Fully Braided

So with de-linking the brakes and changing the front end, new lines/cables need to replace the old ones so they are the correct length. What a great oppertunity to add all steel braided lines. So as mentioned before i made up some custom venhill steel braided lines for the rear brake, but the clutch line, front brake lines and throttle cables all need replacing too.

Throttle cables first, as with the new shorter front forks the old cables were just snagging/kinking up simply because they were now too long. Because im creating something so custom, i thought it would be better to make some custom cables rather than trying to fing a bike with a cable legth similar to what i now need. Hence purchasing this custom venhill throttle cable kit: 2 high strength inner cables (one end pre nippled), 2 extra long steel braided outer cables, and a bag full of varying sizes and shapes of nipples/outer cable ends/attachment fittings.

Firstly i measured up the length needed by using the old lines then simply cutting them down to what would be needed. Then cutting the new outer cable down to length to match. The appropriate cable ends where then put on and the attachment fittings to match the throttle assembly unit. The inner cable threaded throught the outer then put into place on the bike. Once at this stage the inner cable can more accurately judge to what length to cut to. After being cut to length, the appropriate nipples were selected and treaded onto the inner cable. At the end of the inner cable the individual strands needed to be prised back then folded back onto itself known as bird caging, this is to make the wire even less likely to slip though the nipple and also to give the solder more to grab hold of. (see below)

The nipples were then soldered into place and filed to a smooth finish.

The lines are the fixed into position and put to right tension.

Like the throttle cables a new clutch line was needed because of the new shorter length. For this i chose a Hel Line to match what the front brake line i have purchased.

Hel Front brake lines fitted and all lines bled through and working.

A few little extras, i made a small bracket to fit the rear brake mc

And before the tank went on I added a pipercross airfilter.

Brake Caliper re-furb

Ok, so i am using stock TOKICO calipers from an '06 fireblade but just want to re-furb them abit to make them look new and to match the colour scheme of the bike.

 Tokico calipers as standard

 Cleaned up and painted in a high temp resistant Gloss Black

On the bike and treated to a nice set of HEL brakelines!

929 rear shock conversion

Ok so many vfr800 owners will already know but for those who dont the rear suspension on this bike isnt what you would call great, infact id call it a lazy afterthought! considering this model of the vfr was extremely expensive to manufacture the rear shock is so basic and seems the cheapest type of shock has been supplied.

Sports tourer is what they called this bike but the suspension is so lazy it its hard to see where the sports part comes in.... im not knocking the oem shock completely, it is a nice standard shock for touring on and mine has lasted 50,000 miles!!! but now it has finally given up and packed its bag ready for the scrapyard!

For my transformation of making a sportsbike, i want a rear shock with a bit more tuning options, the abilty to control the compresion and rebound would be nice!

The choice of shock replacement is a oem shock taken from a honda 929! these shocks are made by showa, they have tunable compression and rebound and fits straight into the vfr, with the exception that the 929 shock is 35mm shorter in length than the standard vfr shock.

To the left, the 50,000 miles on the clock vfr800 stock shock, and on the rite the replacment 929 shock lookin in much better condition!!

Ok so here is the bracket which attaches the the shock at the top to the frame, my idea to make the 929 shock fit exactly how the vfr shock did is to simply make up the difference in length (35mm) by modifying this bracket using a longer bolt and adding a solid washer.

So here is said modified bracket! the old bolt was dilled out and a 35mm longer one replaced it, welded in place. Using a die, new thread was given to the bolt the the right depth as the old one had. And then a 35mm billet high tensile aluminium buffer/washer was added to make up the height difference in the shocks.

 

New shock in place, and sit nicely and safely out of the way of the exhaust downpipes.

New Stance: Ride height adjusted, compression and rebound set! :)

Rear SubFrame

Ok so the rear of the ol' girl is well out of shape, she needs to hit the gym and tighten up that fat arse! the fairing is ok but a little large for me, i would like to change this for something narrower/thinner. The rear light unit is massive and fair play its great for visability purposes but not the most sporty looking unit, plus there must be a fair amount of weight to be saved from changing this. The undertray is huge and heavy. Also a big dislike with how the bike is currently is the combined seat unit. It was great for touring with as it was really comfy for long periods and great comfort for the pillion too but..... It looks dated, its massive, really heavy, and just doesnt look the part for a sports bike, two separate seats is the way forward.

