I know what I want, but I do not know what it is called.

Hi All,

I have a few V4's but just recently bought a 83 Ceptor. I really fell in love with this kind of riding and after going to the AMA Honda Super Bike Week at Mid Ohio Raceway I have a desire for something better. I would like to describe it and hope that someone can tell me what it is. I want something that is Honda hopefully a V4 but I want gear driven cams, and cartridge style forks. Can anybody tell me what to buy. Also, is a CBR a inline 4 and are they called an F2,F3 and so on. Thanks for your help.

Dan

 

all CBR's are inline 4's, regardless of their engine size. the F series you're thinking of is the line of CBR600's. whether its an F, F2, F3, F4, or F4i depends on the year model that the bike is.

as far as the honda goes, there are only 3 hondas that I can think of off the top of my head that are V4's....those are the VFR (and before those, the VF), the Magna, and the ST. The VFR's had gear driven cams from 1986 all the way to 2001. the 98-2001 are generally the most sought after VFR's, as those are the 800cc, fuel injected bikes that still had the gear drive on the cams. Whether any given year has cartridge forks, I really don't know (though it's not uncommon to see VFR owners with pre-cartridge forks do conversions with either RaceTech cartridge emulator valves, or outright cartridge conversions).

hope this helps!

 

Wow! Chris that was a real help. I did a printed version of that for future reference. I like the VF design I just want to get away from those CCT's. I am confused about the race tech emulators. I have read that on the damping rod Showa forks that one fork is the compression and the other is the rebound, how in the world does that work. I also read that the emulators only work on compression so why install two of them. I have a 83 VF750F with 39 mm fork tubes, what year bike that has cartridge forks and the correct length could I install. If the new forks are 41mm like the 94 CBR how can I install them? I was looking at your photos and saw a r/w/b Ceptor was that a custom paint job? Thank you very much for your time and help.

Dan

 

honestly, if you wanna learn about the suspensions on these bikes, the man to talk to is a dude by the name of Jamie Daugherty. he has his own little one-man business by the name of Daugherty Motorsports, which can be contacted @ this website: Daugherty Motorsports - Motorcycle Suspension Performance and Modification

contact Jamie, and any suspension question you can throw at him he can answer (and he can do so FAR better than I can).

 

Buy yourself a fifth gen(98-01), put on a slip-on exhaust, then ride several thousand miles a year, and you'll be happy. The 6th gens have been shown to have pretty solid CCT's with few issues though...

 

5th gens and 4th gens might interest you the most out of all the VFR family the 4th gen is claimed to be the sporter while the 5th gen has FI but they also come with linked brakes BUT if your the kinda guy that likes to tinker with things then you can easily do away with that.

 

Thanks Chris, I have heard that name before. I will check out his website. Thanks Matt, and Davis for your input as well. I find it strange that Honda went from CCT to gear driven cams and then back to CCT again. Does anyone know what few years and models that the gear driven cams were used. Now that Honda has improved the CCT design does it even matter anymore. Davis said that the 6th gen has a better CCT what about the 5th gen. I really like a set of old fashion carbs Mike Nixon has taught me how to remove tear down and clean the Keihin carbs, I hate to waste all my work and study time now. He wrote a 24 page booklet on these carbs at Motorcycle Project. Thanks for all yur input.

 

CCT's ????? Can you explain.
Cannot Google that one.

Why do you want cartridge style forks?
Do you mean upside down forks?

 

NEVERMIND. Cam chain Tensioners.

CCT's never saw it used before. I guess with texting all words may become abbreviated.

I would rather say cam chain tensioner so everyone understands.
Otherwise it could be computer controlled technology,or who knows what.

