VFR Thread, How many of us have 'em?

omg look at those horrible chicken strips :-(

Source for hugger?

Powerbronze

send on a small touch screen by a guy with fat fingers

Mine made a sketchy friend...

After last weeks snow and temperatures below -5°C (during the day...) I thought the riding season over. But yesterday brought us another beautiful autumn day, so I went for a quick ride to Chamonix-Mont Blanc.
It was wonderful.
A bit chilly on the higher passes, but I was still riding in my leathers without extra jacket and summer gloves. Not at al bad for November in the Alps!

Hope there will be some more possibilities for rideouts tis year.

VFR? We have some of them last October in Robbinsville, NC:

What is it about white third gens that is so perfect?

Really good catch.
That 's a awesome baby:

Well, perfect except for two things:
White Wheels are an abomination, but even that offense does not justify caging one on a trailer.

HEATHEN! BE GONE!


(they do suck balls to clean)

I'm with this guy. I love my white wheels and they get a lot of compliments.

Yes, but as an owner of an '86 I can testify that they are imfuckingpossible to keep clean.

I found a set of CBR1100XX LSL clamps (same fork tube diameter) on E-bay a long time ago (before I actually owned the VFR -- I mean, you never know, right?) for cheap and made them work with a bit of fiddling. I used ST1100 throttle cables (~2') longer, and rerouted the rest. The only one that was a bit troublesome was the choke cable, but with a bit of head scratching I made it work.

Thanks for the info. I'll keep it in mind if my lower back ever forces me to transform my bike into an ST870.

A friend of mine has a 2000 vfr. We are currently on a cross country trip and he has been complaining about a wobble at 45 mph. The tire has been balanced so its not that. We are thinking that its easier the head bearing is lose, or the bike just doesn't like the tire which is a shinko raven 009. The head feels tight when rocking it back and forth but could it be a little lose? Any help would be great as we have over 4000 miles left in our trip.

Could also be caused by bad front wheel bearings.

It spins fine and when the front is suspended it doesn't seem to have slop.

Is this wobble through the handlebars when decelerating & when he has one or both hands off the handlebars? Both the front & rear wheels on motorcycles have a natural resonant flutter frequency, like a supermarket trolly wheel that flaps like crazy at certain speeds. Its easy to envisage the front wheel flutter rotating about the axis of the steering head, but also the rear wheel can do the same thing rotating around the steering head, but as the distance from the steering head to the rear wheel contact point is much greater the rear wheels flutter frequency is lower. The tricky part is when the natural flutter frequency of the front wheel becomes a harmonic of the rear wheels frequency. As the mass of the rear wheel & its lever ( basically all the motorcycle from the stem rearwards) has considerably more inertia the rear wheels attempt to flutter excites the front wheel into flutter mode. All bikes do this, but the road speed at which this occurs can be modified by design. The usual option is to design this flutter harmonic point to occur at low road speeds (30 to 45 mph for those that like feudal measures) and use the rider as an organic steering damper. Coast down through this speed range on any brand new, bog stock bike with both hands off the bars & you will spot the build & decay of harmonic steering flutter

As I said before all bikes have a point of harmonic flutter, so why is this a problem for your friend now & not before?

Things that will make the flutter point more obvious include tyres worn flat in the middle from too much slabbing, adding weight to the rear of the bike especially rigid hard panniers & double especially a loaded top box, rear suspension with too much sag, too low tyre pressures.

So start with the obvious. tell him to ride with both hands on the bars... death grip not necessary.
Cast a critical eye over how much crap he is carrying on the bike... or post a piccy so we can all waggle a finger at him.
Set tyre pressures @ 36psi front 42 psi rear from cold
Set preload so the bike sags 35 mm @ the rear with rider & all luggage installed. My guess a 12 year old VFR with stock shock & spring this will be impossible, but let us know how much sag their is now.
Check condition of tyres. Never ridden on Shinkos but any tyre worn flat in the centre from slabbing will cause problems long before its at legal limits.

Good luck & get back to us with how its going.

Thank you for the response.

The wobble is there when he rides with both hands on the bars, it can be while he accelerates, holds a steady speed or starts to slow. Yes there is a lot of crap on the bike and that's what I figured was causing it initially. We removed all the gear though and it's still there.

We have already set the tire pressure to what you suggest as we'll as looking for flat spots on the tire. Sag is all the way up.....but there is still probably more like 42mm of sag.

Lose head bearing maybe? What about raising the foks 1-2mm to see if that changes anything? We will be in San Diego until Friday morning and hope to solve it by then.

When I encountered similar symptoms on my '94, it was a similar situation: I was loaded for a trip when I first noticed it, but could make it happen even after unloading. Adding pre-load (stock shock) helped, as did unloading the bike. What finally resolved the problem was replacing the steering head bearings.

After removing the bearings from the bike, I re-assembled them in my hands, and could feel the slight notch in each one. While they were on the bike however, I could feel nothing but smooth operation.

As above, start with the easy stuff first, but I believe that your primary suspect should be steering-head bearings. They're cheap and easy to replace, provided you have the right tools and something to support the bike with while you've got the front end off. I've still got the special socket for the nut, and the pin-spanner wrenches; if they're required on your 2000, you're welcome to the use of them. I'd offer work-space here in Morro Bay, but I don't even have a driveway anymore.

Good luck with it, and tell us how it goes!