define "a lot" & how much weight are you putting in there? If you read the guidelines from Honda the proposed weight limit is stupid low.
there have been numerous reports on this both with the vfr and the st1300. if you do some searching on the ST, you will find that they were pulled from the majority of police departments in the UK for just this reason. Honda has never admitted it nor have they been able to track down the problem as it seems to appear randomly. There were some independent studies done and they found many things on this, much of which was related to tires. i will go through my favorites here soon and try to post back what I dug up one day but they did say that certain tread patterns seemed to produce the weave more than others and the tire pressure was the single most important factor here. they also found that suspension settings and weight distribution were quite important as well. i'll post some more for you once i find the links. i looked into it pretty heavy on the ST as i was heavily considering it before i got the VFR.
Never noticed it and I cram mine pretty full. I took a long trip out west with no problem. I could ride with no hands at most any speed and the VFR was steady as a rock.
ST1300 Wobble There is one of the links I dug up on the ST that has a lot of info in it. Check out the ST wiki on this as well... Honda ST1300 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and also dig in the ST owners forums and you'll find a lot of talk about it. ST-Owners.com The reason that I mention the ST so much is that little has ever been said publicly about the VFR and the weave that it can exibit. I'm not sure if it is because that there are less VFRs than ST's or that the VFRs werent used by police so that there were never any real "official" sources to claim this. I will say that what I have read on this shows that it is much more rare to be seen out of the VFR. All of that being said, the VFR and ST do show quite a bit of similarites in aerodynamics aesthetically and their luggage appears to be quite similar as well. The interesting thing about this is that you mention the top case being installed when it happens and out of all the reading that I did on the ST states that it almost exclusively happened when the top case was installed as well. There were even riders that could repeatedly produce the weave only with the top case but could never get it to happen without. Unfortunately I don't think that a definitive solution has ever been found on the issue, for the VFR nor the ST. From all that I have found (and thankfully I have never experienced it) the only thing that can be done is to make sure that your bike is in perfect working order including mechanically, proper suspension, weight distribution, and correct air pressure. If all of that fails then you can try swapping tires and hope that solves your problem. After that I think you will find a lack of things to try and simply be shit out of luck. I seriously hope that you have luck in ridding yourself of this problem and that by sharing this information with you it will give you what you need to take care of it. I also hope that the weave that you are experiencing is simply that, a weave. There are others that have reported that they have had this issue pop up as the dreaded tank slapper with the front wheel rapidly turning from lock to lock and scaring the hell out of them. I've personally had a tank slapper before albeit not from this issue and it is one of the few things that scares the living shit out of me riding a bike. This is one of the reasons that I have been so interested in this topic and done the research that I have in the past other than looking into it while considering my purchase of a new bike. I'm hoping that I never experience the issue either, but to the best of my knowledge I am informed the best I can be on the subject at the current time and will hopefully be able to remedy my problem should it come up. There are a few more links out there regarding what I have linked you to, but most of it all centers around the places I have pointed you to and simply restates.
On a day to day basis, i usually dont carry more than about 2 pounds in weight, i find it usefull for shopping and leaving helmet/ gloves in when leaving the bike, my topbox is about 36 litres and a givi
