hello, I'm considering a VFR800 as my next but unsure of compatability

well, I sat on my next possible bike today. The guy that I know with the bike I'm after came by my area so I met up with him and sat on it for a few. it is a comfortable bike I just have to figure out is the forward lean is going to be okay, I talked to a friend who has a sport bike and he's going to let me take it for a ride for a while to see how I do on it.

 

well sitting on the VFR600 for a bit I do think that it will need a rise. I'm just not sure as to how much I can get away with, lol. But as far as wrist issues, I have a friend that is supposed to be getting his bike registered pretty soon, it's a CBR600 I believe. I know it's a 600 and I could swear it's a honda but can't remember the exact model. He's the only one I know with a SS styled bike. So I'm trying to work it with him to take his bike for a couple hour rise and see what I think of it after a while. I'm not sure if it's the vibration that gets me or pressure on the wrist more so, so I have to try to get him to get his registered soon and then con him into borrowing it. I think I have him ready to do it but I have to test the waters a little more. I'll probably have to let him ride my bike for a while but that's not an issue... I know he can ride so I'm ok with that.

My other friend that has only taking the course to get licensed... yeah... no.... I told him he needs to get a junker first and ride that until he falls over at least once then ride for a while longer and come back to me. lol.

I might have insurance but I don't want to have a claim anytime soon.... or ever...

Anyway, I just hope my friend can get his bike registered in the next week like he said he was going to do. Then he has to get a battery to put into the bike as it's been sitting for 3 years and he didn't have a charger on the battery... Dingbat... I tried putting my big charger on it and I couldn't cook that battery back into working so I just shut it down and told him to take it for a core charge substitution.

 

perhaps Gen-Mar bar risers would be an option.

 

What's the difference in those?

 

Are we too lazy to do our own research? Gen Mar retain your stock bars but raises them with a billett machined spacer to the maximum allowable height for less than half the price of Heli bars but you're not gonna get near 3x3.

 

No, just on my phone right now. Wont be at a computer for a while today, if at all. So much to do and so little time... thanks for the info though.

 

okay, here is a question I haven't asked yet.

I know that the vfr800 is a 90* v4 motor and a lot of the other bikes that I'm looking at have Inline4 motors. I'm curious as to what the vibrational differences will be in comparison to a motor like on the Yamaha FJR1300? I know there is a big displacement difference and that's fine but I'm curious as to how the vibrations differ from the 2 bikes or in general between the design of this motor and most other I4 engines.

Thanks for any info you guys can provide. I did a few searches and didn't turn up anything in direct relation to this kind of question.

Again I ask this as my one wrist and my leg do not like vibrations, especially over longer distances.

 

so you are saying you have no issues at all? not even the slightest vibration? That's the problem that I have even the slightest vibration can cause issues for me.

 

Wow, I was thinking about this and if memory serves me correctly, I have not ridden an inline 4 motorcycle since @1984. All of the bikes I have owned/ridden since have been V4's or V-Twins. Sold the '81 CB650 (inline 4) in 1984 and bought a V45 Magna, later a Shadow V-Twin, and then the Ducati in '95. Even my friends bikes which I have ridden once or twice, have been V4s or V-Twins (RC-45, Hawk 650, 888, etc.)

Not that this helps you with comparison between I4 vs. V4 but I thought this was interesting. That being said, I can say the the Ducati V-Twins definitely vibrate a hell of a lot more than the V4, but I cannot say that the vibration is something I even notice on the VFR anyway. Then again, I do not have the same issue as you do with wrist and knee.

Side Note: Now that I think of it I have NEVER ever ridden a Harley. Almost took a ride on a Buell once though.

 

I think you miss understood what it was that I was saying. The guy I know that has the VFR800, I went and sat on that bike. A friend of mine has a cbr600 that I'm going to take for a ride hopefully this week so I can get a comparison as to if I can take that kind of riding position. I talked with my friend last night for a while when we were watching the game, what a great game!, and we are going to go for a nice long ride wednesday or over the weekend, so it will work out nicely and I'll have a better idea as to if I can take at least the riding position. Granted his bike hasn't been up and running much for the last couple years because it's been in storage and is now in his garage. He's picking up a battery for it Wednesday and putting it in and then getting some gas in her along with all new oil and so on. He's just getting licensed down here in Florida but he used to ride up in NY.

I understand that they are 2 completely different bikes and that's fine... but the riding position is what I'm most worried about. At slower speeds vibration wont be an issue as it is, it'll be the position mainly and that's what I need to find out, if my arm can handle that aspect. Once I figure that out I can make the choice on to get the VFR800 considerably more informed. I can always find different bar at anytime to make it all the more comfortable.

