Ok, I've been riding for a bzillion years. Then I stopped. Not quite sure exactly what caused the stopping (maybe wrapping the DL650 around a tree?) Was using an XR400R bored to 416 and legalized for commuting on and off. Finally my baddish back and the high compression kickstart thumper conspired against me, and it's been nearly a year since I rode regularly. A bit ago my wife kind of mentions in passing that I should get another DL650. I hear "you have full authority and permission to purchase a motorcycle" so I start searching. The DLs were out of my price range. I wanted almost anything but a cruiser or sportbike (been there, done that) or KLR. FZ1 had too much power for me (sold mine because of that) so I finally had it narrowed down to a Ducati ST2, ST1100, or a VFR8. The duc was nice, but much more sporting than sport touring, and maintenance intensive. The ST1100s in my price range were pretty much beat, with 60-80K hard miles. Finally found my current (running) motorcycle, my red '99 VFR8. Guy bought it new, rode it fairly hard for a couple years (it's been to the dragon among other places if the stickers I pulled off had any truth) then went overseas for his job. Drains the tank, puts it into storage. Fast forward, he comes home and buys a goldwing and the VFR stays in storage. 9 years later, he decides to sell it. He wants $X, I offer $X-, he accepts. Bring it home in the trailer the next day, with the bike, a full set of Givis, an autocom system, heated grips, couple of farkles, scott oiler, new battery and all needed fluids and filters.
I immediately stripped the bike down of all plastics, change the oil and filter, bleed the clutch (which was totally empty, and required wire brushing/polishing the slave cylinder to get past all the gunk and corrosion) and pop the new battery in. Turn the key, lights work, starter works, but bike doesn't start. Turns out he siphoned most of the gas out of the tank, but not all of it and he didn't run the rails dry. I am now going blind on instinct and things that I think I know about the vfr, plus help from this site. I read somewhere that this bike has 4 hole injectors, and the later model has 12 holes. I find the post on injector cleaning in an ultrasonic cleaner. I read the helpful posts on how to get the injectors out. Unfortunately they all pertain to the 6th gen. In actuality, the injectors on this bike are single pintle style, and the fuel rail is held in with SHCS from the bottom of the throttle bodies so the whole TB assembly has to come out. I pull them, pull the rails, pull the injectors, and indeed they seem to be stuck. Not having an ultrasonic cleaner handy (although walmart has them cheap, and I've been meaning to pick one up for some time) I decide to macguyver it. First I soak the tips in carb cleaner, then fill the bodies with carb cleaner, and let them sit for a while. Once they've soaked I manually pushed the pintle in to open, and let carb cleaner dribble through. Once I had them that far, I rigged up a set of wires with speaker connectors to my battery box so I could manually activate the injectors. I drilled a hole in the pointy end of a sharpie cap. The big end is just the right size to fit over the fuel rail side of the injectors. I put the injector into the sharpie cap, filled the cap with the carb cleaner through the hole I drilled, hooked it to the battery to manually cycle the injector, then hooked my air hose to the hole in the injector and let fly. Don't try this with more than about 50psi. Worked my way through all 4 injectors, reassembled everything with plenty of assembly lube, synthetic grease, antisieze and locktite, and the bike fired up within seconds. Completed the reassembly, took it for it's first ride.
The bike ran beautifully, and I gently worked through the gears till I was going comfortably faster than the speed limit when
Nothing. No engine, no gauges, nothing. I called the wife for a pickup and started troubleshooting. Turns out the main fuse next to the starter solenoid blew. Replaced it and went on home. A bit closer look at the possible causes led to some consternation. The PO was quite the self styled electrician. Some of his gems included scraping insulation off the ignition wire just under the key switch, wrapping his horn relay wire and heated grips wire around it, and putting a spot of electrical tape over it. Turns out that there weren't actually heated grips on it, just the controller and some bare wires. I found quite a few examples of 'wiring' done like this, so I tore it down again and removed/repaired everything the PO did electrically. Anyone want an autocom intercom system?
So far I've ordered:
New tires (pilot power 3s)
new brake pads
oil filter
new pegs (PO had some pretty pink anodized ones on that just don't go with my shoes)
couple of well nuts
Delkevik 18" stainless exhaust
single LED voltage indicator
new fairing stay to replace the one the PO bent
various and sundry bits.
cbr600 fuse box
I've cleaned, tightened, and dielectric greased every electrical connection I can get to (bend the tabs down on the female part of the connector to tighten the fit, then spray carb cleaner/electrical contact cleaner on it, and connect/disconnect repeatedly to remove any corrosion, add dielectric grease and reconnect) I've tightened every bolt, I've pulled the bodywork off and washed/clayed/rubbed/polished/waxed each one to remove scratches and generally renew the body work. Honestly the paint is in great shape since it spent most of it's life inside, but when it was used it was used hard so there were scratches, dings, chips.