So stripped to its bones, first things first the subframe needs to be changed. Initially i wanted to fabricate my own custom subframe but im going to save that for a future project as i dont currently have the time.

Original subframe weighing in at 3.3kg

After doing some measurements, and looking at different subframes out there, i found that a CBR600rr 03+ model subframe would fit straight to the vfr frame on the bottom mounts, and i really like the style of it too especially if i was to go with a cbr600rr rear fairing this would be perfect. All i would have to do is make up some brackets to mount it at the top fixing points.

One CBR600rr subframe purchased from ebay, weighing in at 2.7kg - a nice little weight saving (every little counts right?)

Painted Black

Machined some brackets out of high tensile aluminium, measured length to give desired subframe angle.

Brackets on and match the frame to the subframe perfectly

Subframe... salt and peppered! :)

Rear Brake line Re-route

Summer holidays are here, so time to crack on and get this rr on the road! Got a job for the summer so plus side i can start throwing money at the bike, downside i'll have less time to spend doin her up.

So from delinking the brakes, i now need to re set up the rear brake. Im using the original rear caliper so some brake line managment needs attension. The rear caliper is a 3 piston design, with the outer 2 pistons in one hydraulic circuit and the center piston on its own. The trick now will be getting all the pistons to work together now ive taken the two brake line feeds away. To save weight and to give a cleaner look ive opted to mount a single line from the master cylinder to the caliper and then adding a short bridge to tie the 2 hydraulic ports together. The rearmost port then will be a double banjo bolt, one hose goes to the master cylinder, and the other is the bridge line that goes to the center piston port.

- here's a look of how the rear brake lines originally look. The chainguard hides the beauty of the single sided swingarm and it hides the chain. The only purpose its good for is holding the two brake lines inplace, but as i want to get rid of these, the chainguard definately needs to. Also its a weighty bit of plastic, so by getting rid, its another weight saving mod.

Chaingaurd removed and having a closer inspection of the swingarm ive have a great idea for the rear brake line route.

Routing the line from the rear master cylinder, into and through the swing arm and out sumwhere near the rear caliper, giving the cleanest look as no brake line will be visable along the swing arm :)

- new rear master cylinder and valve, taken from a cbr600F to achieve a good braking balance.

- So on the top of the swing arm, near to where the shock sits theres an approx 10mm hole left from where the chainguard plugs into.... perfect for a brake line to go into?

- Underneath the swingarm near to where the brake caliper sits theres another hole (approx 12mm) this could be too perfect for the brake line to feed through.... using some wire and feeding it through the swingarm, happy face it all feeds through and this could be possible.

- Ok, so puchased some universal brakelines, banjos, and washer.... time to rig it all together. Firstly i need to connect the outer hydraulic pistons together.

- Pistons connected :) (the unversal kit i bought was really good (venhill brake lines), braided steel, cut well and cleanly with a hack saw, and part connected up nicely)

- I fed the wire which i used to locate through the swing arm, onto the brake line and pulled it throuh...15mins of maneuvering it, making sure there were no kinks in the line and the line is now inside the swing arm :)

- Heres where the line comes out on the underside of the swing arm, i added some rubber bungs on the exits to avoid rubbing between the swingarm and brake lines.

- Here how the rear caliper looks, with the braided brake line set up complete

- A top view of how the brake line re-route looks (minimal lines visable)

- Chain back on, overall look of the rear brake line re-route complete :) i think it looks awesome! it makes the swingarm look so much cleaner, and makes the gold chain much more of a visually pleasing feature in comparison to all the original set up.

Front End

Front End be gone! time for upgrades : )

Old riser handle bars/clipons... massively heavy... bin! (or ebay hah), new cnc billet aluminium clipons and alluminium bars to replace : )

Right the route im going down for the front end is a a 07 fireblade! nicely shortening the trail, the bike should end up turning like a beast... and if it ends up being too beastly then i'll add on a steering dampner to help out. Ground clearance is an unknown as yet, cbr1000rr fork are shorter then standard vfr800 forks, but a jack up kit on the rear shock should help out. 1000rr’s use the same steering stem bearings as the VFR, the steering stem length is also the same so it becomes an elementary job to fit. My vfr has had taper bearings fitted top and bottom so the new fork will need this type to be pressed on, should be an easy switcharoo.

