what did you do to your vfr today?

Unfortunately I didn't do one of my usual fun rides but instead changed the water pump and thermostat on the 09 VFR. The water pump was leaking and I figured I might as well take care of the thermostat while I'm at it.



Tricky little bastard to get to!



And while I was it here I decided to remove the PAIR valve stuff along with installing the block off plates I've had since I can't remember!

 

Might as well if you're in there. Let me know what you think of the PAIR valves being removed in relation to the power band/throttle.

Mine is already done but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

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Treated myself to a set of Andreani fully adjustable fork cartridges back in August for my birthday,finally got around to installing them. (Pic 1)
Got them on Ebay from Omnia Racing in Italy,cost was $465 + $80 shipping. Onmia Racing requests that your rider weight in full gear be added in the seller notes section so they can set up the cartridges for you with the correct spring rate.

These fork cartridges are preload adjustable on both the left and right forks. (Gold adjuster screws in Pic 2) Then all the compression damping is controlled in the left side fork cartridge and all the rebound damping is controlled in the right side fork cartridge. (Silver adjuster screws in Pic 2)
Sounds kinda counterintuitive but that's exactly the way the Ohlins Road & Track fork cartridges that I have for my Ducati 900SS work.

Most aftermarket fork cartridges are the "drop in" type,meaning that you simply remove your old fork cartridges and just "drop in" the new ones.
These Andreani replacement fork cartridges require just a bit more work however. On the stock 6th gen. preload adjustable only fork cartridges Honda used a top out spring (Yellow arrow Pic 3) to cushion the rebound on full fork extension.
In order to make the top out spring function properly they had to add a top out spring stopper bushing inside each of the fork tubes. Inside the inner end of the fork tube they milled a shoulder and then inserted the top out spring stopper bushing and various spacers. They then rolled the end of the fork tube over to capture those parts securely inside the fork tube.

The Andreani fork cartridges do not use a top out spring. In the instruction sheet that came with the fork cartridges Andreani clearly states that they want you to remove the top out spring stopper bushings and related spacers from your fork tubes. Sounds like a hard job but it's not.
Providing you have access to a lathe it takes all of a coupla four five minutes to do,just mill that rolled edge off and you're good to go. Easy peasy. You can see the handful of parts that I removed from the fork tube on the front rail of the lathe. (Pic 4)

Pic 5 is a just crappy pic of the disassembled forks on my work bench ready to be assembled. Pic 6 is an overhead view of the fork cartridges installed with the adjustable fork top caps being the only visual clue that you've done anything special to your forks.

Now as you would expect with budget type suspension you don't get all of the niceties reserved for top shelf suspension. For instance the compression and rebound valves in these Andreani fork cartridges are 20mm in diameter as opposed to the much larger 30mm diameter Superbike valves in my 900SS Ohlins R&T fork cartridges. Additionally the preload,compression,and rebound adjusters are all infinite type,meaning there are no dedicated "clicks" that are heard or felt while making adjustments.

That said you are getting quite a bit for your money as the adjustment windows for both compression and rebound are fairly large,found that out when I installed the forks and tried to compress them for the first time.

During assembly Andreani wants you to back the preload adjusters off to their softest setting and then screw them in 4 turns,this is your starting preload setting,they then want you to finish assembling the forks.
After installing the forks I pressed down on the front end of the bike and I was surprised to find that my forks barely compressed at all,they didn't rebound much either. It was then I realized that both the compression and rebound adjusters were screwed in to their firmest settings. You're supposed to back both of them off 2 turns to start. Guess I probably shoulda read the last page of the instruction sheet before I installed the forks. :redface:

I decided to experiment a bit to see what the adjustment windows of the compression and rebound were. Backed the rebound adjuster off to full soft then turned the compression adjuster in to full firm and pressed down on the front end,then backed the compression adjuster off to full soft and pressed down on the front end again. Did the same test with the rebound adjuster and found that the adjustment windows are fairly large.
At full firm on either of the adjusters the suspension feels darn near locked up,at full soft on either of the adjusters the suspension feels marshmallowy soft. You get a little over 4 turns from full firm to full soft on both adjusters and I noticed that small adjustments on either adjuster made noticeable changes to the suspension feel. Keep in mind my friends that this was all static testing done in the garage,the real test will be out on the road.

 

Detailers in the larger markets usually stick to either cars and the like and bikes. Larger car dealers usually have a full time employee whereas bike detailers if they are good have several dealerships the do work for. The show bike guys much of the time do their own.

I have doubts about the compound actually breaking down by adding water. What is going on is dilution.