Plans right now are mostly to ride it. I plan to redo much of the electrical system. This partially includes the addition of the CBR600 fuse box, which will be placed next to the stocker. Some number of it's circuits will be hot all the time (battery tender connector, at least one powerlet) and some will be switched. I'm going to redo some of the wires on the bike, to include running a nice fat 8ga wire to the front to power the headlights, and modification of the wiring so that high beam will run both high and low beams. Also wiring in my GPS, a couple of powerlets, and maybe a legacy cig lighter plug just in case. Also plan to have a manual switch for the fan, plus an indicator on the dash (same size LED as the volts indicator, just a different color) wired with the fan so I'll know when it comes on. Also plan to add a stout, server class low profile computer fan in behind the RR to help prolong it's life.
I'm sure there's more, but I'm tired and it's time for me to go to bed. Just wanted to say hi, thanks for the info I've already received, and the info I will dig out in the future. Hope to offer my help and knowledge/nicely equipped shop in the future. Oh yeah, I've had V4s before; previous bikes include a '95 Magna, and my son currently has an '85 interceptor 700.
whodat
Edit: it also included helibars, a color matched bagster tank cover and black bagster, and the rear seat cowl, cut to allow use with the givis. Didn't come with the stock grab bars though.
Edited by whodat90, 17 April 2012 - 09:43 PM.
Af far as which is fastest, there's a coupla ways to look at it. Red light has a wavelength of ~700nm, yellow is only about 600nm. Therefore red is clearly faster than yellow. On the other hand, black is black because it absorbs all colors, which clearly makes it heavier, and we all know that heavy=slow. Add to that the fact that flat paint is flat because of the surface texture that scatters reflected light every which way, not only do you have the additional aerodynic drag of the non-smooth surface but you have the additional drag of all that reflected light scattering every which way. So I can't say that red is the fastest color, but I can say with authority that it's faster than the 100nm slower yellow, and clearly faster than the much heavier black. :smile:
Ok, just ordered some heated grips; Oxford Heaterz. The 'z' makes them cool, or hip, or whatever the term is nowadays. Nowadayz. (see what I did there?) The fuse panel shipped yesterday, once I get back from an upcoming trip I'll be able to add all my electrical goods. The fuse panel has 7 fuses available, so it'll be highbeams, lowbeams, heated grips, GPS, horns, powerlet, and cig lighter. GPS may just tap of of something else, it has such low draw.
[image: View Post]whodat90, on 18 April 2012 - 10:08 AM, said:
Af far as which is fastest, there's a coupla ways to look at it. Red light has a wavelength of ~700nm, yellow is only about 600nm. Therefore red is clearly faster than yellow. On the other hand, black is black because it absorbs all colors, which clearly makes it heavier, and we all know that heavy=slow. Add to that the fact that flat paint is flat because of the surface texture that scatters reflected light every which way, not only do you have the additional aerodynamic drag of the non-smooth surface but you have the additional drag of all that reflected light scattering every which way. So I can't say that red is the fastest color, but I can say with authority that it's faster than the 100nm slower yellow, and clearly faster than the much heavier black. :smile:
From the above dissertation, I'd say you will be one of brightest stars on this site and have nothing to fear from Timmy or any other Let's-Intimidate-The-New-Guy types that predominate here. I just pity the next new guy than comes in for your intimidation. You are damm creative with your logic. I salute you.
Edited by MaxSwell, 19 April 2012 - 01:36 PM.
[image: View Post]MaxSwell, on 18 April 2012 - 01:52 PM, said:
From the above disertation, I'd say you will be one of brightest stars on this site and have nothing to fear from Timmy or any other Let's-Intimidate-The-New-Guy types that predominate here. I just pity the next new guy than comes in for your intimedation. You are damm creative with your logic. I salute you.
I don't think so. I need all my cuddle preciouses to be large. No little s. BTW: what is a cuddle precious ? The last I heard precious was the name of Gollum's ring.
Edited by MaxSwell, 19 April 2012 - 01:43 PM.
Just bought a windscreen off ebay for ~$20. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Racing-Windscreen-Windshield-HONDA-VFR800-98-01-/370594381432#ht_4533wt_1185 I'm sure it's crap, but I've been reading about the different windscreen options and I'm sure I'll end up cutting either the stocker or this one down to experiment, so all things considered I'd rather cut up a $20 windscreen than a $100 givi or other brand name.
I think those ones are the GIANT double bubbles where the screen pops up so much it's ridiculous. Someone posted one here earlier and the side profile looked a little cartoonish.
Zero gravity has an outlet store where they sell slightly imperfect screens for much less. I got one and it has a few tiny bubbles in the creases of the screen that you can't see unless you remove it and hold it up to the light.
[image: View Post]whodat90, on 18 April 2012 - 10:08 AM, said:
Af far as which is fastest, there's a coupla ways to look at it. Red light has a wavelength of ~700nm, yellow is only about 600nm. Therefore red is clearly faster than yellow. On the other hand, black is black because it absorbs all colors, which clearly makes it heavier, and we all know that heavy=slow. Add to that the fact that flat paint is flat because of the surface texture that scatters reflected light every which way, not only do you have the additional aerodynic drag of the non-smooth surface but you have the additional drag of all that reflected light scattering every which way. So I can't say that red is the fastest color, but I can say with authority that it's faster than the 100nm slower yellow, and clearly faster than the much heavier black.
