VFR anyone?

[Scotsrich]

I like that but I don’t like the angular trend of modern bikes so I’m biased a bit.

The big no no is the silver stripe. I can’t even see a reason for it being there.

But overall I’d ride that.

[Felix]

It was nice till i seen the back end from an other angle

https://rocket-garage.blogspot.com/2020 ... racer.html

[mangocrazy]

Yes, getting halfway decent body panels is the killer. Fortunately the panels on my 1988 (RC24) VFR are good, but I've seen some absolute shit advertised for silly money.

[mangocrazy]

Well I'm either having a funny turn or I'm the fly in the ointment, because I think it looks better than the standard bike.
That model VFR looked too much like an RF900 and for some reason I always thought they were trying to be poor mans NR750s and it put me off.

It also reminded me that I had a Vtec 800 that I'd almost managed to erase from my memory and this bought it all back up again.

The RC36 II at least had a coherent and integrated design, even if it did borrow a few styling cues from the NR750.This purple monstrosity is all over the shop, style (or lack of) wise.

Agree about the VTEC 800 - shouldn't even be called a VFR. To my mind Honda started to lose the plot when they went to the 800 and totally lost it with the VTEC.

[v8-powered]

I put 84000 on my 800 VTEC, found it pretty much the perfect commuter.
A lot of the hunting problems came from the TB's not being sync'd correctly, once set up well it was great bike.

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[KungFooBob]

IIRC the later bikes got an improved v-tech with a smoother transition, but I think by then they'd got that reputation.

Same with the Varadero, the early ones drank fuel and only had 5 gears. The later ones had EFI and a 6 speed box, but the fuel consumption thing had already stuck.

Also didn't the V-Tec get a bad rep for servicing costs, the valve check was an arm and a leg at a homda stealership?

[The Spin Doctor]

IIRC the later bikes got an improved v-tech with a smoother transition, but I think by then they'd got that reputation.

[ISTR what they did was change the programming so that the v-tech mechanism - which essentially switched between a low lift and high lift cam - kicked in and turned off again at different revs - that stopped the hunting between the two at one particular point in the rev band. ]

Just fact-checked myself... I'm thinking of the cars, there.... in fact the VTEC on the VFR actually went from one inlet valve to two. Presumably it was lighter and cheaper.

I rode one of the originals and found the solution on the motorway was simply to go down a gear - not ideal but it worked.

My buddy has one of the late model VTECs, and to be honest, when I rode it, I didn't even notice it was there... unlike the bike's weight.

Also didn't the V-Tec get a bad rep for servicing costs, the valve check was an arm and a leg at a homda stealership?

He just set an afternoon aside and did it himself after the warranty period was up.

But here's a question for everyone... which bikes have some kind of variable valve timing at the moment? It's pretty common in cars, but I'm struggling to think of any bikes. I'm probably having a senior moment. Help me out.

[KungFooBob]

Ducati DVT.

It's on the Multistrada 1200, dunno about any others in the range.

BMW R's have it too, Shiftcam.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I often wondered what the point of the VTEC system was - not how it worked or the general idea, but why Honda fitted it to the VFR.

I've done quite a lot of miles in a Civic Type-R, a car famous for the lightswitch like VTEC change. That car already did the "Change up at one rev, change down at a different one" thing so I'm surprised if Honda didn't do that immediately on the VFR. In fact I'd be surprised if they hadn't done that even if they hadn't already made millions (literally) of VTEC cars because it's such an obvious thing to do. Any sort of control system like that is gonna have different set points for 'up' and 'down' because the hunting problems would be seen a mile away.

I think I might have answered my own Q on "why did they bother?" when I made that "millions of cars" comment

But here's a question for everyone... which bikes have some kind of variable valve timing at the moment? It's pretty common in cars, but I'm struggling to think of any bikes. I'm probably having a senior moment. Help me out.

I suspect there's just much less need on a bike.

Cars have it so you can have more bottom end while retaining a top end (or vice versa, depending on how you look at it!) and for emissions. Both of those things are much less of a problem on a bike - although TBF the main reason BMW have it, AIUI, is for the latter of those reasons.

