Restoring '99 5th gen

Alrighty I'm back, 929 shock should be arriving soon.

Started looking into front end swap options, I like the look of the R1 swap, apparently it can be done just by changing the steering head bearing.

Has anyone around here done the swap or something similar and can offer some wisdom?

 

LED Headlight bulbs arrived today, got them installed with no real issues apart from having to bend two of the pins out if the way to make them fit. Nice and bright and looks heaps better:









On a side note this bike looks waaayyyy better without mirrors.

 

I've been thinking in a re acquainting myself with the install of new bulbs. Last time I tired this I couldn't get my big ass hands in there. On the 4th it's a snap and go. but this 5th is a WTF Honda So figured I'd wait till I had to get in there. Agree it could use some better light bulbs.

 

If you decide to go with LED's for the lights you may want to take the upper cowl off. Most of the LED bulbs have either large fans or heat sinks of some sort that make it nearly impossible to get the spring clips or boots back in place easily, so its worth the extra time taken. A lot of the LED replacement bulbs have a power supply ballast that needs to be mounted somewhere behind the fairing, although I noticed that the ones installed here do not.

The Lifetime LED's I have on my bike are much brighter than stock and the light spread and beam pattern is very close to stock. I have yet to experience an oncoming motorist flash their high beams at me in disgust because of excessive glare from the LED bulbs.

 

Good tip, I was thinking if I go to the trouble here to go ahead and jump on the latest offering in LEDs, which I see have this fan cooled ballast attached to the bulb mount base, So yea, I'd need more room for sure.

 

Yeah I took the front off to do mine, made it a whole lot easier once I could see what I was doing.

 

Don't forget to change the dash lights out at the same time. You just know that if you don't, one of the dash lights will burn out right after you've put the bike back together. LOL

 

Wasn't aware of that, can you point me in the direction of the right bulbs?

 

IOseb did you make any progress on the 'falling into the turn' issue? [This describes oversteer]. Sounds like you've had the motorbike apart for a while, maybe not much riding, but just wanted to confirm what Terry and RVFR said: badly worn or especially oddly worn or improperly inflated tires can definitely cause bad handling. Early in my riding lifespan I chased an oversteer problem to the tune of $500ish in fork service to eventually find out that neither I nor the shop I was paying had checked the tire pressure...doh. So I can confirm that tire pressures as a low as 18 psi will definitely make your motorcycle fall in hard. The first gen 6 VFR I had was equipped with Continental tires, and when I got it the front was worn into a strange pointy kind of triangle - it also fell hard into the corner even with proper pressures. Changing to a new set of Pilot Power 2CTs fixed the problem completely.

 

There are 5 wedge bulbs on the back of the instrument cluster that light up the gauges and LCD screen. 3 for the sleek and tach and 2 for the LCD screen. The bulbs in question are 194 wedge bulbs. I replaced mine with LED's at the same time as I did the headlights and theoretically I should never have to replace them ever again. LOL. Here is a link to the bulbs I used from superbrightleds.com. I used blue LED's for the gauges and the LCD screen, though I had wanted to use red. The red LED's showed up perfectly and were more than bright enough for the LCD screen, but the gauges were barely visible at night. The needles on the tach and speedo, however, lit up like the sun. I tried white LED's in the gauge cluster as well but found they were much too bright at night for my tastes.


https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...d-led-tower-miniature-wedge-retrofit-car/206/

There are other bulbs as well, but considering how infrequently they are actually "ON" I replaced those bulbs with regular incandescent wedge bulbs.

 

Funny you say that, I just got back from the service station to check the tire pressures, 12 psi in the front 24 in the rear LOL. Feels much better now although I think some new tires will be needed soon.

 

Thanks for the link zoom, I'll order some replacement ones asap.

 

Thank the higher Honda power you got on top of it before the VFR got on top of you.

 

Haha yeah I couldn't believe it, especially since the the guy I bought it from was commuting on it up until he sold it :shocked:

 

My son had a front tire debead (Ninja 250) on an interstate highway, traveling at about 70. Down he went when he could not control the tank-slapper.

Amazingly, he escaped with fewer injuries than could have ever been expected. Teflon kid.

Tires..... Must have air to work well. And, to stay on the rims.

 

Indeed they do, very glad and lucky I didn't do any spirited riding before discovering this.

 

It looks like you've moved on a bit since this post, but for what it's worth I had my metal parts incl wheels all powder coated. Well worth it for the finish

 

Thats good information there Zoom-Zoom, Just might have to do this as well once all apart I think the stock bulbs in the dash are weak.

 

Definitely going to get my parts powder coated but I'll probably hold off until I've done my front end swap, saves me getting more parts painted down the road.

First thing to be painted will likely be my headers, they are properly disgusting.

 

Sorry for the long silence gents, been super busy with work. Plenty of stuff to do when I get the time though