Big Bird

Ribrickulous

Ribrickulous

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Joined
Jun 8, 2020
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Location
Brooklyn, NY, USA
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And I couldn’t be happier.

2000 Honda VFR 800 FI

The last generation with gear driven cams and the first generation with fuel injection. A real sweet spot.

It’s actually the same model/year/color that I toured Europe with a couple of years ago.

Lots of plans for it:

- Repsol fairings / tank repaint (going to find an eBay donor)
- bar risers
- New tires (these are from 2009 and desperately need to be replaced)
- New steering bearings… the bars try and fall into turns and you really need to fight them to stay straight.
- Cargo rack/backrest… I have material to fab one up, or might look for a used Givi setup.
- all the regular maintenance a new-to-you bike needs… brake pads, fluids, etc etc etc.
 
Yellow VFR, the fastest colour available.
I have the same model and colour, my fourth 5th Gen VFR (including the 50% ownership in a salvage bike.). Having owned a Blue, Red, Silver and Yellow it is likely my life would be complete finding an afffordable green and black pair.😂

Ypu’ve got a nice example there.
 
Nice bike! I am not familiar with anything that new LOL! A good friend of mine I think has the same model with the gear driven cams and I believe the FI on a early 2000 model. He is also selling it. It has clip ons which is a no go for me with my wrists and lower back. That bike looks like it has a more conventional upright bar set and something that I could deal with in my old age.
Could you post a picture of the bars and if they are stock or an aftermarket set. My 1983 CB1100F is going away next year, as I can't deal with the clip on bars and forward lean of the riding position.
 
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Darryl said:
Did you just buy the VFR from a guy in New Jersey named Hamid?
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Small world! Yes! Great guy. Are you in his moto club?

Flyin900 they’re the stock setup - I’m going to add bar risers, just deciding how best to do it. I definitely want a more upright position, though.

Helibars are *ridiculously* priced.
 
Flyin900 said:
Nice bike! I am not familiar with anything that new LOL! A good friend of mine I think has the same model with the gear driven cams and I believe the FI om a early 2000 model. He is also selling it. It has clip ons which is a no go for me with my wrists and lower back. That bike looks like it has a more conventional upright bar set and something that I could deal with in my old age.
Could you post a picture of the bars and if they are stock or an aftermarket set. My 1983 CB1100F is going away next year, as I can't deal with the clip on bars and forward lean of the riding position.
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I’ll get you a better photo come Sunday when I’m back in the garage with it
 
Thank you. They are clip ons then with a good rise and pull back. That is interesting.
 
convertibars.com

Honda VFR-800 Interceptor (00-01) Bike Specific Kit

Convertibars Bike Specific Kit for Honda VFR-800 Interceptor (00-01)
convertibars.com convertibars.com

Mr Yellow (no, I have *not* named my motorcycle!) sports a pair of Convertibars and despite the cramped VFR cockpit they are now adjusted to all-day-comfort. Buell (lower) foot pegs and Sargeant seat make it a most comfortable place to watch the trees whizz by.

convertibars allow for an up/down, in/out adjustment, as well as a range of rotation of the wrists. Brilliant.
 
Ribrickulous said:
Small world! Yes! Great guy. Are you in his moto club?

Flyin900 they’re the stock setup - I’m going to add bar risers, just deciding how best to do it. I definitely want a more upright position, though.

Helibars are *ridiculously* priced.
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I just got back from 2 1/2 weeks riding around Greece on an AMT trip. Hamid and his wife were on the trip. That is where I met him. He posted a short clip of you riding out of his driveway on the VFR and saying goodbye to his "old friend", the VFR. And yes, he is a great guy.
 
Ha! Send the video my way, I’d love to see it. And yes, both him and his wife are great. And good for you on doing the motorcycle tour! Must’ve been a blast.

We totally ditzed on pulling his license plate off before I rode off. Texted him from the highway exit and he told me just to mail it back to him.

Ended up going back and switching because I hadn’t seen his reply, but he’s a trusting, and trustworthy guy.
 
Ribrickulous said:
Alright, Christ on a cracker. Everything for this bike is expensive. Valve cover gaskets are $50 each, $100 total front and rear o_O
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You know what they say - you can't just afford to buy the Mercedes, you have to be able to own the Mercedes. But as stated above, (I'm sure) it's worth it.
 
