Current State of the VFR - MODS!!!!

Ok, peoples. I have been busy as of late and have a string of mods. that I have not paraded in public to the adulation of VFR loving fanboyz(and girlz).

So here is the last batch all in one shot.

First off, my tushy was sensitivo on long rides. About 45 minutes into a highway drone, my junk would start going numb. Enter Mr. Sargent, two piece seat.




Next up. I like being conspicuous and mirrors with signal lights are my bag baby. I am also quite wide in the shoulders so it was pissing me off that all I see is elbows. Enter a set of mirrors with signal lights and spacer blocks to set the mirrors wider.




Not only am I wider in the shoulders than most peoples, I also have a long torso. Yes, it's a bitch to buy clothes. Anyhoo .... the Gen Mar risers I had on there weren't quite enough lift and gave no added width to the grips. Enter my own fabrication of a Spiegler style conversion to superbars. You will notice that I also added in a protective case with touch screen compatible plastic so I can use my phone as my GPS. I did have to do a good bit of tweaking to fit the bar conversion, including using spare SS braided brake lines I had laying around. The stock brake lines could be used, they are just a little tight at full fork extension.




Adjusting the bars took some fiddling to ensure they wouldn't hit the tank or flip the kill switch at full left lock (that was a no fun parking lot experience) and making a funky retaining system for my throttle lock. It's just some heavy wire bent so it goes through a hole in the lock and ties off to the throttle cable housings.





That sums up my report.

Jose

 

Wow!, you have been busy. Explains the "test" post thread. lol Very nice job on the handle bars. I'm sure the Sargent seat will be most welcomed to ya, or at least your balls!

Cheers!

 

Lookin good sir!!

 

I have already had opportunity for the ol' twig and berries to appreciate the seat on a long day's riding. MAN is it nicer than stock. Re-upholstering my stock seat would be $250 or so, but I got the Sargent for $200. Not only is it more comfortable, but the two piece design is really nice for accessing the tools and paperwork.

Just to keep things together, here is the link to the handlebar conversion.

http://vfrworld.com/forums/5th-generation-1998-2001/39797-custom-handlebar-conversion.html

Jose

 

Hey DaHose

If you don't mind my asking, where did you get the mirrors from and what kind are they? They look really nicely done. Good thing about the Sargent seat, they certainly are the best. I have been thinking that the Sargent would be the next upgrade for my gen 5, but now that I see the mirrors, maybe those need to be done as well.

 

I bought the mirrors off ebay from a seller called bid4ez.

Universal LED Racing Bike Motorcycle INTEGRATED MIRRORS | eBay

The spacers came from Burkhartcycle.

Honda VFR800 1 mirror spacers, extenders 2000-2001 - $23.00 : burkhartcycle.com, Motorcycle Parts and Accessories

Jose

 

It's been some time since I did anything with my VFR, thanks to being in graduate school. However, I have recently gotten back to my two-wheeled enjoyment of the world ... and one of my mirrors broke. I was on my second set of mirrors that weren't quite right, and then I came across some sharp looking mirrors on ebay.



As you can see in the pic., those mirrors are intended for handlebar mounting, but they have integrated LED's and everything is made from aluminum. I decided that I could reuse the mounts from my existing mirrors, and this is how it all came together.


Here you can see how I bolted it all together. The delrin spacer is just slapped on there. I thought about shaping it to match the mounts, but I got lazy.


You can see that the mirror has three, COB style LED's and they are plenty bright. My father-in-law said he had no problem seeing them in full daylight.

 

Now that's an intricate piece of kit. Looks very adjustable too. How are they during a ride, do they vibrate much? The stock mirrors are great for that, very little vibration, image is very clear.

 

It's been so long since I had the OEM mirrors that I can't think of how much vibration there was in em. I can say that with these mirrors, the images are quite clear, I am not distracted at all by vibration/movement, and they provide a good field of view. The mirrors also have a bluish glare reducing coating of some kind. Again, not distracting, just very functional. Wiring them up was really easy. Just tap off the leads for the existing signals. The load is super low, so the flasher module doesn't even notice the extra lights, and they really are bright. Nothing like some added visibility.

Yes, they are also super adjustable, although you have to loosen things up to make your adjustments. Tool free adjusting would be nice, and I think teflon washers in between mating surfaces would allow for that. You would also want to put some loctite on the bolts so that the pieces could move, but the bolts don't come loose. What I resorted to was getting them really close to where they need to be while on the center stand in the garage. Then I put an indexing mark on the joints with a Sharpee. A couple of short jaunts and some quick adjustments later, I am very happy with the end result. Not bad at all for $75. I looked at some Rizoma's and the price tag lands at $350 and up for the ones I like.

Jose

 

Ok everyone, I have another update related to the superbar conversion. Literally YEARS ago I fabbed up a quick superbar conversion, so I could decide if I liked it to begin with, and if I would spend the money on a beautiful setup like the Spiegler. Well I did really like the setup, but the cheap way I did it worked so well I couldn't bring myself to spend the money on the Spiegler kit.

So today I finally committed myself to sticking with the fabricated setup. I first needed to do something about the total bodge looking setup I had on there.

Step 1 was to purchase a VFR top triple and drill it to fit the bar clamps I bought. The ground down areas in the second picture shows where I removed the ignition switch mountings. It came out nice and clean.




Step 2, was to mount everything up. It looks great now. No hacked up triple looking like a red-headed step-child.




Step 3, was to finally mount my phone holder. It sits nicely in the middle of the bars, is easily viewed, and doesn't block any of the gauges when I am riding.



I couldn't be happier with the setup. If you are thinking about bar risers and have a spare $400, just go buy the Spiegler kit. It's beautiful and feel friggin AWESOME to ride!!! If you like to DIY, then get a triple and bar mounts like I did. Total cost was about $50, thanks to having a set of low-rise bars laying around. Time investment was 2-3 hours, inclusive of the original installation where I re-routed the throttle and clutch cables. I feel pretty darn good about saving the $350 on the Spiegler kit, although it sure is purdy.

Jose