Greetings from Southern NH

Hi all,

I am a new / used VFR owner, just picked it up last week and enjoying the hell out of it. Had a lot of bikes over the past near 30yrs, mostly sport bikes and a former LRRS roadracer. The VFR was my "compromise" towards a cruiser for the wife (still to young for a HD..) I bought wife her very 1st bike, an obscure supermoto last yr. An 05 MZ Baghira 660 and she in the middle of a slow learning curve having never ridden a bike before.

Back to the VFR. It is super clean and I'm not looking to mod the hell out of it, its got plenty of HP and even at the age of 50 I have my moments of aggression. I will use the search feature for best tires (want a better "race profile", when tipping the VFR in it feels like there is an edge to the profile) and a lower cost slip-on so I am at least heard by the texting cagers. Ideally I would want to gut out the stock can cuz it is so dam good looking on the bike. It has the hard bags which are useful because I plan on daily 45 minute commute to the office. I like how they come off so easy too.

My last street bike was a Buell X1 that handled really really well. Race bike was a Yamaha R6. My 5th concussion by the age of 43 brought racing to a halt.. Any ways I would consider doing a track day with the VFR though hate to wreck it, the MZ is a blast in the corners and well suited for a new short track in Canaan NH.



I already mounted a radar detector under the screen, ideally want a small dash cam, we have in our cars and like the on the record life.
Thanks, Chris

 

Hi Chris and welcome to the MadHouse:welcome:

Congratulations on your new VFR - as you will quickly discover Red ones are of course the fastest!otstir:

There are relatively few posts about the 7th gen bikes which apart from the very first problem child batch have proved to be extremely well liked - indeed most of their owners are probably too busy riding their VFR's to be on here writing stuff.

I think there was a recent recall about the shaft drive in the UK so may be check with Honda to see if it applies to your bike.

I am not sure about the dash cam but these things are becoming cheaper and smaller every day so you should be able to find space somewhere. If they made a unit which required no rider input - just maintaining a 60 minute rolling record - it might be helpful if you ever have an incident. The down side is if you are an enthusiastic rider it just might provide evidence of interest to the law enforcement community

If you are keen to protect your licence you might like to think about applying laserveil to the light lenses and other shiny surfaces of the bike. Whilst motorbikes are relatively small and present a small target, modern radar and lidar systems are quite capable of getting a lock on your bike from a very long way ahead but they depend on locating some reflective part of the approaching vehicle to get a lock. LV (I don't work for them) applied properly to lenses and shiny stuff on the bike (and your helmet) will create a slightly smoked appearance but if done evenly and very thinly with an airbrush does not significantly affect the bikes appearance. Most of the plastic parts of the bike are not designed to reflect - so can be pretty much ignored. LV treatment on the shiny bits reduces the amount of reflected signal, meaning a gun will rarely lock on very quickly, allowing time for your detector to alert you to its presence and if required adjust your speed before you get close enough for a speed to register.

Take care



SkiMad

 

Hi and welcome.

Getting a used 1200 can be a spectacular value. That engine will go down as one of the greats. Beautiful red bike!

 

ya 1200 is nice and a rare bike-never even seen one in person.

 

Thanks all, gonna have to look into that magic laserveil. This bike is so smooth and responsive, its hard not going Way too fast. Its beautiful out and i just went for a blast minus the bags. wow this thing pulls hard, glad I didnt throw my leather racing pants on. Cops are everywhere today. It has Michelin Pilot Road 3s on it, it might just be me thinking it feels like it has an "edge", it is by far the heaviest sportbike ever for me. I need to look around and see what people are running for tire pressure with these, I left then at 34 for time being. Thanks again, Chris

 

Look in your manual for tire pressure, my 6 gen has it on my chain guard.
42 rear, 36 front.
Also on your sidewalls.
Enjoy

 

Here are some recommendations, well for race replicas, but they seem to align with other advice I have gotten:

http://www.gixxer.com/forums/80-06-07-gsx-r600-750/164244-tire-psi.html

Toecutter is pretty smart and he recently told me that 36 all around is the best heat distribution according to a tire engineer at, I think Metzeler. Adjust accordingly per your manual. I think the 1200 recommends 36/42 as well, so this should also apply to the 1200.

I am not sure how to adjust for pillions. I will start giving the wife rides this year so that would be good for me to know as well.

 

Greetings and welcome enjoy the ride

 

Anyone with a heartbeat is too young for an HD

Welcome

 

Ok really fast twisties yesterday and tire pressure way too low, real greasy on the edge. Reality struck it's a near 600lb bike, not my, from what I remember sub 27lb rear Dunlops on my old R6 race bike. Going to what Honda recommends. Wow love the brakes on this bike..