Misspent Youth

On my 5th gen I installed a Spiegler handlebar adapter bought used that was intended for a Ducati ST4, but the fork tube diameter's the same and it fits. I use a cheap black "superbike" bend bar that I think is a Bikemaster (or something like that). Generic black bar ends, and I had to drill holes for the switchgear. Not too wide and has a bit of rise, everything fits on it and it's perfect for me, especially with the peg lowerers. Very comfortable ergos for my 5'10, 32" inseam self. I don't take many long trips, but if you do, know that the more upright seating puts you at odds with the stock windshield which pushes a lot air on your torso above 65 mph or so, though you can still ride one-handed without fear of being blown off. I have a touring givi shield for longer trips and it works fine. I paid $125 for the adapter (used), $25 for the bar (new), and $10 for the bar ends (new). I already had the windshield. So I've got less than $150 into my conversion and I wouldn't go back to stock if you paid me 5 times that amount. The stock VFR setup put too much weight on my wrists for my style of riding (more cruisery and laid back), and the right one would go numb, possibly aided by the fact that the brake lever assembly is not allowed to go to a comfortable position, forcing an unnatural bend to keep a couple of fingers on the brake. I tried adding risers but they didn't help with hand position, wrist angle, etc., though they took a bit of weight off the wrists, and still worked OK with the stock windshield.

There's a reason Honda put the radiator back up front on the 8th gen - side-mounts are too hot for sitting in traffic for any length of time. Restricting airflow as you have will only compound the poor engineering decision.

Not for you, but it does not matter if it's a Honda or Aprilia - all stator-r/r-based charging systems have the same problem. Stator is a sacrificial wear item made worse with shunt r/r (also a wear item due to heat). It's a cheap charging system made worse with small wiring and quick-connects that corrode. It has to be monitored (voltage meter) and maintained (connections and grounds routinely cleaned), including not pushing the battery beyond its service limit (not to failure, in other words).

I've bought used bikes with chain lube overspray on the rotor that was transmitted to the pads, rendering them useless. Consider a pad change to fresh stock pads, but even with clean calipers, clean pads, fresh fluid and no air, my '98's rear brake is not great, not much feel, and wouldn't lock up if I wanted it to. Perhaps that's as intended. It seems to work well with the fronts applied.

Is it possible to separate the left-front caliper from its mounting bracket (that holds the secondary master) WITHOUT removing the connecting hose? I ask because it's been several years since I cleaned the calipers and I usually do everything except separate the caliper halves to clean and lube, and I typically would have tried to separate the caliper from the mounting bracket to be thorough. It doesn't appear possible without removing the hose, BUT I clearly see my brake caliper grease on the two poles that carry the caliper, so I at least put grease on the poles (and I may have succeeded in separating the bracket from the caliper??). I should have made better notes on the first go-through. I've got the factory manual but it simply dictates hose removal. Too many bikes, too much maintenance, too little time. Thanks for any guidance.

I've been running one for about 4k miles now, no problems. I've installed a meter to monitor. Shortly after to install, I ran it up to 12k a couple times (close to home), voltage never about 14.8. Thanks for taking point on this one.

http://www.roadstercycle.com/Roadstercycle%20Series%20Regulators.htm Anyone know if this 50 amp unit can take the higher rpms? Or is it the same as the Compufire?

OP's stator appeared burned, as they all do after running in that hot environment, but I didn't see where he confirmed it was bad via testing output and grounding out.

Cleaned up the chassis ground, didn't make a difference. Pin 1 at the grey connector has a good connection to ground. But between pin 1 on the grey connector and pin 5 on the black connector I have about 1.35 kOhms with the switch off. Complete open circuit with the switch on. Funny thing I did notice. If I have pin 5 grounded when I turn the switch on and then remove my grounding probe as soon as the fuel pump starts to prime, it will sometimes continue to prime the normal amount of time and then switch off. But not always. Usually it will shut off as soon as I remove the lead. I can't seem to get any consistency out of what it's doing. To what big orange plug are you referring? There's a multi-pin common ground block through which many, many things are grounded, including, I believe, the ECU. Search around for "orange" and "ground" and you should find a ton of good posts. The pins are many and small, and they get corroded so lose their ground. Some try to clean the pins and reuse, others clip the block and common them all together (messy and possibly not that effective). The block on the 5th gen is located on the left side, to the left of the Stator connection to the r/r, under a covering of black tape. The threads I'm talking about should show the location. Of course, your problem could be trauma outfall from the accident, but the grounding block is a source of similar problems for many.