All that means is the cops see you first! :lol:
Just got my bar ends, voltage indicator, and fuse panel. Bar ends are bar ends, a bit dinged up from the total lack of packaging but they're bar ends, I'm not that worried about it. The voltage indicator is very nice, played around with it with some of my spare batteries and it's definitely an attention getter when it changes from one color to another. The fuse panel is larger than I expected, and uses standard blade fuses rather than mini so I may not use it. It is set up perfectly for the intended use though, as it has 7 circuits, 5 of which are fed from one wire and the other two are independently powered. I grabbed my multimeter and made a quick pinout diagram just to verify what goes where.
[image: View Post]cybershade69, on 19 April 2012 - 06:09 PM, said:
All that means is the cops see you first! :lol:
Probably true, but since I'm old, fat and slow I'm not worried. It does hopefully mean that the brain dead cell phone junkie texters driving their cars on very important missions to go very important places see mee too. Fat chance, but I'm ever hopeful.
Just installed the new footpegs and Delkevic exhaust. Footpegs are more of an aesthetic thing, since I just wasn't grooving on the pink aluminum, but the rubber pads on the stockers do transmit somewhat less vibration. The delk is nicely made, with very nice welds and good quality clamps. The mounting strap didn't come with the rubber sleeve so I just cut a strip of rubber and used that for now. I have to turn the forward clamp since it hits the centerstand, but that's no big deal. With the quiet baffle installed it's only slightly louder than stock, without the baffle it's just about perfect. Has a nice low growl below 5500rpm, and gets a bit raspy above that. Since I never plan to be above 5500rpm anywhere that noise will be an issue, I think I'll probably leave the baffle out. Honestly though, even without the baffle it's still pretty dang quiet. Now it's time to go flush and bleed the brakes, change the oil and filter again (70 or so miles since first re-start) and spoon on the new tires, then start the electrical work.
Change of plans. First a change in the exhaust review: The pipe is still pretty nice, but the s-pipe is a bit of a pain. The bottom section which attaches to the stock exhaust had a couple of burrs in it, which didn't allow it to slip on far enough. I grabbed the dremel and cleaned up the inside of the flange, the outside of the stock exhaust, and generally everything I could get near. Once I did that the s-pipe slipped on a bit easier, but still required some serious wiggling to get it to seat far enough down that the center stand would hit the rubber bumper. Oh and the lower clamp bolt broke; stainless in stainless galls pretty easy. I replaced it with a stainless socket head cap screw and used lots of anti-sieze on it. I also put the anti-seize on the inside of the flange to make it go on easier. I also trimmed the top of the strap so it didn't stick up so far above the passenger peg bracket.
Flushed and bled the brakes, what a pain. Took a bottle and a half of brake fluid to complete, but now I have nice new clean fluid throughout. Replaced the rear pads while I was in there, turns out I need fronts too. Oh well.
Finally, the electrical. In order to simplify somewhat, I decided not to use the cbr fuse panel yet. Instead I grabbed a switched signal from the tail light, and use that to activate a relay connected to the battery with a 30a fuse. The output from that relay goes to a pair of 10ga wires, techflexed and ziptied along the stock harness on the clutch side of the frame and follows the stock harness to the inside of the fairing. One of the two goes to a relay for the better horns the bike came with; that relay is activated by the stock horn wires. The other one will be spade lug connected to the heated grips, GPS, and signal dynamics volts indicator each of which are independently fused. The volt light is put in the clutch side of the instrument panel trim, high and left. In line of sight enough that it'll get my attention when it flashes. Need to find a matching LED for the other side to wire to the fan so I know when it comes on. Their wire harnesses will be bundled up under the instrument panel as neatly as possible. It just seemed silly to run three separate power leads to the rear of the bike instead of one to the front. The control panel for the grips is mounted to it's included bracket, on the clutch perch. I painted the bracket black. I hooked the grips up to a battery box for testing, and they got nice and toasty. I still don't think they're all that great (the wind on your knuckles is what makes your hands cold, not the grips) but it should be nice for those days when you hit a cold snap and only have your regular gloves. Oh forgot whether or not I mentioned, the GPS is a zumo 550 I've had for years. It was on the bike I totaled, never even came loose from it's mount. I'll add a separate +12v constant lead for heated clothing/charger (I'll never be using heated clothing and a battery tender at the same time, so no need for two separate plugs, and I'll never use the heated gear when the bike is off so no need for it to be switched.) This way I only need one powerlet outlet. Simpler is better.
Edit: The oxfords are stupidly designed. The wire exits the grip in a giant flange which puts the wire out perpendicular to the grip, an inch down and an inch forward of centerline. On the clutch side this isn't a big issue, but on the throttle side it makes positioning a bitch. You have to put it so that it doesn't hit the brake lever, but also has enough freedom of movement for the throttle to move cleanly, without having a huge loop of wire hanging down. The vfr has a 1/4 turn throttle, so you have to have 90* of free movement available. It's fairly obvious that they made these for ATVs and JetSkis first, then just changed the tube diameter for motorcycles. It'd be better if the wire either didn't come out so freaking far, or had a slip fitting, or just about anything other than what they did.
Edited by whodat90, 29 April 2012 - 05:16 PM.
