosso II tyres on the beast and I replaced the head-bearings soon after buying the bike (and its only done 1000miles since) and there's no free play in the wheel or swingarm bearings.
So the usual things that should be checked first when having front end issues are all done, however, the vague feeling from my VFR's front end still plague me. I'm not Barry Sheene (or Kenny Roberts for our American cousins), but I don't hang about either and although its been a few years since my last trackday, I used to sit comfortably in the fast group and could get my fat ass around the Nurburgring in under 8:30mins so, not bragging, I feel I can handle a bike at speed as well as the next guy.
The bike was bog stock when I bought it and had been loved by its previous owner who had been its sole owner before I came along, and has no signs that its ever been upside down or anything that could bend it out of shape.
The issue I have is the rebound has absolutely no damping (or at least feels that way). I was a fanatical subscriber to Performance Bikes magazine in the UK (now part of Practical Sportsbike) and started with their suggestions for suspension settings which was preload fully in; which was to be frank, fooking dangerous. I've since started to back it off and I'm now at 7full turns out, which is between the 2nd and 3rd indicator line on the preload adjusters. I've also dropped the yokes through the forks by 6mm (which is 45mm through from top of yoke, where Haynes magazine states factory is 39mm). Finally, I've lifted the clip-ons and turned them outwards to increase leverage and all of this has helped the bike turn in and improve the feel, but the bike still has this "vagueness" in what the front tyre is doing. The forks will wallow on some turns and it runs wide once back on the gas as the turn is completed. I'm going to try heavier weight oil in the forks to see if this helps slow the rebound down a bit but I'm not convinced it'll do much if anything.
So I'm now beginning to consider new fork internals and as I have Maxton shock and fork internals on my 2005 SV1000s which is my track bike, I thought I'd speak to them first.
All of this is a very rambling, round-about way of asking, has anyone had the Maxton GP20 cartridges fitted to their 4th, 5th or 6th gen VFR. The GP20 upgrade cartridges currently retail at £420 inc VAT so its a substantial outlay for a £2K, 20year old machine that only gets used 2-3K miles a year, so would like to hear any opinions from those who've splashed the cash.
Just to be clear, I'm not interested in swapping out forks with different model units from the CBR range or the SP1/ SP2 or even R1. For one, these units are becoming very rare to purchase in the UK at sensible prices and two, this isn't my main bike, only summer use commuter and occasional tour to European GP's and isn't worth the investment. All I want is to improve the bike to a point where I know if a throw it into a corner, like I can on my other bikes, the thing will stay underneath me and at least attempt to hold the line I want to ride.
I've attached a quick picture of my bike as in some earlier posts I've done, forum members have been interested in seeing it.
Thanks. Pete