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  1. Today
  2. vfrgiving
    Anyone have thoughts on Kabuto helmets? They've had a vendor presence at recent MotoAmerica races I've been to. I talked to a rep at one. Several of their flagship helmets are FIM certified.
  3. Terry
    I agree with your observations Worfje, suspension feel is an individual thing. My definition is the ability to pound around a bumpy bend and not have the suspension kick the bike off line. I favour "smooth arcs" over "point-and-shoot" so brake dive isn't a big concern for me. I'm also much more sensitive to what the front end is doing compared to the back. I'm not in the first flush of youth and like to have compliant suspension so my ageing wrists don't take a pounding on a long ride. I also own a Yamaha MT-10SP with fancy electronic Ohlins, and I'm not that impressed with the Swedish Gold on that one, fabulous handling but not the most relaxed bike on a bumpy road, again it is the fork that stands out for this. I've previously bought quite a bit from Jamie, including a shock and fork damper parts, and have always been happy with the outcome. In this specific instance we seem to be misaligned; that could well be how I have described my observations and wants and/or the way he has interpreted it, so I wasn't setting out to discredit him, I'm just describing my journey and experiences. He has also just supplied individual parts in this case, not a complete system. Otherwise, he has been great to work with and (usually) a great source of helpful guidance. I won't hesitate to buy from him again in future and recommend him to others. I have been dabbling with fork mods for a long time (since 1988!) but only on my own bikes. Owning multiple bikes and having free time, I am not afraid to make a change, evaluate it, and then go back and make further changes if I'm not happy, which is a good way to learn. The compression valve is the most sensitive part of the fork feel as it controls the ability to swallow bumps and keep the chassis steady and I have developed a recipe through the use of Racetech parts that is pretty reliable on the Showa RWU forks on my other bikes. Most of these have a fixed compression bypass through the hollow mounting shaft, or if that is not present, a drilled bypass in the wall of the valve body. The compression bypass is a tiny orifice through which oil is forced. At low shaft speeds this provides sufficient resistance to control the fork dive, but at higher shaft speeds the damping force generated by an orifice ramps up massively and effectively gives a hydraulic lock and big jolt. If you're old enough to have had a damper-rod fork, you may have felt this. This is where the bending shims in the shims stack take over as the fluid pressure pushes these open to prevent the hydraulic lock and swallow the bump force. However - if there is no bypass, then every small bump has to push the shim stack open, and these are preloaded to stay shut, so you need to exceed a certain bump threshhold before that can happen, which leads to a fork that feels unhappily rigid over smaller bumps but happily swallows the big ones. In this specific instance I simply don't understand why Jamie did not guide me to use a low-speed bypass on the compression valve. I tried his suggestion and did not like it, so sought a solution from elsewhere. The Racetech Bible was a good source, and I also tapped into noted Australian suspension guru Terry Hay, and both agreed that a bypass was needed. EVERY other fork that I have tinkered with has a low speed bypass on compression, and now my VFR1200 has it too. I am also using Motul Factory Line 5W oil.
  4. Worfje
    I applaud your efforts to make it as you think it should/could be. When I ordered my BD20 Fork Cartridge Kit from Mr. Daugherty, I received an order form which I could choose a 'type of riding'. It is filled with Motul fork oil factory line light 5W. In my opinion, how the bike should behave during low speed, bumpy road, high speed, acceleration and braking can be a very personal / subjective thing and very dependent on use / expectations. I really disliked the 'diving down when braking' with the original front damper and that has greatly improved by the BD20. Overall the front and back suspension (back is Ohlins) is much more 'a team'. I do not recognize your experience 'at low speed where ripples, bumps and other jolts were passed more or less straight through the chassis'. I am very grateful for people / companies like Mr. Daugherty that invest significant money to make stuff for a niche market like the VFR800FI 5th gen is.
  5. JZH
    Alternatively, you could just install M6 SS rivnuts into the OEM mount: One connector should get a little trim, to prevent any rubbing: I like it because it's very simple, and the fins go the "right way"! Ciao, JZH
  6. JZH
    Honda used the same switchgear for many years on many different models. If it looks the same, it will probably work. I'd expect the same connectors and (possibly) the same wire positions. Ciao, JZH
  7. VeeEffArah
    Hello, I'm BC and I'm a helmet-oholic.... I always chuckle when I read statements like this above. Which Arai did you try (?) because Arai makes 3 different head shape helmets. Intermediate oval, round oval and long oval. Shoei Neotec is listed as intermediate oval, so in theory, the Arai Corsair X or Contour X would be similar. But we all know fit is fit regardless of manufacture claims. It's why we try stuff on first, eh? I've worn the Arai Corsair model since the early 90's. And sold them from 1995 to 2014. Watched Arai evolve it from Corsair, to RX7 Corsair to V and now X. The Shoei X-14 and now X-15 fit me perfectly also. RF-1400 is a good fit for me too, I just prefer tons of airlfow with the X-14 / 15. The last non fitting Shoei models I can remember were in the X-11 and X-12 years. I just couldn't get those to fit right at all. I also wear X-Lite X-803RS, Shark Race R Pro and HJC RPHA-11 and 12. All have the same fit for me. Some different features and ventilation schemes, but they all fit me well. I really want to like the AGV but those are too narrow for my noggin. Beit the K6/7, Pista, etc. Most folks call me an Arai guy and I'll take it. And while I understand 100% their build philosopy, I think they are behind on some advances. IMO, the Doohan Corsair I have from 1993 is not very much different to my Corsair X. Yeah, I get R75 shape and the "glancing off", but other advances are available also. That's why I have the other brands and models in my helmet lineup. Along with lighter weight and other features. The few times I've tested gravity and physics on the street and track, all of the top end helmets have done their job without any head injuries. Arai will be the benchmark and my go to helmet, but I've not drank the entire pitcher of their Kool-Aid to miss other great fitting and performing helmets.