A couple other things that occurred to me just now. To get the delkevik as high as I wanted it, I had to trim the bottom of the passenger footpeg bracket a bit with the dremel. Nothing major, just knocking off sharp corners and smoothing it out a bit. Doing that allowed me to get it an extra 1/4" higher at the mount, which equates to over an inch higher at the outlet. That's why I had to trim the top of the strap; it's slotted to allow for adjustment, and I'm now at the bottom of the slot. I do think it should have come with a nice thick stainless washer to spread the load on the back rather than just use the nut's surface area. I'll be adding one as soon as I find one.
Also I decided to skip the headlight wiring upgrade. The headlight run is pretty short, and has negligible voltage drop, plus I don't think there's enough spare amps to run all 4 filaments at the same time and give the bike any kind of useful reserve. The stock stator puts out what, 450w or so? A pair of 55w lows and another pair of 55w highs is a total of 220w right there. Haven't had a chance yet to throw an ammeter on the main to see how much the bike draws on it's own, but it's fairly old and the injection and fuel pump can't be terribly efficient. I'll just keep an eye on the volts with my sdc meter for now to see if there's any real problem.
Mostly finished with the electrical doo dads. There were minor packaging issues with all the stuff I put in the front cowl, but it all fit. I ran the two 10ga wires from the rear mounted relay to the front, terminated each one in a female spade lug. One connects directly to the horns relay, one goes to 4 orange cables with female spade lugs. I ran a new ground from the front cowl lower frame mount bolt, cleaned of paint, and ran a green wire up next to the power wires and broke it out into 4 green wires with spade lugs. Everything was tech-flexed and heat shrunk, with red heat shrink on + and black on -. The GPS and grips each had their own fuse, so I just crimped lugs on and plugged them in. The sdc volt meter had no fuse, so I crimped on a pair of mini-spade lugs and installed a 10a mini fuse inline, everything neatly heat shrunk and electrical taped. The 4th power and ground are for possible future use, rather do the work now than have to tear it all apart and redo in the future. Everything was neatly bundled and zip tied, with all the connections and fuses being in one harness on the clutch side next to the headlight. Everything is accesible if you take the clutch side fairing off. I cut a piece of inner tube and slid it over the bundle, and put a zip tie through the front to act as somewhat of a dust cover. While I was in there doing everything else, I figured why not add a fan to the RR unit. I've seen others do the fan bit before, but I don't like how it was done. Most others I've seen use a 4" or so fan directly on the unit. My problems with this is that there is a dead spot in the center where no real airflow happens, and it seems like the center is what needs the cooling the most. In addition, if the fan dies the fan compromises the stock airflow for less cooling. Also, I noticed that the stator wires get comfortably warm, and could probably use a bit of cooling. I put in a fan from one of my old Dell servers, it's a low profile thick fan with very high airspeed. I zip tied it's original mount to the frame behind the RR, then popped the fan in using the included rubber mounting lugs. The fan blows forward over the RR and it's wires. It just fits inside the rear cowling, and since it's not directly connected to the RR if it dies for whatever reason then the RR still has just as much cooling ability as it did stock. Right now it's grabbing power from the tail light, but it's not independently fuses so I need to get a couple mini fuse holders and 5a fuses. Worth mentioning is that I disconnected pretty much every electrical connection I could get to on the bike and added dielectric grease, and did the same for each of my connections. I don't expect (who does?) to ever have electrical problems with this bike. Pics tomorrow when I'm at work and have better than satellite internet.
Took it for a test ride, the volt meter was plenty bright and the bike seems to make it happy and green unless I turn the grip heaters on and let it idle for a while. The grip heaters get quite warm, and will be a pleasant addition for cooler weather riding. The lights on the control panel are pretty much unreadable in direct sunlight though. Glad I hooked it to switched power rather than direct to the battery like the directions want. It must have power to turn on, but it also remembers it's state when power is removed, so if it was on when I turn the bike off it's still on when I turn the bike back on.
Edited by whodat90, 29 April 2012 - 05:13 PM.
Sorry, no pics today. Forgot my camera cable. Just spooned on the new tires. Scratched up the rim lip a bit, but i don't care. They're black anyhow, so a paint touchup pen will fix most of the scars, and the fact that I have a long dirt driveway means they're constantly covered by dirt and dust anyhow. So it's hard to make a valid opinion in a quick 10 mile ride, especially comparing 9 year old tires to brand new ones, but I have to say that I didn't realize how bad the old tires were till these were on. These are so much better.
Edit: sorry, had to go eat dinner. Anyway, the new tires had that great new tire stickiness so that the ride down the driveway was grabbing gravel and whatnot and throwing it into the fenders. It's hard to describe the difference, but the old tires felt (comparatively) dead, where these tires feel much more responsive and connected. They're heavily siped so rain should be less exciting, and once I give them a few hundred miles to break in I'll be able to give a better impression. Of course rain tomorrow, but I may take the bike into work anyway.
Edited by whodat90, 30 April 2012 - 07:13 PM.
[image: Attached Image: delkevik.JPG]
The delk mounted,
[image: Attached Image: delkmount.JPG]
the top of the mount strap where I had to trim it and
[image: Attached Image: centerstanddelk.JPG]
where the centerstand hits the rubber. Overall very happy with the pipe, especially for the money and weight savings.
