- Dr. Ergal's VTR - from old wreck to Infinity (and beyond) 😁

[DrErgal]

Hi folks,

 

as written here, I betrayed my country 😁 keeping the V but halving the cylinders.
The bike was in bad conditions, witnessing very poor maintenance and one fall; the owner told about just a small tip-over but the signs on fairings, and engine covers let me thing it was something a bit more severe. Nothing serious, but hey... a dent on the tank, footpeg bracket bent down, shift lever broken... it's not an innocent tip-over 😅



The final drive was crap, grips at the handlebars was worn and ominously sticky (I don't wanna know anything more 😅)
Also, the owner cut out the tail to install a leaner plate holder and led indicators, but the result has been pretty hacky. And the electrical job below the seat is even worst 💀:


Anyway, this bike won me (inexplicably 😅 ), and I decided to start a new project bike on it.
The leitmotif of the project will reflect the essence of this bike (that definitely won me): simplicity.
I'm going to simplify it at the utmost, removing any redundance and not essential stuff.

At first, I started disassembling the wreck:

Its "ginormic" carburetors are really impressive

 

One of the first job to do, needless to say, it's the PAIR removal.
On VTR, PAIR actuator is not electric but vacuum actuated by a hose coming from front carburetor.
I removed all the stuff and plugged the connection:
 

 

But this bike was in need of something more serious than cosmetic trifles.
Timing chain tensioners were about to fail, especially on front cylinder (that's pretty common on VTR), so i removed anything into the "V" to easily access the tensioners and replace them; as obvious, I set the timing, first:

 

 

 

Since I needed to remove the cooling system to access the front tensioner, I took the occasion to a small upgrade, so I replaced the hoses with silicone units; also, the connections to the carburetors have been removed  (VTR has a heating line for carburetors, but I defintely do NOT need it)...


...and the connections of the thermostat housing gave been plugged

 

Once fulfilled this task, I passed to the radiators before reassembpling the cooling system, since I decided to replace EVERY not stressed screw with ergal component.
 

 

the cooling system has been reinstalled:

 

In this phase I took the occasion to reorganize the breathing/bleeding lines in a tidy way, since the OEM hoses are loooong and twisted into the gut of the bike:

 

Prior to close the work on the engine, I made the same coil conversion made on the VFR
Here's a picture with the old system compared with the new.


To finalize, a set of iridium sparks and the engine is done.

 

After this, it was the turn of the final drive.
Unfortunately I've not been able to find the Supersprox sprocket I was looking for, so I bitterly fell back on a standard JT unit (Z+2)

I compensated the lack of the supersporx sprocket with a ergal nut for the rear axle, and aluminium wheel spacers
 

And just to show how autistic I am, I even dismantled the chain adjusters to restore and clean them, bringing them to mint conditions 😅

 

I removed the original rear brake reservoir (just below the seat, on the right side) by installing a smaller one directly connected to the pump; in this way I removed the reservoir itself and the long connection hose, but above all I could move the R/R in its place, where it can get more air

 

I installed the footpeg adapter I used on the VFR, to raise them up without touching the brackets (but I have some plan about it 😎)

 

The bike came with a Leovince exhaust cans set. I have the OEM also, but I do not have the carburetors jets, so I decided to keep the Leovince's on.
I raised up the mufflers, and the original brackets have been removed
So far, I made some ROUGH and UGLY supports.
They are very bad, but they're cheap and work fine; they  will be replaced with dedicated components by my design. I'm just waiting for some salaries to come in order to stabilize the budget... 😅

 

At the frontend, the forks have been serviced, then I put titanium bolts for the front subframe (that's in steel; I'm going to build a new one in aluminium)

 

and a forkbrace by Dr. Ergal design.
The plate in the picture is just a prototype to test the size; the final one is still on the way

 

New grips on the handlebars, ergal screws everywhere and that's it. The bike is simple and essential, so no need for further operations; I just cut out the locking pins to spread out the bars

 

By following my purpose, I searched for any non stressed screw to be replaced with ergal units.
And I mean EVERY screw...
   
