Interceptor SS VFR800 5th Generation - A Gearhead’s Delinking Brake Saga and the Interceptor SS
by Mello Dude
July 12, 2006
I am a certified Honda V 4 nut. My love affair started with Honda’s first V4 on the 1984 Sabre. I rode that for years and then made the mistake of riding a VFR. Whoops, I’m done. I waited for the right deal and found a ’95. Cranked off 27,000 miles over a number of years and then made another mistake of riding the 5th generation VFR. Whoops, I’m done again. I shopped for another deal and finally found a ’98. Love the thing, but the linked brakes had to go. I know some people don’t agree with this, but it just seems the more experienced riders like their brakes separate, especially for a rear only situation. I’m there, I just didn’t want to retrain my brain for linked braking actions.
I’ve been a gearhead guy since I was a teen, have done plenty of motorcycle and car racing, and turned into a pretty good wrench. Then, as a mechanical engineer and worked in the automotive industry for almost 20 years, with 10 of those in automotive brakes, I thought a brake system rework should be doable. Let’s just say it turned into an adventure.
This is my story on my delink job. Also, partially it’s a bit of a “how to”. I tried to do the neatest and simplest conversion I could come up with. (A comment for somebody thinking about doing this, a factory service manual is invaluable, don’t attempt without. Also, you should be a decent mechanic, it’s not a bolt-on week end job for novices.)
Planning it, plan it, bang it, beat it to death….
Searching the web I found almost zero information on the delink. So as a hardheaded fool I figured I could just jump in on no information. I found a set of RC51 brakes on EBay and bought them outright. I thought I could just design and machine brackets to mount the calipers onto the VFR forks and be done. Wrong. The right side looked ok on the CAD tube, but the left side looked outright fugly. I couldn’t bring myself to go that way, too many unknowns and whadifs, (Will it last? Is it strong enough? What material should be used? Engineer geek stuff.) So it was back to a search for plan B, whatever that is.
It became obvious that the VFR forks were gonna have to go. I had to step back and ask “What do I want?”. I didn’t know yet. It would be great to go with Ohlins but cost wise, have you ever priced any? And there is frame stiffness questions with stiffer forks.(There I go again, being engineer geek..) Maybe F4i. No, fork tubes are 43mm. VFR800 5th gen’s are 41mm. Maybe this or that. Back and forth to the dealer, tape measure in hand. Luckily, I have bought several bikes there, they were starting to get impatient. Then I checked a Super Hawk. (SH) I was dumbfounded that the front forks would be a drop in. It was a Eureka moment, I decided to go with SH forks and keep this job as simple and clean as possible. Keep it simple stupid as they say. And keep costs as reasonable as possible.
As reasonable as possible was a catch phrase, I was bent on attacking the viffers two shortcomings, which to me, were first the brakes and second the cheap suspension. I knew I was going to trash the rear shock and while I was at it, go ahead and monkey with forks and get an upgrade from the aftermarket. So I planned for an extra $1600 on a Penske shock and fork upgrade that really wasn’t necessary, but very trick. (If you don’t do a full fork upgrade as least go to a little stiffer front springs, the stock is flabby. Also if you are absolute low buck, DO NOT use the SH springs, they have even less spring rate than VFR forks. There are lots of options here from the aftermarket.)
Grabbing forks parts, parts is parts.
So it goes, hello EBay. I found out that there arent that many Super Hawk forks around. Kinda frustrating, but after about 6 weeks of waiting for a set to pop up, I finally found a marginal set. I knew I was going to rebuild the forks so I gambled and bid. It had the brakes, a wheel and rotor too. Stuff to maybe resell. That was the plus, the minus was the forks were iffy. The lowers were heavily corroded, and needed refinishing. More time, more hassle, more bucks. That’s EBay, it’s a gamble to buy a used part. Sometimes, most times, it’s a good part. Sometimes not. – In the if I had to do it again column, I would strongly consider just buying new Super Hawk lowers right out of the Honda catalog. The lowers will mate-up with the stock VFR800 upper tubes no problem. (’98 to ’01) A tick more expensive, but quicker and much less painless. That’s what cool about Honda stuff, lots of parts are interchangeable. (Note: I did end up with the VFR800 uppers and the SH lowers.)
