Lorne

To clarify, do you or do you not apply choke when you 1st start it? Your text implies you used it after the third attempt. If not, there's your answer - use the choke unless the engine is already warm.

Wow, sure you didn't lean on the scale? 😉 Some years ago I weighed the front & rear wheels of my '98 VFR800. Sans tire, valve stem, or balance weights, or bearings(front) the front weighed ~9 pounds and the rear was 12 pounds. And a 3rd Gen 12-spoke weighed almost exactly the same as the 800's 5-spoke. I didn't have the most accurate scale, but sure as shootin' wasn't off by 4 pounds.

They certainly have a reputation for failed stators and rec/regs. Whether or not VFRs are more prone than other bikes I cannot say. I'm not convinced anyone knows the root cause of the failures.

Good luck with troubleshooting your electrickery gremlins. My '09 VTec's stator failed a few years ago during a trip through Colorado. I managed to get home by pulling fuses for headlights and recharging the battery each night. See below. As well as checking your stator and rec/reg, and their wiring and connectors, look at your starter relay (adjacent to the battery). Charging power from the the rec/reg goes through it to get to the battery. A bad connection there means no/reduced charge for the battery. Make sure to pull off the rubber boot covering it in order to see