I am now officially a VFR owner.  I believe this is a well-recognized rite of passage.

I will not include a photo of the hack job that was my fix, even though it seems that it will do the job.

For the record, I am a Ducati rider and we never have problems like this; my Monster is a far superior machine. :)  The reason for the VFR is carrying a passenger, which is one thing that the Monster is terrible for.

I read that the VFR connector problem is due to loose spade connectors.  Over time, the connection can become loose, causing arcing, which creates heat, which melts plastic and creates more resistance and the connector goes up in smoke.

Yikes! Was that the model I saw in Hot Bike magazine? 

Damn. That's a bit scary. 

Good one! :)  Why yes, it's a hot damn bike.

Same thing happened to a friend during our road trip last summer.  It was the connector itself that was at fault.  Cutting it out and replacing it solved the problem.

Yermo this happened during a shortish ride.  At traffic lights I kept smelling something, but couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. Not oil or coolant and didn't smell like the usual burnt electronics smell.  Made it home without any issues and took off the right side of the faring to find an "icicle" of melted plastic.

While I had the faring off, I decided to replace the K&N filter I had on there, due to them being recalled.  The same friend that had the connector burn out last summer had his K&N filter fail on him in the middle of nowhere due to this exact problem.  The bit with the nut on the end of the filter popped out in one spot and started spewing oil - bad news!

I'm glad this happened close to home. A failure like that far from home can be a real bummer.

That's a bit scary!

I just sold my Monster (2007 S2R 1000) and bought a '98 VFR800.  A previous owner replaced the regular/rectifier, but I'll have to go check the health of those connectors.

Oh, and a note on K&N filters: at the last oil change, I used a K&N oil filter.  After changing the oil and starting the engine to check for leaks the oil pressure light stayed on.  I rolled the bike off to the side of the garage and waited for UPS to bring me a new OEM Ducati filter.  The light behaved normally after swapping them (and no oil loss!).

I'm less inclined to use aftermarket parts on critical bits as time goes by.  OEM's often (a lot) more expensive, but I trust that the people who sourced those parts are a lot smarter than I am.

I've heard that tracks will not allow bikes with oil filters like the K&N having the nut on the end, because of the risk of failure, whether they were part of a recall or not.

It is convenient for removal of the filter, especially on bikes like the VFR that don't give you much room, but having seen one fail I understand why they might be forbidden.

Not sure what year your VFR is, but mine fried a rectifier a number of years ago and I found this kit.  Worked like a charm and I've not had any problems since.

In general track/race spec is that anything that carries fluid, or that would leak fluid if it comes lose needs to be drilled and wired.  In the K&N oil filter's case it would just be one more thing to wire.

To affix the spin on filters you just tighten a hose clamp to the outside of the spin on filter itself and then safety wire the hose clamp to some hard part on the bike in the tightening direction.

ryan647 thanks for the link to the wiring harness.  I've seen those mentioned and will consider getting one if I keep the bike for much longer.  Mine is a 2003 VFR 800.

Interesting about the safety wiring for the oil filters.  Makes sense now why the K&N w/nut would be a problem.  No way to keep that thing from spewing oil in a failure.