New VFR rider, battery / electrical / starting question

Hey everybody. Just picked up this '01 VFR800 last week, 25k mi, roughed up plastics, for $1800. Loving the bike so far (moved up from an 82 CB450, so the technology and power differences are stark!)

Here's a nudie pic of her. Gonna ride naked until I find a good set of fairings and hardware:


I do got a question, though. One day when I came home for a short ride, I kind of surprised myself when I put the kickstand down while in gear, and the engine shut off. I quickly figured out that it must have some sort of side-stand kill switch. But, when I went to start it up again, the starter started to turn, but then stopped. I shrugged it off, and rode the next day onward for a week without the problem showing up again.

Today, I was out at the DMV motorcycle course practicing the offset cone weave, and I was feathering the clutch before going for another run when the engine stalled. I went to start it up, and the same thing happened. At first, I was worried it was a heat thing, because I remembered it did the same thing while it was still warm after a ride, and this time, all the low gear, low speed work would have generated a good amount of heat too (oil temp read 213* F).

Anyway, I waited for about 20 minutes, and after no avail, I was lucky enough to run into a dude who had some cables. He let the bike charge a little, and then jump started me. It ran fine all the way home, no stalls at lights, no rough idling, no power loss, etc.

The guy said that it may be my voltage regulator, going on to say that he heard these bikes, like his Blackbird, had voltage regulator problems. Do you guys know if that could be the case? Or does this sound more consistent with an old-battery issue? The last owner was the original owner, so for all I know, this could be the original battery.'

Any help would be awesome, thanks in advance!

 

Welcome the VFRW. As for the problem, if very well could be the RR. There are tons of posts in here, if there is an electrical problem to be had it is in the archives somewhere, just do a search and you will find something. Do you have a shop manual, if not then I would recommend you get one. Lots of trouble shooting tips that will help you out as well as walk you through testing the RR.

 

Doh! I've spent too much time on forums to have neglected the "Search" feature. Shoulda known better before asking. Thanks for suggesting it politely

Good to hear from another Pacific Northwesterner too.

 

Ok another question about 12v systems. I was practicing the same low speed stuff for maybe an hour, and the bike wouldn't start again after maybe the 5th time of starting her up and. Riding at <3000 rpm.

I just got a brand new yuasa battery on Friday. I'm wondering if since I'm not hitting thr 5k rp mark , the charging system isn't getting a chance to krrp the voltage up. Is this possible? Only happens whenever I've been practicing the offset cone weave for an hour or so with intermittent shutoffs between runs

 

Hi VFR 800 Riders: I had the same problem with charging even when I recently purchased a brand new Interstate Battery on my 1999 Honda VFR 800. One day I rode over 2 hours road trip, and the next day I was unable to start my bike. You would think after riding for 2 hrs that the battery should be fully charged. The problem is in the regulator / rectifier. Use the multi-meter and check the voltage across the battery. When it’s idle, you should get a voltage across the battery terminals of 13.0-13.5VDC. Then when you rev up to around 5,000RPM, the reading should increase around 14.0-14.5VDC. If the voltage drops and goes the other way when you rev up, then the problem is in your R/R unit.

If you remove the seat, you should able to see the printed on the R/R. The original R/R came from the factory was the SH579A-11, with over 80% fail rate. Later on an improvement was introduced SH-689DA; it was better but still failed at 25% rate. Now there is a latest fix for R/R problem that was introduced by a company in located in Connecticut with a new R/R Heavy Duty [10-125H]. The “H” stands for Heavy Duty; it must have that printed on the R/R unit. This should solve all the problems with battery charging and burned out wires that the VFR 800 is prone to have.

Please check out the company website and you can order from there:

www.regulatorrectifier.com/catalog/...800F-Regulator-Rectifier-Heavy-Duty]Regulator Rectifier VFR800F Honda

 

I had the same problem during my Advanced MSF course last year. The battery just wasn't charging while I was farting around idling and riding very slow all day long, although if all was up to snuff, it should have. I just put a new stator, RR, and battery in, and repaired some wiring and connectors. For the first time since I got the bike (used), the readings are exactly what they should be when off, at idle, and at 5000 RPM. Keeping my fingers crossed, because I'm fed up with this engineering deficiency.

 

Knife*,
I'm looking to buy a '99 VFR and I was wondering how replacing the R/r stator, battery, and maintaing the electrical connections worked out for you over the past year? How often do they go bad and how much does all that cost?