Asphalt_Pilot

It's hard to believe, but this year is the 25th year of the annual We Don't Give A Hoot weekend! As many of you know, WDGAH is the annual Northeast gathering of VFR riders (and former riders, and a few friends). This has been going on for 25 years now, since the days of the original VF/VFR listserv. Some of you may have attended "back in the day" - why not come out this year for the 25th!! Details are below, but you can also go to the website: http://www.wdgah.net Dates: September 10 - 12 Home base: Fireside Inn, West Lebanon, NH (still only $99/night!) Make hotel reservations by AUGUST 10 in order to secure the group rate! You must CALL THE HOTEL and ask for the VFR group rate. A Fireside Inn & Suites 25 Airport Road (I-89 exit20) West Lebanon, New Hampshire 03784 877.258.5900 http://firesideinnwestlebanon.com/ Rate: $99.99 tax per night, double occupancy, includes breakfast. Ask for the VFR group rate. Cancellation: Any time up to 4pm the day of arrival with no penalty. Hope to see you in September!

Announcing WDGAH 24! Yes, the WDGAH show will go on, despite the pandemic. As many of you know, WDGAH is the annual Northeast gathering of VFR riders (and former riders, and a few friends). This has been going on for 24 years now, since the days of the original VF/VFR listserv. Details: Dates: September 11 - 13 Home base is again the Fireside Inn, West Lebanon, NH (still only $99/night!) Make hotel reservations by AUGUST 20 in order to secure the group rate! Bryan again plans to host his Friday early-bird barbecue. See wdgah.net for full details, including ride routes, hotel information, etc. A few changes this year due to COVID-19: All hotel guests must sign a COVID-19 form upon check-in (basically saying you're healthy and have been following safe COVID procedures) Breakfast is still served, but no buffet - plated breakfast only The hotel restaurant is closed; other choices walkable Call the hotel to make reservations, no online reservation setup this year. And a final EARLY ANNOUNCEMENT for planning purposes: WDGAH 25 will be September 10 - 12 of 2021. We hope to have a "reunion" of sorts, for all of those who have made WDGAH so great over the years - even if you haven't been in a while, and even if you are no longer on two wheels. You have over a year to plan! No Excuses! :-) Hope to see you in September! - Marc, aka Asphalt Pilot

Note change posted to info above - unfortunately, no early-bird BBQ this year!

+1 on the recommendations for battery and regulator. If the battery wasn't cooked before, it may be compromised now. Also, highly recommend a voltmeter install, even if you do replace both R/R and battery. The charging system is the weak point on the VFR and it takes major efforts to overcome that. Make sure you replace the R/R with a newer, cooling-finned model (the OEM is now like this). VFRness is also a great idea, and not a hard install. Do these things, and this bike should provide reliable transportation for tens of thousands of miles. I probably have 100k miles on 4th gen VFRs, and have never seen a spark plug issue like that one!

Mark your calendars! WDGAH will once again be held the weekend after Labor Day. I know many of you on VFR-D have joined in the past. Please join us if you can for our annual northeast VFR enthusiast gathering. It's hard to believe it, but this is the 23rd year for this event! Home base is once again West Lebanon, New Hampshire. We have again secured a group rate at the Fireside Inn & Suites in West Lebanon. The price actually went DOWN from last year - $99/night, based on double occupancy. This of course covers not only the room, but the excellent buffet breakfast. MAKE YOUR RESERVATION BY AUGUST 8 to guarantee the group rate. You can always cancel without penalty, as long as you do so at least 48 hours in advance. See the WDGAH web page for online reservation instructions, including the group discount code and password. All details, including route recommendations, etc., are found on the website: www.wdgah.net NOTE: due to conflicting business travel, Bryan will NOT be hosting his usual Friday Early-Bird BBQ. Gather at the Salt Hill Pub (walk through the parking lot) instead? Hoping to see you there! - Marc '94 Honda VFR750 '96 Honda VFR750 '89 Honda Hawk NT650 '10 Yamaha FJR1300 A bunch o' parts

Nice write-up, great pics. I LOVED riding Salt River Canyon, with my buddy the late, great Bruce Wilson (VFR guru and all-around good guy). I live in Connecticut, but went down there for his wedding - and we spent 3 days prior riding some great roads in Arizona. Somewhere I have a great pic of me along the canyon, standing next to Bruce's VFR (he was riding his Hawk).