Edited by whodat90, 01 May 2012 - 06:27 PM.
[image: Attached Image: mainrelay.JPG]
Main relay, tucked in the left side frame/subframe junction.
[image: Attached Image: mainfuse.JPG]
Main fuse feeding the power wires running to the front.
[image: Attached Image: invisible.JPG]
Wires running forward under stock harness.
Edited by whodat90, 01 May 2012 - 06:26 PM.
[image: Attached Image: PowerBreakout.JPG]
Power breakout wires. Note that I staggered them for neatness.
[image: Attached Image: Powerbreakoutsealed.JPG]
Power breakout sealed to my main wires, dielectric greased and heat shrunk. The upper wire in the pic goes to the horns relay and the light green/dark green are the stock horn wires.
[image: Attached Image: Neutralbreakout.JPG]
Neutral breakout, also staggered. This is also heat shrunk, tech-flexed, and sealed.
Edited by whodat90, 01 May 2012 - 06:27 PM.
[image: Attached Image: Bundle.JPG]
The completed power and ground bundle, zip tied
[image: Attached Image: Buncleandhornsrelay.JPG]
Here you can see the bundle and the horns relay. Note that mounted this way the headlight hit it, I just turned it around so the relay was tucked up next to the main harness and it fit fine.
[image: Attached Image: bundlecovered.JPG]
My sexy and super-effective wire bundle cover. Made out of an innertube. More for looks than anything else, but I'm sure it provides some kind of protection as well. The entire bundle and all it's fuses is accessible through the slit in the fairing side.
[image: Attached Image: Fuse.JPG]
The volt meter didn't have it's own fuse, and that makes babies cry. I didn't have a mini fuse holder handy so I just soldered some mini spade lugs to the wires, heat shrunk/sealed them, and hooked them directly to the fuse.
[image: Attached Image: fusesealed.JPG]
Then I put some heat shrink on the whole assembly to keep it from vibrating loose. If it ever blows or becomes a problem I'll take this out and put in a real fuse holder.
[image: Attached Image: voltmeter.JPG]
The voltmeter control box.
Edited by whodat90, 01 May 2012 - 06:35 PM.
[image: Attached Image: Gripbox.JPG]
Grips control box in the front of the instrument cluster.
[image: Attached Image: Gripcontrols.JPG]
Control panel on the clutch perch, painted bracket.
[image: Attached Image: throttleclosed.JPG]
Throttle closed
[image: Attached Image: throttleopen.JPG]
Throttle open
And just now I swapped in a new set of EBC HH brake pads to the front to match the ones I put in the rear the other day. Haven't driven with them yet, but just the commute this morning got me to thinking that the forks need some love. Lots of fork dive under braking, and I imaging that the (bitier? Griptasticker? More embettered?) HH compound pads will only make this worse. Also, I noted that the speedo read almost 5mph high at 65, AND at 70 the engine was around 5K rpm in 6th. I foresee a gearing change to fix both problems. If I hit the gearing change just right, and change it between 7 and 8 percent, it should bring the speedo right in and add a couple revs to make the engine happier at cruising speed. Unless I got that backwards and it'll make it worse. I'll think more about it tomorrow. Oh and I took the baffle out of the delk, and it's quite a bit louder than stock now that it's broken it a bit. Still, under about 6K rpm you only hear the gear whine, but if you hammer it you can definitely hear the growl.
[image: Attached Image: RRFanmount.JPG]
Fan mount for the RR.
[image: Attached Image: RRFanrear.JPG]
Fan from the rear
[image: Attached Image: RRFanside.JPG]
Fan from the side. I had a fan duct that would fit perfectly over the fan and RR, but decided against it. Where the fan is, it blows forward over the RR and the wires/connector, and out the vent in the side. If it fails, it doesn't impede the cooling fins the way it would if it were firmly mounted to the RR. Worst case scenario, it fails and everything's back to stock. Best case scenario, this fan blows over both the front and rear of the RR, and provides cooling for the wires and connector as well. Plus it was free and I have an extra fan ready to go if needed.
Edit: More info than you could possibly want on that fan: http://www.sanyodenk...hrepo/16e/f.pdf Edited by whodat90, 01 May 2012 - 08:41 PM.
I was playing around with the calculator last night and it seemed that going from a 17t front to a 16t would raise the approx. final drive ration about 7%, which is exactly what I wanted. I ordered one, should be here thursday. I'll throw it on and see how it goes, hopefully it'll make my speedo read just a bit low relative to the GPS, and add some revs at highway speeds.
Well I've changed the gearing on every bike I've ever had with a chain, and usually made it shorter. My FZ1 had a couple teeth smaller in the front, my dirtbike was smaller in the front, my dirtbike/dualsport had a -1 and +1 front sprocket depending on whether I was doing street or dirt. I figure $20 for the sprocket vs. $120+ for a speedo healer is an easy decision. Not to mention that the 6th gen has a 16t front sprocket stock, so I figure it can't hurt.
