Which VFR's are the hardest to work on?

Over the years I have heard from different sources complaints that VFR's are hard to work on. I have had a 1995 vfr750 for 7 years. I do my own maintenance as I have done for many years and have found the following things.



1) It only takes me 5 (if I rush) to 10 minutes (if I take my time) to get the tail piece, and side panels, plus lower cowl off. I remove the tail piece as a complete unit. Takes considerably longer to take pieces off my sport bike.

2) Getting at the rear bank of cylinders to change spark plugs or check valves or reshim is simple.

3) Getting at the front bank of cylinders is a pain, and definately not easy to change plugs, check valves and replace shims. Next time I do a valve check I'll consider removing the front forks and doing fork oil at the same time.

4) Removing the cams to replace shims is simple, because of the gear driven cams. I mark the cams with white marker, and put them back in the exact same position. No chance that way of screwing up. Much more finicky to replace shims on a bike with cams and chains.

5) Removing the rear wheel with the stock exhaust is easy. Much easier than working on regular bike rear ends.

6) Front forks are easy to work on when pulling apart and you don't need special tools. They are not super sensitive to differences in fork oil amounts as a full out sport bike is. I know this from experience with my sport bike which is a finely tooled machine and behaves as such needing special tools.

7) Front brakes are easy enough to work on, no harder than other bikes. I clean and regrease sliders every spring.

8) Clutch fluid change is easy enough. I put a speed bleeder on the clutch slave cylinder, which makes changing the fluid a 10 minute job.

9) Oil changes are simple enough.

10) Changing the rectifier. Simple. Remove tail piece.



I could go on, but I believe I've covered the main points. The 4th gen. in my opinion, apart from a couple of things is an easy bike to work on, and without doubt of all the bikes I've bought with full fairings, the easiest.



I'm interested to know how hard it is to work on the other generations, particularly when it comes to removing the bodywork so that you can get at parts.

 

I worked on a gen3, taking off the fairings, and it was a tough job, with different-sized fasteners, hidden fasteners, and snap-together fittings.

Carbs are alot harder to mount on gens 1 and 2 than on gen4's. and carbs (for some) are easier to troubleshoot than FI, with far fewer parts to remove or disconnect. last time i checked, the service manual for my 4 '86/'87 VFRs contained just 12 pages to cover carb repairs, while the fuel injection takes over 40 pages to cover on modern-er bikes. then there's the linked brakes, another 2 dozen pages !! How about thermostat replacement? takes about 10 minutes and 3 or 4 fasteners to change on gens 1 and 2; fi bikes could take hours with multiple fasteners, things to move, disconnect, and hassle with. Then there's checking or changing valve adjustments, very easy on gens 1 and 2, not at all easy on later models, and fuckitall on VTEC ~!

I'll keep my non-linked, non FI, gen2's and 4 without missing the extra complications of newer bikes.



another reason why gen4's are best of the breed imo.