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A few things I remembered about the conversion - -1098 parts will allow you to fit a larger rear tire, 848 parts let you remain with a stock size -you will need to purchase a special socket for the Ducati rear (38mm? 42mm? I can't remember). If you're on a road trip in the middle of nowhere bring that socket. If anything happens to the rear tire there might not be a Ducati shop close by and the locals might not have that socket available.

Bike's looking pretty good now compared the sorry state you bought it in, turned it around quick too. I was never a fan of the styling when these first came out, but it's defo grown on me, quite like em now, not seen one in this colour scheme before, looks a bit similar to one of the Blackbird paint jobs, not had the chance to ride one yet either, heard they're a bit of a rocket, quite fancy one myself, Fazer 1000 would reluctantly have to go tho, don't have the garage space for 3 bikes.

Today I decided to install some Oxford Hotgrips, the Helibars and a USB/voltmeter to charge my phone. This sounded reasonably easy but turned into a bit of a mission. The bike does have OEM heated grips but I think crash #3 also destroyed the heater control unit, although the sub harness for this survived. So the grips were inoperable and I decided it was time for them to go, giving an opportunity to tidy the wiring up at the same time. Well, the left grip came off as expected but the right grip...turns out the OEM heated grip is built into the throttle tube. So as I was happily slicing and dicing, I was also damaging the tube. I need the bike functional next week as I am taking it to the repair certifier, so I scratched my head for a bit then decided the throttle tube was "probably" the same across many bikes, so I used my parked up 5th gen as a donor. I was correct, so that tube (with a Hotgrip already fitted) is now on the 1200, and the 800 is sitting unusable until I can find a replacement. I cut the plug off the OEM grip harness and soldered that to the Hotgrip wires (keeping the Hotgrip fuse) then pulled the wires carefully up through the frame, joining all the components in the void behind the headstock where they are nicely concealed. Some creative cable ties and the job was done. The USB port is just double-sided taped to the triple clamp. The Helibars were a nice fit although there seems to be just one position for the right bar where it clears both the tank and and the fairing, so I hope I like that. I am now officially ready for inspection on Tuesday!

Spaghetti incident part 2 And a lovely way to put sprocket in chain line And it's a 520 front sprocket (orginal on the Zephyr 550) whit a 525 chain as rear sprocket.... Oh my....

Thanks Randy, I have a GT-Air, though I've been considering getting a new helmet. I just dont understand how putting sound reducing material between your ear and the speaker is a good engineering solution. Sound has to fight it's way to your ear. Far better to put the speaker in your ear with sound reducing material around it. Surely?

I’ll dig it up, I know the Marchesini forged wheel was a little lighter (8 lbs?) than the OZ (8.5 lbs?) by a 1/2 pound or so. The less rotating weight just on the rear made the bike feel 50 lbs lighter, best upgrade I made to the bike.

Both my 5th gen and 6th gen have some side-to-side play on the bottom pivot, which is the clearance between the clevis and the fork leg casting I think. That won't be a cause of vibration, certainly isn't on either of my VFRs. There should be no force acting on the SMC bracket in that plane, everything should be fore-aft.

Bit of side play in lower SMC allen bolt mount is normal, it all pivots on this bearing in the fork leg, upper mount is teflon bush/steel sleeve affair, strip/clean/check needle bearing & inner sleeve for excess wear, regrease if it looks ok ... 31N.m on allen & upper bolt. Manual omits key points on SMC repairs, no mention of plastic return valve. Bit of info if you've not serviced an SMC. Some points you may not agree on, below is my experience of SMC issues seen multiple times. Confirm the SMC is fit to service & shows no wear where the pad ends sit into the stainless thrust shim, seen a fair few ruined when the stainless shim has been lost, pads muller the alloy making the whole assembly scrap metal, this can potentially occur to some degree if the rubber bushes are worn out & slide pins are badly corroded, excess slop in caliper under braking can jolt pad ends adrift & wear SMC pad interface if shim is adrift or missing, all the braking force goes thru pad ends into alloy mount, hence it needs a tough stainless shim. SMC bore has a service limit of 12.76mm, difficult to measure accurately, I don't bother, just ensure it's not scratched by a shagged piston, I lightly hone hydraulic bores with a red scotchbrite wrapped around a wooden dowel, same idea as honing an engine cylinder, just enough to take the shine off the bore. Poking anything metal down the bore is bad Juju, scratch the bore, it's scrap metal, use wooden picks or ice lolly sticks & paper towel, plenty of brake cleaner, clean clean clean then clean again inside the bore, same applies to green plastic return valve. Treat yourself to a "Tourmax" SMC repair kit, OEM spec, best kit available way cheaper than Honda, only kit supplied with a new clevis mount that I'm aware of, I find it an easier install removing the clevis mount & dust cover, makes installing the circlip a breeze, ensure u grease up new seals & backside of piston where pushrod contacts it, circlips are pressed steel, one side has a sharp edge, needs to face "UP", coat circlip in assembly grease before install, degrease where dust cover sits in bore or it'll keep popping out. Dust rubber is easily torn, I use thick card rolled into a tube & push the dust rubber squarely home till it bottoms out, before fitting clevis mount onto pushrod, squeeze some assembly grease thru the centre hole of the dust cover & wind on clevis mount, locknut is preset with loctite, no need to measure & adjust as stated in manual. Front brake is totally independent of the rear, treat it like a conventional system, bleed as normal, front right then front left "Upper nipples only"... good time to replace em with stainless (M8 x 1.25) Rest of the bleeding must be done in a specific order as per manual or you'll never get the air out, easy job, can be time consuming. Once the SMC is serviced & bled up, it may fix your issues, you'll know for sure SMC is good & not causing you any shit, I'd also drop discs out & clean disc to wheel interface, then check disc run out is ok. If u get stuck PM me anytime. 👍

I'm really liking this thread...may as well keep this going... what different parts will fit on what bike.....