  

I don't have all the pictures, but those are the screws I removed and replaced with ergal

All the remaining bolts are structural, so I could replace them with titanium, just in case.
Maybe in future...

 

In conclusion (so far 😁) I reinstalled the mirrors used on the VFR, with led indicators:

 

And here it is!


Being a projectbike, the modification will NEVER end 😁
The next steps are:
Lightened pinion cover
Li-Ion Battery
Rear and front subframe in aluminium
Muffler brackets
Lighter brake rotors
Adjustable ignition phonic wheel
Lighter wheels (but I'm afraid that this item would cost me a divorce 🙄😆)

Keep tuned!

For those who are wondering if I forgot the lower cowl, well no: I simply removed it because I like the most this way. You remember? Simplicity... 😉

 

[DrErgal]

250725 - SMALL UPGRADE

 

Some beautiful pieces of engineering came into my garage, today 😎

 

One is the forkbrace plate I was waiting for, machined by my good friend Mario running "Torneria Baderna", a billet machining workshop in northern Italy
The smallest is  a shaft holder, designed to embrace the gear selector shaft; this reduces its cantilever and makes the gear selection more precise, also preventing the oil seal from damaging since the shaft is less prone to bend.

 

 

 

And the forkbrace plate finally in place.

 

 

The previously installed plate was fine anyway, but this one is keeping my name on it, so I'll be surely faster 😎 😁

[FromMaine]

Nice write up Dr.

 

That shaft brace is a nifty idea.

 

I must say also, that stacked cord wood in the backround of some of your photos would give you instant street cred where I live in Maine. Many people here heat their homes with wood or at least have a wood stove and a couple of cords for when we lose power, which happens quite often, especially in the winter.

[DrErgal]

Smart eye, Maine.
Every summer I'm used to store about 50 hundreds of wood cords in the box for the winter:


I live in a mountain area of northern Italy (close to Dolomites). Winters are looooong and cold, so we run a stove in addition to the standard heating system.
I do love hearing the fire crackling, and the kind of heat coming the fire isn't comparable with anything else; it's kinda magic.
Just to give you an idea, this pics is taken from where I live

[FromMaine]

Well Dr. It seems we have a few things in common...........👍

 

Although I live less than 1 km from the Atlantic Ocean, we do have mountains also.

 

First photo is from my front yard, there are 2 mountains. The one in the foreground is 300 meters, the one in the backround is 400 meters.

 

Second photo is from the top of the 300 meter mountain taken last week when we had company. To the right is our harbor here in town. Straight ahead between the islands is , well......Portugal.

 

Third photo is my woodshed. It holds apprx. 4 sq meters (1  cord) of oak and maple. Enough to heat the house in the dead of winter for 2-3 weeks if we lose power.

[DrErgal]

250806 UPDATE
Today I had the chance to make a ride to test the last modification: the long inlet snorkel at front cylinder.
Maybe you don't know that (oddly) Honda equipped the VTR with 2 completely different snorkels: rear cylinder has a long snorkel and the front cyilinder a VERY VERY short one.
It's not that odd, I know; such things are very common, but the difference in length is often not so much; on the VTR, the difference is HUGE! 😲
Here's the exploded view from CMSNL, to give the idea:




Honda says that this is studied to provide a good balance between torque at low revs and power peak at high revs.
Well, this doesn't convince me very much so I made an experiment: I bought on ebay a second-hand complete airbox, to have 2 long snorkel and 2 shorts, so that I may change them when riding on road or on track. Short snorkels for tracks, long ones for road.
Now I installed 2 long snorkels.

 

I must be honest: I was expecting an improvement but I never thought an improvement like this 😮
The engine is even smoother than before, and (predictably) even more torquey at low revs. Tight hairpins in 3rd gear at 2000rpm are not an issue, and the engine push you off the corner smoothly but strongly.
But just a few over, around 4000rpm, the engine puts some muscles I really didn't expect, becoming VERY torquey and fast. The range 4000-6000 rpm is definitely ADDICTIVE, now 😈

Very very happy, so far. I'm going to check if this set is good or if some specifically designed snorkels could get even better; it's more than evident that the Storm has great breathing capabilities, and responds effectively to this kind of mods 

[Ughandi]

30 minutes ago, DrErgal said:

Well, this doesn't convince me very much so I made an experiment: I bought on ebay a second-hand complete airbox,

Ah yes... with the power of purchasing a second one...! 

