Dutch guy here (apologies for the bad english in advance) with his first Honda VF1000 F2 from 86. Had my first tour ride last weekend and loved the bike! Nice kick, and fun in the corners. I was always a little sketchy of the esthetics of 80’s bikes. But this one definitly grew on me. Found this forum and I’m glad to see there is a dedicated place for this bike to share experiences and problems.
I have two questions right away, maybe someone could give some advice:
My speedometer is acting weird. When I drive faster than about 60/70 km/h the needle becomes very inaccurate. When i drive about 100 km/h on the high way, the needle hits 220 - 280. I think it is pretty easy to solve by lubricating the cable, or maybe i need a new one because the old connector is worn out…? Seems like an easy solvable problem.
The center stand…I noticed that the bike is pretty straight up on the center stand, so little force is needed to get it off the stand again. But since I want to use a little motor mover to maneuver the bike in my living room ( pretty cool to have a motorbike in my living room, but the only place that stays dry) I can’t really move the bike because it falls of the center stand pretty easy. Is there a way to adjust how far the centerstand ‘locks’ so that it leans a little bit further to the backside??
Hi Dennis, nice to have you along. Please don’t ever feel the need to apologise for “bad” English because if you didn’t convert to our language we’d never be able to communicate with you, so thanks for doing that.
Your main stand sounds like it might be the wrong one fitted ?
But okay, good to know it isn’t just my center stand. Maybe I have to look into adapting the stand a little bit (maybe grinding of a little bit somewhere, it wouldnt need a whole lot to make it lean back a little bit more…) Or maybe i’ll fix the center stand to the front wheel with a lashing strap when i put it on the motormover…
Hi Dennis,there are two main stands fitted to the VF,one suits the early FE model and the second the later FF and F2F and G variants.
When on the stand,what is the gap between the floor and rear tyre?
Regards Bif
Hi, I had exactly the same issue with my F2 speedometer. Posted the problem in this forum earlier in the year, got some helpful suggestions- all of which I had already tried. I have two F2 bikes, one is running and on the road, the other is for spares. So I tried every combination of inner speedo cable, outer speedo cable, and actual speedometers. I lubed the inner cable carefully (with graphite) ensuring none entered the speedometer unit. I also checked, and double-checked, that the cable was routed correctly and not binding the inner cable at any point. My conclusion? It’s the speedometer itself, probably intermittent failure of the permanent magnets and/or the windings (these cause the needle to move correctly). The speedometer off the spare bike was an improvement. The spare bike had only traveled 18,000 km, whereas the running bike had 45,000km. So the speedo with less use has a needle that swings less, but I expect it too will eventually become worse. Summary, it’s an issue with the speedometer unit, which has a design and/or construction fault.
pretty cool to have a motorbike in my living room, but the only place that stays dry) I can’t really move the bike because it falls of the center stand pretty easy. Is there a way to adjust how far the centerstand ‘locks’ so that it leans a little bit further to the backside??