[Kneerly Down]

I guess Ebay will chuck up a few results but it's something to be aware of when buying a bike to change back to standard, plus you need to know how the wiring has been altered as that can be a bloody mission to put back to standard.

Thankfully, the wiring isn't too complicated on an RC36.

On the plus side, with the mods, the reg/rec might be getting a bit more airflow.

[mangocrazy]

On the plus side, with the mods, the reg/rec might be getting a bit more airflow.

There speaks the voice of experience...

After having not one but two reg/recs fail on me, I swapped to a Shindengen MOSFET jobbie and relocated it from under the seat...

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[Kneerly Down]

On the plus side, with the mods, the reg/rec might be getting a bit more airflow.

There speaks the voice of experience...

Painful experience.
On a ride to Bristol for work I parked up and found boiling battery acid was spitting onto my trousers due to the reg/rec massively overcharging it.
Thought my legs were a bit painful because of the length of the ride.
However the battery acid eat through both my overtrousers and my suit trousers.
Thankfully the Bristol Marriott had plenty of water in its bathrooms and Bristol has shops that sell trousers.
Oh, and I escaped with only minor burns.

[Felix]

I had a R&R go on me leaving Austria almost at Lake Constance. Managed to limp back to the ferry port at Le Havre and ride on. 100% non starter when getting off so luckily i took out AA 5* and got a car to go home in. It must have pissed down for 90% on the trip back to Scotland so thank got it broke down

[mangocrazy]

On the plus side, with the mods, the reg/rec might be getting a bit more airflow.

There speaks the voice of experience...

Painful experience.
On a ride to Bristol for work I parked up and found boiling battery acid was spitting onto my trousers due to the reg/rec massively overcharging it.
Thought my legs were a bit painful because of the length of the ride.
However the battery acid eat through both my overtrousers and my suit trousers.
Thankfully the Bristol Marriott had plenty of water in its bathrooms and Bristol has shops that sell trousers.
Oh, and I escaped with only minor burns.

Ouch, battery acid is evil stuff - even more so if it's boiling...

One of my R/Rs failed high, the other low. The one that failed high was putting out over 17 volts and boiled the battery dry in Austria (what is it about Austria?). Thankfully I became aware of it at a service station when I stopped for fuel and the bike wouldn't start. After refilling the battery with distilled water it came up to charge and I was able to carry on, topping up as I went. The other one either under-charged or stopped charging altogether and stranded me in the Peak District. So after that I decided to get serious with it as detailed above.

[Druid]

I did the PC fan mod on my first VFR which seemed to do the trick. The second one had an uprated model with the cooling fins similar to the one above, again I had no problems with it

[mangocrazy]

I did the PC fan mod on my first VFR which seemed to do the trick. The second one had an uprated model with the cooling fins similar to the one above, again I had no problems with it

Yes, I've heard good things about the fan mod. But to be honest, Honda could scarcely have chosen a worse location for it than under the seat - pretty much zero ventilation or cooling. Having said that the worst was probably Ducati with the 916. They mounted it next to the battery tray which was bolted to the front cylinder. So you got no cooling but heat AND vibration. Failure rates were through the roof allegedly.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Bah...just you wait until you get an EV where the entire engine power has to go through a solid state inverter

[mangocrazy]

Bah...just you wait until you get an EV where the entire engine power has to go through a solid state inverter

I'll be waiting a long time, I suspect...

[Druid]

I did the PC fan mod on my first VFR which seemed to do the trick. The second one had an uprated model with the cooling fins similar to the one above, again I had no problems with it

Yes, I've heard good things about the fan mod. But to be honest, Honda could scarcely have chosen a worse location for it than under the seat - pretty much zero ventilation or cooling. Having said that the worst was probably Ducati with the 916. They mounted it next to the battery tray which was bolted to the front cylinder. So you got no cooling but heat AND vibration. Failure rates were through the roof allegedly.

Both mine were later models than yours, a 94 and a 95 and the reg/ rec were under the right hand side panel so they had a bit more cooling anyway.