Better than Amazon

[Frosty]

Saw Frosty's bike today. I would say that there is no doubt that of all the bikes made that year, this has to be in the upper one percent of being immaculately clean. Looks perfect.
The only complaint I would have is the after market exhaust (standing behind the bike) is very loud.

"Greg in Denver" told me that if you pay close attention, in the Spring and Fall, you will find well loved motorcycles that are being sold by riders who are "aging" out of them. That appears to be what happened to me purely by accident. I saw the bike on Cycle Trader and bought it by text/ phone. PO said that through the years, he had almost 30 motorcycles. This was the only one he kept. Looking through the receipts and such. The tires were put on new in 2003 with 13,240 miles. It seems that later in 2003, he completely went thru the bike with upgrades, parked it and rode something else. These bikes are out there.

The exhaust is "distinctive" (I will replace it with a larger, more closed one).

I took the fairing off to change oil and check other things. Here are some photos. The bike has not been cleaned or wiped off since it left GA. I have ridden it about 60 miles.





Dirtiest part of mc, under the rear fender.

 

[tawilke46]

That is a very clean under fender regardless. Minimal detail and you have a “new” bike Frosty!

 

[Frosty]

Just don’t think my now arthritic hands and back could take the riding position for very long.

Mine either. I think that there is a set of Japanese Police handlebars in the near future.

Fast Service: I ordered the Japanese Police Handlebar kit on 10/13/2019, to replace the VFR clip ons. I expected a 1 month delay while they built the kit (3 hydraulic hoses, extended choke cable, throttle cables, etc). Picked up for delivery in Japan on 10/16/2019 and delivered to home on 10/18/2019. Downside is translating Japanese instructions.

The handlebars are the same height as NT's, but slightly wider and swept back a bit more. This will take some time, but no hurry.

 

[mikesim]

Wider handlebars = more room for farkles!



Mike

 

[NewTo700V]

Fast Service: I ordered the Japanese Police Handlebar kit on 10/13/2019, to replace the VFR clip ons. I expected a 1 month delay while they built the kit (3 hydraulic hoses, extended choke cable, throttle cables, etc). Picked up for delivery in Japan on 10/16/2019 and delivered to home on 10/18/2019. Downside is translating Japanese instructions.

The handlebars are the same height as NT's, but slightly wider and swept back a bit more. This will take some time, but no hurry.

You got this from Web!ke? What kit # if you don't mind me asking? The one with braided stainless or aluminum hydraulic lines?

 

[RedNigel]

My brother just bought a brand spanking new 2014 for $8K and they let him finance it as new

He's already put a pipe on it and someother farkles
Just ticking a box on the bucket list

 

[DirtFlier]

I ordered different bars for my NC700X from WeBike (in Japan). I put in the order on Sunday (Monday in Japan) and got them on Wednesday. Total for the bars and shipping was only $74! I don't think anyone in the states could have matched the price and the speed of delivery.

 

[Frosty]

You got this from Web!ke? What kit # if you don't mind me asking? The one with braided stainless or aluminum hydraulic lines?

I just checked. They are braided stainless steel. I have seen rigid AL brake lines but not braided. Everything in the kit looks high quality.

 

[NewTo700V]

With all the mods the previous owner did, have you looked at the regulator/rectifier wiring to the stator? I've had my 99 for just a few months, and noted the previous owner's "fix" when I bought the bike but didn't see anything melting at the time and figured I'd do the correct solder fix at some point. Well some point arrived after poking around a bit. After a few thousand miles I've got charring started on the rectifier half of the plug, so it was time to gut. The previous owner had the plug burn out on the stator, so the "fix" was to solder on extensions to the stator wiring and terminate with spade terminals and plug into the rectifier plug half. You can see this in the second photo. Well, that still leaves spade terminals and a plug between the stator and reg/rec, which for the VFR is a big no-no.

This isn't my first rodeo doing this, so the course of action is as follows:

-If the bike is of low enough miles and the original OEM reg/rec is in there with plug intact (I find this unlikely 20 years on) toss that thing in the trash ASAP.
-Order a quality MOSFET replacement.
-Check the health of the stator's AC voltage output on the 3 yellow wires, 3 combinations of pairs.
-A bit of thermal paste to the backside of the new reg/rec and bolt it to the subframe. You'll occasionally see goofballs mention mounting PC fans for cooling, but that's not needed. They might as well be mounting gremlin bells to it.
-Cut out the stator to reg/rec plug and direct solder and heat shrink. I put a few wraps of electrical tape around the heat shrink on each leg just to increase insulation wall thickness. The DC output plug from the reg/rec to the bike can stay. A little dab of your favorite anti-ox grease is fine.
-You should be good for tens of thousand of miles.

another area to put eyes on is the 30 amp fuse holder on the front of the battery box. Those wire end terminals inside can burn out.

 

[Frosty]

Thanks for the info. This system is a well known weakness. The bike records show that a Honda Dealer trouble shot, removed and replaced the regulator/rectifier in Oct 2005 (approx 16,500 miles, 2,000 miles ago). I made a quick check of the connections and voltages. Everything looks OK. I can not find any information on the regulator/rectifier that the dealer installed. (Honda upgrade?) See photo. I understand that these electrical systems take the excess current at the R/R and converts it to heat. As the current loads are reduced by using LED lights, it puts extra load on the R/R. There are aftermarket fixes. I also need to add a volt meter. I have them on the list. Anyone with info on the pictured R/R, let me know.
As a disclaimer: I think electricity is magic that I don't understand.

 

[NewTo700V]

That looks like the OEM R/R. And based on the fact it was installed in 2005 when the bike was only a few years old I doubt that's an upgraded MOSFET unit. From my experience with R/R's Honda was sourcing from that era, mid 20Ks is usually end of the line for their service life. Mid 20Ks being the upper range. As your records show only 16K before the original was done. Too be fair to the VFR, I don't think there's anything special about its charging system compared to say CBR600s of the period. (there is a grounding block quirk some folks have issues with and just solder everything together, but that's another issue) All those bike's have the same charging setup, I think VFRs just by nature have more miles put of them so the issue appears more often. There's plenty of 20 year old 600's out there with under 20K on the odometer. This will occur with any manufacturers bike from the era running old style shunt reg/recs as the miles get high enough.

I do recommend changing out for a MOSFET, especially as you mentioned converting to LEDs. By far though, the biggest enemy that seems to drag down all components involved is that connector. In a perfect world it would be a sealed automotive or marine connector. However, it's just an open AMP connector. As corrosion and oxidation sets in it builds up resistance. There's high voltage AC flowing through there, that connector becomes a mini space heater of sorts. Looking at your first photo, maybe it's just a camera trick, but it looks like there's green oxidation on the wire ends before they enter the crimp on.

There is the VFRness product, but I really don't see the point if you just snip out and solder. On a previous Honda, I pulled the OEM reg/rec as it was showing signs of weakening. Installed a good MOSFET unit, eliminated the AC plug and direct soldered. I proceeded to put 50K+ on that bike before it moved on without issue on the charging system side.

 

[Frosty]

Roadstercycle seems to have the latest R/R upgrades. It also has a 50 amp R/R that allows the stator to run cooler and accommodate LED light coversions. As I understand it, the VFRness is an older product and not everyone was a fan.