What to look for on VTRs?

[vifferman]

Few engines have "issues" with tensioners, I like the ones that are oil pressure loaded with a ratchet/pawl mechanism backing that up.

The VTR tensioners (and all other Honda ones) have a clockwork-type spring that slowly advances the plunger as the chain stretches and/or the sliders wear, and a ratchet that backs this up, so they can't loosen up. But (however!) on the VTRs, the spring gets fatigued, and when it breaks there's nothing to stop the plunger backing out. If you replace the mechanism with a screw and locknut (a la APE) it solves that problem.
It's thought that what happens is the long chain throw on the VTR makes for a lot of chain movement. Combine that with lots of engine braking, and poor oiling of the front CCT (it slopes down towards the cylinder barrel, whereas the rear one slopes away, so collects oil), and too much sitting idling on the sidestand warming the engine up (insufficient oil circulation??) and the spring (usually the front one) gets brittle.

The solution is easy: when your Honda starts to get noisy and sound like a chaff cutter (whatever the fook that is), you throw it away and buy another one.

[Fatjim]

The solution is easy: when your Honda starts to get noisy and sound like a chaff cutter (whatever the fook that is), you throw it away and buy another one.

What, the cct or the bike?

Its bit of a wise tail... since the first VTR in 97 the local Honda shop in Chch have only ever had one cct failer..

It was a common enough problem, but not so much nowadays. I've heard of one in the last year or so.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a dealer say, "thats the first time I've seen this" with a dumb look on his face I'd have like lots of money. In fact you can have a lot of fun talking to dealers and asking them quetions like "are the cct's prone to fail on a vtr?", " are gixxers electrics shite?", "is the the '04 ZX10R a flighty beast" and any other common well known problem with their marques.

[Ocean1]

The VTR tensioners (and all other Honda ones) have a clockwork-type spring that slowly advances the plunger as the chain stretches and/or the sliders wear, and a ratchet that backs this up, so they can't loosen up. But (however!) on the VTRs, the spring gets fatigued, and when it breaks there's nothing to stop the plunger backing out. If you replace the mechanism with a screw and locknut (a la APE) it solves that problem.
It's thought that what happens is the long chain throw on the VTR makes for a lot of chain movement. Combine that with lots of engine braking, and poor oiling of the front CCT (it slopes down towards the cylinder barrel, whereas the rear one slopes away, so collects oil), and too much sitting idling on the sidestand warming the engine up (insufficient oil circulation??) and the spring (usually the front one) gets brittle.

The solution is easy: when your Honda starts to get noisy and sound like a chaff cutter (whatever the fook that is), you throw it away and buy another one.

I take it you mean the ratchet pawl spring rather than the main cct spring?
Can't see a spring with such a light duty breaking from fatigue, (think valve-springs, gazillions of cycles without problems) more likely poor quality control in tempering.

The KLX/DRZ engine's been known to have cct issues, there's an after-market manual version for those too. A mate's one started sounding like a concrete mixer and that turned out to be the fix for it, mine seems to be fine.

[dangerous]

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a dealer say, "thats the first time I've seen this" with a dumb look on his face I'd have like lots of money.

Yip, I was thinking the same, in fact to be honest I dont believe being only 1 of the 2 Honda red carpet dealers in the south Is that in 10 yrs only 1 cct has been in for repair...