I tried to call the Honda Customer Support line to get a straight answer: either "yes, your dealer can order the parts for you ahead of time" or "no, the dealer requires a thorough inspection, etc, etc," but I got a recording that said they were closed for a meeting :huh:
So anyway, I called Pasadena Honda again and started to tell the service guy to order the necessary parts before I bring the bike in and he interrupted me saying "Honda won't let us do that. We're required to do an inspection of the bike before we order the parts."
I asked him if he could at least check on the availability of the front wiring harness to give me a head start, explaining that other VFR owners had run into the backorder problem. He did check and said he had two wire harnesses in stock, but could not verify which one I needed, presumably until he could perform the inspection of my bike.
sheesh... well, whatever. it's almost too hot to ride now anyway so I might as well take her in to get this over with...