VFR800 5th Gen 10 Year Update Project

Looks pretty good to me.

 

I know what you mean... My bike has been at the suspension workshop, waiting for parts since Christmas Eve... Apparently, the snap-frozen conditions in the northern hemisphere have delayed my parts coming. Oh well. With some luck, I'll have the bike back in the next week or so.

Hey Mohawk, that's a nice bike! Do you know what the total weight saving is so far? Thanks for sharing your project with us!

 

Update teaser

Well I've been very busy doing everything but work on the bike since the last up date, well not as much as I would have liked to but have finally got very close to the end.
Hope to get the fairings on tonight & an MoT in the next couple of days, just in time for the nice weather

I'll update this thread next week with the pics & some more details, to include;-

Cheap Silicone coolant hoses
DIY Mark1 RAMAIR (will it work ? only time will tell)
16t front sprocket, gearing change
Speedo Healer to correct speedo for gearing

Then the road test !

Later Dudes.

 

The saga continues !

The bike is booked for MoT tomorrow, but here is what has been done to finish it off with pics where I remembered to take them, I'm useless I know but hey I can only do one thing at a time

So we left the bike with new suspension & a small coolant leak between the V of the cylinders where the free floating thermostat housing lives.
I whipped off the airbox & injectors, to find two of the hoses had small leaks so set about draining & stripping the cooling system off & cleaning the crap that had collected between the V out.
Then with a bit of emery, cleaned up the alloy hose fittings & removed the mould lines, then tried refitting the original hoses, only to hear that horrible noise of threads parting in the hose, so they were too rotten to re use, hmm delema, buy 10 year old "stock" hoses or nice new silicone ones ? Unfortunately no one makes a kit for this model & the Vtec one by Samco is £240 & may not fit. Well original hoses seemed like an expensive deal to, so off to the internet I goes & does some searching. This is one of the reasons the project fell behind.

The search turned up a few companies, but I settled on this one Huge Silicone Hose Range all in Stock. Fuel & Oil Hose, Reinforced Silicone Hose, Silicone Elbows AP Motor Store they seemed to offer the stuff I needed at a reasonable cost, so I got my calipers out & measured all the hose fitting points to determine the ID sizes then placed an order.



The last pic shows the 2 x 45degree hoses joined & going round the generator cover, this was a trial fit & the legs were a bit long, so it was removed & shortened a bit which made if a closer fit & gave a better angle on the top mount as well as removing the kink in the picture.

If you want to copy this you will need to order the list below. I tried using armoured flexi hose for the hose that wraps round the front of the generator & the lower hose from the right rad to the Y piece, but it would not seal on the upper mount or the Y, so it got replaced with straight hose & 2 x 45degree bends.

The list;-
3 x 45degree 25mm id elbow (one for lower left rad to Y, 2 to make hose round generator cover)
1 x 90degree 25mm id elbow (Thermostat to right rad fill cap, lower half)
1.5M straight 25mm id hose (Thermostat to right rad fill cap, upper half / Rad to Rad top hose / Water pump to Y / Right rad lower to Y )
0.5M straight 11mm id hose (Water pump to Thermostat bypass hose)
0.25m straight 19mm id hose (Front & Rear cylinders to Thermostat / Front to Rear cylinders above generator. Just enough so measure carefully)
1m straight 6.5mm id hose (Thermostat bleed to front inside top of right Rad)
0.25M straight 25mm OD Alloy Tube (to use as joiners on 2 piece right rad hose (75mm) & 2 piece round the generator hose (62mm)
4 x 25-35mm Hose clamps (to join the 2 piece replacement hoses)
-----------------------------------
Total cost approx £90 & they do free shipping !

So all put together & leak tested = V happy :smile:

 

Ramair or Cold Air inlet you decide !

So the original air entry point was under the front edge of the tank & when I put my basic air inlet under the headstock with the new airbox top it was very noisy. So I built an alloy air scoop to act as the ramair inlet, as per the pics below;-



These show the modified airbox top & the gap between the headstock & the front side of the airbox.
The alloy scoop with stone grille & the system of mounting it. The flat piece closest to the injectors was covered with a thin piece of neoprene foam to seal against the underside of the airbox. There is a hole in the bottom to allow the oil cooler mounts to pass through & a stainless adaptor plate to allow some extended stainless allen head bolts to connect the scoop to the oil cooler mounting brackets along with the oil cooler. The springs then pull the scoop up & forward to seal against the bottom of the airbox.

I used foam cut & shaped to fit to seal everything under the fuel tank & glued a thermal blanket under the tank, to both help with noise reduction & to give a flexible surface for the foam edge seals to seal against. I also added foam around the edge of the airbox intake to seal under the tank.
I covered the top of the scoop grille with some thin aluminium sheet to stop hot air from the rad-to-rad hose being sucked in when the bike is in motion. The new air intake is just slightly forward of the oil cooler & a couple of test runs whilst the bike was stationary during coolant leak test heat cycles showed that the air intake area stayed really cool.