 

Hmm so you want to stay with carbs and gear driven cams (I would choose those over cam chains just to hear that sweet whine) third gens came with carbs and so did fourth gens and both of them also had gear driven cams. Both of them can be found for pretty cheap 1500-2500 is what ive found on craigslist.org

 

Hi Don and Matt,
Are cartridge forks upsice down? I guess the cheapest thing that I can do is install the race tech emulators and the new tensioners in my 83 Ceptor. Then look for a 3rd or 4th gen VFR. I am a man that sooner have a stable of scooters that one expensive one. When my Son's come to visit we can all go for a ride together, that is so rewarding to me. I am also a guy that loves to work on stuff and make it mine. These old V4's give me lots of opportunity for that. I enjoy improving the bikes I love. I thought I read somewhere about a guy that swapped out hid dampening style Showa forks for a set of CBR F2 cartridge forks. My 83 has 39 mm tubes and the F2 has 41mm so I guess you would need the whole front end. Thanks for all your posts.

 

Inverted forks or commonly known as upside down fork have cartridges in them where you as the old forks in your VF have damping rods unfortunately im not that great with explaining the difference between them both but a guy that I trust and has worked on the suspension on both of my bikes is jamie daugherty this man is a huge wealth of knowledge and can explain in great detail the difference between damping rod and cartridge style forks do a quick search here on the forum or google his name it should pull up his website.

 

Thanks Matt, I have seen him on a few threads. I am going to try to attach some neat stuff for you guys.
Free File Hosting Made Simple - MediaFire

 

just to give you a couple of specific answers to your questions.....Honda used the gear driven cams on the VFR's from 1986 up to 2001. but mind you, only the VFR700's and VFR750 Interceptors have this. there are the VFxxxR, which I'm not sure if they have the gear drive on the cams. Next, the carb question. The years that you would be looking for if you want gear drive with carbs are going to be 1986 to 1997. These years cover what are known as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gen VFR. in 1998, honda introduced what is now known as the 5th gen, which still saw gear driven cams, but 1998 saw the motor grow from 750 to 800, and the induction change from carbs to EFI.

 

Okay Chris is this really good stuff. It allows me to narrow down my search. The 750 size range is just fine with me. Now speaking of the VFR700 and 750 86/97 what year did the tappet change come into place? I read somewhere about them going from the twin rocker to shims. Did you get a chance to look at my pdf's ?
I just found them this morning in the Specification folder on this forum?

 

i dont know when honda changed the tappets in the motors....i honestly wasnt even aware of such a change. as for your pdf's, that link just goes straight to the mediafire homepage, not to your pdf's. you might try attaching them directly to this thread (i dunno if thats possible, but its an idea). i'm not even sure what you mean about the "twin rocker", as I have been into the valvetrain of my own bike and im pretty sure that in the 86 and 87 bikes, there is only one rocker per valve.

one thing you have to remember about looking at the entire range from 86 to 97 is that youre looking at THREE generations of the vfr. the 86-89 were the 2nd gen, and they were just straight up sportbikes, not sport touring machines. japan only sent the 86-87 models to america, so unless youre in europe or asia, the 88's and 89's are a RARE find. additionally, the only 750's imported to america were the 86 models. honda only sent 700's to our shores in the 87 model year.

1990 saw the revamp of the vfr into a sport touring machine, as well as the ever-popular (and often coveted) single side swingarm. it became a VERY different bike at that point, seeing that honda had seemingly re-purposed the bike entirely (not that many consider that a bad thing, as the VFR developed even more of the personality that we see in it today).

1990 saw the beginning of whats considered the "3rd gen" of vfr, which lasted through 1993, and then a bodywork overhaul in 1994 gave way to the 4th gen, which lasted through 1997. im sure you can find massive amounts of pics and information all over the place to research each generation of vfr individually, if that is how you want to approach things.

 

I was talking about the rocker resting on top of the cam lobe and actuating two valves at a time. Maybe it was the CBR that went to the tappet shims?

Try this if it does not work send me your email address and I will send them to you.

Free File Hosting Made Simple - MediaFire

 

Google: Honda RV4

 

You could most certainly buy a VFR700F in 1986. They were the tariff beaters and cost $4498. The 86 VFR750F was $5398. 1987 saw only VFR700F2 available

 

The VF's all had adjustable rockers. The VFR's have shim under bucket valve actuation if I remember correctly.