Member Contributer DrErgal Posted February 17 Member Contributer Posted February 17 Hi All, here's a brief report of the first ride after the mods on my VFR. Mods here: Well, as well as reported in the post, I didn't do extravagant or exotic modifications; it's something that most of you have already experienced. Thus, forgive the repetition. Well, I come out for the first ride of the year, yesterday. Nothing special; I was just curios to see the impact of the work. Of course,, winter conditions (low temperatures, slightly over zero, dirty roads) and worn tires are not the best preconditions for pushing hard, so I've been extremely cautious and prudent. However, despite of it, the differences were more than evident: Brakes are ready, robust, and finally I can manage them as it's supposed to be. I was afraid of some chattering, to be honest: I confess that I was afraid that the washers to shim the calipers should have made system vibrate, but it's not the case; everything is smooth and linear. The new frontend works fine; the forkbrace makes it stiffer, and you can see it in entering the corner, while you get in your hands a good and "faithful" reading of the road ahead The engine also runs very well; I didn't get big variations from the new coils; the sensation was just like when I was young, running a 2 stroke engine with a leaner carburetion. It's slighty rapid in revving and "cleaner" to the throttle response. Nothing huge or striking: it's just a pleasant sensation of improved readiness In conclusion, very happy of the work. It's not a revolution, but the bike is now closer to my idea of a VFR. No useless and fancy stuff aboard (no PAIR, flaps, D-CBS), no ugly and old coils bolted on the frame below my hands. Just a sublime engine into a good chassis. A VFR as it's meant to be 7 Quote
Member Contributer interceptor69 Posted February 17 Member Contributer Posted February 17 Nice work. Not sure I've ever heard of anyone replacing the "coils". Why would one replace them? Do they wear out over time? Quote
Member Contributer DrErgal Posted February 17 Author Member Contributer Posted February 17 It's a well know modification in there. If you search "coil conversion" you'll find a plethora of exhaustive posts (mine also) In short, you replace the old big coils (and high voltage cables) with a new dedicated low voltage cable to be connected to some suitable coilsticks coming from other bikes (in my case, Triumph Speed Triple 1050) Pls take a look to my post linked at the beginning of this post, and you may get an idea about it. The improvement is not huge, but it's always good to keep the bike leaner by removing stuff aboard the bike (my personal opinion) 1 Quote
Member Contributer Ughandi Posted February 18 Member Contributer Posted February 18 On 2/17/2025 at 4:56 AM, DrErgal said: Brakes are ready, robust, and finally I can manage them as it's supposed to be. My VTR forks are still in a box in the garage... I really need to kick my own butt and get in there to make the swap.... On 2/17/2025 at 4:56 AM, DrErgal said: the forkbrace makes it stiffer, and you can see it in entering the corner, while you get in your hands a good and "faithful" reading of the road ahead I have not heard of a forkbrace before, and you appear to be an excellent machinist judging by the photos of it. Is this a common custom bit on other motos? On 2/17/2025 at 4:56 AM, DrErgal said: Nothing huge or striking: it's just a pleasant sensation of improved readiness Agreed with the coil mod. IIRC I used GSXR 1000 coils instead. Improvement was subtle, but the main victory was cleaning up all the wiring under the tank. Excellent build! Go Ride! 1 Quote
Member Contributer DrErgal Posted February 18 Author Member Contributer Posted February 18 14 minutes ago, Ughandi said: Agreed with the coil mod. IIRC (cut). Improvement was subtle, but the main victory was cleaning up all the wiring under the tank. 1 1 Quote
Member Contributer DrErgal Posted February 18 Author Member Contributer Posted February 18 25 minutes ago, Ughandi said: I have not heard of a forkbrace before, and you appear to be an excellent machinist judging by the photos of it. Is this a common custom bit on other motos? It's a common trick used in the past, more or less until late 80's, when the forks were not as rigid as today. A typical example is early BMW GS: you may see the black steel connection between the fork lowers, preventing them from torsion: Now, with the quality of the forks nowadays, is no longer necessary, but it's an old trick still worthy. I made exactly the same with my previous CBR100XX, swapped with a Fireblade fork: I designed several protypes before this: the right balance between stiffness and flexibility is a fine alchemy 2 Quote
Member Contributer Ughandi Posted February 18 Member Contributer Posted February 18 @DrErgal Thanks for the details & visual aides! Chassis stiffness is something I valued a lot in my automotive days... I had thought that was a concept completely missed by the production motorcycle world! Now I know that this had existed in years past! Thanks! and now I want a set 😆 1 Quote