I have added a VTR1000 Fan Blade to the left rad to blow hot air out of the fairing when the fan cuts in (the VFR sucks from the outside !) I also added a PC 120mm fan to the front half of the right rad & whilst this doesn’t move a huge amount of air it does help & weighs nothing. You can see it in the pic above to the left, which also shows the relative positions of the air intake & top coolant hose in relation to the standard oil cooler.

A test run shows that the bike is very noticeably quieter with this intake in place compared to the basic open grill that was there for a test beforehand, this is mainly due to the sound deadening by sealing around the tank I believe.

Need to get a custom map sorted for the fuelling now to go with this. Dyno results when I have them.

 

Last but not least a few extra little touches.

I added GSXR indicator mirrors to the VFR & removed the front fairing indicators, these pics show the blanking plates I made & after much head scratching a means to attach them blind. And the front parking lamp access panel that was missing when I got the bike.



I bought a crashed fairing panel so I could get colour matched pieces to fill these holes. I made a cardboard template to get the shape just right then cut the pieces from the fairing panel & trimmed to fit, they are not perfect but you only notice them in close up.
I didn’t want to seal these holes permanently, so thought for ages on how to make a blind fixing & had a small eureka moment when the first attempt failed, so epoxied a stainless steel strip to the centre line of the indicators panels, with raised ends, then fitted a light alloy tube via cable ties, front one first. Then slipped alloy in through the hole & located the panel, then fitted the rear cable tie. The duct tape is just there to stop any of the parts moving or vibrating, it’s all a nice snug fit & the stainless strip maintains the correct curve of the inserts !

I also fitted a 16 tooth front sprocket which definitely improves acceleration & I added a Healtech speedo healer (HealTech Electronics Ltd. - Makers of the SpeedoHealer, GIpro, X-TRE, FI Tuner Pro, OBD Tool) to correct the speedo, this has a top speed recall button which I have secreted in the cock pit to retrieve that track day top speed data :wink: Pic later.



Last but not least, I was not happy with the angle of the levers, they were way to flat & causing wrist strain, but could not be lowered further. So I got my files out & sculpted out the handlebar front edges to allow a better angle. These pics also show the Traxxion dynamics adjustable fork caps, with compression (black) on the left & rebound (red) on the right.

That about completes it for now. I had a very quick test ride before dropping it in for MoT & from that I can tell that the suspension is superb, the steering is greatly improved at speed, with much less effort required to muscle it around & at low to medium speeds it turns like my CBR used to, which is great :biggrin:

More after the MoT & a proper test ride, plus some pics of the finished item

 

This post is awesome. Thanks so much for going to the trouble to do this. The hose kits are so expensive.

Thanks for your efforts I appreciate it heaps.

 

Passed MoT this morning, will get it taxed tonight & take it for a ride ASAP

 

Penultimate Update (for now)

Hi Guys,

First thanks for all the comments so far, they are appreciated.

So for those that wanted to see the complete machine, I finally managed to get some time to wash the bike this morning & take some pictures.

Unfortunately the dirt you see on the fairing is not dirt but rather the reflection of the gravel the bike is parked on, so the bike must be shiney

OK so here are the pic's including a horrible one with me in it.




Hope these are what you were after.
Since adding these updates, the bike is amazing, it will hurtle along, can change direction pretty quick even at speed, the suspension is sublime & the V4 roar from that exhaust is addictive

It's off for a PC3 custom map next week, so I'll add an update with the results of that, then its ride it for the summer time

Enjoy

Mohawk

:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

 

Custom Map Dyno results.


The blue trace is the base run with Dynojet PC111 Map M106-304, which was the closest to the current setup.

The setup I have is;-
Engine = standard +37K/miles, valve clearances checked & idle vacumms sync'd as per Honda recommendations.
Exhaust = Full Motad Stainless headers & 350mm Titanium shorty end can, spud out, with O2 sensors in place.
Intake = Modified as per thread description, inducting cold air under headstock.

The results;-
Standard bikes make approximately 95rwhp.



Base Run with modified map = 98.15hp runing rich across much of the rev range.
Custom Map = 101.82hp, with a near ideal fuel air mixture across the whole range.

I'll chase the dyno shop for the Torque chart that should go with this.

Not bad, feels great to ride & the noise is awesome

 

Alot of work gone into her- well done! I like it except for the plasters on the tank but thats my taste! Whens the "trackday" onboard vid coming?