[DrErgal]

40€ (shipping included) well spent 😎

[Terry]

Sounds like you need to develop some variable length airbox trumpets!

 

If you want to see long, take a look at the ST1300...

[Terry]

When you ride the VTR at low rpm, it makes you really wonder why the VFR800s won't run much below 3500rpm wihout shaking themselves to death. My VTR would pull happily down to 2000rpm, how does that even work with the two giant pistons? Maybe I need some extra long snorkels in the VFR?

[Skids]

1 hour ago, Terry said:

When you ride the VTR at low rpm, it makes you really wonder why the VFR800s won't run much below 3500rpm wihout shaking themselves to death. My VTR would pull happily down to 2000rpm, how does that even work with the two giant pistons? Maybe I need some extra long snorkels in the VFR?

Both my 2001 and 2018 800X will both happily run smoothly down to around 1500rpm, and pull willingly from there. Obviously not in 6th gear but 20mph speed limits are smooth in 3rd or 4th gear.

 

800X is stock apart from a DAM end can and the 01 has the PAIR removed and flapper disabled as well as an end can. 

 

I only mention this cos your comment re 3500rpm seemed very different from my experience.

 

Great to hear your VTR story, please keep it up. 🍻

[Ughandi]

7 hours ago, Terry said:

If you want to see long...

Woah there, fellas... we dont have to go down that road...

[DrErgal]

8 hours ago, Terry said:

Maybe I need some extra long snorkels in the VFR?

Well, my last mod on the VFR before exchanging it for the Storm was exactly this: I put a couple of washers (total thickness 3mm) underneath the connection of the snorkels, rising them.
The difference was subtle, yet noticeable: more force and less shakings at low revs.
So yes, I think longer snorkels could give a great benefit for road use

[DrErgal]

On 7/30/2025 at 8:26 PM, FromMaine said:

Well Dr. It seems we have a few things in common...........👍 (cut)

 

That's spectacular!
The mountains at my backyard are higher, indeed (around 2200m)...

 

... but I have no sea 😁
And I ride mtb too 🤘

[DrErgal]

Just a little operation, these days; transplanting brake and clutch levers.

A stupid thing, I know; but these levers are important to me, since they come from my old beloved XX

Here's the sight from the rider's seat
 

Something bigger is in preparation, but I'll wait for the winter stop 

[Ughandi]

5 hours ago, DrErgal said:

A stupid thing, I know; but these levers are important to me, since they come from my old beloved XX

Ergonomics is an odd science... no hate if it works! 

 

5 hours ago, DrErgal said:

Here's the sight from the rider's seat

I'm slowly learning that clocking the levers down is a huge ergo win. My clipons are going on soon, and I'm very excited for the extra adjustability on my bike

[DrErgal]

2 hours ago, Ughandi said:

I'm slowly learning that clocking the levers down is a huge ergo win

Indeed.
It's the very first thing I do on a bike.
The triangle seat-footpegs-bars is a vital geometry to set.
Then, levers angle.

After that, you start adjusting bike parameters 👍

[Terry]

I have lucky coins on my bikes. This started when I bought my 97 VTR1000F which was sold to me as a Japanese domestic model; this proved to be correct with a 180km/hr speedo and speed limiter built in at 180, but was confirmed when I had the carbs off and looked into the dirty V valley. I saw what I thought was a large flat washer but turned out to be a Japanese coin, the style that has a central hole. After some polishing, this ended up bolted to my bars as a memento, and I have since added similar coins to all my other Japanese bikes (but not the Vespa as I expect it will take umbrage at that). 