A little engineering, more planning.
While I was forking around with this thing, some thinking on the brakes was needed. I was bent on using the RC51 parts. I ran a bunch of calculations to see where I was brake power wise, first front, then rear. For the front, I was thinking just use the stock VFR800 master cylinder (m/c) with the RC calipers and call it a day. Holy crap! Not a good idea! The calculation came out a good 30% higher than stock. It would put me on my head! Not good! I ran several other master cylinder calculations vs. calipers. I had the SH calipers plus a set of F4i around and also still had my bone stock ’95 VFR to compare with. Each has different caliper piston area sizes and different master cylinder bore sizes. Bottom line is, I was stunned how sensitive the calculation is. Too much or not enough brake. Put the wrong combination together and your dead! Moral of story – do not mix and match up different stock parts. Stick with stock bike combinations, RC51 with RC51, F4i with F4i, SH with SH. A note here: I was set on the 51 set-up because it was about a 8 % boost in brake power (front) and, well, I already bought the stuff. But; I had to grind about a millimeter of material off the lower mount, inboard side from the fork lower, and, also about a millimeter from the matching side on the caliper. The mounting hole distance is the same as the SH, but it just misses a clean bolt up. I don’t recommend you do it, but for me, I judged it to be ok. For the do it again file, just go with the SH calipers. (For you engineer types, don’t worry. I did use lever ratios vs. m/c area vs. caliper piston area vs. rotor diameter/radius etc…the basics.) (Weight wise, the RC51, VFR800 , and SH are relatively similar.) (June '08 - I have heard that 2001 - 2002 GSXR-1000 six pot calipers are a possibility too. That would be a hot set-up.)
Rear caliper stuff.
The rear is a three piston caliper on its own brake plate. What to do, what to do? My approach was how does it compare to my stock ’95 VFR? More calculations…. Ok, if you plumb the 98 pistons together to the 98 master cylinder, you get a crash, not enough brake. Ok, chuck the stock m/c. It turns out a 14mm m/c is just about right. More rear brake power than a RC51 (it has a smaller diameter rotor) and close to a stock VFR750. So the brake balance will be a bit of a blend of RC51 and VFR750. Calculation wise a 5/8 inch m/c may be ok too. It’s still more brake on the rear than the stock RC51. Time will tell. The 14mm on the rear feels pretty good for now. It just so happens a RC51 uses a 14mm m/c, so does a SH, so does a F4i. The beauty of all these is that the castings all have the same dimensions and mounting holes, they will bolt right up! I like easy! The only thing I had to do on the RC51 master cylinder for fit purposes is to cut off the banjo bolt locator tab on the top to get the brake line in position and shorten the push rod. Still, simple.
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While I’m talking about the rear, the next question was how to plumb the hoses. I took a hard look at the rear caliper. As I mentioned before, it’s a 3 piston design, with the outer 2 pistons in one hydraulic circuit and the center piston on its own. Ok, this can’t be too bad, just get all the pistons to work together. Really, brake hose wise there are 2 options. The simplest is just to take the stock second line off the proportioning valve, the thing sits next to the battery box, right side, and move that to mount double banjo bolt style on top of the new master cylinder. The other is the route I took, mount a single line from the master cylinder to the caliper and then adding a short bridge to tie the 2 hydraulic ports together, banjo bolt style on the caliper. (I got the bridge from my local auto speed shop. They charged me 30 bucks, not bad.) 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. (photo # 3 Rear line set up) To be honest, I don’t know why, but I didn’t think of the double line solution until after I spent money on the single line/bridge job. A Homer Simpson moment. Doh! I’m not going to say if one is better than two, maybe there’s less line flex and more feel with one line.
(Follow up note July 2008: I'm very happy with this rear set-up, it has good feel and is easy to modulate. The hot setup for delink rear.) (Note April 2009: I was told by someone who tried the double line solution that it was a major PIA to try to get it to bleed. He gave up and went to the single line and bridge set-up. Sounds like that is the way to go.)
