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I've seen them on track bikes for years, but I usually just look down at the MPH/RPM...when they're aligned during normal riding, it is 4th gear on every bike I've ever owned. Little off, 3rd or 5th, depending on which way. No way to not know you're in 1st, 2nd, or 6th...at least for me.

I bet you feel better for having checked though, right? Just be thankful you don't have a VTEC (ask me how I know...) You can do the front head without moving the radiators or airbox but you do feel like you are doing gynaecology... I paint-marked the gears so I could drop them back into the exact correct position. That darned oil-cooler bracket is a knuckle-skinner. At around 85000km, two front intakes were below the minimum on mine, no idea how long since a previous check.

This was the bike I dreamed of as a kid. I mentioned elsewhere I had a picture of it in my locker. After years of checking Marketplqcr to see what might be out there, I finally found one I could afford to play on. My dream is to do a restore and then keep it until I die. She’s a bit of a mess right now, but she’s mine…finally!

I drooled over those (the bike, not the girl) in the magazines and then when my local dealer got the first one, I had to buy it. Had a great run for about 6 months until I was spotted by The Man doing an ill-advised velocity on a motorway offramp and a suburban pursuit followed, all at about 2am. I managed to give them (2 cars and a bike) the slip and was slightly amused when they descended on a house one street over from my parents' home and woke them all up; to be fair, I had seen the occupants chased home twice during daylight so they had "form". I sold the 500 a few days later, much too visible/rare, changed my riding gear, and bought something faster...I am much older and wiser now (and if you believe that, I have a bridge I can sell you).

It was the ‘84 500. This was the particular picture I had in my locker, right next to a picture of Heather Thomas and a beautiful girl from the cover of a Myrtle Beach area tourist booklet called “the Strand”.

The quick fix for hyperflash with LEDs is to just replace the flasher unit. I have used cheapo 2-wire LED flasher units with no problems in the past, just look for a one with a plug that is similar to the stock relay fitting. Should then be plug and play.

Thanks @fixit58. I plan on sending them back since they don't work. There is nothing really wrong with OEM bulbs... the only reason I would like to go with LEDs is that it's less stress on the electrical system and they bulbs are brighter. Are you saying the only way to fix this issue is to introduce the inline resistor units? If so, I will go back to just OE bulbs as I don't like the heat generated by those resistors.

Good for you. So which year/version was on your locker? That is a mash-up.

I dreamed about this bike when I was a kid. I had a picture of one in my locker - specifically the one from Honda’s sales brochure. i finally found one I could afford. It’s a fixer upper for sure - lots of work to do, it I’m very happy to finally own the bike of my dreams. I hope to get it running and restored to as close as stock as possible. I have no illusions that this will be easy, especiallly with some significant financial constraints. If I can make that happen, I will keep it forever. i expect to be badly in need of technical advice and support, and hope this is the right place. I’m no wrench, but am willing and eager to learn. if anyone has a line on parts for these beauties, let me know! I am in the Southern/Central Ontario area.

Not had an aftermarket one until this VFR. My FJR1300 has it stock. Will say that after riding the VFR with the gear indicator, I'll be adding to any bike that doesn't have one. Handy device for sure to keep me checking for 7th gear.

Folks, I just finished checking the valve lash on my 98 with 52,000 miles. I didn't have to swap out any shim, but here are my lessons learned for the check itself. 1. Don't do it. My valves were all in spec after 52,000 miles. Hard miles. Felony speeding miles. Multiple excursions to the redline at full throttle every ride, for years on end. If you have a dedicated track bike you may need to do valve checks. Short of that, I'd skip it. 2. If you simply cannot do that, check only the rear cylinders. They are much easier to reach. You can leave the airbox in place. In fact you can leave the gas tank connectors attached and just move the tank out of the way. If the rear valves are in spec, skip the fronts and reassemble the bike. 3. If you simply can't do that, the fronts require some more digging. First, the bottom of the air box must come off. It has eleven (11!) hose connections and three electrical connections. Figure out a way to keep track of all of them. The radiators, oil cooler, and oil cooler bracket must be moved out of the way. It was pretty easy to drain the coolant and disconnect the radiators, so just get on with it. The oil cooler and bracket come off easily. The valves themselves are actually easy to reach (easier than the rears) once all the stuff is out of the way. 4. When reassembling, install the airbox bottom BEFORE you install the roil cooler and radiators. It's damn near impossible to get the hoses at the front of the box connected with those things in the way. That's all I had. It wasn't too bad. Feel free to ask questions.

The 2 flasher units you mentioned in the links are HYPERFLASH ones. You might need particular flasher units for LED's if you want to go led bulbs that is and you would be best to cxhange them all to do that. what is wrong with the OE bulbs/flasher unit? Remember if you are in an MOT required country. the flashers have to flash at a certain speed to pass.