[St. Stephen]

4 hours ago, Terry said:

I have lucky coins on my bikes. This started when I bought my 97 VTR1000F which was sold to me as a Japanese domestic model; this proved to be correct with a 180km/hr speedo and speed limiter built in at 180, but was confirmed when I had the carbs off and looked into the dirty V valley. I saw what I thought was a large flat washer but turned out to be a Japanese coin, the style that has a central hole. After some polishing, this ended up bolted to my bars as a memento, and I have since added similar coins to all my other Japanese bikes (but not the Vespa as I expect it will take umbrage at that). 

Wow, very cool Terry. You are much  closer to Japan than I, so maybe that mojo keeps your bikes running as they should. Perhaps I should get a few pre-Euro lira...

[Terry]

16 minutes ago, St. Stephen said:

Wow, very cool Terry. You are much  closer to Japan than I, so maybe that mojo keeps your bikes running as they should. Perhaps I should get a few pre-Euro lira...

Actually Auckland is almost exactly the same distance from Tokyo as Tokyo is from LA. That Pacific Ocean is a big old bowl of water.

[St. Stephen]

Haha of course you're right, lazy of me, although I still should dig up that lira...

 

I remember visiting Invercargill 10 years ago and noting how incredibly far south I was, the furthest south I've ever been on the planet. 

 

 

apologies to DrErgal for this hijack of his thread

[DrErgal]

22 hours ago, St. Stephen said:

apologies to DrErgal for this hijack of his thread

you're more than welcome 😊

[DrErgal]

Yesterday evening I attempted to install the new muffler brackets.
It was a trial, I knew it was, but in my mind I've been hoping it could work: the brackets are 3D printed in PA12 enhanced with carbonfibre
In theory, the idea is brilliant: components light (VERY light) and resistant.
And they are very nice, indeed:

 

Unfortunately, they're not strong enough, and prone to bending: I gotta find a solution, or I'll be obliged to come back to old good aluminum 🤔
Failure is the path to success 😁

[DrErgal]

Gentlemen, here I am with some upgrade!

I wanted to make one post only resuming the entire job, but you know... time available for staying in in garage is always little, so I'm progressing slowly and intermittently. So I thought it's better to set a post step by step, to show any update

Well, this weekend I focused on 2 things, mainly: wheels and shock abs.
I found a good occasion from a friend of mine, who made a bad accident on his bike destroying it; like a vulture 😆 , I came offering to buy his unit, a fantastic Matris M46HD.
So here it is...

I must confess, since the OEM unit is very oversprung, this Matris looks a bit "soft". Surely it's just an impression; BTW, I'll set it properly on spring.

Then, I focused on wheels.
Last years I purchased a set of second hand wheels coming from a Hornet. The main reason is purely aesthetic: I dislike the bulky design of the OEM spokes so I wanted something leaner. Also, I don't find the 6 spokes classic Honda rims fitting fine on VTR; I don't know why... simply they don't resonate me the way they did on my XX. So I decided to go to a leaner 3 spokes rims set. And here it is, coming from ebay

Hornet and former CBR600F rims fit VTR, both for disk and sprocket holder

The only modification needed is a transplant of the bearings, since the wheel pins is bigger that the Hornet's. 10 minutes job.

The rear wheel is 550gr lighter than the stock 🤘

 

Also, the new disk is almost 400gr lighter than the OEM

 

In total, the rear wheel will be about 900gr lighter than the stock. Maybe it's few, but racing spirits hides into details 😁

 

Unfortunately, front wheels weights exactly the same 🤨
I told my wife that a set of carbon rims is MANDATORY but she does not comprehend (inexplicably 😅 ) 

Well, I mounted on 'em a set of Mitas Sportfoce+
Once installed, I may say that I really like the new look 

After the wheels, it's time to think about the removal of the ignition key holder, since the new yoke I designed is supposed to be keyless
I switched the ignition wiring on a classic Honda switch

I have an idea about the HISS antenna; I'll come back soon with some pics

Thanks for reading

[Lucca]

Reading and waiting for more😉👌. Love the detail on bolts. These small things do upgrade the looks!