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So today's entry is pretty short. Have placed a want-ad on gumtree for a set of factory cans so i can do a baffle-ectomy but keep an original set as spare, hopefully I'll have some news on that soon. Other wise I checked out the fuse holder under the seat and found pretty much what everyone has found, slightly discolored in spots and one of the wires has warm soft insulation just after running. Also noticed the headlights are a bit dicky with coming on as they should be on all the time (here in oz anyway) a very very quick tap of the starter button showed the problem is some how related. (The starting circuit/headlight relay? I'll have to have a closer look another time). Finally I just need to confirm this coming week with Honda as to whether the my bike has had the recall carried out as per...https://www.productsafety.gov.au/recall/honda-vfr800-motorcycles (A well know recall here on this forum). Below are some photos of the various scratches and scraps I've found so far, and the previous owner has chucked on a set of Metzeler Racetec RR tires that were left over from his sons 600 super sport (sponsored) bike. Overall pretty good nick for the age and distance traveled. Cheers.

This week I took my VFR in for a major service. I've been after a "second opinion" for a while. It's not that I'm not happy with the place I normally take it, but I've never heard anything good about the place, though no one can give me specifics. A mate offered to pick me up and drop me off so I booked her into a smaller workshop that has a very high reputation. The bike has 116,000km on it and it has been a fair while (time wise) since it's last major service. Late afternoon the shop called. I don't know about others, but I always get a little nervous when the shop calls in, you never know what they will say. Though normally if its late afternoon, its all done with nothing to report. So it was with a little concern that I answered. The shop guy asked what I've been doing to maintain it. I was honest and told him that I do little more than lube the chain and check the tyre pressures. I am totally lost mechanically so I just make sure that it's clean and serviced regularly. He replied, well keep doing what your doing as your bike is fantastic shape considering its age. I was very happy with that comment. He said it had been in need of a tune (as expected), the pads will be due about the next service or a little before but otherwise all good. I got to the shop and was taken aback at how the guys couldn't stop raving about its condition. They said there is often a little trepidation when test riding a bike with this amount of kms on it as you never really know what shape its really in. Apparently the main mechanic got back from the test ride and told the boss he should have a ride. If that's not an endorsement of my bike I don't know what is. I have to say I am still chuffed at such glowing praise of my bike and even the way I've been looking after it. Now hopefully after a long period of ride absence (apart from the commute) I'll be able to report again in a fortnight or so following a ride. My wife's been filling in for some broken staff at work the past weekends, so it's been a month or more of chasing the kids about instead of riding. I'm in two minds whether to join a short city fund raising ride or to go for a solo proper one. I'm starting to think the second.

Stopped at the petrol station on my way to work yesterday. Filled up the tank and got organised to set off. Turned the key, all the lights, and hit the starter. A bit of an noise then nothing. A couple more attempts and nothing. The bike wasn't starting. Here I was at 6am on a highway petrol station with a bike that wouldn't start. Nothing obvious (like leaving it in gear) so I pushed it away from the pumps and into the parking. Called a rescue company I know, but it was a little too early for them and all I got was an answering machine. Texted my staff to tell them I was running a little late and pondered my next move. Realising that standing out in the cold when I could push the bike 10m up the road to the McDonalds and be warm and have breakfast was silly. Waited in McDs hoping the company would call me back or until the bike shops were due to open. About 7.30 decided to give the bike a try. It fired on the first stab of the button!!!! So I ran around getting my riding gear back on with the bike running (didn't want to risk it not starting again) and hit the road. About 30mins later I pulled into the carpark of my local bike shop as one of the techs is arriving. Switched it off and showed him... "Here look at this" I didn't even get the dash lighting up. "Flat Battery" was our consensus, but I also had a niggling concern about the RR. After several hours charging the battery, and a test ride. The verdict is a blown alternator. I've been running on battery only for i don't know how long. It wasn't a very nice train ride home.