Alright, in the home stretch now. I swapped in the 16t sprocket (if I like it I'll go ahead and pick up a stock sixth gen sprocket with the rubber) and added the powerlet and fused the two lines coming from the license plate light. The powerlet is on the clutch side of the bike rear fairing just above the vent. Once again I heat shrunk, color coded, zip tied, and dielectric greased all connections. I also added shielded spade lug connectors everywhere I tapped into a stock wire so that I can disconnect all of my stuff without harassing the stock harness. Right now I have my battery tender junior plugged into the powerlet charging the battery. Only remaining jobs are to get and install the new windshield (which will be a somewhat long term project as I cut it further and further down) and a clean/flush/refill of the cooling system. I changed the coolant when I resurrected the bike from it's 9 year sleep, but I'm sure it scaled up a bit inside and the other day when in 85*+ temps in stop and go traffic I saw over 235* coolant temp. I'm hoping a cleaning and water wetter will help. Yes I know they run hot at the best of times, but still. Oh yeah, I'm sure everyone else already knows this but in a teeny pocket in the back of the stock toolkit is a .7mm feeler gauge, which I have no idea the use of. Neat though.
Edit: Apparently it's to check the centering of the front wheel and make sure you have enough clearance on either side of the calipers.
Edited by whodat90, 03 May 2012 - 08:36 PM.
[image: View Post]whodat90, on 03 May 2012 - 08:25 PM, said:
Oh yeah, I'm sure everyone else already knows this but in a teeny pocket in the back of the stock toolkit is a .7mm feeler gauge, which I have no idea the use of. Neat though.
Edit: Apparently it's to check the centering of the front wheel and make sure you have enough clearance on either side of the calipers.
Well the windscreen is a bust. First the looks; it looks like a seagull that hit a window, or a KTM. Not an issue since I was going to cut it down anyhow. However, it fits abysmally. Biggest problem is that it doesn't have the hooks on the front of the screen that hook into the fairing. This leaves is totally unsupported in the front, and any pressure against the top pushes the front open. I asked for a refund, it's not even worth trying to work with the way it is. Pics later. Please tell me that this isn't how all the aftermarket screens are, and does anyone have a spare stock screen I could work with? Scratches aren't an issue.
Cool. Took it for a test ride, the HH front pads are vicious, but the front brakes drag a little. I'll drive it for a bit and see if they loosen up. The 16t front sprocket is great for riding, but puts the speedo 7% more wrong than it was so if I keep it I'll need a speedohealer. The rubberless sprocket does make a bit of noise, but not enough that it's annoying.
Edited by whodat90, 04 May 2012 - 08:26 PM.
The speedohealer fixes the speedo or the odo issue, not both. Honda decided the ECU software would measure each independently, so correcting one throws the other off.
The ZG 2nd's are a crapshoot, the one I got was full of bubbles and looked horrible. Best to get a new one.
And ditch the high beams idea, really turns me off to be blinded by an oncoming bike in mid-day.
Other than that, welcome and great posts! I think you've done more in a few weeks than most in many years. '99's rock! :smile:
[image: View Post]whodat90, on 04 May 2012 - 03:43 PM, said:
and does anyone have a spare stock screen I could work with? Scratches aren't an issue.
I have an extra stock windscreen I'd be willing to sell. Off the top of my head (I'll go look later) I'd say it is in excellent condition. I believe it has no scratches. PM me if interested.
Yanked off the fairing yet again (does anyone make a dzus fastener kit for it?) and drained the coolant, flushed it twice with regular water (I'm on well water, and have a charcoal filter that gets everything out of the water) each time getting it up to temperature, then added a full bottle of radiator flush plus more water, let it run at temp for a half hour or so, let it sit for a few hours, ran it at temp for another half hour, then drained and flushed twice with fresh water. Then I added a 25/75% mix of some kind of pink coolant and water, plus some amount of water wetter. The pink coolant I believe was specced for audi and volvos, both of which are mighty picky about their fluids. Plus the green coolant wasn't working with the red bike's feng shui. ;) While I was waiting for the bike to cool down between runs I pulled the front calipers and pads, extended the pistons about 3/4" each, and cleaned/brass wire brushed/600 grit sandpapered each piston, then ran them in and out a few times to make sure they moved freely. Visually verified that each one would extend with the brake application and very slightly retract when it was released. Took some 120g to the rotors and pads, and reassembled everything with fresh brake grease where needed. Took the bike out for a nice 50ish mile ride through the twisties (I'm lucky enough that I live at the foothills of the blue ridge mountains, and have miles and miles of twisties right outside my door) and when moving (ambient air temp indicated at 85*, weather.com states 80*) the bike never got much above 180*. Stopping for gas brought the temp to just over 200*, so I claim victory. I need to see what it does in traffic, but so far I think it's much better. Ended up putting about 4 gallons of coolant/cleaner/water through it in the process, and burned the shiat out of myself (note to self: rubber dipped cotton gloves are still cotton gloves, and the cotton will absorb hot water faster than you can take the glove off.) The 16t front sprocket is great, and makes the bike much happier in the twisties. It may possibly raise the revs too much on the freeway, but I doubt it. IIRC it was turning 5000 rpm or less at 65mph in 6th, which made me downshift to 5th. I also put the baffle back in the pipe, now that it broke in it got right at the edge of obnoxiously loud without it. Still sounds (I'd add better than stock, but stock it didn't sound at all so anything is an improvement). And it's still 20+ lbs lighter than stock.
