TimC

Congrats on your 6th gen. Anniversary bike and welcome to the forum! 🙂

I 100% agree with you, these bikes are great values now.  For the V4 engine, build quality, and quality of components, plus the looks, it's hard to beat a used VFR now.  I sold my 6th gen. a few years ago, but I keep thinking I'll have another VFR sooner or later.

Congrats on your VFR and welcome to the forum! 🙂

13 hours ago, St. Stephen said:

 

Yeah, "Powersports" is the word for many motorcycle dealers now, particularly the non-cruiser ones.

 

In my area (NE Ohio), "Powersports" means mostly an inventory consisting of side-by-sides, ATVs, personal watercraft (aka Jetskis), maybe a couple snowmobiles, and perhaps a handful of very ordinary motorcycles.  That's not always true, of course, but for most of the smaller shops it often is now.  And forget any decent selection of riding gear.  😕

Congrats on that beautiful 5th gen. and welcome to the forum! 🙂

Congrats on the new-to-you bike!  It looks like it's in decent shape for its age and mileage.  Good luck getting it to 100%  👍

We are solidly in winter here in NE Ohio.  Even if we hit a warm spell, there is salt all over the roads.  If there's a break in the weather with some warm temperatures after a rainfall to wash the salt away, I'll get out for a quick ride or two.  But the bike will be mainly parked for the next 2-3 months.

Thanks for sharing the photos of your bikes out and about.  Makes me look forward to this spring and summer that much more!  👍

Welcome to the forum! 🙂

Sorry to hear about the electrical issues with your VFR.  Once sorted however, they are usually rock-solid and very reliable bikes for many years.  Good luck getting yours back to full health!

Welcome to the forum!

Looks like great work so far.  I wish I had the time and patience to do a project like this.  As it is I barely have time to ride sometimes.

Keep up the great work and I'm sure we're all looking forward to seeing the rest!  👍

Shocking!  People have actual lives and can't dedicate endless hours to riding for fun?  Blasphemy!!  🙂

I got 6k miles in for 2023.  The year before was 5k, but my bike was offline for a few months due to waiting for a new front wheel to arrive.  I used to average more like 7-8k, but over the years (except for 2020) I've gotten busier and busier as a musician, in addition to my day job.  Being busy some weeknights and most weekends led to fewer rides.  I usually try to do 2-3 trips annually, but managed just one this past year.  At least it was a good one!

If I'm being completely honest, several years ago my annual mileage dropped to about 1,500 for two straight years.  I'd gotten busy (work/gigs) and kind of just lost my mojo for riding.  I'd been looking at buying another bike on and off for a while, but what was the sense in buying a new (or used) motorcycle if I wasn't even riding it that much?  In 2019 I rode more, and even more in 2020 when I had a lot of spare time due to all my musical activities being canceled due to the pandemic.  With the established uptick in miles I decided to go ahead and buy my current bike.  Hopefully this year I'll at least equal the 6k for 2023.

Good on you for already making plans to ride more.  Personally, I'm hoping to finally do the trip to Maine I've been wanting to do for the last few years.  Probably in late August.  🙂

Congrats on your VFR and welcome to the forum!

Good on you for getting the bike started and sorted so far.  Thanks for posting the photos, and I'm hoping to see more as you go.  Good luck with it!  🙂

Congrats on the pending VFR and welcome to the forum from Ohio, USA!

I've only owned HJC and Scorpion helmets so far, and I've been pretty happy with them.  I've looked at AGVs and like them, but haven't found one yet I preferred over another option.

As for the premium brand lids, I've considered a couple Shoei's, but the pricing has become kind of ridiculous.  At this point I've had to stumble onto a great deal or buy an outgoing model on sale.  (Also, Arai's don't fit me correctly.)

I tend to only have one helmet at a time, and I keep them for several years.  Next time I'm in the market for a new one I'll probably expand my search.  Even if a premium lid is 2-3 times the price of what I'd usually buy, if you think about how the cost averages out over 5-6 years, it really isn't that much.

Welcome to the forum from Ohio, USA, and thanks for sharing those photos of your great looking VFR! 🙂

On 11/25/2023 at 5:06 PM, bmart said:

Here in the states, you can't give those ZX7S bikes away. Just too many better choices available. 

