New member from England :-)

Hi all

Thought I'd introduce myself and tell you a bit about me..

I ride a blue 03' VFR (hate the colour!) Bought it 3 weeks ago. 2 previous owners, 11K miles very clean and standard other than a nasty Datatool alarm and a set of Staintunes.

My boss said to me in march of last year ''you need a bike for getting round London'' How could I argue with that!

I haven't ridden on the road for over 10 years. At that time I owned an R1, CRF450R and a EXC450. Then a mate who owns a bike shop in Bournemouth invited me to a test day at Rockingham for the release of Bridgestone's new tyres (BT56's I seem to remember) Anyway - did this day on a variety of bikes and received some training by a chap from the Californian Superbike School.... Then went home and sold all my bikes!

Within the week I'd bought a ex-race R1 and booked my first trackday!

At the time I was self-employed and looking back now I cant believe the amount of money I spunked on track days and eventually endurance racing. All good things come to an end though and eventually I gave it all up.

Back to my story.. So Not having ridden on the road for a while, what bike do I buy with his money... Yep a Hayabusa!

Even though my company are paying for fuel and the up-keep I just couldn't keep it. 900 miles from a rear tyre (BT-023) and approx 28mpg around London. Plus the fact that the thing was disintegrating before my eyes. It seems all the bare aluminium on a Suzuki is just that - bare. Riding in all weathers took its toll, and it quickly looked like it had just been dragged from the sea bed.

My thoughts on the VFR;

Sounds good (but reminds me I'm turning into my dad - he's had a few VFR's in his time)
Fuelling is a bit erratic
Soft but well damped suspension seems good for England's rutted, shagged and usually wet roads
Sod-all room under the seat!
Rear gets a bit lively when very hard on the front brakes?
Loving the rear wheel! Just put some PR3's on it. Love not having to adjust the chain.

Anyway that's enough for now!

Rob.

 

Your Dad sounds like a bright guy, looks like the nut didn't fall far from the tree:stung: A PCV will take care of the fueling and a little suspension work and the bike will be transformed, who knows, might even be enough for you to like it in blue!

 

Hi and welcome to the MadHouse:welcome:

Its a good idea to browse around some of the sub-forum posts which you will find if you scroll down the home page. You will also find there is a pretty good search function on this forum which will often find plenty of relevant stuff. Check out the 6th gen forum where you will find plenty of advice and information on possible mods for your bike, and over in the specifications forum you should find a link to the online workshop manual.

Before folks start ragging on you its a good idea to post up at least one photo of your blue VFR, otherwise some folks won't believe it exists.

I agree there is little official space under the seat, but with a bit of investigation (and judicious use of a Stanley Blade) you can improve access and stow quite a lot of stuff. I think you are being optimistic about not having to adjust the chain! You should be checking the chain for wear, lubrication and tension every 600 miles - you should also find the standard toolkit contains a ring spanner to free off the pinch bolt and a weird S shaped adjustment tool with a hook at one end and a cranked extension bar which slots onto other end of the adjuster so you can adjust the chain slack.

Take care





SkiMad

 

Looks good for an 03,

As above check the forums, most of the snappy fueling is throttle body sync (they just dont do it at factory and the guy doing the pdi doesnt care since hes paid to check it over not tune it. Pull the covers off and inspect everything, electrical connections pay lots of attention to or you will be replacing things you shouldnt have had to. Check with a dealer to see if your vin has had the wiring harness upgrade or not or if it doesnt need it.

Play with the preloads and get them set for you and your riding style. They may be still at stock (heaven forbid!). Another thing is fork oil. If you dont know when and cant find out when it was changed last, change it. Old oil causes the front to have unstable characteristics. Who knows you might put some better springs and valves in while your at it

Once its dialed in to you youll love how much these bikes can take and still perform.

Welcome to the asylum!

 

Welcome to The World! I'm a 5 and 6 Gen owner, I basically started at the end (6 Gen) and then bought my 5 Gen last year. When I bought my 6 Gen (used w/347 miles) the PO had put on a 2 Bros exhaust so rather than restore it to stock condition, I went the way of modding it to suit! Put in a Dynojet Power Command 5 (PCV), updated the suspension, brakes (SS lines and pads), seat, windscreen and clip-ons (Heli-bars). All I can say is that although I've spent some decent money, all in all I am very happen with the end results, so much in fact I bought the 5 Gen and started most the same mods! The 5 Gen though, is being built more for track days and sport riding, the 6 Gen is my commuter/tourer.

Out of all the mods I have done, I think the one with the best ROI was the upgraded suspension and then the steel braided brake lines and EBC brake pads.

Cheers!

 

:welcome: to the madness from across the pond :wave:
Congratulation on your new ride, Your Dad must be a great man :wink:
BTW you still need to adjust the chain but much easier :thumbsup:

 

Welcome aboard. I kinda dig the blue.

And I like the word shagged. Feel free to use it as often as you want around here. Can you add in some "knob" talk when you tell a story about some wanker? :biggrin:

 

Thanks all for the reply's.

Mods so far are;

Osram updated dip and main bulbs
Modified the stock mudguard (our wanky government says we need great big number plates - knobs!) (that was for Pliskin) used some of those bolts with the lights built in - see pic
And of course tried to set the sag. Still have 50mm front with me on board...

More to follow

 

That Staintune look Sexy :love:

 

Just added some old pictures to 'my gallery' if any of you are interested.

 

I checked out your gallery and can honestly say that you have had some very nice toys!!

Welcome to our tiny V4 shaped space on the world wide web!

 

UPDATE!

I've had the bike a little while now and have probably put 2K miles on it so far. These are my thoughts/findings...

The Staintunes (came with the bike) have caused a few problems. L/H can needed a bit of modification to get it to line up with the other and now the link pipe has cracked! Not the quality product I thought they were meant to be.

Headlamps are ace.

Never had a better rear brake on a bike but the front is marginal on the stock pads.

Rear shock blows through all it's travel when hard on the gas out of turns and the thing runs wide.

Forks are way too soft and take an age to settle after braking for a turn.
Both of these will be sorted by sending forks and shock to MCT for revalving/re-springing as soon as funds allow (getting married in 6 weeks so I'm broke!)

-1 on the front has made it much more lively!

Seem to be riding it much harder than I thought I would!? Also seems quicker than it is? Look at the speedo expecting to see big numbers and it's always much less - probably good for my license!!

VTEC transition seems to be loads smoother when it got Super Unleaded in (98 octane in the UK)

Overal I'm chuffed to bits with it!

That is all

 

See what I mean. The link pipe's outlets are not even inline!!