LocalRoadKing

Great news, I zip-tied my brake lever last night and I came back this morning and it's way better. It's not 100% though, but it's really close, like 90%. Definitely rideable though. I'm going to keep riding and hope the rest of the air eventually makes it's way up. I tried this trick before and had no luck, but it seems to work now after I rebuilt the master cylinder. I think the return port was partially blocked before I rebuilt it because pressure would keep building up until the brakes would lock while I tried to ride it. Anyway, thanks for turning me again onto this trick, works much better when the master cylinder is working properly.

I've bled my brakes on my 2010 VFR1200F with about 5 bottles for DOT4 at this point, both forward and backwards AND STILL I have excessive lever travel (to the bar at first pull) at the master cylinder. I have tilted it in many directions and have rebuilt it with new parts, I feel like I've tried everything at this point, and yet still the air in the system persists. Has anyone else been in this situation and got it successfully resolved? I'm game to try anything at this point.

Hey Everyone, So winter has come and gone, and now I finally got a chance to try the bike out with the new rotors. It works perfectly now, the brakes don't drag and they perform great. The rotors were definitely the problem. Thanks for everyone's help!

Update: I bought some used OEM rotors from eBay, but they were in much worse condition (gouged, pitted) than what the seller described so I returned them and bought some EBC MD1176X rotors instead. After swapping them out and testing the brakes they feel 100 times better than before. The root cause of my problem was definitely the warped rotor, the wheel spins freely now and the lever has firmed up dramatically now that it's not trying to push on a warped rotor. Thanks again to everyone for the advice, I haven't bedded in the rotors completely so I'll reserve my judgement until then but they fit great onto the wheel. The takeaway? Even if you've flushed the brakes thoroughly and have checked over all components 10 times over, the cause of your problem may be nothing to do with the system you're servicing. Check your rotors!

Congrats! I'm soon to be there myself, can't wait!

Figured it out, the left rotor is warped, but in a way that has made it cone-shaped. I've never seen warping like that before, I drew a picture below to help illustrate it. Time to go shopping I guess, might roll the dice on used OEM since new is about $1000-1100 for the pair. But thanks for the advice and pictures everyone, I would have kept going down the wrong path otherwise and who knows what I would have done then. Related, has anyone put aftermarket rotors on these bikes and has had a good experience with them?

Thanks Skids, you pictures look the same as mine, which seems to suggest that my forks are properly spaced apart, but the caliper mounts and the caliper itself seems to suggest they're not. I have no idea what's going on here. When I try to mount up the left caliper, here is a picture of how it want to center itself on the rotor vs how the mount wants to sit:

Hmmm, ok, I guess I can get out some ratchet straps and try pulling them together so they are equidistant, but wouldn't this cause the axle bolt to stick out from the caliper mount? Currently they sit flush with each other (picture below) if I pull the forks together, wouldn't it cause this to stick out? Or is it supposed to?

Hello VFRer's, I bought by VFR1200F this year and one of the reoccurring problems I've had is the left front brake caliper sticks, even after rebuilding the calipers and flushing the system. I noticed today that the caliper wants to mount at an angle that isn't flush with the radial mount. I measured the mount and noticed the left one is 3mm farther from the rotor than the right one. How is this possible?? The only thing I've noticed is that there seems to be more space between the fork and the wheel on the left side than the right, as evidenced by the pictures below. My question is, is this normal? Am I following the right path to fix this issue? If someone could let me know that this amount of asymmetric spacing is normal in also on their bike, or even better take some pictures to compare with mine, I would greatly appreciate it!

Hi Everyone, When I bought my 2010 VFR1200F it didn't come with the Honda factory cases. I wasn't originally gonna use this machine to tour but I changed my mind part way through this year, so what's a guy to do? Honda factory side cases are about $2300 per set, no thanks. There are other hard case options out there but they are A: Also very expensive. B: Require brackets and mounting hardware to buy, and C:_Don't look as good as soft luggage IMO. This left me with trying some universal fit saddlebags as my last real affordable option. I wasn't sure how feasible it might be with this bike though, I've scoured the internet and I've never seen any pictures or discussion of soft luggage fitted to a 7th gen VFR. Was it just not possible due to the unique tail design? The only way to find out was to buy some and try it myself. I took some measurements around the tail and ordered some Ogio Saddlebags which I determined would be the correct height and length to fit. And... They fit great! If you've ever wondered if this type of luggage can fit on one of our bikes, wonder no more! Now I can't speak for other universal fit bags, but these ones work great due to their size, their shape, and their strap design. Here is how I got them to fit: When I got them, I originally tried using the big velcro straps to connect them together and "throw them over" the tail, but with these bags, part of the strap is unprotected and makes contact with the paint whether they're routed over or under the seat. I could put down some masking tape to protect the paint there, but I didn't like the idea of having tape on the bike when the bags are off. I then noticed that the handles for the bags could fit on the handles on the tail and hang them down the ideal distance, so I ended up trying that and it works great! The bags come with 2 straps with buckles for each bag to secure the bags longitudinally on both ends, I secured the front ones on the passenger peg bracket, and the rear ones through the clip hole for the Honda factory cases [see pictures] and it happened to work great. Now you're probably thinking at this point, what is preventing the bags from flopping under the tail and getting caught in the wheel? Well Honda thankfully had me covered there, there is a part of the rear passenger peg brackets that extend backwards toward the tail, and if you position the bags so they rest on that piece then they stay upright and don't flop inwards [see pictures], thanks Honda! So if you want to tour on the cheap get yourself some inexpensive throwover bags and hit the road! I can't wait to go on some trips with these things, my back will thank me for not carrying a big heavy backpack instead!

Just replaced my helibars with the stock ones, no longer need the helibars. Best offer takes them, message me if you're interested!

Yeah I agree, that seems to make the most sense. This bike was definitely on it's side stand a lot seeing as how it doesn't have a center stand. As for the little piece of acorn, I thought about it more and I suspect that must have fallen in during the last filter change. Either way, this explanation puts my mind at ease.

Hi Everyone, I bought a 2010 VFR1200F (38,000 miles) from a dealer last week, and after a few rides I'm taking it apart to see what kind of shape it's in. I pulled off the surprisingly clean stock air filter to see there's a multitude of oil gunk and some other things in the air box, not totally unexpected, but I noticed my throttle valves are variously dirty, particularly the front left one, which is black with dirt compared to the other three. Has anyone else seen this in their air box when they've opened it up? I'm trying to figure out if this normal or if my air filter wasn't sealed and it just happened to be by that intake trumpet. The air filter seems recently changed, but it could have had a K&N in it for most of it's life for all I know. Also there was a big-ish piece of acorn or a beetle shell in the air box too. Is it possible that came in from the breather tube or somewhere else? Interested to hear your thoughts.