 

That 600 will be just great. Congrats!

My first bike was a red ZR-7S.  It was really too big a bike for my first, adult motorcycle but I managed not to hurt myself on it.  Several months after buying that bike I sold it to a friend and upgraded to a 6th gen VFR.

Looking back, that ZR was actually a pretty good bike, though I think it was kind of known for being a 'parts bin' bike, cobbled together from parts Kawasaki was already making for other machines.  They are rare to see now, and I always smile when I do see one.  🙂

Welcome to the forum! 🙂

I sold my 6th gen. with 101,000 miles (162,000 km) and it was still in great mechanical condition, and still in good cosmetic condition.  It needed some long-term maintenance items (replace bearings) and was due for routine maintenance (flush and replace all fluids), and a few other minor maintenance items, but I trust that bike would have just kept running with little worry over major failures for many more years.

If you can buy the parts and do the work yourself, an aging VFR will not cost you an arm and a leg.  At 100k kms/65k miles, I would expect the chain and sprockets have been replaced a few times, as well as the brake pads.  When were those last done?  I would ask if the thermostat has been replaced, and if so when.  You would need to check when the bike was last fully serviced - fluids, spark plugs, etc., plus see if there are any outstanding warranty items - but even all these things shouldn't break the bank.

And the good news is most VFR owners take pretty good care of their motorcycles.  That's no guarantee, but these are quite durable bikes.  I only sold mine because I was ready for something different.  There have been a few times when I wished I had kept my VFR!

If I remember correctly, 6th gen. VFRs with ABS have gold brake calipers.  Non-ABS bikes have black brake calipers.  Maybe that changed at some point during the 6th gen's run, but it should be true for your 2004.

Congrats on your VF and welcome to the forum from Ohio! 🙂

I'm not generally a fan of lighting like this on motorcycles, but I have to say the lights on @SubyRS's VFR are tastefully done.  It's not the usual blingy look we see on many cruisers.

The placement of those lights reminds me of the the big lifted pickup truck I saw recently that had lights in the wheel wells, highlighting the suspension parts.  And while I'm also not a fan of lifted trucks either, I'll admit it looked pretty darn cool.

Do what makes you happy and makes the bike look good to you.  I added a small Wunderlich frame button to my Beemer a while back.  Pure bling, just for looks, no functionality really, and it doesn't stand out, but it makes me smile a little when I see it.  🙂

Congrats on your 5th gen. and welcome to the forum from Ohio! 🙂 

Welcome to the forum!

You're right -- this is the absolute best place for all things VFR.  It's an absolute wealth of information on maintenance, mods, repairs, and great people.  🙂

Congratulations on your VFR and welcome to the forum! 🙂

2 hours ago, VetteJim said:

Is this forum mainly for the VFR800's?  Or are there just a lot more of the 800's out there? 

Congrats on that beautiful VFR1200 and welcome to the forum from Ravenna, OH!  🙂

This forum is for all VFRs, but yes, there are probably more 800s out there than any other generations.  I'm a former 6th gen. owner myself, but stuck around here because the people are great!

Welcome to the forum from Ohio, USA, and good luck with the purchase!

I hope you'll report back on how it went, and post a couple photos of your new-to-you VFR!  🙂

Very sorry to hear of this.  My condolences to Duc2V4 and to Lance's family and friends.

I'm only going to chime in here because I believe I have the same SC Project exhaust can (the Conic titanium) as @slo1 on my BMW R nineT.  Completely different bike than a VFR, of course, but my experience matches slo1's -- no noticeable difference in performance, but the sound is a little better than the single OEM can it replaced.  You can definitely feel a difference in the weight when handling the two exhausts, but once it's on the bike I couldn't tell a difference.  I'm running mine with the baffle in, and it sounds just a little deeper than the stock unit did.

Of course, it looks better, too.  😉 

I have no idea how it is on the 8th gen. VFR, but with my Beemer, one nice bonus is because the SC Project exhaust can is a little shorter and sticks up a bit higher than the OEM can, I don't have to loosen the exhaust to remove the rear wheel.  With the stock can I had to loosen it to remove the rear wheel.