Any tips as to how to make my VF a little quicker?

Well for the past couple days i have been riding with some friends that have supersports and am slightly getting tired of being left behind all the time. I already planned on replacing the stock exhaust cans with some universal supertrapps or keep searching Ebay for some kerkers or Cobra slip ons. For now i may just do the cheep thing and gut a pair of stock cans from the parts bike that my roomate is about to purchase. That should help the bike breathe a little easier. The main thing that gets me is the fact the little 600s can out accelerate the old interceptor. I know that im not even in the same class as them but it still kinda urks me that i cannot accelerate as quickly. I also know that i will probably have to replace the chain and sprockets soon anyways...Would i gain anything by changing the number of teeth when i do this?....any ideas that you guys have would be very much appreciated.

TYIA

 

Increasing the teeth (+) on rear or decreasing the teeth on the front (-) wil aid in accelleration, but you will lose top end speed. I went +2 on the rear of my 93 and I can definately tell a difference. In addition, I also went -1 on the front for a short while. It would accellerate like a rocket (ok, maybe not quite that fast) but the rpm's at 65 were around 7000. I felt that even tho the engine could probably handle a sustained 7K rpm cruise, my mind probably could not. Just felt it was not needed so I went back to the stock 16 tooth front.

 

you want quicker

As the proud owner of an 1986 VFR700 F2, I can tell you that you are going to need a newer bike. I am not sure that there is anything you can do to make that bike competitive with the newer 600's. I ride with a buddy who has a 05 CBR1000RR he would take off in first and get up to 60 or 70 MPH in 3 seconds or less and then he would wait for me to catch up to him. I would have been wound up through third gear just to catch him. I bought an 06 VFR800 and now it is who gets the best hole shot. Start shopping look for a 4th Gen they say those are the quickest of the VFR's. I Love my 6th Gen tho. But I am planning (looking for a yellow Y2K VFR800 (5th Gen). cause I want one love that color. point of fact the newer 600's are just as quick as the 1000's. the liter bikes just have more top end. 180 MPH as opposed to 160-170MPH.

 

Keep in mind that your bike is 22 years old - no matter what you do, it won't run with the newer bikes. With that said, I do own an '86 500 and an '86 750 that I actively ride.

On the 500, I went +1 on the rear sprocket and noticed a slight improvement. I didn't go any more than that because as it is, that bike might only go 100 - 110 mph. On the 750, I went +2 on the rear sprocket and it was much more noticeable.

I also ride with friends with current day sport bikes. The 500 has no chance, the 750 did much better. Once you get out of the straight line stuff and get into the twisties, then the 750 can run with them because as you know, today's bike can out perform the capabilities of what the majority of the riders have, so it really comes down to rider ability in the twisites.

The cheapest route for you would be to go to a -1 front sprocket which would be equivalent to adding 3 or 4 to the rear. I believe that gearing will give you by far the most performance gain, but you will sacrifice top end speed.

 

I'm sorry to tell you that your two ideas won't net you anything. Slip-ons, no matter what the brand, typically cause a peak power loss. With some tuning you can get back to stock, but don't expect much more. I've also found that the VF's do not respond very well to gearing changes. In fact, a tooth on the rear sprocket doesn't make any difference that I can tell. The V4 engine has enough midrange that it doesn't need this. Newer inline fours are so peaky that gearing helps keep them out of the midrange and up into where they have power.

My suggestion is to work on your suspension. You'll never be able to hang with them on long straights so it's fruitless to even try. The V4 can hold it's own in a drag race, but after 80mph or so you don't have much of a chance. With suspension work you can help the bike be able to hang with them in the corners. You'd be amazed how fast you can ride a 'slow' bike when it handles well.

 

Hmmmmm im suddenly very glad a lot of our routes are on nice twisty roads...I noticed that my vf had a better chance when we hit the curves. So with this all said it supports my idea of mild upgrades to the vf to clean up its appearance and redoing the suspension combined with new dunlops. I was debating looking for something newer in the fall such as a GSXR 600 or Ninja 600. (those particular choices are closest to the riding position of the VF i found thus far) are the newer VFRs close to the same riding position to the original VFs? I find it more comfortable to be in the more upright position that the vf has hence why my question.