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! :)