Jump to content

Mail Order Rvf 800 – Some Assembly Required…


Rush2112

Recommended Posts

  • Member Contributer

I’ve been collecting parts working towards a 5th gen track bike for a year or more, when I realized I basically had a whole motorcycle mailed/shipped to my house… the UPS guy even started bringing the boxes into my garage and setting them next to my tool box when the door was open and I was busy! The engine was the only thing delivered to my local MC shop, Dave Clark’s Forever Endeavor Motorcycle Shop; where the LTL driver left the little pallet on the sidewalk and Dave and I lifted it into the back of my car (would have cost an extra couple hundred to deliver to a residence as opposed to business).

gallery_19432_7528_81851.jpg

Yes, I know… I’m not a neat freak. The Y2K is fully functional, just boxed in for the moment.

I’m doing this project because I love to work on machines, to fix, to improve, to mod/farkle/personalize… my old boss called me a tinkerer ‘cause I can’t leave things alone. To the critics, I know I’m not smarter than the engineers that originally built this bike… save your comments.

I’m making a more specialized bike built around the motor I love. I have my Y2K, which is in my opinion, the best all-around bike for me. My intent is to make this bike lighter, faster, and better handling for track work and I hope to fab in the ability to quickly pull lights and replace with track parts so I can register it and make it street legal… maybe shoot for 80%track/20%street set-up. I’m leaning towards modeling it after the RC45s that were campaigned in the endurance races in the last half of the ‘90s. Something like this…

gallery_19432_7528_15085.jpg

gallery_19432_7528_143702.jpg

Not an endurance model, but this is my favorite bodywork style…

gallery_19432_7528_149486.jpg

I wouldn’t attempt to do this project without all the previous work of others on this fabulous forum… HS, BR, Veefer, Seb, JD, BLS, Dutchy, TTC, KGS, RangerScott, CodeRighter, aa, Gil, V4, Mohawk, CRRC, HighSideNZ, Kyle, xRoYz, it is a very long list… I know I missed many names of those who have contributed to the knowledge base and please know that I appreciate every technical & entertaining morsel… I Thank You All!!!

Because of VFRD… I can reach so high because I’m standing on the shoulders of giants… let’s hope I don’t fall flat on my face :cool:

This is where we start…

I made a conscious effort to buy inexpensive parts from wrecked bikes from established brick & mortar salvage yards, not perfect parts from possibly stolen, chop-shop bikes… yes, they could have been stolen and then wrecked, but at least they went to a registered salvage yard after the insurance auction… plus, it recycles and gives them a second chance… and collectively the bike will have been in like a dozen accidents… what are the odds it could crash again? It’s been pre-crashed for me :tongue:

Shopping list (work in progress, I’ll update shortly with parts and prices):

The heart of the wee little beastie…

gallery_19432_7528_1336170.jpg

gallery_19432_7528_1773528.jpg

That rashed & cracked clutch cover made its way into the skilled hands of Seb to become a piece of functional art that will grace my Y2K as soon as the satin black engine paint dries… The cover from my Y2k will be grafted onto the track bike adding a little piece of me to the build…

gallery_19432_7528_2442361.jpg

Stripped of parts not being used, e.g. coils, throttle bodies (which, BTW… required the administration of a short section of 2x4 angled up underneath and coaxed with a 5# sledge to separate), aforementioned clutch cover, center stand, 5th gen lower cushion replaced with 6th gen.

gallery_19432_7528_1454234.jpg

Y2K frame (with title), 2009 throttle bodies, CBR954 swing arm and shock (to be sold, 929 shock to be installed) ZX14 front end… for some reason I thought it was a Showa front end when I bought it at a screamin’ good deal (still had the grass clump wedged in the right rotor… bent rotor replaced), turns out it is a KYB… oh well, I was hoping to keep it Honda-ish. Forks are 745mm from axle center to bottom of top cap so I should get good ride height and clearance with the CBR929 triples and the CBR1000 clip-ons bolted underneath.

Two problems with the 929 triples… getting the lower bearing race off to replace with my All Balls roller bearings; and every steering stem I found has the same smashed damaged threads on the lower, wider threaded section…

gallery_19432_7528_304541.jpg

First, the lower bearing race… pry a little with a flat metal scraper under the seal to expose a little room…

gallery_19432_7528_1616252.jpg

Break out the cold chisel and carefully encourage it to rise up and get off…

gallery_19432_7528_2339367.jpg

The threads required a tool purchase and little cleaning up…

gallery_19432_7528_1727809.jpg

gallery_19432_7528_1162732.jpg

There was not a lot of meat to work with… I hope these threads are damaged due to other mechanical wear and not necessary for providing significant holding force…

gallery_19432_7528_288610.jpg

Has anyone else seen this wear pattern on the 929 triples? All the photos of used triples I saw showed the same pattern…

EDIT NOTE: On advice from counsel I will be seeking a different solution to the steering stem issue and will not use this one due to potential safety issues.

