VX800 connector hose between airboxes

Wrap it with self vulcanising tape?

Sometimes buying the 'right part' can work out cheaper than the time it takes to do a 'running repair' or alternative fix.

If cash is 'tight' then Sim's suggestion might work ..... but if it doesn't then you are back to square one - spending a few more 'Dollars' on something else that may or may not work.

You could try blanking the ends where the pipe connects to the air-box - but  I'd suggest doing a lash-up with other bits (rather than cutting the original pipe -as you may need that to identify a suitable replacement if your 'experiments do not work as you hope). That would give you a chance to run the bike with blanks in the air filter boxes & see if it affected the general running of the motor.

You will have to try it & see.

You might be able to find something suitable at a bike breakers  (or possibly car breakers) - that's where the intact original pipe will come in handy for comparing it to similar items.

Hope that might help

I tend to agree with Yam, if the pipe is fairly straight and its a common internal diameter, a hose from a car would work but that may still cost you $10-$20 and a lot of time trying to find one that fits.
As the pipe is so high up, I don't think heat will be a problem so self-amalgamating tape should work, so as long as its free from heat or oil it should work.

Thanks all. For the moment I have rubber stoppers plugging the airbox hose openings. Will continue working on the bike and come back to the connector hose later.

My current though is that a frayed throttle cable going to the rear carb is causing the high idle. The front carb is behaving correctly to changes in the mixture screw, but the rear isn't. Will work on that today.

Have you got a service manual for the VX as the carbs are not the easiest things to get setup correctly, from memory the idle is set on the rear carb and the front one is then synced to it when you 'balance' them, if you adjust the idle it can throw the carbs out of sync and you need to re-balance them again!!  Its fun !!

Yes, I have downloaded the manual and have sync'd carbs before. My theory on the rear carb is that the frayed cable end is causing the cable to be abnomally tight/short, then causing rear carb to be constantly above idle.

UPDATE - while the throttle cable for the rear carb was frayed, the real problem with the adjustment of the front carb's throttle cable. Previous owner had it set too tight causing a min of 2k rpm. Simple solution to slacken it all the way and then adjust for minimal slack. Now starts easily and idles just above 1k rpm. Picked up a used cable on ebay, so I'll install that this weekend to avoid any issues with the frayed cable and will sync the carbs some warm weekend.

Good to hear you are making progress with your VX ..... Hope it goes well.