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Not sure if this fuel tank is of any use to anyone but thought I would check before disposing of it. It was damaged when I dropped my bike at a service station and the tank hit the corner of the fuel bowser (replaced by insurance company). Apart from this dent the rest of the tank is in perfect condition. happy to give away if anyone has a use for it, just pay postage if not local. Please remember to reply by Private message (Forum rules I believe?)

Hey Guys, I caved and took it to my local Honda dealer. So far they are as clueless as me, they said the starter relay was done…even though I could hear it clicking when I was doing my diagnosis. So I replaced it, now they are saying the starter is bad because it’s only getting 6V on the bike, when it should be getting 12v. What doesn’t make sense to me is that the starter doesn’t have any effect on the operation of the bike once it’s started, even if the starter isn’t getting decent voltage it should still bump start. The fuel pump primes too, and occasionally re-primes if you try to start it, which mean’t the ECU’s power isn’t being sustained. When I asked about it the service advisor said; “That’s a good question, i’ll have to speak with the tech and i’ll get back to you”. The bike died while running, and while it was in gear with the clutch in, so I don’t think the starter is the problem. It won’t bump-start either, the conclusion I came to was the PGM-FI relay since it’s the only thing that can control both fuel and spark. So far, they seem as clueless as me and the tech seems to be firing the parts canon… Sorry for the lack of updates, since my last post the bike has been stuck at the dealer.

Cute. The cleaning, not the hanging. lol Looks like Bartender's Friend is the ticket.

QQ about shiny cans. I took the one off of my Subaru GT-B and cut the end off (~4" of actual muffler and tip) to clean and shine chrome and paint muffler to hang on the wall. Is there an easy way to do this?

I've got my own dollar general Staintune Tri-Oval Delkevic. One needed a repack a few years ago so I grabbed a bulk pack of those stainless Scotch-Brite kitchen scrubbers. If you spread them out they are like a donut so I slipped the muffler core through the middle of a stack of them. Then that mess got 1 wrap of standard FMF 4 stroke packing. Think the thing is on the 99 and sounds sick. There's a few Delkevic cans floating around...

I never needed it on all my RWU forks either but the USD design is quite a different beast. I have usually been able to catch the underside of the locknut on top of the spacer while I wind a cap on. I buy a lot of bits like these on Aliexpress; I know they aren't always the best quality but they are cheap and usually travel swiftly, and it is a whole lot easier than trying to find similar bits locally.

I need to get that forked plate, or make one. I manage, but I could manage easier.

Yeah, did all of that, thanks for the advice; used insulation tape wrapped around the stanchion where the upper bushing sits, and coated the new oil and dust seals with red rubber grease. This time around I have used some fancy SKF seals, and I have spent a good amount of time with the 400-grit paper on the pits. Installation was really easy using a neato fork seal driver that I bought from Aliexpress ($22!). I re-used my home-built fork spring compressor; it's a little agricultural and consists of two 900mm lengths of 90x22 decking timber with a 50mm joiner length screwed in at one end to make a U; then two bolts are screwed in about 300mm from the joiner projecting in to catch the holes in the plastic preload spacer. I put a ratchet strap through the axle hole and tie it around the joiner and ratchet that until the wood points up. I now just push down on the ends of the wood and can easily compress the spring to reach the damper rod bolt. I did buy one of those handy forked plates that slip under the damper locknut and hold everything still so you can refit the fork cap which makes this less of a three-handed task. I also bought the supposedly correct tool to compress the springs but my trebuchet design is much easier to use!

Nothing wrong with the look of the staintune. Love the sound.

You're probably right.... a little TLC clean-up on them and they should be good to go... They have been sitting around awhile, have a little surface rust in spots...

Yeah, I knew of the "all models using this part" list but that only works with identical part numbers. Like the slave cylinder compatibility, the number of similar to identical parts with different numbers out there is unknown. Another I do know is the shifter shaft oil seal. Different numbers for the VTX and VFR, but it's the same size seal for both.

Mount em. Park it outside, bike on side stand, bars a little to the right. Walk a bit away and take a look. Sip that beer. I think they are trick and your bike is not stock.

Man Cave? No. Man hangar.

^^^^^Bro, you make me laugh...

The front wheel has two discs mate. Why not have one of each?

Typical Honda, a core set of parts go across a hundred bikes....

One of those... I wasnt really looking, but this one hit me in the face... Off the Valk forum, I damn near stole these rotors.... (Valkyrie and VFR rotors are dimensionally identical) Braking Brand (Brembo owned, subsidiary) decent shape.... Now to decide whether to use or not.... This one.? Or this one ..OEM? AIIIIEEEEE! 🤪Gonna have to kill quite a few IPAs and maybe some Stouts to decide this one.... 😲 Cheez and beerz (hic)

Partzilla's website allows you to look up parts and then see which other models they fit. The complete clutch slave is common to the CBR1100XX, VTR1000F, RC51. The slave piston is common to 1500 Goldwings from 89, ST1100. The water pump is shared with the CBR900RR. I found out (in desperation) that the throttle tube is the same piece on my 99 VFR800 and my '15 VFR1200, but the parts manuals don't show that due to the difference in grip design that can be model specific. Paint colours cause the same apparent incompatibility.

My experience with stanchions like that is if your fingernail catches on it it will take out a seal, but fine polishing will make some pretty large pits acceptable. As mentioned use protection, and lube when installing the seals over the top of the tube. I use Ziplock bags or multiple layers of plastic wrap whichever is handy. Packing the space between the oil, and dust seals with grease will also help as any debris that gets past the dust seal gets suspended in the grease.

I suspect with some strategic digging you could find many more parts common to Hondas in general. Why reinvent the wheel? The Japanese are pretty crafty that way.

Good info!

Not a sixth gen, but I stumbled across some shared parts with the VTX1800. The slave cylinder for the monster twin and the fifth gen appear to be the same other than a coat of black paint and price difference (VFR one is pricier). The slave on my 1800 started weeping, and I was all set for a soft parts rebuild but there's some hard crud in the piston bore that needs delicate removal. The 1800 slave cylinder looked really familiar, and I remembered I have a stock of VFR critical spares and pulled a new slave assembly and piston off the shelf. Everything looked identical down to the casting and bolt pattern so I threw it on the VTX where it's been for the last 30K miles. This means when I get off my duff and toss the VTX assembly in a parts cleaner and replace the soft bits it'll go on a shelf. If I need it for the VFR I'll grab a can of Rustoleum black enamel and give it a coat. If you look at the price difference between the two that's one expensive Honda paint job for the black finish. No concern for the black cylinder installed on the VTX cause all that crap is covered by decorative chrome side cover.

Thanks Mike; the divots aren't really any different to a rock dent and I've dealt with those before without leaks so I was disappointed with this outcome. I'm trying to avoid spending too much more money on Earl, as far as I know this is the last mechanical issue that I need to deal with (famous last words...).