The VFR is Peak Honda and the Klingon is Peak VFR. Some accused it of not having character - being too good, but with a Staintune exhaust and the gear driven cams whining any ride is bliss! The only way to improve it is to fit bar risers and a double bubble screen. Enjoy it.
 
1wheeldrive said:
The only way to improve it is to fit bar risers and a double bubble screen. Enjoy it.
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I’m currently going through the heartache of dropping $400 bar risers.

I see what they are, a few pieces of aluminum welded together, but I also know I’ll never get around to fabbing up my own.

Also working through de-linking the brake system. I can’t stand the linked brake setup the way it is right now. Thankfully Mello at VFRWorld worked through details of what MCs to use.

I’m going to build on his work a bit.
 
Ribrickulous said:
Also working through de-linking the brake system. I can’t stand the linked brake setup the way it is right now.
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I've never had the displeasure, but I knew before ever touching it that I wouldn't like it either. When I first read about the idea I thought it was a bad one, but somehow we just can't stop trying to save us from our(poorly educated on how to ride properly)selves. And that idea would try to undo decades of time learning to use both brakes together separately and effectively.
 
Hokay, so I've been able to do some good work on the 5th gen, and it's decided to get uppity despite that.

  • Brakes delinked
    • I tried and tried with the DIY hydraulic lines but could never get them to a perfect spot... too many connections and re-dos, and I just can't rely on something like that out on the road.
    • Cried once to buy once and got custom HEL lines made up. Fab and shipping was pretty quick.
    • Bleeding the front was a nightmare, had to leave the handle compressed for multiple nights to get all the air out of the front, and played around with different size MCs to get the right feel.
      Rears bled very easily, but the pedal still feels a bit stiff. I'm going to try lowering it and see if the extra leverage I can put on it helps.
  • Convertibars
    • Went with these for flexibility and they wound up being great. Had to put longer throttle cables on, but they don't look drastically out of place.
  • Wired up a 12V wireless phone charger and a voltage indicator
  • LED Lights
  • New Steering Bearings
  • New Wheel Bearings
  • New fork seals and fluid
  • All fluids changed
  • New battery
  • Fixed up some loose crimped connections that were causing lighting flicker

Now for the problems, in order of severity:

  • The girlfriend doesn't like the riding position.
    • She says she's too far up, and doesn't have anything to hold on to with the grab bars being behind her, and being too far up and away from me to comfortably hold on.
    • I'm wondering about ordering a custom seat with shaved down foam in the rear to drop her an inch or so, while also solving the issue of the saddle being generally sloped forward and causing me to ride onto the gas tank during heavy braking.
    • I'm hoping adding a rear case with a backrest will help with this also.
  • I need to head back into the steering bearings
    • There's an audible and tactile clunk from the front end when I'm breaking heavy/compressing the forks, or rolling the bike back from a position with compressed forks.
    • I'm assuming this is a steering bearing issue, but I'd almost be happy to be wrong. I had a lot of issues getting the bearings in (maybe why they're coming back to haunt me) and really don't want to go back. Hoping it's just a re-torque.
  • The stator and reg/rec fried this past weekend.
    • The volt meter I installed was humming along happy on startup, but after a few miles it would flutter between 14v+ to battery voltage. I assumed it was just the reg/rec flipping on and off due to heat.
    • Over time it got worse and worse, only partially charging when the coolant temp was below 208, which to me meant that there were frayed stator wires that were shorting as the engine got hotter. New parts are on order, should be a relatively simple swap for both the stator and reg/rec
    • By the end It would only put out about 12.8V running (battery was down to 11.2 at this point) which I assume was a single phase leg outputting.
    • Note - even if this was inevitable given the 5th gen's history, I think I accelerated it by switching to LED lights. Less load on the reg/rec means it's shunting more energy back to ground/the stator, accelerating the overheating.

Lots to do!
 
I think this one only has two, but honestly - no.

It was weirdly easy.

Went for a couple of rides with it hot hot, tipped in all directions, and even after cooling down it never sucked up more than 1/4” of coolant out of the reservoir.

All that said, the bike definitely runs hot. It’ll hit about 235 in traffic.
 
Ribrickulous said:
I think this one only has two, but honestly - no.

It was weirdly easy.

Went for a couple of rides with it hot hot, tipped in all directions, and even after cooling down it never sucked up more than 1/4” of coolant out of the reservoir.

All that said, the bike definitely runs hot. It’ll hit about 235 in traffic.
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I think just about every era of VFR has run hot.
 
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