I believe the 929 steering stem length measured 225mm and when I snaked a tape down alongside my Y2K’s steering head it appeared the 5th gen VFR was right around the same length… if anyone has a 5th gen lower triple out and available for steering stem length measurement I would appreciate a confirm on that (not that I want to compare lengths, Dutchy…) as I’m planning on pressing my bearings on this weekend and the measurement would help me on deciding on the need to shim or not… hope all y’all don’t mind if I solicit your help along the way…

Old bearing races in the frame headstock needed to come out…

gallery_19432_7528_1190608.jpg

That’s stretch wrap still protecting the frame, not metal damage… frame was the cleanest part I received even though it has a salvage title. Most everything else required elbow grease or pressure washer…

gallery_19432_7528_556369.jpg

To pop the races out you can see the back edge of the race when you look through the headstock… a drift or long straight slot screwdriver, tap lightly, moving back and forth 180* to walk it out of its seat without distorting the frame seat…

Froze the new races to shrink them and drove them in with a seal driver, 6 bolts and the frame is on... sorry, forgot pics :unsure:

gallery_19432_7528_1972908.jpg

End of day #1…

gallery_19432_7528_2163400.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 130
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Member Contributer

Hope all goes smooth and you do not end up like this Castrol Honda guy....

colin_edwards_sbk1999.jpg

:goofy:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

That's a certain Colin Edwards, who I think had just won a race & was being boo'd as the crowd wanted Troy Bayliss to win, I think the man had style to give them a double bird :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Hmmmmm I think is was the inaugural WSBK race at the Nurburgring where the marshals where either drunk or incompetent (both..).

Took YEAAAAARS before WSB returned to the Ring.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone else seen this wear pattern on the 929 triples? All the photos of used triples I saw showed the same pattern…

No, never seen it before. I've a couple of lower yokes and none has damaged threads on the head tube.

Very interesting project! :fing02:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Hope all goes smooth and you do not end up like this Castrol Honda guy....

colin_edwards_sbk1999.jpg

:goofy:

I believe the first Castrol RC45 I have pictured in the first post is Colin's 1999 #5 ride... is that picture from after he tucked the front during the race? There were several riders who all crashed out on the same oil spill braking into the turn...

Has anyone else seen this wear pattern on the 929 triples? All the photos of used triples I saw showed the same pattern…

No, never seen it before. I've a couple of lower yokes and none has damaged threads on the head tube.

Very interesting project! :fing02:

Uh-oh... I hope the restoration I did to threads is sufficient to maintain the integrity and function. Anyone know to what force the All Balls rollers need to be torqued? IIRC, the factory ball bearings need a much higher torque...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's wat made me wonder too, what caused the damage in the first place? The preload on roller bearings is very low, much lower than of ball bearings. For roller bearings 3-4Nm (adjustment nut) is all it takes, just enough to take the slack out. Most stress on the threads is when you tighten the lock nut and later the steering stem nut.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

That's wat made me wonder too, what caused the damage in the first place? The preload on roller bearings is very low, much lower than of ball bearings. For roller bearings 3-4Nm (adjustment nut) is all it takes, just enough to take the slack out. Most stress on the threads is when you tighten the lock nut and later the steering stem nut.

Thank you... we will see this weekend where the parts line up. Strange though, when I was researching and shopping for this part the 3 or 4 that were available online all had the same ring of smashed threads in that location... most of the photos weren't very good but you could see the different color and texture of that area.

Maybe 929 riders in the U.S. wheelie a lot and ignore clunking steering heads???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Awesome Rush, can't wait to see the finished product.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Nice! Had no idea this was in the works. I'll be watching.

Also, I see you already have the 6th gen cushion bolted onto that 99 motor. You going to use the stock rearsets?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Thread wear caused by loose head bearings & poorly landed wheelies ! &/or over torqued nut. Could be ex race or just poorly maintained.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Nice! Had no idea this was in the works. I'll be watching.

Also, I see you already have the 6th gen cushion bolted onto that 99 motor. You going to use the stock rearsets?

I'm hoping to use Tyga rearsets if they decide to make them and support the VFR800 with performance parts... right now I have 929 & 954 rearsets that will allow GP style shift pattern; unfortunately, they don't share the VFR mount spacing so I will initially use a BR style adapter plate on the lower mount to accommodate the different bolt c-c spacing and move them up and back a little bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Thanks for the inspiration! I've got two 4th gens here that will become one track bike when I have the time to mate the parts. Soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was in two minds to post but feel this should be stated that lower triple stem you have used a die to clean up the top locking rings thread is a throw away item for your safety don't use it there just isn't any decent V profile left. I also have come across many a lower triple clamp with same problem with the many front end conversions I have done & my thoughts are there from crashed bikes with front end hits or someone has just over tensioned the locking rings. I also know we all don't have workshops but I hate seeing lower head stem bearings removed with cold chisels due to the alloy triple itself can be damaged (flat surface the bearing seats on which is machined).

Now some might not know or have thought about it but the Honda alloy lower triple clamps use a press fit stem so the best way to remove lower head stem bearing is press the stem out of the alloy lower & rev the process to install a new one (you do need a press but a local workshop would charge nothing if you take them the parts). I use just a little thread lock in triple lower when reinstalling stem but its not really required. Now this process is also good if you have a damaged stem thread like the OP but a good straight lower alloy triple, just find a bent triple that would sell for next to nothing with good stem thread & change them over. I haven't measured all stems but the SP1, 929, 954, CBR1000RR are interchangeable so it opens up a very large parts bin to find a good stem for nothing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

This is what makes VFRD great...

Looking after one another!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.