Ok, I'm not going to as why you say Arkansaw and not Arkansas and I was going to open with something along the lines of ... After flying XX,xxx kms to get to Arkansas only to find I would miss a ride, due to work commitments so I plugged the two locations into Google maps for a laugh - turns out it's a 25,000km trip and I need to drive all the way to Darwin, kayak to Japan, Hawaii and Washington, before driving across America. Sounds like a great trip, ask me sometime about the adventure it was!! Actually work flew me non stop to LA, missed my connection to Dallas, get rebooked, made it to Dallas and eventually Little Rock. Where I was to spend the next three weeks working completely messed up days of naps and work for about 18-20 hours every day, for the whole time. I was actually going to try to drop in one of the nights of the ride, I even had a car available to me. But it turned out that even though it was towards the end of my trip it was about the busiest part as we prepared to come home again. So it would have been nice, but I'll have to wait until you all come down here! -- and then I'll miss it due to having to look after the kids or something :) So while you lot were out enjoying a very nice part of Arkansas in the sun and the rain, I was not that far away, stuffing about with work (outside in that sun and rain). I didn't see many bikes about (didn't seem to be a lot of commuters on bikes in LR, though my hours were a bit unusual). I did happen across Thursday night, Bike night at Hooters, totally by accident. Organised by the A-State Boys (whom I know nothing about) it seemed a fairly friendly gathering of all kinds of riders on all kinds of machines from across the city. A lot more custom paint jobs and more lengthened swing arms than I've ever seen in one place before. Some nice jobs and some that didn't appeal personally. Chatted to a couple of guys and hung about, but without a bike and not even having my Casey Stoner cap with me (in possibly the only place I went all trip where wearing a hat with "Stoner" emblazoned across might actually have been understood, and not had any association with the non medicinal use of plants) I probably looked a fair bit out of place. And I'm sure the Camry I was driving helped the image :) Bit of everything at the gathering This kinda thing I don't see too often Some of our hosts Along without requiring a helmet, there seems to be pretty open regulations on noise in the state as well (I know other states are different)

I was in a local dealer a couple of weeks back and they mentioned they would have a couple about now, so with an early release from work (due to Easter coming up) I accidently found myself riding past the dealers, not really sure how that happened. Parked there, got off the bike. Left my helmet on promising that it wasn't there I wouldn't stop. It was parked in the doorway. It looks a lot nicer in the flesh. That pipe doesn't seem to stand out as much, and it is a lot smaller than I thought. Asked if I could ride it... sure... if I was seriously looking at buying it.... I asked the price. Close to AU$26,000 on road (includes govt charges etc) I told him I wasn't that interested anymore. They did let me sit on it and I found it very comfortable and it didn't seem heavy. The position seemed a lot like my sixth gen. They have a gray/silver one and a red one, so I presume that's our choices here. Like the gray one actually a lot more than I normally like gray bikes. So overall I am more interested than I thought I would be, but at that price I can't. Then after I get home, the Mrs says she'll buy me one...... what's the catch!

Well a small event in the bikes history took place as I rode to work last week. As you can see from the picture I've hit the 6 figure mark. 100,000km. I can't say they've been trouble free, but its been pretty close to that. So here's some pictures of the event from my phone. one km to go There it is 100000km The location! Will it be around for another 100000, who knows.

Well a first for me - a parking ticket on the bike. I've parked in parts all over this city, including right in the city centre. Bikes will park in no-stopping, on footpaths all kinds of places. This time I parked inside a painted triangle (the spare bit at the end of a row of angle parking). I've parked in places like that all over and never had any trouble. Riders get into strife if they block driveways or other problems, but the dead space that cars can't use, no worries. The council in this part of town obviously has other ideas. Will be calling them up Monday, see if I can sweet talk them a little. The haircut only cost $6, the total for the day $203!!

No luck on the parking ticket. It gets whisked straight off to State Debt Recovery... ah well. I was in the wrong, so not really a lot to argue over. Just have to remember that for this area, bikes don't get any lenancy. Summer has struck, 40C the last two days with 42C today. Warmish on the way home. Already had two bush fires in the local area. Luckily not a lot of damage (unlike Victoria last summer) but its only December and there's at least 2 months of the fire season to come. Here's a picture I took on the way home today. I'm actually about 20km from the fire by this time but the sun was in the right spot. Yesterday there were diversions in place and some of my staff watched the bush burn, across the street from their homes. Bike wise - so far no repeats of my strange cut outs. That's good. Perhaps it was the idle and the battery.

