New rider/owner quick question

hey all I recently found this site and am gaining a lot of good information from all of you.

Quick rundown, I have always wanted a motorcycle and finally this summer in may i was able to purchase one. I took the rider safety course and all and my first bike ever ended up being a new 2007 RWB honda VFR800. One of my friends and his dad were at the shop getting some work done on their bikes, and called to tell me about this VFR that was there. They hadnt sold it and it was at 8500. I waited 2 weeks went in and it was down to 7500. The guy refused to go any lower and i was ok with that, I know the owner personally and he said he really wouldnt drop it. So i bought it on the spot. Been riding everywhere since haha. Loving the bike, still have a lot to learn though.

Now heres my quick question, whenever I ride for over about an hour my seat gets hot to the point that it literally burns to sit on it. Is this normal, i feel like its not? any ideas on what it could be or what i could do? if it is normal then thats fine too.

 

Definately not normal. What kinda engine temps are you seeing?

Rollin

 

Where on the seat does it get real hot?

 

Welcome aboard

The seat getting hot is a little odd. VFRs do run warm, especially on the right side. More info would be helpful.

 

Welcome to the site Fighting_Fires.....looks like your name is well chosen.

No problem with Hotpants here, but your bike is the newer generation - perhaps the high mount exhaust is not functioning correctly. A comfy ride should be expected. take her back........

 

take it out of first gear perhaps?

 

hey sorry ive been MIA since i posted this, work has been owning my life as of late.

Engine temps are usually running anywhere from 180-220 depending on if im cruising or stuck in some form of traffic. I cant get you an exact number i havent been able to ride in almost 2 weeks. I know thats a pretty large gap but thats all i can give you for now.

It gets hot essentially where you back pockets would be on a pair of jeans, does that make sense?

Wait so youre supposed to leave 1st gear?!?!?!

 

I little warm on hot days maybe but never uncomfortable. I wonder if:
Your exhaust is too close to the seat. Aftermarket?
Your seat had some padding removed for previous rider?

 

The only other thing I can think of is that your rear most exhust pipes could be leaking causing exhaust gasses to travel directly upward onto the bottom of the seat. I really kinda doubt it cause I think you would be noticing lots of exhaust smell but it's possible. Definately not normal for the seat to be allmost burnin your ass, even on 100+ degree days ridin hard.

 

hmm...nothing aftermarket on it now, its all stock, and im the first owner so i dont think it could be the seat padding thing either

 

Sounds to me like its time to take it back to the dealer and ask him to take a look. You mentioned that you knew him, so one can hope that he would find a way to take care of the issue for you.

 

See if the dull, fugly metal under the tail section above the pipes (its huge - can't miss it) is still there. Maybe it was removed for cosmetics? Also, those giant cans we got should have thin shields over them. *sigh* under-seat exhaust... we all got a bit screwed on that one (try taking it off sometime - the plastics look like poo w/o those huge, completely unnecessary cans under there). Post a pic on your profile? If there is something stupid like that going on, I imagine somebody will pick it out pretty quick!

Oh, and if shes a bit sluggish and running hot - make sure the guys who assembled it got ALL of the plastic wrap out of the air filter, etc.. Sounds dumb, but my dad had a brand new 2007 Shadow Spirit 1100 that we put about 3k miles on before I found the intake clogged. Apparently an 1100 CC motor is suppose to have POWER! Go figure. Good luck!

 

i will add my vote for just taking it back to the dealer. i did the exact same thing as you last year (took the class and bought the same bike!)
And i never had any problem like that with the seat getting hot. Those running temps of 180-220 are normal. The fan kicks in around 224 i think, so even when it is hot enough for that to happen, it never gets above that. The fan lets it stay in the 220-225 range when it's at its hottest.

 

yeah i cant say ive ever seen it running over 220-225 for a consistent amount of time. I called today and they said bring it in when i can, which will be saturday at the earliest, so long as there is no snow out here. The guy on the phone, noone i knew said "yeah well ill take a look at it" "I said well this should be covered my the warranty right?" he says, "well i dont know, if theres even a problem, maybe but ill have to look at it, if theres even a problem"

Im pretty sure theres a problem with my seat burning my a**

 

Keep us in formed. Now that you are a junior Inmate, kick into the kitty and become an Insider!! Welcome...

 

Update- So i swung by the shop today to have them take a look at it. They said that everything looked fine, so they would need to keep it for a while so that they can run it until the seat gets hot and see what the deal is. I couldnt leave it there today because I had no ride home, so I will be taking it back either wed or thurs this week and will let you guys know what happens.

 

Brought the bike in Thursday and they said it would be ready for me today. They also told me they didnt expect to find anything and that seats get warm, i told them theres a difference between warm and hurt. Long story short, they didnt have the bike ready for me today, and they have no idea whats going on so Honda is sending a rep to the shop sometime this week to take a look and hopefully they come to a conclusion on what it is, what to do.

 

exactly that. which kind of makes me happy seeing as everyone thought i was just being a big sissy!! lol. but at the same time im nervous just because i want her to be ok.

side note- they havent said anything about money, but im kind of assuming something like this, whatever it is they find would be under warranty right? i havent done a single mod to the bike, its all stock.

 

I cannot stress how DISAPPOINTED I am with honda at the moment. I got a call from my guy at the dealership and honda told him that they have never experienced this problem and that it gets warm due to the exhaust and sitting on top of the cylinders, they also said thats why my legs burn, he tried telling them that that is not where it is getting hot. Apparently they didnt want to hear it and told him theres nothing wrong with it. He said he was able to get it warm, but not hot, that he cant ride it for that long. But he did say he DOES believe me.

So now what were looking at is he said ride it until it gets hot and cruise right on over, lay on the horn as I pull up and he will jump on it immediately and then the proof will be that he, the mechanic, has also experienced the heat. The sad part is with the weather being in the 30's right now I dont know if it will get hot enough, but he did say it doesnt matter if its not until spring just get it there while its hot so he can claim to have sat on it.

He also told me that he has some stuff somewhere in the shop that is basically like the spray foam insulation that he could put underneath my seat which wouldnt let as much heat through. Personally, i dont find the seats that comfortable anyways, but at the time cant drop for an aftermarket seat, which i will now have to do come spring time, suggestions? He said an aftermarket seat may help and he would put the foam under that for me.

Also, apparently Honda told him to tell me to stop using regular gas and use the better gas, which he said i already did. They then told him to tell me to stop running such high RPM's, and he rightfully assumed I dont and told them that and then they basically said too bad. Apparently they once had a kid who was going 70 MPH in 2nd gear and that caused it to get hot, that kind of insulted my intelligence if for them to assume i would regularly run that high.

Sorry for the book here, just thought Id fill everyone one.