When I test-rode the VifFerraRi before my wife coerced me into buying it, it had the slickest and nicest gearchange of any Honda I’d ridden. I knew it would be only a matter of time before the constant communtering, ham-fisted (ham-booted??) gearchanges, and my skill as a serial transmission wrecker would wreak its usual trail of semi-destruction, so when a few clunks’n’niggles reared their head (or is that, “their ugly arses”?) and I saw this http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14813&pid=174656&st=0&#entry174656
I thought, “Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm….” (it was a longish thought).
I then got on the Interdweeb to Factory Pro, clicked a few buttons, and very soon(ish), a Factory Pro Evo Star Shifter Kit was winging its way to me strapped to the back of a US Postal Service carrier pigeon. I only hoped it wasn’t a psycho, gun-toting one…
Eventually, just when I was beginning to think it had been confiscated by Her Majesty’s Customs Service, New Zealand Orofice, it turned up on my doorstep. Eagerly ripping the envelope open proved to have a somewhat disappointing climax (“Was it good for you?” – "No; there were no shifting tectonic plates at all..."), when I discovered how underwhelming $US200 of bike parts can appear. A gasket, a spring thing, a surprisingly small lever arm thingo (excuse the technical term), a sheet of instructions printed on bright yeller paper, and a shiny, shiny gold-coloured star wheel whatsit. Oh yeah – and a (presumably) $US150 “Factory Pro” sticker.
woohoo.
When to install it so as to create minimum disruption? More hmmmmmm-ing.
Actually, by this time, I’d sort of lost motivation a bit, so I re-examined the installation instructions, and the glowing recommendations, and the pictures of what I needed to do, and started taking bits off the bike.
Aaargg!!! Fairing.
Only one panel to take off, but unlike previous bikes with nifty Dzus fasteners and whatnot, this involved al sorts of mentalised hex-headed screws, and some exceedingly With the VFR750, a few Dzus fasteners (1/4-turn quick-disconnecting bolt thingos, for those who’ve never heard of them), and the fairing mid panel’s on the ground.
VFR800: 10 or 11 screw/bolt/fastener thingos, and three mismatched plastic panel fasteners. It makes the fairing fit together nice'n'tight, without rattles'n'squeaks, but it's nevertheless a PAIN.
What seemed like hours later (but in reality was probably 40ish minutes), the panel was off. The gearlever, and radiator overflow bottle soon followed. The engine’s lifeblood (still youngish) was drained into the oil pan.
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