Enough planning, strip it!
Now the heavy duty stuff. Off with all the body work, even the tail. Brake fluid is nasty, gets everywhere and will eat paint. I don’t want to replace or repaint anything. It just gives easier access to everything. Also, next is that the tank has to be raised up. The tank has a pivot designed into the rear anchor/seat latch. If you unbolt the front tank two bolts the tank can be pivoted and raised. I propped it up with an 18” wood dowel. I did that for a first try, but I admit I got a bit frustrated with it so I removed the whole thing to get it out of the way. It’s a bit awkward but it worked out alright. There are 2 steel brake lines to the left side under the tank by the frame. These run from both sides of the steering head to the proportioner valve. This is the only way to get them off.
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Steel link front to rear brake lines – in these photos the right line is already removed
Ok, body work and tank off, it’s the brakes and forks turn. Get the front wheel off the ground. I have a Craftsman cycle/ATV jack, so that is what I used. The gotcha for the VFR is you have to pull the header off. It took me a day to ponder whether I wanted to do that or not. The alternate was to go buy one of those Bulldog stands that goes under the steering head. Spend more money? Well never mind, I pulled the header off. I had to build a little 2 x 4 shim stand to get it to work, but it turned out pretty sweet. I pulled the wheels off next, they just get in the way.
Now it’s the brake guts turn. Draining the brake fluid from everywhere definitely is a good idea. Pump the lever and pedal real good. Gloves is a good idea too. I then started with removing front calipers both left and right plus the lines. Wont be using any of this stuff. More fluid. Yuk. I need more rags. The rest is more of the same, work my way back, line by line, rearward. All of it. Calipers to front master cylinder to under the steering head to the cute steel lines by the left frame to the rear brake proportioning valve mounted on the right side next to the battery box. Also the rear master cylinder. It involves pulling off the right foot peg. Break the 26mm swing arm nut and a couple other small allen head style screws and the whole thing falls off. Oh yeah, dont forget to take out the battery - a good idea. No shorts allowed. Admittedly, I tend to get a little carried away, I had a few other mini projects in mind. I pulled the rear lines, caliper, shock, swing arm and finally loosened the triple tree bolts and slide the forks completely out too.
Proportioning Valve - Kiss it goodbye.
- For the fork upgrade, I could have spend less and done work myself. But I didn’t want to buy any fork tools and I had other fish to fry, so screw it. I sent them to Traxxion Dynamics in Georgia for a full service. Thanks to Mike Hardy. Mike was great to work with, I know I’m not the easiest person, maybe a little wacko.
It's Naked!
Whoa… how long is this gonna take? June 15, 2005
Build it!
I took a bit of a detour working out some Penske shock mounting details, but then finally with swingarm back together, it’s time to reinstall the rear caliper with the bridge line. It goes back together same as stock no sweat. The bridge loops up out of the way of anything, so it’s not a problem. The single stock line follows the same path as factory, runs from the rear hydraulic port, through the wire hose guide, over the chain guard, though the hold down on the front of the battery box, and then banjo bolts to the master cylinder. Easy work. Just to recap, the main thing about the rear master cylinder was to buy a 14mm Honda. Mine is from a RC51. I bought a new one for about $95. As mentioned previously a 5/8 is probably ok too. Also these seem relatively easy to come by on EBay. I think SH and F4i are also 14mm. These all mount the same way and have the same hardware to connect to the brake pedal. I had to shorten the pushrod on it to get the pedal to sit in a reasonable position. (One way to check for size is that on most m/c the size is cast into the body on one end. Same with the front m/c.) When reassembling, the stock rear reservoir and feed hose was used. (Be a good mechanic and consult the factory manual for assembly torques and procedures.)
Stock Rear Brake Line & Reservoir with RC51 Rear Master Cylinder
Front forks are back!