Thanks for the reply, I'm actually now wondering if I should just ride the bike and get used to it without one, just back into biking after 20 odd years thought it might make things easier but never had one on any other bike.

Have to say I'd love to restore something like that, but that's probably to do with the fact I've never tackled anything like that before and the thought of making a silk purse out of a sows ear is more like the nightmare more experienced people have described as apposed to the dream I imagine. However I'd love to see your progress should you endeavour to go ahead with your project. 👍👍

I think it's going to be more than a thousand. The color of the clutch cover is like a little tease and now I'm hooked on watching to see where this goes. Look forward to following along.

I picked one up in that shape (probably worse) last year ($300) and made a runner out of it, sold it for 5x as much. But I had a garage full of extra parts laying around. If you're going to do it look for a not-too-mangled wrecked parts bike to replace all that rusted out stuff. Buying individually is going to break your bank. Like SM said, check the motor first.

I hate to say it, but $11,500 for a new bike really isn't bad at all. Not when a new I'm not saying it isn't a lot of money, but comparatively, $11K is reasonable for a nice brand new bike, especially Italian, and laden with features.

Hello everyone. I know this question has been answered before but the solutions provided are not working for me. I recently purchased a 2007 VFR800 and the previous owner put LED turn signals in the front, which caused the signals to hyper flash. I didn't like that so I went back to stock halogen bulbs and that worked fine, no hyper flashing or anything, as expected. I went back to halogen bulbs until I got to take the upper cowl off so I can change out the turn signal relay as suggested on this site. I also purchased an additional two turn signals for the rear to replace the halogen bulbs. I got the upper cowl off and purchased a couple of relays to try (below) however I can't get the hyper flashing to stop. Are the relays I purchased not suitable for this or do I need a different kind of relay? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073J82PNF https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJJ4SNJR Thank you in advance for your help.

Healtech has great products and I use their speedohealer and quickshifter. However, the price premium on the gear indicator isn't justified when compared to ebay or AliExpress gear indicstors which are dirt cheap. I have a generic chinese one with "Honda" written on it. It was installed by the previous owner and it works just fine.

the journey of a thousand steps begins with a single mile, or something

🤣 Boy if that isnt wishful thinking I dont know what is lmaoo ooh I can make this part a lil nicer.... think happy thoughts... think happy thoughts....

next was to check the new engine over. did valves, replaced the thermostat and choke wax motor, added pair delete plates, and degreased. thought about swapping over the manual choke from the old engine, but decided it was probably too far gone to be used and didn't feel like changing over all the little coolant necks as well. all buttoned up, ready for its new home. more to come soon, going to take a break for now so as to avoid blowing up the forums.

anyone know what these parts do? uh, yeah, that's really bad.... anyway. first order of business was just some minor painting. grabbed the clutch cover from the old engine since the new one has a hole in it:

undaunted, i kept going. once the motor was out, i moved everything into my...er..."shop", and finished the teardown. on the bench is a junkyard fresh '01 motor; the original is quite likely unsalvageable as you will see shortly. also was able to source a tank and seat (buried behind the pile of fairings).

originally i started this process on vfrworld, so some of you may have already seen this. at any rate.... hey everyone. i'm bringing this barn-find '99 back to life and thought it would be cool to document the process. bit of background: i started as a car guy many moons ago but the cost of parts just got to be too much to handle. i still wanted something fun with an engine that wouldn't make my bank account warm up for the safe word whenever i wanted to tinker with it, so a few years ago i picked up my first bike, a 2005 SV650. and it's been a revelation. not just a revelation that riding is so much more fun than driving, but that working on bikes is about a million times more enjoyable than cars. anyway, now that i've had the suzuki for a bit, i decided it was time to look for an upgrade. it's a fantastic bike for around town, but my biggest gripe is that it's just not great for long trips. i've tried doing a handful, and every time i would find myself having to hop off and take a break every 45 minutes just because of how buzzy it is, especially at highway speed. a VFR seemed like the natural choice--bigger, comfier, awesome engine, nice but not insane bump in power, honda build quality, and not a complete dad bike, plus it's always sort of been on my bucket list ever since i saw that sixth gen in my youth. so when a friend of mine passed along a craigslist ad for a very neglected but very straight and low-mileage fifth gen (with a clean title) for peanuts, i immediately hit the guy up. he told me he picked it up from someone he thought he trusted who told him it just needed tires and a chain, but it turned out the motor was seized up solid from water leaking through the flapper valve. the tank was also full of water from the keyless cap not being installed properly. understandably, he just wanted it gone. undaunted and even somewhat excited by the prospect of a little project, and also feeling kinda bad for him, i left there 900 bucks poorer with this guy in tow. then the teardown began...hoo boy.