I didn't know about the speedo/odo disconnect, I think I'm gonna have to do some more research. One of my kids is an electronics genius, I'll ask him what he recommends. With any luck he'll take the whole shebang apart and build a speedo/odo healer directly into the dash panel.
[image: View Post]vfrcapn, on 04 May 2012 - 10:55 PM, said:
I think you've done more in a few weeks than most in many years. '99's rock! :smile:
Thanks! My goal is to get the bike set up the way I want it, all at once, then just ride it. I hate hate hate having to redo something because I didn't plan far enough ahead the first time I did it. That's why I left the extra power and ground connection in the front.
Protip: Replace your valve stems when you replace your tires. Jumped on the bike this morning to head to work, got about 3 miles away before the funny handling gave the flat rear tire away. Grabbed the trailer, took it back home, and yup, the valve stem had torn just above the rim.
[image: Attached Image: IMG_2977.JPG]
Screen installed, just wow.
[image: Attached Image: IMG_2978.JPG]
Gap at back of screen, just no way to close it up.
[image: Attached Image: IMG_2980.JPG]
Best case scenario, this is as tight as it fit.
[image: Attached Image: IMG_2979.JPG]
And here's what it looks like when it lifts up in front. Honestly, it if had the hooks in front I could work with it.
[image: View Post]vfrcapn, on 04 May 2012 - 10:55 PM, said:
The speedohealer fixes the speedo or the odo issue, not both. Honda decided the ECU software would measure each independently, so correcting one throws the other off.
I'm not seeing it. The bike only has one pickup for speed/distance. The wiring diagram shows the speed sensor having three wires, a power (which is on fuse 7) ground, and signal. The signal wire goes to the speedo, the trip meter, and the pin B17 on the ECU. Since the speed sensor seems to be the bike's only indication of distance traveled, it seems that a speedo healer should fix both speed and odo. At least as long as it mods the signal before the junction between the ecu and speedo, and it looks like there's only one connector which is before the split. I looked briefly into the speedo healer and they seem to be a plug and play affair, which just t's in between the two halves of the speedo sensor connector. If that's the case, then adding a correction factor at that connector should send the modified signal to both the ECU (for ODO calculation) and the speedo. Maybe on a different version of the bike than the 5th gen?
Edit: Money where my mouth is I guess. Just ordered a speedohealer v4. Once I get it in, installed, and calibrated I'll do a set loop and compare the trip meter/odo against the garmin and see what's what.
Edited by whodat90, 07 May 2012 - 07:36 PM.
Added my 'racing' forged aluminum valve stems. 90* on the front, facing away from the kickstand, and shorty rear. They were surprisingly easy to install, just had to break the bead on one side and smash the tire down near the valve stems. I added a bit of blue locktite to the stems to avoid future issues. Also (tried) to install my reflective rim stripes. What a boondoggle, I got one that had a special applicator dingus that was supposed to carefully peel the backing off the tape and wind it on a separate reel while guiding and pressing down on the tape itself. Took about 10 tries to get the thing working just right, it kept either not peeling off the backing or the tape kept falling off the main reel. By the time I was finished, I had enough to do both sides of the rear wheel and part of half of the front. The seller's sending me another roll. All that said though, I love the look:
[image: Attached Image: racing.JPG]
It adds a bit of color in an otherwise black hole, and the color is almost exactly the same red as the bike.
[image: Attached Image: close.JPG]
And best of all, it's reflective:
[image: Attached Image: Shiny.JPG]
Will post updated pics when I do the front wheel also.
The speedohealer fixes the speedo or the odo issue, not both. Honda decided the ECU software would measure each independently, so correcting one throws the other off.
I'm not seeing it. The bike only has one pickup for speed/distance. The wiring diagram shows the speed sensor having three wires, a power (which is on fuse 7) ground, and signal. The signal wire goes to the speedo, the trip meter, and the pin B17 on the ECU. Since the speed sensor seems to be the bike's only indication of distance traveled, it seems that a speedo healer should fix both speed and odo. At least as long as it mods the signal before the junction between the ecu and speedo, and it looks like there's only one connector which is before the split. I looked briefly into the speedo healer and they seem to be a plug and play affair, which just t's in between the two halves of the speedo sensor connector. If that's the case, then adding a correction factor at that connector should send the modified signal to both the ECU (for ODO calculation) and the speedo. Maybe on a different version of the bike than the 5th gen?
Edit: Money where my mouth is I guess. Just ordered a speedohealer v4. Once I get it in, installed, and calibrated I'll do a set loop and compare the trip meter/odo against the garmin and see what's what.
The stock speedo generally reads 5-7% high while the odo is generally accepted as being fairly accurate. (Generally accepted is not a scientific term..)
The speedohealer is going to adjust both equally, bringing the speedo inline will throw the odo off by some similar percentage. I used the healer to bring the readings back to stock after re-gearing, so my speedo is reading high.
I don't think it's a hardware (pickups, pins, wiring) issue. There's different software behind those speedo and odo displays, and using the same input they calculate different display outputs. I don't know why but there's plenty speculation on the nets about why manufacturers do this. Something about protecting you from getting a ticket while keeping the odo accurate....
