Skids 5th Gen Refresh

[Skids]

Seeing as we lost everything, including my 5th Gen restore story when VFRD died, I thought I’d re-write it here to go alongside the other stories that are re-appearing. Please note now that I do not have the sort of skills that so many exhibited on VFRD and now on here, I am a ‘monkey see, monkey do’ kind of guy. A dear departed friend of mine once showed me how to do the 16k valve shim service on a 5th Gen, and I’ve done it myself ever since, but otherwise I know my lane and I stay in it so this is not some strip to bare bones project, fitting exotic parts and squeezing every last ounce of power whilst reducing weight to a minimum type of story. My somewhat naïve idea was to preserve an already excellent condition bike, ride it a little but not pile the miles on and keep it as a testament to Mr Honda’s fantastic engineering. Hopefully, someone with limited skills like me may find some inspiration to have a go at their bike too – you only learn by trying!

My return to biking back in ’01 was made possible by a 5th Gen. I test rode one having not ridden a bike for many years and within 100 metres from the off I knew it was the bike for me. Over 130,000 miles later, she finally passed and I moved on to newer models; first an ‘07 6th Gen, then a ’14 7th Gen which I still have, then the first of 2 VFR800X Crossrunners which I used for commuting to work for nearly 10 years before retiring in Jan this year. My current bike in a VFR1200X Crosstourer. But the memories of that first ride on a VFR stayed with me and when I came across a low mileage (<9000 miles) ’01 silver 5th Gen nearby I decided to buy it

As I said, low mileage but she’d not been ridden at all in the previous 6 years and for the previous 16 years she’d only been ridden to the MoT and back (annual roadworthiness test); the PO had hip issues and struggled to get on/off the bike. He was very concerned that the bike should go to someone who would look after her and I convinced him she was safe with me.

Here she is the day I went to view her. All standard and in excellent condition.

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But all the fluids and perishables needed to be changed and I wanted to do a little refresh on a few parts too (so not 100% as Mr Honda intended, but hey ho) so on with the task. First was a hire van to get her home then onto the ramp (this was our old house and a decidedly small and untidy garage).

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[mello dude]

Skids.. go for it! I am hoping others with also work to post their previous journeys from VFRD....

That said... .keeping these forums alive is a tough slog... even VFRW is imploding...

[maxredline]

The gray bike looks clean, 9k miles wow! Nice find! That is a bike that will hold its value and possibly will go up as long as the fans don't die off. Lets face it its getting too close

I don't know about you guys but I have seen a price drop in the average milage 5ths. I have seen 2 lately that look good but have 70k plus kms for around $3k Canadian.

Today I will be lucky to break even with my 2 left. The only thing that will save me is the low milage meaning under 45k kms not 9k miles lol.

I never did like VFRW.

[Skids]

Hey Max, good point about the value but I didn't buy this as an investment, she's a keeper for life and will be passed on to my son when I go.

[Skids]

As mentioned, my mechanical/technical skills do not extend anywhere near those of some of you on here (or on the old VFRD) so my focus was on refreshing her so she was roadworthy and making her look good (to me). So, fairings off first – note, the tyres were nearly 2 decades old as you can probably see from the tread pattern and were replaced with my go-to tyre the Metzeller Roadtec 1.

[Skids]

At this point, it became obvious that there was little extra needed as everything was in such good condition. I noticed what looked like a small oil leak from the sump so cleaned it and it hasn’t reappeared since so maybe just some spilled oil from the filter.

[Skids]

After stripping, the next job was a wash.