Member Contributer DrErgal Posted February 18 Author Member Contributer Posted February 18 2 hours ago, Ughandi said: I had thought that was a concept completely missed by the production motorcycle world! Now I know that this had existed in years past! Thanks! and now I want a set 😆 Oh, there's A LOT a "man in the street" can do on a bike, with a bit of fantasy 😁 I.e., here's my beloved (and heavily modified) CBR1100XX. Believe it or not, I cut out half a hundredweight from its shoulders, stiffening it at the same time. and there's even more under the cover... Further to the forkbrace, we live too far, unfortunately; but let me dig into my old HD; I could find the drawings and send'em to you (pld give me your email), so that you may manufacture'em by yourself 6 1 Quote
Member Contributer Ughandi Posted February 19 Member Contributer Posted February 19 @DrErgalThe longer I look, the more I'm impressed! That is a machine to be proud of right there. I strive for my Viffer to be of similar refinement one day.... Happily!! Check your inbox! 1 Quote
Member Contributer 3rdgenred Posted June 22 Member Contributer Posted June 22 @DrErgal i'm eye balling this for later.... thank you so much gor the thread... Quote
Dutch724 Posted July 23 Posted July 23 On 2/17/2025 at 8:32 AM, DrErgal said: In short, you replace the old big coils (and high voltage cables) with a new dedicated low voltage cable to be connected to some suitable coilsticks coming from other bikes (in my case, Triumph Speed Triple 1050) What year coilsticks did you go with off the Speed triple? I'm new here. Just bought a 5th gen with 24k miles on it and I would like to do a few improvements on it. I have yet to take delivery of the bike, but I'm gathering parts in anticipation of its arrival. Quote
Member Contributer DrErgal Posted July 23 Author Member Contributer Posted July 23 Hi Dutch. I don't remember the year, but any 1050 Speed coilsticks are fine. One of the best match is also the GSX-R 1000 set What's important is to have a long enough pipe to come out of the head pit and a 2 wires connection. I.e., avoid VFR G6 sticks, that have 3 wires connectors Quote
Member Contributer vfrcapn Posted July 23 Member Contributer Posted July 23 I've used Suzuki '06-'07 750 coil sticks on both my 5gens, Suzuki part # 33410-02H00 and cheap on eBay and same I think as the 1K bike. Also pick up a used 08-11 Honda cbr1000RR coil wiring harness, plugs right in to the coils. 1 Quote
Dutch724 Posted July 23 Posted July 23 Thanks for the info. I hate to run this thread off course. On my old bike I did this same conversion, but I needed the wiring and all. I moved it from spark plug wires to COP. I have searched this forum for more info about the coil conversion. Not a lot of info of what is needed to do it. Like I would need just the coils and they plug right up or do I need to get the wiring as well and splice them into my wiring on the bike? Does wiring connectors plug right up to the VFR? Apologies for all the questions. Quote
Member Contributer Ughandi Posted July 23 Member Contributer Posted July 23 1 hour ago, Dutch724 said: I have searched this forum for more info about the coil conversion. Not a lot of info of what is needed to do it. Perhaps I should finally make that post ... I did mine last year. I think I can dig up the photos from my old water damaged phone. (... On that front, I'm actually quite behind on posts I should be making & updating... ) It takes some knowledge of cutting & soldering, keeping track of which cylinders trace to which wires, and using plenty of honda-branded electrical tape 😉 Going by my eBay purchase history, I used CBR 1000 coils on a chopped up 06-07 CBR 1000 sub-harness. 2 Quote
Dutch724 Posted July 23 Posted July 23 1 minute ago, Ughandi said: Perhaps I should finally make that post ... I did mine last year. I think I can dig up the photos from my old water damaged phone. I can't wait to see the pics and read the how to. Add it to my winter bike tune up. 1 Quote
Member Contributer Ughandi Posted July 23 Member Contributer Posted July 23 9 minutes ago, Dutch724 said: I can't wait to see the pics and read the how to. Add it to my winter bike tune up. Copy that! This may be kick I need to stop procrastinating & pull images off my old phone. Anecdotally, after the swap, the first start took an absurdly long time. Somewhere on the order of 3-5 minutes of total starter duty cycle over the course of an hour. I guess the electrical pixies were having a hard time finding a path home from coils to the plug's ground. Runs like a champ since. She kicks on the first turn of the crank. Never had a bike start so ready to go. Quote
Member Contributer vfrcapn Posted July 23 Member Contributer Posted July 23 Write up here: The Suzuki coils have been generally cheaper than the CBR ones. 2 2 Quote
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