The RC46 story

Dream screen This one is short and sweet as fitting wise there isn't much to say about this. I have had to upload this three times however as it keeps going tits every time I upload it for some reason. I published this a month or so ago but only recently noticed something had gone very wrong with the code causing it to all appear in a three letter column hence why I am republishing. After the horror story that was the Powerbroze screen I really didn't mind getting another. Yes it is a pain in the bum having to buy another screen but every time I look at that bike and see that piece of crap screen sat wonkily on my bike, well, like I said I don't mind replacing it. I opted for an Airblade this time as on the picture it had the lower lugs that slot into the fairing and it is a lighter tint. This would make for a better screen to shoot through should I ever mount a camera behind the screen. The screen arrived only 2 day later and although looking not...

I have delayed submitting this blog as I had hoped to get it all sorted before submitting bt it has been months and I haven't got round to it. I will probably update this one or publish a follow up blog when/ if I ever progress this mod. Having just spend the best part of eight months away from my VFR and  NSR250 MC28 , I had found that buying bits for them made me feel a little less sad. First on my list to fit was a powercommander V (from here on refereed to as pc) that I had picked up second hand off of a chap in the states for £100. Ever since fitting the air filter and exhaust system I have wanted to get one as I knew the fuelling would be off and now I had one that I could just "chuck in". As I'm sure you may be wondering already, I was aware that Dynojet don't make a pc V for the fifth gen bikes only the pc III USB. I had quizzed the guy selling it prior to bidding as the part number was for an 09 VTEC (sixth gen) but he told me he had removed it f...

Plug it and go play Having spent some more time away from the bike I was left thinking: Sealing the exhaust up hadn't stopped it popping so what was causing it? "Well popping is caused by air getting to the exhaust so either you did a crap job of tightening up the header pipe or it's the PAIR system" I thought to myself. The PAIR valve allows fresh air into the exhaust system to continue the burn of the exhaust gasses on their departure to lower the emissions. This should create no problems with the standard end can but put a straight through can on it and you might get popping and banging on the overrun.  Maybe I needed a step back from the bike to see this but I thought what harm can it do to try? as it happens the task is quite reversible and doesn't cost anything to simply block the system and if it works I might go ahead and remove it completely. PAIR valve isolation With the aid of the Haynes manual and this guide from VFR discussions  I got to ...

If you have previously read about my pipe fitting fun  then you will know I managed to snap a stud in the process. With the increased decibels of a full stainless system with carbon can I had not noticed much noise but as time wore on and a bit of exuberant riding later a noticeable splutter on the over run was starting to become creep in. Extraction Stud extraction is a pain. VFR800 studs are something else. At only 6mm they snap easy and are a bugger to remove. Luckily for me the stud had gone just under the nut so I had something to grip onto. I had been soaking the stud in anti-seize compound for a while so I was fairly well prepared for this. Clothes off (the bike not me), pipes displaced and sat in the garage I was ready to tackle this. With no threads or welding equipment another nut was out of the question so I went for a stud extractor I had spotted in a mates tool kit. I had planned to use easy outs so this was a bonus. Stud Extractor  After a falt...

Image credit  gabitzu79 We get used to our bikes letting us know they have a problem when they vomit their guts up over the back tire so when the dash board starts blinking at you, you are faced with a mix of annoyance at a new problem but relief that you aren't pushing a dead bike back home just yet. The PGM FI unit lets you know it is having bother by leaving the FI light on when the ignition is switched on. To find out the problem you just flick the side stand out and it will blink a code at you in a series of dashes and dots (long and short blinks). The dots are worth 1 and the longer dashes are worth more (I don't have my Haynes manual to hand to give you values, I had a look online and there is allot of bad advice on there from VTEC owners who have a different setup). With this information at hand you can refer to your trusty Haynes manual and pointing you in the general direction of the fault. I initially misread this error code as an injector not working pr...

One of the first tasks I normally perform on a new (to me) bike is to balance the carburettors. This is one of those jobs that never seems to get done as you need specialist tools but can make quite a difference in the day to day running of the bike.  "But wait Gavin, that's an injected motorcycle" I hear you cry. Well this is true but you can still balance the throttle bodies and mine are all over the place.  When I first purchased this bike, the tick over was up at 3.5k rpm when warm. I bottomed out the idle screw and had to also wind back the whole throttle body plate in order to get it near to the 1.5rpm correct idle. Now this might have had something to do with the bike massively over compensating for having a mouse house in the airbox  but with that small obstruction removed I knew the throttle body balance would be out after my fiddling. The first thing obstructing me from doing this right in the first place was that I had lent my carb gauges to a...

 I have never been a fan of coloured screens. It was a big fad with the Gixers to put blue screens on them and I hated it. So despite the fact that in some pictures this screen looks okay I still wasn't a fan. I have had double bubble screens in the past and suffered with melted clocks as a result of them focussing sun light into a clock killing death ray. A quick fix is to wedge a bit of card or your gloves into the bottom of your screen when you park up outside but better still you can paint the inside of the screen at the bottom. A more permanent and elegant solution that I did to my CBR600 FX. As it happens, Powerbronze screens come pre painted and have a nice VFR logo on them. So, as I had accumulated allot of Nectar points, I spent them on a new screen on eBay. The screen is held in by the mirror stems and a cover on the inside of the  front fairing. On the old screen there is also a clip that fits into a slot in the fairing and is slid down to lock it in place and ...

Slow your road! All good things must come to an end; like roads for example. So to improve my bikes ability to avoid hedge diving I picked up some front braided lines. These are in improvement over the OEM hoses as they are stronger, so less prone to bulge under heavy braking. They are also lighter which helps with unsprung weight (something that I am really not bothered  about on this bike). As the old hoses were, well, old. The replacement hoses were doubly needed to bring back a more responsive front brake. As it so happened a helpful chap decided to write his VFR off and chose to break it so I was able to get this Goodrich aluminium braided front hose set for only £17, well it would be rude not to with a full set tipping the scales at £249. On a slight side note, if I were to go new I'd get some Wezmoto hoses . I got some for my NSR250 and they tuned out to be pretty high quality. As you hopefully already know. The VFR800 FI doesn't have simple, separate front and...