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Rcbvfr Frankenviffer Texas Style


FotoMoto

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  • Member Contributer

An absolute masterpiece. (insert slow measured clap here). I is the MV Agusta of VFR's. Could you build a better shock res. mount though. That is the only thing that looks less than integrated on the whole project. And that's saying a lot after all the mods are seamless. :thumbsup: :beer: :goofy:

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An absolute masterpiece. (insert slow measured clap here). I is the MV Agusta of VFR's. Could you build a better shock res. mount though. That is the only thing that looks less than integrated on the whole project. And that's saying a lot after all the mods are seamless. :thumbsup: :idea3: :beer:

WOW, thanks Cap'n! And thanks to those for the featured thread front page move. :thumbsup:

mmmm, MV Agusta's sure look sweet and I'm seriously considering an MV black/CF paint scheme since I think they look so suh-weeeeeeet.

Yup, the shock reservoir mount MUST be improved. Either I'll fab up something or as Dutchy suggested I'll hack off the peg part of the mount.

Anyway, here's how it looks at the moment:

loadedup.jpg

as I'm loading it up for a 1600+ mile extended weekend trip out to Big Bend National Park; a tank bag and rear seat bag are more than enough. This will be my fourth trip in two years. Yes, I now love that place. Weather forecasts are perfect. I'll post a trip and bike report when I get back. :wheel:

I had to get my butt in gear to make this and the Texas VFRd rides. I had a long list of things to fix/improve/make or basically git-ur-dun:

list.jpg

at least a month or so before. Nothing like a little stress to add to ride. :offtopic: Well I got most of the list done plus a cheap cosmetic rear wheel axle cover! :thumbsup:

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  • 2 months later...
Guest vfrrider

Fotomoto,

My congratulations on a package well done.

You've made up my mind on several items, from the CBR1000RR gauges (made an Ebay coup) as well as the specing of the CBR600RR fairing as my choice for the RC211V replica body. And it just happens to be the same body as Rossi rode, even if I paint it Repsol from the Nicky era.

Now, just getting the dough saved for the Oppracing fiberglass fairing.

Again, way to go. Need to drive up to Dallas for anything?

Larry

VFRrider

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • Member Contributer
I wanna know: what to the CBR guys say to you at bike night?

Haven't taken it to a bike night yet. Maybe this spring I'll "spring it" on 'em. LOL

Finally got around to a minor mod for the rear shock reservoir mount. A crash damaged cbr1000rr passenger peg hanger became the unknowing donor part for a much slimmer mount after hacking about 2/3rds of it off as suggested by Dutchy. You can't really tell from these pics but it's tuck in more for better protection against crash damage; not that it will ever need it. (fingers crossed knocking on wood) I'll either paint or powdercoat it black to blend in better.

Before:

IMG_6238.jpg

After:

rearmount.jpg

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  • 2 months later...
Guest roadkill

Well, my buddy and I are going to attempt, and I say attempt, the same thing. I have a '97 VFR and just got a brand new '08 CBR600RR complete front end.....USD forks, triple trees, brakes, lines, cables, controls, switches, the whole shebang; a front wheel from an '07 CBR600RR; EBC Pro-Lite rotors; fairing stay from an '04 CBR600RR; gauges from an '05 CBR600RR.....we are ready to begin major surgery this week, gulp! As I have a new titanium TBR can, I am going to leave the exhaust system as is and keep the rear wheel as well (just put a new Michelin Pilot Power on it this week); will be getting an Aprilia RSV clutch unit this week hopefully; going to be getting '03-'04 CBR600RR bodywork front and rear I hope in the next two weeks....although I wonder if the '05-'06 bodywork would work...last model with the twin air intakes before they went to the central intake. We found a shop manual for the CBR600RR on line so we can compare it to the shop manual for the VFR regarding the electrical system. As the VFR is longer than the CBR, it will be interesting to see how the subframe and tail from the CBR work on the VFR.

Just a couple of questions now.....I will try to keep the questions to a minimum and not be a bother as we go along.

How do you deal with the choke when you do the conversion?

Are there any ECU issues that need to be addressed? I figure that the '97 bike (which is really a '94 model) might be more analog and the new CBR more digital.

We are so pumped about this project!

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • Member Contributer
Well, my buddy and I are going to attempt, and I say attempt, the same thing. I have a '97 VFR and just got a brand new '08 CBR600RR complete front end.....USD forks, triple trees, brakes, lines, cables, controls, switches, the whole shebang; a front wheel from an '07 CBR600RR; EBC Pro-Lite rotors; fairing stay from an '04 CBR600RR; gauges from an '05 CBR600RR.....we are ready to begin major surgery this week, gulp! As I have a new titanium TBR can, I am going to leave the exhaust system as is and keep the rear wheel as well (just put a new Michelin Pilot Power on it this week); will be getting an Aprilia RSV clutch unit this week hopefully; going to be getting '03-'04 CBR600RR bodywork front and rear I hope in the next two weeks....although I wonder if the '05-'06 bodywork would work...last model with the twin air intakes before they went to the central intake. We found a shop manual for the CBR600RR on line so we can compare it to the shop manual for the VFR regarding the electrical system. As the VFR is longer than the CBR, it will be interesting to see how the subframe and tail from the CBR work on the VFR.

