Is the 06 That Much Better?

Hi there, I'm new to the forum, and I was wondering if you could give me a little insight on the difference between the early VTEC and the refinements done in 2006. I'm currently shopping for a used Interceptor for city riding and the weekend trip of 200-700 miles. I've been doing some research, and I've been reading that up until 2005, there was a bit of a lurch when the second set of valves kicked in, but that was refined in 2006.

Is there really much of a difference between the early and later bikes, and is the lurch in the earlier bikes really all that bad or irritating? The Interceptor market in my area is a little thin, and if I can expand my choices to include the earlier bikes, I have quite a few good options available.

Thank you for your input. I'm really looking forward to experiencing first-hand why VFR owners love their bikes so much.

 

The bikes from 02 to 08 are mechanically identical. All the changes were made to the electrical and to the ecu programming. Picking up an early 6th gen and swapping the ecu for a late 6th gen plus do the electrical upgrades and you have a late model feel on an early model. They use the same ecu just different firmware. There is a difference between abs ecu and non abs ecu, but the connectors are the same, abs units use a couple extra pins and have programming to talk to the abs controller.

In my opinion, youve set your eyes on a 6th gen, go get it then have fun modding away until its got as much personality as you can stand it having.

A few words of warning, battery over a year or two needs to be changed, electrical connectors need to be taken care of and these bikes are addictive.

 

Hi and welcome to the MadHouse :welcome:

If/when you do take the plunge, please make sure you visit the "introductions" forum and say Hi to the rest of VFRWorld - remembering to add at least one good picture of the bike - as folks may get merciless raggin if they forget!

:focus:

There is no simple answer to your question - as you are also talking about bikes which may not be simply older but can have greatly different condition, servicing and travelled miles.

I tried both types of vtec before opting for the 2006 despite it being significantly more expensive. I guess there is an obvious reason why 2006+ VFRs are not as common on the second hand market - they are very good bikes and few people see a need to sell them. The 800 VFRs then remained pretty much the same until the reworked 2014 models appeared.

I am not sure if the US model specs are exactly the same as we have over in Europe. However it is easy to dismiss the 2006+ change as mostly a cosmetic tweak to the indicator lenses, because the real changes were hidden.

Whilst the main change was the revised vtec thresholds, the linked ABS brake system also got uprated - so it was sporting basically the same set-up as had been race proven on the Fireblade. If you can afford an ABS equipped bike, they are worth the extra - and can be a real life saver. Minor changes were also made to the charging system wiring and at least in Europe, the HISS immobiliser security system became a standard fitment which greatly reduced incidence of theft but not the hefty insurance premiums.

On the earlier bikes quite a few riders had issues at low speeds in heavy traffic where the combination of gearing and lower vtec threshold could give rise to a sudden and unexpected burst of accelleration when filtering through lines of cars. Most riders realised what was happening and simply adjusted their gearing choice to ensure that in traffic the bike operated above (or below) the threshold. On later models the vtec accelleration is still there, but only happens with the bike travelling faster - so far less likely to occur when riders are threading through heavy traffic.

It is worth stressing that there are plenty of vtec riders who were entirely happy with the stock bike. However quite a few of the early vtec owners found the on/off power output was bad enough to justify purchasing some sort of Power Commander system to smooth things out. I have racked up over 80,000km on my 2006 and never felt the need to give my stock bike similar treatment, but again others have - so I guess that one is down to you.

One overlooked impact was very evident on a run with another VFR owner over the Stelvio pass to Lake Garda in Italy. Both bikes were hauling similar luggage (Givi v Honda) but filling station to filling station my 2006 used 8% less fuel than my friends 2004 despite being the lead bike and punching a V4 size hole for my mate to slipstream through for most of the run.

If you get the chance why not try both?



SkiMad

 

Thank you SO much for the well thought out responses. Based on these, I think I will continue looking for a 2006 or newer VFR since I do ride in traffic a lot, and the two places I may be moving will have more stop and go traffic.

 

Only things i liked about the 06+ were the clear lamps front and rear, and the pearl white color in the 2006 year, rest of the bike i can live without.

 

My humble suggestion:

1) Concentrate less on year and more on locating an ABS model of any year and a bike in very good condition.
2) Regardless of year, put a power commander on it. This will smooth out the parking lot on/off throttle lurch as well as smooth out the VTEC transition. I run the famous Cozey map and it is quite good for my 2003 ABS model.

