‘94 comes to life

Discussion in '3rd & 4th Generation 1990-1997' started by Toddman, Nov 9, 2019.

  1. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    Some may get a kick out of this. I just turned 60 years old. Up until this summer I had ridden an ‘06 gsxr1000 trackbike. This bike (aptly named The Beast) had cams and a day on the dyno. RWHP came up to 157. Doesn’t sound like much does it? The engine was SMOOTH and coming out of a corner was bliss. Rolling on the throttle at apex netted a nice low wheelie all the way to redline. The bike was fast and most new 200 hp bikes had a tough time staying with me. Enough about that. I let a friend ride it at the track and he wouldn’t leave me alone until I sold it to him. Once gone that same friend said that he had an old VFR in his back yard that I could HAVE if I wanted it. I didn’t even look at it, I just came by with my trailer and picked it up. 7 years outside under a tree isn’t good for any machine. LMAO. #3 carb was full of water (I think you know where this is going. Well 2 years, disassembled and put back together, if It didn’t need a particular part, I didn’t replace it. The front end was toast. The shock still worked but felt like it was sprung for 75 lbs. I had no idea that a subframe could weigh so much?!?! I drew up and tigged an aluminum one that weighed MAYBE 2 lbs. That same friend had some Brembo monoblock calipers laying around. He let me have them. I CNC Milled some hangers from billet. Used the stock rotors. They needed straightening but look and feel fine. Found a fairly nice new radial front master for a KTM (19.5mm). Contacted Daugherty and shod the front and rear with Pro Race Spec suspension for me. (Thanks Jamie, these mated forks and shock work GREAT TOGETHER). The forks were completely reworked with Honda Pro 5w fluid (I installed everything by the way. When I sat on the bike to start the sag setting process, both ends sagged 5/8ths on the dot at the same time. I’ve not had a bike do that since I sat on a pros SV650 (Penske and Traxion shod). The combination of the Brembos, radial master, valving and Jamie’s genius, netted a very stable VFR that Exhibits no tendency to wallow, push, kick or dive. Getting hard on the brakes, the bike squats instead of lifting the rear wheel. My corner speeds keep going up. My 2016 CB1000R naked street ride can’t hold a candle to it. No joke. That’s about it, oh I work in IT at a tech school and the paint and body instructors are painting the tins for me. This year are cheap 2004 $100 plastics painted Budweiser red but next year we’ll go with the RC45 race skins from somewhere. The tank is too large for the plastics so I’m cutting down a beater tank to fit under the ‘04 plastic tank cover. It looks just like a RR with an Elf swingarm. Lol.
     
  2. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    Oh if anybody has any questions about the build, fire away. One weird thing happened while I was rebuilding the carbs. #3 kept fouling plugs. Not because #3 was water logged. As it turned out, I was talking to one of the automotive instructors and he said he had a Harley do that to him once. He said he stupidly reamed out one of hi pilot jet whilst cleaning them. And Sure enough, upon the 4th disassembly, #3 pilot was visually twice the size of the rest. What the heck? My wife told me she helped clean them for me while I was in the garage. So I thanked her and ordered new jets all around. Problem solved.
     
  3. RllwJoe

    RllwJoe Insider

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    Could you post up some before and after photos? This sounds like a great project.
    I wish my wife would show some intrest in the VFR at our house.
     
  4. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    I’ll do the best I can. All of these are phone pics and the background isn’t set. this is ready for disassembly and finish. It’s mechanically sound but needs to be buttoned up . The pipes not finished, the subframe is close but the chassis is tip top 4812E99A-2523-418B-80EB-F5DD61A9FCA9.jpeg
     
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  5. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    In the previous picture The tail is just a mounting plate for the tail that is in paint. The tail is a plastic 04 cbr1000rr. The passenger cover is applied and smoothed to the tail. The rr had an under tail exhaust vents. I didn’t need those. Heating the plastics allow bends to be made. The vents were folded down to narrow the rear. Some will like it most will not but this is temporary. Again, this will all be red. 7B40ECEB-E576-40C7-8F93-F0B8B0A4618E.jpeg 0
     
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  6. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    The plastics at this point are somewhat inconsequential but I like the 04 1000 fairings because they direct your attention to the rear tire and that is a fine point of this bike . If you google some 04 pics you’ll see what I mean . The RC45 body is bang on tho for this era and the fairings are built for a large tank which is prevalent with the VFRs. In my opinion, lol, the 04 plastics need the small tank cover, else, it looks off, well it looks imbalanced. What does strike me is that most of the main fairing mountings are real close to the originals. As a matter of fact, the bolt holes that are molded into the aluminum frame are closer than the hangers that exist for the original. 06FC48A5-428C-4610-95A9-27E42111CB3A.jpeg
     
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  7. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    I guess when you get the dimensions correct, Honda builds on those. 1994 meets 2016. The VFR has old tires, subframe , etc. This was fitting up the plastics and configuration for the subframe. You guys be careful with cheap fuel pumps. This is a gravity fed setup. The fuel pump has been omitted. A Pingel duel outlet petcock has been installed with duel filters. It won’t starve. There’s a custom mount for the valve. It will flow a large amount of fuel in a short time. The Honda team race bikes of the era also deleted the pumps. I was testing a $20 pump and it caught fire as it was leaking in the garage. Don’t put yourself in that situation. It gets bad QUICKLY when fuel is involved. That’s all I’m gonna say about that. 7C707409-A707-4405-9CA7-7E35246D2348.jpeg
     