Any chance of this being a corroded ground at the Big Orange Plug?

He should be along shortly, but I believe Kaldek knows the procedure cold. In the meantime, consider searching for Kaldek and fuel injector in case he's posted it previously.

Thanks for the input, Jeff and Austin. I understand the options and have a terminal block on stand-by to use in place of the connector, but for now I just want to clean up the connector which doesn't yet show any signs of overheating. I do need to take a look at the 30 amp fuse holder, as it's been a while (I've owned the bike since '05). Re: the connector's spades, I found the lock tab is on the crimp side of the male, and on the non-crimp side of the female. Back to take another whack at it. EDIT - Re: Sumitomo Connector spade removal - finally managed it. Unlike seemingly every other spade, the 5th gen spade does NOT use a metal rise/tab on the spade itself to grip the connector. The tab to be lifted (from the spade's mating side) is part of the plastic connector and I used one of those tiny flathead screwdrivers you get with an iphone replacement battery. Slide it in slowly and it should stop at the tab's leading edge, apply some pressure and rock the screwdriver to get the edge under the tab's lip while pushing the wire in from the back to take some pressure off the tab, lift up the tab a bit while then pulling on the wire and it should pop out easily. I also noticed the wires from the factory stator (a Honda replacement) are noticeably thinner than those to R/R (the Honda non-MOSFET upgraded version).

Any additional direction on how to de-pin these? None of the youtube vids I found addressed these particular connectors. I've tried a small screwdriver, a large paper clip, and something that looks like a ninja throwing star with different ends or points on it (some flat, some round/hollow). Do I go in from the inside to outside? I think that's correct. On the top of the blade/receiver? Or beneath it? Paper clip goes all the way through when I use the hole on the underside. Thanks for any help. I've actually got a lot mechanical experience on this bike and others, so that makes this one frustrating.

I'm hoping you're on the right track w/the series regulator, though it sounds like the Compufire's off my list given your experience. Re: ZRX (and not to derail your thread - just mentioned it as an example of a bike w/different charging system), rattle at idle is typically a cam chain whose auto-tensioner is just about to go to the next notch of adjustment. Should do it on its own, or you can remove and reinstall to correct adjustment in a couple of minutes. The cam chain does wear out about 50K miles. The ZRX "adjustable" susp is cheaply done and, in my opinion, not as effective as the VFR's. Too much compression damping, almost no rebound, and crude damping in between, not to mention lack of rising rate rear shock with the two fixed shocks. Fixable at a price. What I really want is the ZRX motor in the VFR.

In addition to my '98 VFR, I've got two Kawasakis that both use an external alternator with internal regulator (ZRX and Concours) run off a self-adjusting chain from the crank. I have been on Kaw boards for more than 10 years and there are never complaints about dead charging systems, cooked batteries, spontaneously-combusting 30 amp fuse holders, dead on the highway in traffic at night in the rain, etc. etc. etc. There are many ZRXs built in '01 that are on their original batteries, and the Concours board has reports of getting 200K miles out of the charging system with an occasional brush length check. The stator-R/R system is arguably lighter and cheaper, but it's unreliable to the point of occasionally affecting safety. My VFR is better in many ways than the Kaws, but the VFR is the one I sweat melting down far from home (same is true for my speed triple, which has the same weak charging setup).