A big part of my life is motorbikes. When I first got my licence I hadn't actually planned to get a bike. I had gone for the learners test on a whim, booked only the day before. Once I had the licence I basically decided that I may as well use it. I quickly decided that I wanted a new bike with full fairings, my choices appeared limited to Kawasaki GPX250, ZZR250 and the Honda NSR150. There may have been others but a bit of research didn't really uncover any. I eliminated the NSR immediately: a 150 two stroke. That left the GPX and ZZR. The same bike in different clothes. I choose the ZZR by appearance and it has larger brakes (my sole technical consideration!) This was my first bike. And not a bad learners bike, since then I would probably recommend a Honda VTR250 if you have to stay on 250s. The rules in many states here have changed and there are far more options, and the ZZR isn't too bad to look at. I say that as it's one of the reasons I bought it. At the time I knew very little about bikes. I did know that I preferred new stuff and I liked the guarantee of support you get with a warranty. It proved a good choice. The bike hasn't changed in about 15 years by all accounts, so it's rock solid. I enjoyed riding it and quickly built up my confidence. Two years and 47,000kms later I earned my full licence and traded it in. A good bike, but nothing when compared to the bigger bikes. My second bike is my Honda VFR800. Now I put a lot more effort into this choice. I read articles on various bikes for about a year. The VFR was quickly shortlisted, along with Kawasaki ZX6R, ZX9R, Honda CBR600RR and the Suzuki GSXR750. So what was I looking for… firstly a commuter, that was bit more fun in the weekends but wouldn't kill me on a long trip. I simply decided that I didn't want to bust the 1L size, it was probably a lack of confidence on my first bigger bike. I preferred fuel injection and I'm a technology fan (can you see where I'm headed). I also wanted something less than $20K The '03 6R was uncomfortable even in the showroom. The 9R was the end of the line and had carbs. I actually went for a couple test rides to make this choice, unlike the first bike as partly I figured it'd be about the last bike I would ever buy (my wedding was imminent)! I rode the VFR800. This was my first time on anything bigger than my ZZR. I wobbled off down the street from the dealer but I settled in pretty quick. Later I rode the 600RR. This was a test case. If I had felt comfortable on the RR I would have looked more seriously at the GSXR. I rode it and the VFR back to back. I bought the VFR. I find a great bike. It suits my bumbling along daily rider style, allows me to keep up with the hyper sports on the day fangs through the twisty stuff. Well it would if I could ride it to it's potential! I also rode away for the weekend and found it a comfy trip. As they say it's a great all rounder. My wife has actually been on it a few times. She's enjoyed the rides but the hassle of all the gear bothers her (she's a squid at heart) and it messes her makeup/hair whatever. It's very competent when two up.But she's happy to let me disappear for a day on a ride. It's about 5 years old now, done almost 97,000kms and is great. I sometimes consider getting a weekend fang bike (like the GSXR) but to be honest it would be wasted on me and would be more about the image. I certainly wouldn't consider a replacement. Observations: * My riding style at mostly 80s-90s km/h has an endurance of about 320-330kms on about 17L. It's a 22L tank so that reserve must be pretty big or the display a little inaccurate. It actually increased as the bike passed 12,000km. Pretty usual for VFRs apparently. * Don't let sap drip on the plastic, that stuffs it right up. * Fitting the top box for the first time – the trick is knowing when to switch from the bracket instructions to the box instructions. The next time, it's a five minute job to swap the whole lot for the grabrails. * The fact that there's no sticking out indicators etc is great, I found out that when it falls over (bugger) there's very little to break off. The mirror folds up, and the bike rests on the fairing (dammit) and the center stand. Only cosmetic damage.

A couple of hot ones here with more on the way, and summer is still officially two weeks away. 42C on the way home. Equal hottest I have ever ridden in. Luckily the dramas from last week seem to have gone away (see here) and made it home safe & sound. Been an interesting couple of days on the commute. Traffic blocked up on the way in with a truck parked at an angle across two lanes. Driver digging through his toolkit beside it. Hit the onramp to change freeways as normal, only to have to avoid someone reversing back up it (just go to the next off ramp!!). The day before I caught up to a guy towing a racecar on a trailer. Was alongside when I realised there was people riding in it!! Oh actually no, he has two manikins sitting in the seats. Bit of laugh to brighten the day! Even passed a fire engine. His lights and all were on but he wasn't speeding. Sat behind him for a little bit, but figured as long as I don't speed who can say I'm in the wrong. I think he was a little surprised and sped up. Then there was a red light and that was all his...

Okay, like others here I'll make this bike focused. I'm going to start with a bit of catching up, why a VFR, earlier rides etc. Then I'll add in others rides as I do them, but I'll try to put a little more than that. However don't expect much posting because these days with work and two little girls, going for "rides" doesn't get high on my list of things I have to do each weekend. It's pretty high on my want to do list, but the two lists are a lot more different from each other at the moment! In a few years things should turn around. And in a few more perhaps they will be coming too