Addressing the swirl marks reappearing using the 3M compounds, are you finishing the job by waxing everything? I am not a "professional" detailer but I have found that a final two coats of one of the polymer "waxes" is a good idea. The first coat being applied at will and the second coat at least two days later allowing the polymerization to occur.

The van needs more than a little TLC..

 

A good thing. Otherwise your posting of selfies may have been curtailed.

 

Might have been good to get high off that ...

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Will do. I hope to commute this week so I'll be able to see what the difference is, if any. Next step is to get the set of cat-less headers installed and then a proper Dyno-tune. I guess I'm just a procrastinator at heart, or I just ride too much to stop and do it. Haven't figured that out yet, but the miles seem to keep piling on! :wink:

 

Atta boy!!

How do you remove the snorkel and done the flapper mod as well?

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After seeing this OOTV , smh, Love what the VFR is, but man looking at what you have going on there makes me wonder if Honda could have made it any crazeir to work on. So typical of them even their Acuras are no better.

 

I did but returned it back to stock, I felt no real difference other than more intake noise.

 

Interesting ... I noticed on my '02 it helped smooth the VTEC transition and make the throttle a little less snatchy off the line.

 

Note that I have a Power Commander that does that too. Before the power commander, I had a lot of back firing. The bike came with the Two Bros exhaust that's on there now and before the Power Commander I did the snorkel and flapper mod but not the pair mod. Neither cured the problem, so PCV was purchased.

My original plan is to have my bike tuned for two modes, one for maximum horse power and one for maximum MPG. The PCV has the ability to load two maps and toggle between them with a contact closure to one of the inputs. I already have a toggle switch setup but never got around to the other two things, headers and Dyno tune. Right now I have the stock map and one I grabbed from VFRD. It's actually a very nice map, just not setup 100% for my bike.

I run the downloaded VFRD map 99% of the time and just now and then switch over to see how different the bike runs but usually switch back after a tankful of gas.

 

Awwww sweet. I'd love to do the exhaust on m bike, but I need to invest in suspension first.

 

Out of all the mods I did on any of my bikes, suspension was the best ROI! In hind sight I think I should have done that first.

 

Don't feel lonely mate. I've been there and done that!

 

Finally got the carb bowls to stop leaking on my vf7f, initially I swapped out the ancient factory formed rings for standard (#141 or#151 iirc) o-rings. Even though I cleaned things up (didn't flat plate either side due to various bits in the way) and tightened the bolts up properly (later slightly over tight) I still had leaks on 2 carbs and some seepage on another.
Pulled the rack and rechecked all = still leaked.

3rd times a charm I guess, as the final round went to me
With the help of a nice thin coat of Honda Bond case half sealant all is leak free.

Also pulled the inserts out of the factory cans, hacked the glass pack portion off flush with the inside of the mounting flange. Reinserted them using stainless self tapping screws through the rivet holes.

Not really much louder but at least let's you hear the exhaust note at moderate rpm and throttle settings. When you open her up she definitely has a bit of growl to her at under 8K rpm and a bit of a scream above there.

Now in the evenings when the air is good and cool 60-65℉, and the road is still hot what was slightly rich jetting comes into its element and it can and will break traction in the lower gears particularly coming out of corners. Not capable of power slides (that I know of or care to find out) but enough power for my tastes and skill or lack thereof.

Regards
Db

 

Buddy of mine bought his first street bike. Brought it back to my house to check out. Ended up changing my oil and filter before cruizing around the hood. Split ways after lunch and i was wondering how far i'd make it before having to switch to reserve. Ran out of gas in a round-about and couldn't start it. LOL, had to push it around before i could exit. Took longer than expected for the gas to start flowing. Didn't help that i messed with the choke and made it worse. Finally got home and checked on the bike later in the night to find this.


Looks like it's from the over flow tube. Now need to find out why.

 

First thing to replace would be the radiator cap; if it doesn't hold pressure, the coolant will boil in the engine and the steam will push coolant out of the overflow. That is the cheapest reason for the soiled VF500 (assuming no stray dogs wandered in and took a leak on your bike...).

 

Terry beat me to it. My 09 did this a few months back. All other indicators pointed to a faulty cap. Even if I was not able to test the other items, fan, thermostat, the cost of a rad cap would have been worth trying.

 

Well yesterday our container of household effects from Australia was delivered to the storage unit here in Cambridge NZ so I spent a couple of hours looking for my Givi rack and 2 Bros exhaust that I took off my old 2004

I found all the Givi stuff but only some of the 2 Bros exhaust ,So today I fitted the Givi rack and box to my 2008 ..... so much easier to go to the grocery store now and I have somewhere to stuff my helmet and jacket when going to an interview

Now back to the storage unit to find the rest of the Exhaust bits

Might have to go the long way via the ranges nice little 200 km ish loop