Ok, that makes more sense. I can see where the odo has to be more accurate, but the speedo will usually read high. Among other things it's to account for tire wear; the tire wears, it gets smaller, spins more per unit of distance, and becomes more accurate as it wears. I'll probably just go for the most accurate speedo and the hell with the odo. Honestly, if it's off by a couple percent it doesn't matter to me, but I'd be happy if the speed was dead on. BTW the speedo does it's own figuring independent of the ECU, so it's possible that it could be adjusted independently. Thanks for the explanation.
Edit: I'll throw the stock sprocket back on and go for a hundred or so mile ride this weekend, and compare the odo with the gps to get a stock variance factor. Then when I get the speedohealer, I'll see what it does to that variance factor.
Edited by whodat90, 08 May 2012 - 09:13 PM.
The seller of the windscreen agreed to refund my money, so that's good. They didn't want it back so I may still cut it down just to for grins.
Edited by whodat90, 09 May 2012 - 07:09 PM.
The speedohealer showed up unexpectedly early, so I went ahead and installed it. I have to say it was the single easiest thing I've done so far. The connector was a bit of a pain to get to, but it was bundled so tightly that I didn't even have to actually grab it, just popped the old one out and shoved the new one in. I put the control box in the tail under the seat latch, since that's where it ended up when the wire was fully extended. The online calc recommended -10.8 based strictly on the gearing change, and -12 based on my gps readings so I split the middle and put it at -11.5. I'll compare it tomorrow on the way in to work and see how accurate it is.
Got the rest of my wheel stripe tape in.
[image: DSC_0093 (Custom).JPG]
Looks much more complete.
[image: DSC_0092 (Custom).JPG]
On a side note, put 60ish miles on the bike today, took the long way home from work. First things first, this bike did/does not like dirt roads, not one little bit. The wee strom was so much better there. Otherwise, this is a great bike. The speedohealer brought the speedo dead nuts accurate, but the odo as stated is now off about 3 or 4 miles every hundred or so. I'll probably adjust the speedo healer to right between the speedo and the odo being accurate and call it good.
Based on excessive fork dive, I decided to swap the fork fluid today. I was expecting nasty crud to come out, instead comes beautiful clean clear fork oil. Oh well, it seemed too light anyway so I went ahead and swapped it for some belray 10w. Seems much better now, less dive. I set the height to 125mm to firm it up a bit but I need to bite the bullet and pick up some different springs and gold valves. Assuming that my wife is tired of me spending money on the bike, which is the more important valve to get, compression or rebound?
I've contacted Jamie at Daugherty, and bought a 929 shock off ebay. I plan to just send him the shock and some money and hope for the best (also getting new springs for the front)
Few more updates. I grabbed my twinmax carb sync tool and checked the idle valves, everything was dead on. The other day I was riding into work and noticed that with the heated grips and heated vest my volts light was getting quite cross. Took it home and measured the voltage directly above the battery, and at idle it was 12.something, from just above idle to 5000 rpm it was 13.7ish, above 5000 it would start to drop off again. Classic RR symptoms, right? New battery so that wasn't the issue. Shot the wires, all three phases of the stator were .1 to .3ohms, all well within spec. No continuity to ground. All connectors looked good. The run to the battery was definitely good, and the main fuse is new. Hmm, says I. If it's input is good, and it's output is good, what about it's ground? I looked at the wiring diagrams and couldn't tell exactly where it tied into ground. Figuring that if the thing had to be replaced anyway, let me try instead to add a known good ground. I soldered new wires directly to the connectors, then terminated them at a ring terminal on the RR front mounting bolt, where I had scraped off the paint to get to bare metal (also my ground for the RR cooling fan and the accessory relay) Voila, voltage stabilized at 13.7v pretty much across the board, even when running both the heated vest and the grips at max temp. I'll still be keeping an eye on it, but I'm nominally calling this problem solved. Oh yeah, the side cases that came with the bike had obviously been used as frame sliders in at least one previous crash, and one of them had a very large dent. Got the heat gun on it at 200*, heated both inside and outside of the dent till the plastic shined over, then pushed it out (wearing a welding glove) and held it till it cooled. Not a perfect repair, but fine for a proof of concept.
Edit: And in the name of riding the fence, I took off the airbox cover and cut off the inside of the snorkel. Assuming that there is an advantage to the removal of the snorkel, I'm guessing that most of the problem comes from the long internal length and the immediate sharp 90* angle it has to make once out of the snorkel. By cutting off the inside, I get rid of most of that, while still keeping the theoretically useful short angle at the outside. Worst case scenario it does nothing, best case scenario it does everything, and most likely scenario it does half.
I'd agree on the compression valves. Also, HS (Hispanic Slammer, vfrd CEO) has a write up on here, or used to, on swapping the CBR F3 rebound adjustable fork cartridges in to the VFR forks. I did this swap a very long time ago while replacing the compression valves.
Good catch on the electrical. I've solved all my VFR's electrical problems. At least 3 times now. :rolleyes:
End of thread · 66 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 30 Jul 2012