New guy post with new to me 06 VFR (long - sorry)

Hello to all,

New member here up in the Great White North. Was looking for a Gen 5 and picked up a great deal on an 06 Pearl Black. Not as fast as red but maybe when it does go fast the cops will not notice as much. It is a US Model I was told brought up from Ohio at some point. Bike has 31k km (19k miles) and is complete with a Sargent seat, factory side cases, Power commander, gutted stock exhaust and K&N. Also this interesting MSA windscreen. It looks like the owner before the guy I bought it from did a lot of mods to it, some of which I will need to sort out. Looks like there is a speedo healer on the bike so the sprockets may not be stock. I have a receipt for a pair or O2 sensor delete items?



My current ride is an 02 CBR F4i. I have had it three years and it is my first bike. I love it but not the insurance costs. I am 6'4" tall and weigh about 185 lbs. I am an avid cyclist so being leaned over a bit is not new to me. When I rode the VFR home I noticed a lot of differences over the CBR. The clutch for instance engages at the end of the travel. Other posts note this as well and it seems that this is just the way it is, and I will get used to it. I may try a set of aftermarket shorty levers. I like them on the CBR. More effort to shift it as well. I rode the bike for 10 minutes and my hands were sore. I think this is because even though I have a touring screen on the CBR the screen on the VFR takes all the wind off me and doesn't hold me up when I am riding. The VFR appears to have stock bars. I am working on trying to obtain a stock windshield to try instead so that I can get a bit more wind on me. The CBR I can ride very comfortably, but not yet on the VFR. The VFR at the moment feels slower than my CBR. It sounds great but doesn't seem to have a lot of go in the lower end to mid range. I am wondering if the tune is off. Just idling and reving the bike up a bit I can hear it knock and ping and backfire a bit. At higher revs and into the VTEC it sounds fine and hauls as good or better than the CBR. It may be that the VFR is deceptively slower because it is smoother and with the windshield. I also can basically feel each cylinder firing in the lower rev range until the revs come up and the bike smooths out. I thought at first that the bike was missing! The CBR will do this when you pull away with no throttle input but not all the time and the VFR seems always like this even when feeding in some throttle. It may be that the larger displacement bikes feel this way? I do like the handling of the VFR and it is much smoother a ride over the CBR.

There is a bit of a consensus that on the CBR at least the K&N is not helpful. I have a pipe on the CBR and that is it. It runs perfectly although it can be a bit abrupt at times in terms of throttle input. I would like to try to get the VFR closer to the CBR in terms or running smoothly.

I plan to baseline the bike with basic fluid changes and try to sort out what the Power commander is set to. Any suggestions on items to check or change would be great.

I am looking for suggestions and experiences with setups similar to what i have in terms of tuning. Is it common to remove/disconnect the O2 sensors? (I have not confirmed this yet on the bike)

Also would appreciate some ideas on bars and screens for a guy my size. I have read a few posts on this so I have a few ideas. Any other recommendations are appreciated.

There is a socket on the fairing on the left side at the top with a cap on it. Not sure if this is a stock thing or something else? I can try to post a photo if not. Lots to sort out and learn here. I am excited and hopefully I can get the bike sorted a bit more to my liking.

Oh, is there a way to get the temperature to read in Celsius?!

I find the red piping on the Sargent seat a bit distracting. Anyone have any luck dying or coloring the piping? Was thinking of trying a UV resistant marker from Lee Valley.

I have some blocking plates for the pair valves and a flapper valve block off as well. I did the pair valves on the CBR. Are these mods worth doing?

Thinking of getting a solo seat cowl but assume it won't fit over the Sargent. May try a stock seat if I can find one reasonably priced.

I am sure I will have more questions as I work through sorting the bike. Thanks in advance for any feedback or advice you have.

 

Welcome Highvatech! Congrats on your new to you VFR.

For the bars I would suggest Heli-Bars. Recently I switched from Gem Mar risers to the Heli's, that made a big difference.

To switch your display I think you just push & hold the "Select" button for a few seconds. That'll switch to Celsius & Km's.

 

Hey there, not too far away from you in Guelph.
I have an '02 also with the power commander and sargent seat. I have a stock windshield if you want to try it and am currently running a doublebubble ( I think it's called). I am contemplating gutting my exhausts too and would love to hear how yours sound before I go ahead and do it.

 

Congrats on your VFR acquisition. I can tell you that the seat cowl does fit on the Seargent seat, I have one on my 07, also, I wouldn't mess with that red piping, I think it will grow on you. Personally I think it looks good, I went with white on my RWB but the red goes well on the black IMO. With your Power Commander you may want to go to their web site and down load a map for your mods and altitude, I no with mine that while it runs well in San Diego, that while on a trip this summer I found that it ran like crap at altitude in Colorado. My idle rpm dropped from 1200 down to 600-700; also you need to check to see if it has the 02 sensor delete done as that is part of the Power Commander set up. I have just ordered the auto tune module for mine to see if that will make any difference. Good luck with the new ride and keep us up to date with you progress.
John

 

:welcome: to the madness from sun shine state :wave:
Congratulation and kudo for the photo :thumb:

 

Thanks to all for the posts.

Arnzinator the select button will change the miles to km, and the temperature from air to coolant but the temperature units do not change. I guess I would ask if they change on your bike, as I understand this is a US model. I am thinking I will have to live with F° for now

Zombie the exhaust sounds really good gutted. I don't have a stock exhaust to reference and was thinking I was going to do an exhaust but will leave it as is as I think the sound is just about right. There is a gutted exhaust on Kijiji at the moment. I am interested in the stock windshield. The guy with the exhaust in Ottawa has a screen for sale cheap but I am having a hard time getting a hold of him.

Outboard John I will pull the software on to my laptop and check it out. I have a PC III USB. Not sure if you can get the auto tune module for this unit or only for the V, but I appreciate understanding that the O2 sensor(s) may have been deleted because of the PC.

Scubalong I saw where other newbies had been flamed a little for not posting a photo . Of course the photo I inserted didn't work the first time, and then I got it in and it was sideways. But I managed to sort it and felt good getting that right. Thanks!

Sean

 

Checked the map in the Power Commander. The map was the stock map. I think just playing in the garage that a map with an exhaust sounds and runs smoother but it is hard to tell without riding the bike. I would prefer not to just try the list and see what works but I will if this is the only way to go in the short term. I would understand that a dyno tune may be the better way to go. The bike has been sitting for a few months so I am thinking a fresh tank of gas and some Seafoam may be in order. I may see how dirty the air filter is as well and go from there. Can we use the European maps? What is the difference?

If anyone has some experience with a setting similar to what I have at the moment I would be grateful for any advice or knowledge you may have. I will do a forum search as well and see what I can come up with.

Sean

 

My bad. I remembered seeing Celsius in owners manual & thought you could change the units just like the odometer. I checked the forums earlier today & your not the 1st member from Canada to have a US spec bike that wishes to see the temp gauge read in celsius. Sorry for the bad info.

 

Arnzinator, no problem. I was hoping someone would come back and say that there was a jumper or solder bridge I could change in the cluster to change it but it looks like I just need to get used to F°.

 

You could check with Zdeno and see if they have a used assembly that you could swap with yours. I did the same thing with a 4Runner that I brought back from Texas a few years ago.