Stock vfr yoke next to new Blade yoke. Again the blades is much lighter! drill out the safety bolts to get the ignition switch out and its a perfect match to fit it direct onto the blades! result!

So here we have the shiny CBR1000rr forks : ) against the depressing stock vfr800 forks, again theres a big weight difference here, ill add all weight saving measurements at a later date.

Blade front end on, decided in the end to buy a blade wheel to match as correct wheel bearing sizes to fit the vfr wheel over the blade spindal was too difficult to source and i didnt fancy buying an unknown brand of bearing :s so went with the safe option of just using a blade wheel. The benefit of this is that actually there is a considerable amount of weight saving from the 3 spoke design compared to the rediculously heavy 5 spoke vfr wheel.

DCBS delink/removal

I was out driving this morning when i saw a RAC van parked on the side of the road. The driver was sobbing uncontrollably and look really miserable. I thought to myself, "that guys heading for a breakdown."

Right then, i want to delink the dual combined braking system and remove it all, reason for this is because i want the rear to brake when i want it to! and not just because im using the front brake!! its so annoying when your mid corner and you just want to apply abit of rear brake but the cbs kicks in and the fronts come on, getting you into more trouble! Also just looking at the system there must be so much more extra weight! even just all the extra lines must add up to atleast a kilo or 2!

Time to rip her out! Starting by completely bleeding the whole system, because i dont want any of that nasty brake fluid drippin on the bike or on the garage floor. having to work both brakes at the same time to get the most fluid out at each end. gloves are a good choice!
With plenty of rags at the ready for any excess fluid, working front to back, the front calipers come off, the front brake and master cylinder and the lines upto where the weeny steel lines run round the frame of the bike.

Next removing the rear caliper for better access, disconecting the lines, and followin these back up to the rear master cylinder and rear brake proportioning valve.

The lines removed completely, its time for the proportioning valve, which was surprising easy to take out, just two unceased bolts, result! next i just worked the steel lines that follow the inside of the left hand side frame loose, and the bike is free from a cbs! horraaa!

this is a great mod to do to save weight, the thing weighs a ton (ill measure how much it weighs later)! with all its extra brackets and lines and obv fluid its easy to see why! DCBS deleted :)

Strip Tease

Sha Boy.... Sha Roy!!! haha carpark catchphrase makin an early mornin start and a cold garage more bareable! 2 brews laters and time to get crackin, so first things first lets strip the ol gal...

So, front and rear subframe taken off and straight away weight can be saved here, i believe most things on this bike has been made out of pig iron. So new custom subframes (lightweight) will be built accomodating new different fairings, lights, and for the future an underseat exhaust. Details to come...

My genius lifting system...

...1 bottle and 2 scissor jacks, beauuuuutiful!

 -Undertray and scottoiler removed, custom fiberglass one to replace this.

- Chain guard removed (fashion before function) as it it will no longer be needed to mount the rear brake lines onto, and as much of the expensive AFAM chain to be seen,  forget PPE, its all about weight saving!

The Project

So here we go....
2012 has arrived and before the world comes to an end, what better way to spend our last days then to play about with motorbikes, right?

This project is all about turning my 5th generation VFR800 into something different and individual, instead of the usual process of when you want a new bike you go on ebay sell ur bike and purchase a different bike generically the same of what many other might have.
The idea is to take my viffer, who lets be honest has become abit fat and heavy, and turn her into something abit lighter, more agressive and sporty looking, and improve/upgrade its components along the way.
Taking on this project is for many reasons: dont get me wrong i love the vfr800 as it is but it looks arent as sporty as i would like and the bike is far too heavy. I really like the idea of having bike thats going to be individual and the vfr as is has alot of features which i like as a starting point: these being the single sided swing arm, V4 grunt, large fuel capacity, the gear driven cams, honda reliabilty and also ive become really fond of the way it delivers its power. Another reason for taking on this project is because the bike needs a reconditioning/upgrade on its suspensension (front+rear). So lets get stuck in...

^ a last look of the bike before getting started