I have been considering adding these to my 5th gen VFR. Would be great to sit on a bike with these already installed. Any chance there may be a central Ohio (Columbus) member with these that I could meet up with and look?
Hey, Jam. The 01 that I bought several weeks ago, has bars on it from an NT(?)650, which is similar to Heli Bars, I am told. I've had Heli Bars on a CBR929RR, and a CBR600RR. I liked them a lot. If in doubt, do the Heli Bars. I don't know of anyone who didn't like them. If you ever get to southern Indiana, you can ride mine.
I'm kinda surprised there's no one around you. I tried Gen Mar bar risers, bah, sold them. I bought my Heli Bars and Sargeant seat on group buys here years ago. IMO they should have been OEM. I couldn't ride but 50 or so miles with the stock set up. I can ride all day with the bars and seat upgrade.
Thanks for the feedback. My previous VFR was OK with the stock bars but in my advanced age I need a little more upright position. The Helibars do seem to get almost universal praise. I will go with them.
You won't regret them. For even more rise, install them without the factory lock wire so they are flush with the top of the forks...
Did you do the install yourself? Any tips to avoid foul language and the indiscriminate tossing of tools?
Yes I did. The worst part was removing the dampers from the old bars. One side was a BITCH, the other popped right out. If I did it again I would remove the bars, set them upright, and spray in the end with WD40 or similar and let it work for a bit. Your results may vary LOL. Also, unhook the cables at the top and move them to the inside of the fork tube. There won't be a lot of slack left, but there is enough.
I agree with Y2K. The Heli's for me are much more comfortable. The stockers hurt my elbows (?), with these I can ride for hours. I bought Vibranators to avoid the removal of the dampners. Made the job super easy. You could also get OEM from Honda too, not sure how much. There is a good step by step on here somewhere for 6Gen that I used, look for it if you are going to diy, its helpful. And the Sargeant seat is fantastic too. These two changes make the VFR a much more enjoyable Sport Tourer, IMO.