Can you please elaborate more on this? maybe pictures or something. I am having electrical issues simuliar to the ones described by original poster and you. I have been blowingthe tail light/instrument fuse like crazy. I took the intire tail section apart and double checked everything, i replaced the licience plate light and wire back to the harness because it looked iffy. I also replased the gromets that secured the tail light, because they were missing and the tail light was bouncing around every where. I thought i solved it and the bike seemed okay for a few weeks. I have not blown a fuse since but a few days ago my lights and instrument cluster went out for a second or two and then came back on the highway on saturday night. Then again last night when I came to a stop I lost all power and the bike died followed bike the bike gaining power back and restarting with everything normal. Also My hazard lights do not really work any more. I only get one flash and then nothing. Subsequent attempts yeild only a momentary voltage drop and then nothing. As a side note I have a voltage gauge mounted and voltage is rock solid always at 14.1 volts always and rr/stator and battery are all new and good. I think I may need to get a new right hand switch assembly, igntion switch assembly, and sort out that brake light switch. Don't have any pics of the old setup, but look at the two rubber covers that cover the front brake light switch contacts located on the front brake lever/switch assembly. The two rubber covers should be straight and not leaning toward or touching each other, nor should they be touching any place else. People typically tire of having the front brake lever straight out in front of them as it forces them to angle their wrist to cover the front brake. The apparent solution is to loosen the lever/switch assembly and rotate it forward (clockwise, as I recall) to locate the brake lever at a more comfortable angle. Push that to its limit, though, and you're crunching those switch contacts into each other and/or into the clip-on assembly, leading to a situation that shorts when you apply the front brake (thereby activating the front brake light switch). Take a look and you'll see what I'm saying.

The fuse-blowing from the front brake use is likely due to over-rotation of the brake assembly (on the bars) to the point where it forces contact of the front brake light switch connectors and shorts one of them to ground, blowing the fuse. Rotate the brake lever assembly so the brake light switch contacts have clearance from anything and tighten things up again, replace the fuse, and you should be OK. Honda's design team missed the boat on the brake lever placement - it can't be adjusted to where it's comfortable with the stock clip-on because it contacts part of the handlebar assembly. My solution was to replace the stock set up with LSL kit and bars.

Are you sure the stator fails from excess heat somehow shunted back into the stator? The latest MCN magazine with a tech question/answer that says stators fail from the excess heat delivered by the hot engine oil over time. Or is it that the faster the stator's going, the more heat is somehow generated within the stator and that heat isn't taken away by already hot engine oil? Don't know, but also understood from the Triumph board (RAT) that the series r/r interrupted the stator's output to an as-needed output, thus "saving" the stator (from excess heat)? All input appreciated.

And is there ageement on use of the series regulator (in place of stock shunt type) to preserve stators? Or have the series regulators been failing such that it's not possible to get a handle on stator life?

Most aftermarket bar ends for 7/8" bars are simply rubber plug insert/tighten arrangement. Sometimes a screw, sometimes an allenhead, to tighten.

Re: Bar Ends - the OEM bar ends are unique to the Honda setup and won't fit a regular bar. I went with cheap universal ends that work fine.

Coderighter - 1. What is about this new series device that leads you to believe its performance will be different from the one you used before? 2. Do you believe your recent issue was the result of your first series device's inadequacy? Or an unrelated problem with the central fuse? 3. Do you believe the constant high stator output (higher than the HD?) is damaging to these series units, as suggested elsewhere? Thanks for being the guinea pig on this.

There's supposedly a legendary bike courier in the UK who racked up 200K or 250K miles on a VFR, but don't know if that was a 5th gen or an earlier version. I know RIDE magazine bought a used 93 VFR with 88K miles on it just to tear the motor apart to see how things stood. No service history. They found clean oil, evidence of a replaced clutch, and very light wear on all, enough so that you could have reassembled it and had 99% of the motor and gear box pieces within spec. As it was apart, they freshened things up a bit, but said they really didn't need to. These bikes are well-built, and worth keeping up. Really, what could you replace it with without spending a fortune for features you don't need?

I got a longer throttle cable from the Helibars folks. Only needed a 1/2" or so, iirc. In any event, Helibars sells/sold a longer cable that did the job.

Any discernible voltage drop through the toggle switch?