New 6th Gen owner from Texas.

Hello all!
Picked up an 09 with all the factory goodies from the show room floor. Tires, fluids and all.
Po added frame sliders and led lamps in the head lights, otherwise stock.
Got to say, I’m loving this bike! Was looking into an adventure style after selling my dual sport but found this “diamond in the rough” and couldn’t pass it up.
Tires were so old so a proper test ride wasn’t in the books. So I took it up the street and back. Rear brakes were locking up and had a clunk up front but felt good and tight otherwise. After researching the machine, I decided to go ahead and buy it anyways, figuring I could work out the bugs fairly quickly.
And that I did.
New fluids, cleaned up calipers and headlamp knocking around in the housing secured to solution the clunk.
330 miles yesterday in stock form and I was very impressed with its capabilities and comfort. I thought I might try to flip this thing, but I do believe it will hang with me for a good while.
Meet Batman. (Per my 2 year old)




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Welcome to the World. You will find we are a pretty good bunch...so long as nurse Gertrude is diligent with dispensing of our meds and we get the right meds. Otherwise, all hell can break loose.

Good on you for posting the photo straight up. We do like pix here.

What was it that was causing your rear brake to lock up?

 

Hi Randy,
Lol! Totally understand. Thanks for the welcome.
I love pics too and honestly, i waited for a decent cleaned up one that wasn’t in my filthy garage to post one up.

Regarding my brakes, I honestly can’t say specifically. I feel it was the guide pins, though. They were pretty seized and there was a fair amount of crud built up around the caliper and pad pins in general.
I lubed and cleaned all moving parts as well as the rear brake pedal.
I’m still going to drain and bleed it all and look into the MC’s to make sure it’s all top.
But so far so good, as is.
Bike had 6300 miles from original owner then parked until a year ago and the second owner only put 100 miles on it. I bought it two weeks ago and have put 930 miles on it so far.
Brakes haven’t stuck again yet.


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Welcome to the MadHouse Snapster.

Kudos for adding a photo with your first post.

That is a very stealthy looking VFR which now its being used regularly should provide many miles of smiles. Batman - I like it!

Did you have a chance to speak to the previous owner to understand why so few miles?

These bikes do have history with charging system failures - typically the stator can short out or the RR can go mad killing the battery or other components depending on what diode fails. Its not really an "if" but "when" a 6th gen charging system will go bad.

So a low cost safety measure is to consider adding a cheapo digital volt meter (sort which shows volts as numbers which you can get on the Bay for very small money). This won't prevent charging system failures, but it won't take long before you get to know normal numbers. Then if you see the volts soar or drop through the floor it will at least give you a chance to head for some place safe before the energy remaining in the battery gets drained and the bike ends up stranded roadside.

Take care ATGATT


SkiMad

 

Thank you.
I did talk to the Po about it. He mentioned having never ridden before this bike and it kind of scared him. That and he is engaged and his other half despises motorcycles.
I was a little skeptical after the possibly cliche stories, but the bike is very clean and seemed to be sorted out in all the primary areas.
The original owner however, ended up losing his wife and started driving trucks and never had the time for it anymore. So it sat.
I appreciate the heads up about the volt meter! That is very good to know, and already a good reason as to why I joined this forum.
I will heed that advice. Although, I will be nervous the whole time now...





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Welcome Snapster! When I bought my 09, it only had 346 miles on it and was 2 years old at the time I bought it (2011). I was definitely skeptical about it's history but the dealer who sold it gave me the full story of why it was traded in and on their sales floor.

Seems their client is one who likes to buy and sell "toys", he'll buy something, uses it until the "shininess" wears off and then upgrades/trades in for something new and different. In this case, he had a pre-06 version prior to the 09 and he didn't like the V-TEC engagement RPM on the latter version, so he traded it in for a brand new BMW S1000RR. His loss was my gain. I put twice as many miles than it had when I got it in the first week I owned it!

For me, my 09 is a keeper and I even added an 01 to keep her company. I'm up to 89k miles now and had a few little glitches to deal with, namely a dead battery and a Stator/RR failure, other than that pretty much mostly trouble free miles in both touring, commuting and a little sport/track riding. The latter is what my 5 Gen is really meant for but the 09 gets to stretch her legs on the track and canyons once in a while.

Do the proper maintenance and look into the Stator/RR (Search the forum for "The Drill) and get that resolved early on and I'm sure you'll be putting many miles on your bike too.

 

Welcome to the forum, you will find a wealth of information here. Nice looking bike, I also noticed the price of gas in your area! Sure beats the hell out of the $3.159 I pay in the bay area of California. I had a 2003 before moving up the 2014. Well aware of the electrical problems with older VFR's. Keep an eye on the high current connectors, the 30 amp fuse holder by the battery and the 3 pin connector in the stator/voltage regulator (on the right side of the bike). Look for any discoloration from heat buildup. Follow the drill but a quick check of these connectors will be a good indicator. If you are in a dry part of Texas that will help with corrosion.
I used an emory board trimmed down to fit in the connectors to burnish the contact surfaces for optimum contact. Notice the slight discoloration starting to appear.

 

I like the all black VFR, reminds me of my CBR. To make it even more murdered out, you could powder coat the foot pegs and rear sets....to me it just end up blending the whole bike together. Love it though as she sits right now

 

Must be nice to buy something, wait for the shininess to wear off and grab something new again. Lol.
After researching these bikes, I feel like I want to get an older one too..
I need to thin th heard and settle down, though. I think I’ve found a long timer so far.

I will def take a look at the electrical next. Now that I found what the Drill was all about. I didn’t understand why it was being mentioned at first.
I have some saves now and ready to roll when the time comes.

I’m happy to hear the positives on the 09 model. thanks for the welcome



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Thank you.
I will def be looking into the elec area. So far the Po only messed with the headlights. I’m not too happy with the way they connect so I will clean it up a bit. I’m an electrician by trade and wires are usually things I like to keep nice and clean. So thanks for the heads up about the issues!
So far so good, though. I’m looking forward to many more miles on this guy. It’s been a while since I had a sport styled bike and was afraid of the forward posture bringing up unwelcome back pains again. But she’s treating me very well so far. Much better than my baby Harley 1200 has in the been. She was just a fling, though. Thought I’d try something new. Def happy to be back to vfr’s style and ergos.


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Thanks bud.
Yeah, it’s crossed my mind a couple times. Between that and cleaning up the tail section. But honestly, I just want to ride it and not alter just yet. I spend way too much time doing mods to my bikes in the garage as it is.. wife asked me do I ever ride them or just take them apart all the time?
Unless they can be removed and the bike operates without them.
Darnit



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That’s the only nice thing about WI winters....we get 6 months where the only thing we can do with our bikes is work on them in the garage. If I could ride it year round it would be hard for me to take time off the road to work on her.