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  8. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    I’ve threatened to make some very subtle changes to the 1000R that’s in the picture and put it in shows. A pair of flat handlebars (these come with fat bars already) and a nice pipe (Yoshimura R model). The pipe is fat and chrome and makes this cool So bend under the bike for more power. It’s like the coolest pipe in the book. But very subtle changes make a big difference in this bike. Lowering it an inch or so also looks great. This one hasn’t been lowered. 80A89301-DEC1-4B87-BA69-0415F10D7A24.jpeg
     
  9. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    Back to the VFR. If you want t start fabrication, subframes are great to learn on . They are just small tube frames that hold you, your battery, and some electronics. It’s mounting points are basic and it’s easy to make strong. Nothing major is mounted to it nor is it structural in any way to the frame. The fuel tank isn’t mounted to it either. No lights on a trackbike, so....make it work for you. Tig brackets to it and ground it. Mount a seat. This has a cut down gsxr seat. The seat mounts were tigged to the subframe. Voila. It will evolve as you add to it. CC38CF89-F04A-4681-B10C-BD19C373C947.jpeg
     
  10. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    Suspension. You know, people always say this:
    If I would have known how much of a difference these shocks make, I’d have done this to every bike I own. It ain’t cheap but honestly, this is my first suspension I’ve had that was designed and built for me. All my other bikes had decent stuff but this is different. This thing rides and turns as good as I’ve ridden. if you’ve ever driven a nice BMW car, you get me. It’s tight but smooth. Damn, I shoulda done this to all my bikes. The forks are cartridges the Daugherty builds and you basically swap out the parts. A nice vice makes the job effortless.
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  11. Diving Pete

    Diving Pete Member

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    love it - Just NEED MORE PICS & INFO.... :)
     
  12. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    Changing the brake calipers was in-depth. The calipers are radial mount so the hangers provide two services.
    1. To change the mount from axial to radial.
    2. To convert mounting holes to accommodate the new calipers.

    looking closely at the mount in the picture nets a simple steel bracket that performs well but is heavy and, um, unsightly.
    The mock-up allows alignment and testing before fabrication of the billet hanger. The calipers not only have to clear the wheel and all associated brackets but the calipers have to be aligned with the rotors. Monoblocks (these Brembos ) don’t use a guide pin to pull/push the calipers against the rotor, they exert force from both sides as the pucks expand. Alignment has to be setup centered on the rotor and inward far enough or the brake pad won’t be fully accessed. You Dig?
    The old caliper is above hanging around. I’d like to note that the old calipers weigh slightly more than the Brembos and they have less brake pad surface area. The old calipers are the sliding pin type so they have fewer pucks internally. It all adds up to better feel with the radial master.


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  13. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    One of the first measurements is the distance between the radial mounts. Many Monoblock Brembos are the same.


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  14. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    I’ll get back to the brakes and forks in a second. A blurb for our home track in Hallett, Oklahoma. 1.8 miles of asphalt, 10 turns (there are really 11) with many elevation changes, Hallett offers many drivers and riders the opportunity to learn how to race. Yours truly after a cool down lap on the gixxer, summer 2019.
    Hallettracing.net . I’ve seen riders from as far away as Kentucky come to track days. The CMRA out of Fort Worth, Texas is one of the sanctioned groups that road race here twice a year.
    The track owners are fairly strict but not overly so. They have decades of experience at this and put on great track days and racing events. Check out the website, regulars come from Arkansas, Texas, Missouri and Kansas, and of course a large following from the OKC, Edmond and Stillwater and Norman areas.

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  15. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    There are companies on the internet that fab hangers for axial to radial conversions but none could I find for this bike. The first go around was hand made with a file, grinder and a vice. They are tricky to get centered. The hanger has to have a cutout to fit around the inside of the fork while the caliper actually pushes on the back side of the forkleg. When the brakes are applied, the friction from the caliper doesn’t ‘twist’ the caliper on the rotor. Done correctly, the mount fits against the forkleg and is centered on the rotor. As the caliper squeezes the rotor from both sides, the system doesn’t experience the vibration that is evident from the axial mount system. One side of an axial mount is actually rigid and it pushes to pull the other side tight and falls out of alignment doing so.

    The original axial system was rebuilt before the decision was made to convert to radial. The two systems are actually very different in how they go about performing their functions. The internal pucks on the Brembos are quite large and provide excellent stopping power. Combined with the large radial master cylinder, two fingers will provide PLENTY of grip and lifting the rear tire off of the ground is quite easy. There’s no vibration in the system.




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  16. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    Daugherty’s fork inserts from the top. More about this soon with installation instructions.

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  17. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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  18. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    you know, I’d love to have a Brembo master. This one is from overseas and was $67. $67 USD. it even came with the brake light microswitch and an hydraulic version and the lever. I will be installing a couple of small fluid reservoirs for the brake and clutch. It bled easily and produces a lot of feedback. Very powerful. Braided lines finish it. The Brembo calipers have two radially (not sure that’s a word, lol) mount bolts. Removing the calipers is very easy.

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  19. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    In the previous picture, that’s a clear tube inside of a black rubber tube. The black rubber tube only supports the clear one (you know, makes it stand up straight).

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  20. Toddman

    Toddman New Member

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    2004 CBR1000RR. notice the smallish tank cover and how low and forward the fairing is over the front wheel. Your tendency will be to mount the fairing too close to the triples and it looks goofy. Keep the front low and forward.

    Pay particular attention to the tail. Notice how on GP bikes the tail is mounted high but it doesn’t point to the sky. The tail should be parallel to the ground and again, the tank cover is low and small. E948B5E6-8E22-4BD8-8FA9-CF709CD83FAF.jpeg

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