  8. joemat
    joemat joined the community
  9. Presson
    Excellent work Terry. Perhaps Mr Daugherty thinks we should all be riding around like a bat out of hell! Or on smooth tracks. What oil are you using in the forks?
  10. St. Stephen
    I was an Arai devotee for almost 20 years, but the Signet was approaching $1000 USD and I wanted a lighter helmet. I am very happy with my AGV K6--it has a taller and wider field of vision, the shield comes off and back on so much easier than the Arai, it was ~$600, and it is significantly lighter, which makes a big difference when you're snapping your head back to look and make a lane change. There's a K7 now, haven't tried it, but the K6 is great.
  11. Yesterday
  12. Bissen
    Bissen joined the community
  13. Terry
    I do like Arai helmets and had been wearing them up until I made the switch to Shoei in 2018. I really, really like the convenience of the internal drop-down sun visor in my GT-Air, which Arai just won't replicate. I bought a Shoei in Japan and had the whole custom-fit experience there, but actually that helmet wasn't the most comfortable as it was intended for the domestic Japanese market where they apparently have more rounded heads than us westerners, which left me with more forehead pressure than was pleasant until it wore in (or my skull caved a bit). My second GT-Air was purchased locally and was a long-oval fit, and has been perfect from day one.
  14. VFRbalu
    VFRbalu joined the community
  15. Worfje
    Oei, I just realized I have a Shoei. 🤭
  16. mello dude
    Apparently I have a Shoei head and a Corbin ass...
  17. MBrane
    A lot depends on your head shape. I have a Shoei head. Arai makes nice lids, they just don't fit me. I recently got a new Neotec. 1/3 more $ than my last one like most things these days. That said I'm pretty happy with it.
  18. MBrane
    This is why I opted for the spendy Penske 8987 shocks for my 5th gens. Being able to tweak the high, and low speed damping with a simple turn of the adjusters is worth it. Once you have it dialed in for the road it's fine on the track.
  19. Worfje
    Just for info: some similarity with the bearing issue found here.
  20. Terry
    The quest for front suspension rightness continued. The setup as supplid by DMr was good when the speeds were up but not great below that, where ripples, bumps and other jolts were passed more or less straight through the chassis which was a little fatiguing. there was also an unhappy bar-shaking sensation around low speed bends. I engaged with Jamie and he doubled down on having no low speed bleed, and sugegsting reducing the shim stack further; in this instance I have decided not to follow the expert and to go my own way. After much thinking and a bit of reasearch, I have come to a better understanding of the interaction of the compression damping, notably the low-speed and high-speed aspects. Low shaft speed is controlled by the bleed port and high shaft speed by the shim sstacks. As supplied, the compression valve had no low speed bleed, so any compression flow had to push open the shims to allow oil flow, which accounted for the low speed harshness. The shims are there to act as a controlled "blow-off" valve so when those bigger, faster jolts arise that can't pass through the bleed you don't end up with hydraulic lock. I looked again at the stock compression pistons and these have a fixed low speed bleed of about 0.7mm. They also have quite restrictive oil ports feeding the shim stack, these are what causes the harshness on bigger hits as the oil can't easily flow through these even when the shims open. I modified the DMr pistons by drilling a 0.8mm bleed port through the port wall, taking a stab at the drill size. My old Gold Valve pistons had 1.3mm bypass bleeds, and while that is only 0.6mm bigger diameter, the area is what counts and these are 3 x the area of 0.8mm. Saturday was test riding day; I think the mark of correct suspension setup is whether you notice it at all. With the original DMr setup I spent a lot of riding time thinking "this can't be right". Now I wasn't thinking about the suspension at all, which is some improvement. Ride comfort was greatly improved, bump compliance was great and brake dive control was decent. Next up is a new back tyre, have a GT-spec Road 6 on order, and still waiting on the Nitron shock to be built in the UK.
  21. ZeeeliK
    VID_20260510_185134.mp4
  22. ZeeeliK
    The needle bearing is intact, it's not him
  23. Worfje
    What about this thingie:
  24. Terry
    I haven't checked my 1200's oil chain but when I looked at the chain in my VTR1000F and VFR800, the chain is quite slack on those. Given the depth of rebuild you are facing, adding a new oil pump drive chain isn't really going to add much for some peace of mind.
  25. ZeeeliK
    Yes, I've already completely sorted out all the details. The bearings are really worn out, but I can't determine what kind of spare part was ground. Maybe some kind of oil screen?
  26. Worfje
    That doesn't look to promising. I could not match it with parts visible in CMSNL. Did you already remove the sump and/or cylinder head covers? Have a look here.
  27. Worfje
    If budget allows, Arai also offers 'Custom Fit', which allows for a higher degree of customization / chance of success.
  28. ZeeeliK
    Hi everyone! I’ve become the happy owner of a Honda VFR motorcycle. 1200, 2010 model year. But I bought it with an engine defect – there was knocking. It sounded like connecting rod bearings. After opening the engine, my fears were confirmed. The bearings do need to be replaced and the crankshaft repaired. But in the oil pan and in the oil pump strainer, I found black aluminum shavings and some black chunks. I want to know what part this is? It's ground up. Also, I'd like to ask, uh, about the oil pump chain tension. It seems to me that it's very… uh, loosely tensioned – there is basically no tensioner on the oil pump at all.
  29. mello dude
    I always struggle with gear fitting and tryed on looking hard at the Arai Signet... came close to pulling the trigger, just for grins in the store I tryed on a Shoei X-15... whoa it fits! Got that one. One of each probably would be the solution, but thats a bit crazy.. who knows? Worfje....A Mandelorian fan I see...
  30. MarkyP
    MarkyP joined the community
  31. MarkyP
    Hi. Im at the point where I've removed the top connectors in front of the ECU and can now lift the ECU up so far. Do l need to remove the metal cage from around the ECU in order to gain access to the ECU connectors?
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    1. HispanicSlammer