With the return of the front forks, I feel like I have just purchased expensive jewels, they cost me as much and are trick. The front end reassembly is pretty much standard stuff. Mount the forks, mount the wheel, mount the calipers. Oh crap, the front fender isn’t going to mount up. I had to find a way to mount the stock front fender to the new forks. So it was OK, design some adaptor brackets. Spend more money. So to the CMM house for digital measurements of the SH and VFR mounting points and then over to my favorite CNC machine shop to finally get them done. For material I used aircraft quality aluminum which is stronger than a lot of steels. (7075 T –6 for you engineer geeks. I may offer these for sale if there is enough interest.) All right, mount the fender. It turned out pretty sweet.
Custom designed fender brackets - VFR fender to Super Hawk lower forks.
Wait a minute what about brake lines? I had my hoard of stock Honda lines – VFR /RC/SH/F4. I could get a combination of this stuff to plumb up, but bottom line is nothing comes out cleanly/neatly. Damn! To the aftermarket, spend more bucks. Nobody is going to have anything “on the shelf” so it’s go to total custom length and fittings. About the only company I know that can do that is Spiegler Performance. It was also convenient they are in my home town. They like using just 2 lines direct from the master cylinder double banjo bolt style to each front caliper. Admittedly a good way to go, but for me not neat enough. It’s more expensive but I decided to split it into 3 lines, plus a manifold to mount by the lower triple tree and horn mount. One line goes from the m/c to the manifold, one line mounts double banjo bolt style with the m/c line, then to the right caliper, and then the left line goes from the manifold to the left caliper.
The manifold is a stock Yamaha part from a 2004 FZ1 available from the dealer. For manifold mounting, on the stock brake hose/horn bracket, I had to cut off the 2 tabs that are bent up that hold the stock brake hose clamps, plus the hose routing hook. Then I made a small L-bracket from steel angle with a hacksaw and drill. Nothing special, I also drilled one hole in the horn “extension finger”. (The flat steel piece between the horn and the mounting bracket. Don’t know what else to call it.) Two holes mount on the lower triple tree thread in front of the cutup now horn bracket, and the lower two holes mount the manifold to the L-bracket. Everything bolted up nice with 6mm bolts and nuts. On the manifold, I cut off the banjo bolt orientation tabs, they were in the wrong direction. (I wasn’t thinking about it when I mounted the stuff to the horn finger, but now it’s not as loud and kinda sounds like my ex-wife squawking when she was pissed off. I may do something else to fix it or I may not.)
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Brake line reroute with FZ1 Yamaha bridge/manifold 
Speigler brake lines and pressure switch
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THE BEFORE AND AFTER PICS! Whoo Hoo!
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Front Master Cylinder stuff
Honda uses two style of master cylinders on the front for their bikes: integrated reservoir style and separate. If using the integrated type, it’s a straight drop-in replacement. As mentioned before the stock VFR800 is not advised to be used, it’s a ½ inch bore and will be too powerful and over sensitive.(Your not Nicky Hayden!) If using a SH caliper, the stock m/c is 14mm. It was a separate reservoir up until 2004 and went to an integrated type for 2005. My RC51 m/c is a separate type and required a little thought. Mainly the problem was to mount the reservoir so it doesn’t clip the fairing while your turning lock to lock. Also, I wanted to avoid that reservoir in your face feel that some bikes have. I used a Suzuki GSXR1000 reservoir because it was lower profile - painted the thing flat black to mask the urine cup look. Being a non-stock part, the challenge was to figure out a bracket to hold the reservoir and keep it as close as possible to the m/c. I went though 4 or 5 iterations but I finally came up with something I liked. The idea was to make it stock looking so it took some doing. Also, the stock brake switch crashes into the stock handle bar so it need to be removed. I had to unscrew it and set it aside. I replaced the switch with a pressure style type from Spiegler Performance. It replaces one of the banjo bolts and plumbs inline with the brake hoses. It wires up easy just like stock.
