Well, the solution has been found. It's so incredibly simple, it boggles my mind as to why it wasn't done earlier.

It turns out that the only part of the bike I never checked was the plugs. The bike has always started with ease. Also, I had asked two different mechanics to change the plugs while they had the bike apart just for the hell of it. Both men said they changed the plugs, but evidently neither did. I changed the plugs to new NGKs of the correct specifications and suddenly the V-tec came back. Ridiculous.

I still don't know why the bike would run on the other plugs but not enter V-tec. I'm not going to ask any longer though. It runs well, and I'll take it.

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts along the way.

my bike is a Spec 2 with a melted cdi. unfortunately, honda japan stopped the production of cdi for spec 2 also. so i tried to install a cdi from spec 3, luckily, the bike started normal but when i use it the vtec is not engaging. i will try your solution this coming weekend. i hope it work also.....