      A blog by HispanicSlammer in General

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      HispanicSlammer

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      Juniper Pass

      I took a day off from work and also from my bicycle training to take out the Veefalo one last time before the weather turns ugly, supposed to snow the rest of the week and possibly start sticking to the ground along the Colorado Front Range. I took a leisurely pace up hwy 105 toward Morrison and got reacquainted with the bike since its been over a month since I took any sort of twisties on it at all, hwy 105 is a scenic ride along the front range between Denver and Colorado Springs, its mostly easy fast sweepers and lite traffic so its a favorite road of mine when going north. Then I have to negotiate a bit of traffic near Highlands ranch and up hwy 470 into the mountains. I decided to take the Morrison Exit and try either Lookout Mountain or head up Golden Gate Canyon - this time it was Lookout Mountain, I was sort of making it up on the fly as I went along. Lookout Mountain is my old bicycling haunt from my days while I was working at Coors, its a killer ride and all uphill - I don't think I could do it today If I had to, not quite there yet! I saw a whole bunch of riders doing it though and wished I was in shape enough to be there doing it as well. 30 more lbs and I will be able to do it! On this day I would do it on the Veefalo instead.

       

       

       

       

      I took a video from the gateway to the top at the Lookout Mountain State Park, getting past riders, the guy in the green jacket actually pretty much astounded me with how far he had gotten in the short time it took me to set up my camera, some 3 miles at least and up to the gateway from the turn off at hwy 6! Amazing I thought. I took the first two turns slow then got more comfortable as I went up further, till I was doing well, I made some gearing mistakes and took the tight 15mph marked hairpins in the wrong gear so I lugged it a bit on one or two. Still enjoyed it though and then got off at the top and hiked over a rock outcropping for an overview of the road for the pictures below.