Guys -- stop it, stop it.... credit card is looking at me.... lol .... ok really, what is the weight savings? Damn that looks good.. Weighed a bare OEM wheel... about 13 pounds... bleah...

Sometimes helping others is for your benefit, well it's mostly in the long run. Helped neighbors kit as he had issues whit the running of his moped, a old Suzuki PV50 50cc 2-stroke ( had a blown magneto side crank seal) and as they have a second that they are rebuilding, it turned out it had have a universal aftermarket speedometer, this And as I looked at it he asked "do you need it?" I was "could perhaps fit my cafe Zephyr" he was"it's yours now" So I did take it home, and even a bit on small side, it actually fits better than the bulky ZR-7S clock's. The speedo cabel was plug and play, did even find connection diagram for it's electric cables online, it doesn't have a oil light however, but guess that can be sorted, neutral as turn signal as high beam light it has. Only one thing bother, I would like the twin headlights closer to the fork, but the speedo cabel don't allow that in this location....have to see

I'm highly interested in this topic as I am having this exact same issue with my new-to-me 5th gen I picked up this summer. Thanks for all the advice and please post when you figure out your root cause and solution. Thanks, CN

My experience with a Shoei GT Air and an AGV Adventure helmets riding the VFR and an Africa Twin. Did not matter which bike I rode. If your lid is not designed for proper placement of the speakers, you have to find and probably cut your inside helmet liner so that the speakers are right next to your ear. I have two, both with the same Sena. My Shoei GT Air from around 2010 is very poor, especially if you get on the highways. I wear foamies BTW. My newer AGV works far better. But still, wearing foamies, and travelling at higher highway speeds, fairly often the wind noise will out shine the music, but it is far better than the Shoei. Maybe the newer Shoei helmets, the cut outs for the speakers are better positioned.. But if you are just riding at city speeds or say under 80KMH/50MPH, they will work much better.

Hi Marsman99, Thank you for your donation of --. We look forward to improving the forums with your donation. Thanks VFRDiscussion

Beg to differ on the decat. Made a substantial difference on my 1200FD. It was a relatively straightforward job that is pretty well laid out in the archives. If memory serves me, I believe it was dyno quantified in those archives to be about 15HP on an F model. BTW, I put on a DAM muffler at the same time. I’d post the links, but I’m not that savvy on using the search feature here, and would require a lot of post reading to find the specifics. You can get close by searching decat and rooting around from there. I’ve had a K&N air filter on my 1200 for over 100K miles, and over 140K miles on my Gen 4 with nary an issue. As always, YMMV.

I use the foam ear plugs or the reusable silicon ones and my Sena in helmet speakers sound much better with them in, no problem with music or calls.

Over the years I've been a Michelin and Dunlop guy, have always had a good experience with them. I'm sure I could have saved some $$ with other brands but tires are incredibly important and I would rather save money elsewhere. This season a friend convinced me to give Pirelli's a try - I really liked them. Had excellent grip (not that I'm the sort of rider that pushes that limit) and feel. Also felt very stable straight up and down but turn in was easy, required less effort than I remember my last set of Dunlops. If you're in the market for tires check out Pirelli

I've had this kit installed for a few years now. It has seen rain, track days, etc and I haven't had any troubles. And the weight saving didn't matter to me, the single-nut simply looks so much better -

As of 17/10/2025 they are using a picture of a late variant of the VFR800 in place of the 1200, which might confuse some. Looks like for the F model it's as basic as it comes with a simple micro toggle switch to engage and cancel. No incremental increase or decrease or anything like that. For the X you get the option of the triple switch so a bit more to mess with. They should be applauded for doing this for such an old bike which had very limited sales. Good luck to them.

Thanks Terry I have bought a second hand SMC to recondition and clean up, once that is done I'll change them over. I was wonder if the 0.45mm of side play in the SMC bracket would give shudder/vibration in the front when just the rear brake is applied. Does yours have any side play?

Ola, it is a very good kit.

PAIR systems are (mostly) all the same: Air comes from the airbox through a large air hose to the solenoid valve (switched open/closed by the ECM), then large hose to the PAIR reed valve on the cam cover. If you want to disable the PAIR then any way that you cap off the air entering the reed valve will work (e.g. blanking plate or marble in the hose). If you pull off the hoses, then you need to cap off the port on the airbox as well. I don't know whether electrically disconnecting the solenoid will throw a fault code on the 1200 but it certainly does not on the 800s.

I think Gaz has hit the main points. Losing your rear brake pressure would suggest to me the SMC seals are probably toast so a full strip of that would be my starting point including the mysterious check valve. I doubt that excessive play in the pivots would be an issue but I've been known to be wrong about many things, just ask my wife... If you grab the SMC you should be able to push it forward just a mm or two (and that should stop the rear wheel from turning freely), any more suggests air in the system.

I have a cheap and cheerful Chinese Maxto M3 camera/BT/intercom that I have been using for many years. This has fixed speakers in the helmet and the unit clips to a mount that is attached with tape to the shell. I ride with custom-fit silicone earplugs, and as long as I have the volume at max, the sound level is "acceptable". I can conduct a reasonable conversation on the phone, or hear most of my favourite banging tunes. Without the earplugs it is very good but the wind noise is not pleasant.