Yes, it's time to start planning for WDGAH - the annual VFR gathering in the Northeast U.S. As always, the weekend after labor day - September 11, 12, and 13 this year. Home base is again the Fireside Inn, West Lebanon, New Hampshire. Group rate is the same this year, $99/night, which includes the fine buffet breakfast. Book your room by August 11 to get the group rate. You can cancel at any time without penalty, so what are you waiting for? Bryan Roth will once again be holding his Friday early-bird barbecue - highly recommended if you can make it! For more details: www.wdgah.net Hope to see many of our U.S. and Canadian members there. Next year will be twentieth year for this event - wow! Any questions, post up or email me directly.

+1. My dumbest moment, however, was probably when I rolled the VFR off the centerstand. Right after I had removed the rear wheel. D'oh!!

Yes, about $500 too high. If he wants a grand, he can part it out on eBay!

+1. Belfry and Bad Boy have it right, IMO. Many of us (myself included) often put too much weight on the bars when we ride. I have to make a conscious effort to support my upper body weight with my core muscles, and keep a light touch on the grips. It takes focus, effort and practice, but it does get easier and feels right. You really should be able to take your hands off your grips at any point and not have your upper body fall forward. The added benefit of being able to keep weight off your wrists is that the light touch makes the for a much easier to control. Just try it and see! "Buzziness" really becomes almost a non-issue. I tried a throttle-rocker and really disliked it, seemed to be in the way. I have a Throttlemeister installed, but rarely use it, even on longer days. Does come in handy on long rides to occasionally shake out the hand and wrist and give your throttle hand a break. But with the above method you won't need it much.

Thinking it might be the battery - has it been replaced? If it's more than 3 years old, take it to a local shop and get it load tested. Also possible the R/R starting to fail, though at 11,000 miles that would be a very early failure, but between the bike's age and the fact you are in a warm area of the country, that might lead to that type of early failure. Also, be sure to check the connector at the starter relay, should be in front of the battery. I've posted about that twice in the last couple of weeks - mine had failed, though I'd been good about checking the other connectors.

I have a 4th gen, so I'm not sure if it's the same on your bike, but chances are good that it's right in front of the battery. Under a rubber cap, in my case. If you bypassed the connector and went directly to the battery and didn't get much difference, this connector is probably not the problem. But worth checking anyway. I think you're on the right track with the stator. Good luck! Sucks to have your trip interrupted with electrical issues. Been there, done that, not fun. But my motto has become: "It's all part of the adventure!" (need to put that in as my tag line)

Be sure to check the connector to the starter relay as well. Recently had mine go bad in a very short period of time (though to be honest I hadn't been checking it as I should have been - always paid a lot of attention to the ground and R/R connectors, but not this one - that was a mistake). My R/R and wires were hot to the touch after the bike was running only a few minutes - mainly because it had nowhere to dump the power, since it wasn't getting to the bike's electrical system. Cut off the connector and crimped on some quick-disconnect terminals, and good to go (just a temporary fix until my new connector arrives from wiremybike.com).

Be sure to check the connector to the starter relay! Not sure where you ended up on this, but it sounded like you were assuming the R/R was bad, because the stator checked out but the bike wasn't charging. Did you check the R/R using the multimeter? Just because the bike isn't charging and the stator is good, don't make the mistake of assuming it's the R/R. Yes, they fail. But they are not the only thing that will cause that symptom. The starter relay connector sits on top of the relay, right in front of the battery. It's easy to neglect this connector, but they also get corroded, develop high resistance, and then will heat up and even start to melt (ask me how I know). If this connector is bad, then the R/R has to shed a LOT of extra power as heat, which could cause the R/R to fail also - so they could both be bad. Also - R/R failures can be intermittent (I've had two that were). Sometimes a failure will show up when hot, sometimes at random. The best advice I can give: keep connectors clean, and install a VOLTMETER!