       

       

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      Lookout Mountain - Golden Colorado

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      Zoomed in

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      Lookout Mountain Park top of the mountain

      From there I headed up interstate 70 to Idaho Springs for a beer at the Tommy-knockers brewery, I was the only customer in the joint - slow day for them so they treated me like a king! I got a nice tour of the place sort of impromptu, they made me a nice Pastrami sandwich on rye and with the brown ale it was fantastic. I must say the beer is much better there than in the bottles - its always good at the brewery. I am glad I stopped

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      Tommy-knockers Brewpub Idaho Springs

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      Idaho Springs Colorado

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      Mashtuns and fermenters

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      Rows of fermenters

      I finished my lunch and since the road to Mount Evans is right there I headed up Squaw pass hoping to get in some nice pictures I wasn't expecting what I found, ICE IN ALL THE SHADY PARTS

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      Icy patches on Squaw Pass definitely taking it easy on that road

      There were some section where the ice covered the whole road for 300 yards or so I had to roll through it with my legs out to help keep the bike from sliding and falling over, I took it real slow. A Ford pickup was right behind me so I pulled over to let him pass but the guy was going slower then even I was so I pressed on - in places where I could see I just cut over to the oncoming lane and out of the ice where the sun was shining on the road more, but some places there was not alternative so I just had to go slow, good thing it wasn't slick but rather they tossed some gravel over the worst parts so I had some traction!

      I did stop for pictures in all the best spots

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      Echo Lake at Mount Evans showing off my new plate

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      Elephant Butte Park and Denver

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      Close up

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      Veefalo on Squaw Pass

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      Juniper Pass

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      Juniper Pass

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      Mount Evans

      My route A is home B is Tommy-knockers

       

    2. MartinkaP's Blog

      A blog by martinkap in General

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      martinkap
      Latest Entry

      I Am Back !

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      Not that it matters and not that I expect anyone had noticed, but to those who sent me "where are you?" I would like to say I am back. Not only that I am officially returning to VFRD after nearly 2 months break but I have also ridden my Hawk last weekend and had FUN! Let me restate that; I had major fun riding! Something I have almost given up on.

      Most of you have been riding your whole adult lives and riding is not only a hobby to you, it is part of you. But I started riding three years ago and even though I have encounter some setbacks, till this spring I loved riding with whole my heart. However, I have always considered riding as my hobby. As a hobby which suppose to make my life better, more fun and more rich. Life is too short to do something which we don't fully love.

      My love of riding received a first major scar this spring: I lost a friend on the racetrack. He was a total stranger who offered me his help after I lowsided at CMP track last year. I still remember hearing his "Hi, my name is Todd, do you need help?" while I was duct-taping my roadrash from ripped jacket. He helped me straighten up the shifter and we kept in touch. The next time we saw each other was the day he died.

      With 9 months delay, I can say that Todd's death shook me more than I have realized. It rooted fear in me which was fueled by seeing and hearing about others getting hurt over and over again. If I was to summarize this year - it would be one big accident report. I became sensitive to every broken bone, every roadrash, every lowside. And even though I did 10 track days this year, I became slower and slower and slower. Suddenly, I have acquired this 'grandma' riding style on the road, frozen with fear that behind every corner there is car standing in my lane, or major sand trap or deer staring at me ... I was crippled with fear not only for me about also for my fellow rider.

      So, at the end of this year, I rode more and more by myself. I could not bear the feelings of responsibility for others on the road and my lines were crippled by my own fears. It all culminated this fall at WDGAH. In a freaky accident Love2rideh82crash was taken down by a truck crossing into our lane. I was done. I finished the weekend, locked the VFR into a garage and took a break.

      Until the last weekend, I pretended that motorcycles do not exists. As a last instance after 2 months break from riding, I decided to go to CMP track to see if I can still have fun. I also felt like I should go for the memory of Todd. I went and I had fun! I had much more fun than I expected and the most fun on track I can remember. Suddenly the whole track connected into an uninterupted line of turns and I felt one with the bike riding around! I was giggling like a little girl in my helmet and keep on giggling ever since smile.gif

      Granted I was not the fastest one and through out the weekend, I have never exceeded about 60% of my riding abilities, but I had no "oh-shit" nor 'blond' moments. I could have maybe go faster, I could have brake later for the turns and I could have lean further, but I am no Rossi nor Stoner. I decided to ride for fun and I had amazing blast riding well within my comfort zone.

      I was proud of myself when, after bandaging Ricks arm, I was able to distance myself and go back to riding without the year-long fear. I did feel bad for him but the feelings were not crippling my lines nor my mind. And when a total stranger came to me and said "Hi, my name is Todd", my heart stopped for a minute though but I suddenly knew that my life went a full circle. I probably will never win MotoGP :idea3: , but I am back! :wheel:

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