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To wrap up the build, It’s time to bleed all lines, which turned out to be an exercise in patience. I ended up buying a new hand vacuum pump (Mityvac) and used the one way check valve on the bleeders to get it done. (Spiegler – again) I didn’t expect that bleeding a bone dry system to be that difficult. I got it done once, let it sit for a couple days and did it again for a final line firm-up. Then finally finished up the body build. Nothing unusual, and straight forward. Stepping back, I look in amazement at all the gear that’s not being used! Talk about overkill!
[url=http://vfrworld.com/photos/data/534/Picture24.jpg]
Linked gear delete – Look at all this stuff!!
Cost
I spent way more than I expected on this thing. I think that it could be done considerably cheaper the second time around, the homework is paid for now. The unexpected was the double whammy. My front fender brackets were ridiculous. My onezie cost came to about $500. (OK - I charged myself $150.00 engineering design time.) A batch of them would split the pie into a smaller number. The design is done now so it’s all CNC machine time. Below is my rough costs as listed best I can that just relate only to the brake conversion. For me, EBay was a good way to go on a lot of parts. BTW, my labor was free.
Forks - (EBay)..................................$ 300.00
Forks powder coat finish.......................100.00
Fork assembly labor – (Traxxion).............125.00
RC51 Brake system gear (EBay)..............195.00
New front brake pads – factory Honda......80.00
’04 front brake manifold FZ1 (Yamaha)......30.00
Brake lines front - (Spiegler).................150.00
Rear caliper bridge line...........................30.00
Rear master cylinder..............................95.00
Miscellaneous.......................................50.00
Sub - Total 1155.00
plus
Front fender brackets..........................495.00
Owning the only delinked VFR..............Priceless
Ok, so if you wanted to knock some bucks out of this, go with a 2 line brake hose for $110.00, drop the brake manifold. Or, dig for some EBay specials. I understand some more creative sorts can make thier own brake lines, more power to them. Then, the fender bracket would probably go for $150.00 the next time around, and then drop the $30.00 rear bridge, use the stock 2nd brake hose. Obviously, my bill was much bigger with suspension work and other trick stuff. ( I kinda choked when I finally sat down and added it all up).
Well, brake conversion cost only, I didn’t do too bad. I collected the parts over a bunch of months, so it didn’t sting that bad. Worth it? Oh Yeah! The brakes turned out to be excellent and feel normal to me now. The bike is transformed and feels like a new ride now, powerful brakes and excellent suspension. Motor wise, I added a power commander and a carbon fibre slip-on. Sweet ride! – I nicknamed the bike the Interceptor SS.
Check out my photo essay in the gallery section on the final build.
I list and show the other mods with it for grins too.
www.vfrworld.com/photos/showgallery.php/cat/537
What about the current generation?
I have spent some seat time on the present 6th generation VFR. The bike seems to have a more touring bias and from that viewpoint I don’t know if a delink would be worth it. If I had to do it anyway, the forks are 43mm diameter, so I would look at F4i lowers and F4i brakes or again RC51. (The F4i and the RC51 use the same base castings for the calipers. Piston sizes are different.) Fork length is a concern here too. Chances are you could use the 6th gen uppers and the F4i lowers and guts to make it work out. It’s one of those maybe it would work out and again maybe not. Never know till you try. It will take some figuring. If you really are hell bent on doing it, get your free unloaded fork length, either get the bike in the air, or pull the sucker off. Take a stab at the lower length and you got a starting point. The rear would be the same type of set-up as reported here, the caliper is the same style, watch m/c sizes. Also, if the bike has ABS, don’t even think about it.
Wrap up
While it took me more than a full summer, most of the time was spent trying to figure out what would work, attacking the unforeseen stuff that popped up with each step, (crazy!) plus a couple other side projects. I admit I’m a bit slow, anal, and meticulous. You could probably pull this off much quicker, since much of the information you need is right here. This job could be done on any ’98 to ’01 machine. You should be a pretty good mechanic before you try it. Gather the parts ahead of time, get a buddy and go at it.
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Note:
If you decide to do this, please use your head. A half assed job here wont get it and could get you to buy the farm. If you dont have the skills to pull this off - dont. If you gotta have it get help from a Pro.
Originally Posted by veefer800canuck
------ Why Be Normal? -----
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