 

front suspension upgrade

ok guy's try this upgrade for size
1998 800fi
o.e forks and springs

most people seem to keep going for the racetech gold valve kit but you get limited rebound damping with it. don't get me wrong the kit is very good and does what it says on the tin,

but just for a thought here is what i have achived for only 109 uk pounds and boy does it work......


bought a set of vtr1000f fork legs complete as they have rebound damping stripped them out, took the cartridge to pieces checking the piston and seals, all was good so with the valve removed drilled a 1mm relife hole in the tube 27mm up from the start of the silver foot, took the rebound damper rod out measured 5mm from the flat face of the angled tip and groung that to the same shape as the tappered cone so the cone is now 5mm deeper this give you more control over rebound damping, took the vtr spring and spacer tube laid them next to the vfr spring and spacer tube took the measurement to make them the same length i cut the spacer tube down. with all drilling grinding and cutting it was all filed and dressed with emery paper so there were no sharp edges or burs. re fitted the vtr cartridge to the vfr fork leg filled with 10w oil to give a 130mm air gap re fitted the vfr spring and adjusted spacer all done up and oil tight repeated for the second fork leg.
for me the front is now so compliant over bumps it has given the front end so much control and feeling it is better than the front end on my mates gold valved front ended 2000 800fi you can now tell the back end is lacking so time to get the nitron rear shock fitted...

 

all was good so with the valve removed drilled a 1mm relife hole in the tube 27mm up from the start of the silver foot, took the rebound damper rod out measured 5mm from the flat face of the angled tip and groung that to the same shape as the tappered cone so the cone is now 5mm deeper this give you more control over rebound damping, took the vtr spring and spacer tube laid them next to the vfr spring and spacer tube took the measurement to make them the same length i cut the spacer tube down. with all drilling grinding and cutting it was all filed and dressed with emery paper so there were no sharp edges or burs.

Would you care to post some pics of this? Sounds perfect for those of us on a budget!:smile:

 

yeah certainly will do when i work out how to upload the photo's i have, any tips lol

 

I did the super hawk front end on my bike last winter ( actually just for the brakes) definitely easy and really changed how the bike response's.

 

Hp & Torque Dyno Graph

 

Hi VFRIRL, yes still got it, still going great. Been continually upgraded since this first thread. Now 30Kg lighter & plus 25HP, now at 120rwhp. Front suspension is due an oil change this winter & the rear is still perfect.

Did a 2500mile Eurotour in the summer & then a week later did the Performance Bikes Trackday at Rockingham on the hottest day of the year, so in 33C heat both the bike & me were overheating. Still managed an onboard video & some pics, can see them here http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index....-freebie-trackday-rockingham/#comment-1042888

You can checkout the rear tyre shots, shows that the rear was never chattering or whatever, felt fine the whole time, got the pegs down a couple of times which is impressive as my bike is 2" higher at the rear, with the correct spring for my weight. Nitron Race Shock is excellent, the low speed compression adjustment is ace for getting just the right squat feel at low speed takeoff.

 

Nice, was wondering how it all was working out, with all the time and funds you have in it sounds and looks like a good investment, Kudos.. I'm still looking for the unobtainable exhaust, doesn't look like TYGA is happening any time soon. I've read a bit that the 98-99 exhaust plumping ain't all that bad considering, still though looking for a bit more on top. which brings me to wondering if you know your pipe specs diameter vs. length in the primary's?

 

Well the Motad that I had is a copy of the 98/99 headers, so is as good as normal gets, I had 112hp with that fitted. After a 3 year search on ebay I finally scored a Two Brothers racing orginal in very good condition, which added 8hp after the fuelling was adjusted to suit !
A friend in New Zealand that copied my ideas, says the Delkevic headers are better than the Motad's for flow, but I've not seen any dyno comparisons.

IIRC the Motads are 36mm OD, with 1.5mm walls for 33mm ID, but the weld around the header flange reduces that to 29-30mm in the set I had.
The TBR's are 38mm OD, with 1mm walls for 36mm ID & the flange is formed from the base pipe, so NO restriction in them, plus the 2-1 transitions are much smoother. It's the BORE that holds them back, not the primary lengths, the 112hp flattened out & tailed off above 10,500rpm. With the TBR the graph just keeps climbing to the redline (which on mine is 12,500rpm) with NO losses in the midrange.

The TYGA deal will be the BEST option, unless you make your own or try a Ladybird RC45 HRC race pipe copy , it may fit, but is quite expensive. I'd love to try one.

 

Thanks That's just what i was looking for, the part where the climb still goes forward to close to red line, mine tops off right around the 10,5 mark now, at also 112hp Yea I started chatting directly to TYGA and all is good as far as what is happening, good bunch there. they are waiting for Keith's TBR system in that they haven't mentioned they received it yet, and Keith for some reason has fell off the earth, so who knows. but agree a system like what tyga could build today for the VFR would be great LOL in the mean time I'm keeping a sharp eye out for rocking horse poo, shaped like a TBR. Then I'll follow some of what you have there in the velocity stack mod too