After sitting on the VFR800 for a few minutes over the weekend though I can definitely tell I would need to move the position of the bars as it is. I was looking through the threads on here and came across one where the guy had taken the stock bars, lifted them up to where the stud was out of the hole and then rotated them so that the stud was right next to the hole to make them a little more straight out. That's definitely the first thing I would do to any bike I get. Right now the bars on my bike are angled similarly to what the stock position is on the vrf800 and seeing as I can't tweak those bars like I want to I have to put part of my lower palm up on the end of the bar to get my hand a little more straight. This get's to be extremely uncomfortable after an hour as I keep having to move my hand to a straighter position repeatedly as I go through town or where ever for that matter. I have to keep going from full grip for maneuvering and then back to an angled on the bar to get comfort for straight riding, it get's to be quite a pain in the butt...............

 

Bone, you would be shocked at how nimble at light feeling the Gold Wings really and truly are. There was a show on DirecTV's HD cnannels about the different makes of bikes, each one getting their own show. The two Hondas they had, the CBR & the wing, were both flying around Laguna Seca track, one right behind the other. I don't think the CBR was giving it all, but the wing had no problem in keeping up - even through the right hand down hill sweeper. with a full faring saddle bag bike. Yes, a professional rider, but still....
I always thought the bigger the bike, the less vibration you would get out of it. But not on a twin. You will feel like a paint can through a shaker, like was said above.
Even some of the BMW non full ut touring bikes have cruise control - the the GT models - still have a small saddle bag, still does pretty good in the corners, more of a bike, more expensive to purchase, maintain, but if your hands start to hurt they have the cruise control, heated hand grips, heated seats - all of which you can put on your bike, but you would have to pay someone to do it and always run the risk of overloading the electrical. BMW comes standard, so it should not be as big of an issue. There are always trikes, but that does cut out the corner carving, unless you are looking at a Can-Am Spyder, which is back to a twin. But then there are those anti-vibe bar ends that help to remove that. The wife has one, and she does have bad wrists, and she admitted getting the different bar ends got rid of a lot of it, but not all.

 

Keager, I get what you are trying to say and all but all those bike options are way out of my price range.... The Goldwings are very expensive new and it seems all the old farts down in my area want a mint for something that has 50+k miles on them.... lol. plus I have been on goldwings in the past and they are just heavy and way too big for my taste. I don't care for a massive bike like those. Also the BMWs, yeah, they are killed with the price of them as well. I also don't want to go older than a 2006 bike either, that's just part of my OCD in that one... lol.

As for putting in a cruise control system, they require so little power that it wouldn't be an issue on any electrical system. Now if I were trying to add in accessory lights of the halogen type, yeah it would. Most bikes you can add in a good 70watts of accessories before you have issues.

I'm not going to be taking any bike I get up through the revs like a crazy person but I will want to once in a while and that's something that's doable. The problem I have with my current bike is that it's a V-twin and at 85mph for short runs I have to be in the upper revs just to get there and it gets pretty nasty up there on that bike, 95 feels like a SOB... and the bike wont really go past 105 with my fat butt on it. I also don't think it can really as that's probably near the redline as it is... I only had it up there for a few seconds just to see what it was like and damn, I thought I was going to shake a turd right out my damn rear.... At 70-75 it's okay and rideable but anything past that and it starts to get really uncomfortable, plus there are no fairings to speak of to direct air to make the ride a little more comfortable and the motor heats the hell out of my right leg, so much so that I have to hold my right leg out away from the bike to get air on it. I do have a quick release windshield for the bike but I hate riding with that massive thing on the bike as it looks goofy to me.

My other main bikes for consideration right now are the:
Yamaha FJR1300 and FZ6R, both with I4 motors on them but it's proving to be a pain to find either of these bikes in the right condition. I went to look at a FZ6R an the KID that had it just had beaten the piss out of the bike and it wasn't worth half of what he was asking for it.... I told him to have a nice day and good luck selling the bike. Everything about his manner and attitude told me he was beating that bike everyday it was on the road. As for the FJR, yeah, finding an 06 and newer bike that doesn't have 60k miles on it is not an easy task. The only one I have found is a 2009 at a dealer and they want 2 grand more than the bike is worth and they wont come off of that, the funny thing is that they have had this bike sitting in their show room for over 5 months now and still wont drop the price just to move it. I don't understand that, it's like all their staff are looking at it as a jackpot or something. For the FJR it needs to be an 06 or newer as it's the Gen II and that's when they fixed the heat issues and changed up a lot of other things on the bike as well.

 

I was talking about my Vulcan, that cooks my right leg. I don't have a VFR, that's one of the other bikes I'm looking at...

 

really? is that a joke or something? that's not cool at all.... is it while riding or when you slow down and the fans kick on? or has it been fixed on the newer models?