 

I have an 07 abs model, the very few times I have had to make violent stops, the abs system stopped me before impact. Imo it was worth having.

If you dont mind looking outside your area, you can still find bikes in the crate. They are out there.

 

:welcome: to the madness :wave:
Great response all above :thumb:
First what is your budget?
The 06 to 09 would be better choice IMO
ABS is a plus
After market add on even better :wink:

 

I got the best VFR 2006 abs in black. I paid 4500$ it had 4600 miles on it. It came to $5300 with shipping. Not super cheap but there were no VFR around here. I think its a excellent bike-I had to get some bugs out like a dead battery, shitty tires, brake oil and clutch not changed in 8 years. But its got a great engine running perfect. I am changing out the 8 yr old fork oil on Thursday with belray mineral oil HP 29 7w, stock is 10w or 36. a new bike is not wanted because of taxs. These are my mods, 2 bros carbon,carbon canister removed, folding levers, ZB touring, sliders. I ran 89 shell and it sounds very good with a little tech ron and seafoam. sargent seat, heated grips, scotts damper. its got around 5300 on it now. M5 metzler tires.

 

You might like to see another view from Europe ...

http://www.keepbritainbiking.com/blog/touring/

As you can see these 6th Gens have got a pretty solid reputation.



SkiMad

 

Technically speaking, if you found a wrecked viffer with ABS you could add ABS to your bike that didnt have it then? It sounds too easy.

 

It would be an extensive project requiring different harnesses, hardware including the ABS unit and all the lines associated with it, the gauge cluster, speed sensors and rings and on and on. Not worth it in my opinion but hey, if you want to, go for it. I have an ABS unit and computer I can offer you to get started.

 

I guess my old 06 vfr with abs is kind of a rare bike. I wonder how many they made like that. I bet its under a 1000 for that year. Gee its eight years old all ready. next year I pay the lowest taxs on it. I go found some dead head girls with bad feet:smash::team2:

 

I have an 07. No its not better. Still lost my oem stator and rr in 2010 at 25,000 miles and I still needed a power commander and o2 deletes to make it rideable.

 

Not meaning to hijack the thread :sorry:, but did you stop using the rapid bike box? op2:

 

No I'm still using the rapid bike. I just initially used a power commander until I found out about the rapid bike.


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Candy, there are many reasons to loose an r/r. The most commonly overlooked is a failing battery. This leads to larger loads and overheating of the r/r. This if left long enough can kill a stator. Then again a massive short in the battery can kill the r/r and stator practically instantly. Net result is bike is dead and a quick boost may or may not get you on your way.

Farkles can also cause issues if not hooked in correctly.

 

Load on the rr? The more power you can use up, with farkles etc the less power the rr has to short to ground and convert to heat.


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My friend just bought an 07 and we switched bikes the other day. The "smoother" power curve is actually just boring IMO, and he agreed that the vtec jump is more fun with it so abrupt. I think we bought VFRs for the wrong reason

 

Your regulator creates heat a few ways. 1st is to short the output quickly to regulate the voltage. 2nd the current sense shunt creates heat at all times. 3rd electrons passing through any semiconductor makes heat. 4th the rectifier diodes that make the 3 phase AC in to DC create heat.
Now that the basic heat producers are known, consider this:

A battery will take whatever is available when its below approx 80% charged. Since starting a bike can easily drop the battery to below 80% the charging system starts charging the battery with full power. Driving voltage up to 13.8 and as the battery current falls off the voltage is allowed to come down and stabilize. Usually around 13.2 for float charging. This keeps the current in the normal zone and heat created can easily be dissapated.
Now a battery that is going bad takes a long time for the current to drop enough to allow the output voltage to come down. This high current creates more heat than what can be dissapated and starts to degrade the regulator. The diodes are usually speced for 20% more current than what is supposed to be across one half of the bridge at a time. So 35A draw will have 10 or 15A diodes (at any give time two diodes are in use so 35/2=18/2=9, next commonly available diode rating is 10A. There are points in the phase plot where 3 are used but the load is not even across all elements at that point.) When a recifier diode is used close to its max current it makes a lot of heat, further to contributing to early failure.
This is a simple veiw to how these things work, but it is sufficient to outline some misunderstandings. So a simple not enough load and too much load are both correct if qualified.