Just a couple of questions now.....I will try to keep the questions to a minimum and not be a bother as we go along.

How do you deal with the choke when you do the conversion?

Are there any ECU issues that need to be addressed? I figure that the '97 bike (which is really a '94 model) might be more analog and the new CBR more digital.

We are so pumped about this project!

Oh man I'm sorry I didn't see your post any sooner. :fing02: Shoot, you're probably finished by now! Sounds like an awesome project. :wheel:

I do have a concern on the 600RR front end. Most of these newer USD units are pretty short. How's that going?

No major issues with the electronics other than two minor things:

1) Water temp probe (used an aftermarket)

2) Speedometer calibration (need latest SpeedoHealer)

I solved the choke cable issue by using a CBR900RR triple clamp mount (cheap). In your case with the low 600rr clipons, you maybe able to run the choke cable in the stock 4gen position with no length issues. Remember I have more upright handlebar setup. If I had a better local dealer, I would have just taken my cable and compared lengths of their in-stock supply but a request like that would just blown their minds.

Keep us posted and Good Luck!

Doug

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Guest roadkill

Doug....ever so glad you came back.....we started on it yesterday....the '08 CBR600RR entire front end went on flawlessly....Honda really doesn't change something unless it needs changed.....we put an RC51 hydraulic clutch unit on it and it was a total bitch.....took hours to get it to work, no idea why, just took hours to make it work. The USD unit turns out to be like 4" shorter than the VFR unit, so I really need heli-bars now.

I got a stock CBR fairing stay and chopped off the end and made redneck engineered aluminum plates on both sides with spacers as the CBR fairing stay is much wider than the VFR to mate the fairing stay to the VFR headstock....worked out quite well. And the VFR ignition just bolted right up to the CBR triple tree...no problem.

Now.....mating the VFR electrics to the CBR....I have a gauge unit from an '05 CBR600 and bought on ebay the complete wiring harness for that bike as well....Honda is pretty anal about their stuff over time and keep everything the same more often than not....but we are now looking at the old wiring and the new wiring and would very much like your help. Would you be willing to help us with this phase of the work? We would be eternally grateful.

Here is what we have done so far.....

http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff158/p...to/frankenbike/

Edited by roadkill
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  • Member Contributer

I used a cbr1000rr gauge because the redline is the same so the wire colors could probably be different. Now is the point where I wished I would have written things down more often but basically I just traced the cbr wiring schematic from the sensors back up to the gauge to determine what color wire went where. The cbr gauges will have extra wires for digital functions (FI light, etc) so don't panic.

4 inches shorter huh? WOW, that's a lot. You are probably going to run into radiator clearance during fork compression. I loved the plates. I did the same thing during mock up stage but mine were more flimsy.

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Guest roadkill
I used a cbr1000rr gauge because the redline is the same so the wire colors could probably be different. Now is the point where I wished I would have written things down more often but basically I just traced the cbr wiring schematic from the sensors back up to the gauge to determine what color wire went where. The cbr gauges will have extra wires for digital functions (FI light, etc) so don't panic.

4 inches shorter huh? WOW, that's a lot. You are probably going to run into radiator clearance during fork compression. I loved the plates. I did the same thing during mock up stage but mine were more flimsy.

Doug....the picture of the "final" is misleading as the oil radiator in the pic is just hanging down unattached.....it will mount high enough to account for fork compression. Also, these mounting plates and oil radiator bracket are just mockups....I am going to have a machine shop make me "real purty" ones that will be powder coated to replace these "proof of concept" ones. The VFR headstock bracket is quite narrow and the CBR is quite wide, so we needed scrap aluminum spacer plates and washers to make up the difference in widths....this will be addressed with quite dressy pieces shortly....gonna look perfesshunal when it is all done.

Just one more question concerning electrical mating.....the VFR has a "dark green" ground wire at every end point....the CBR does not. Was this a problem for you?

I am not overly concerned about redlines at this point as I don't tend to be gauge oriented when I ride....my ears are my "gauge"....but I am sure that I will have some questions as I go along.....if you will indulge me.

Why did you decide to switch from clipons? Handlebar height? I want to stay with clipons but don't want to ride like every ride is a track day.....this bike is for a relaxing street ride......my '05 maxxed out Yamaha R6 is my track beast and ready for more action now that I am healed up from a quite nasty highside last year.

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No, I'm referring to the coolant rad, even hanging down your oil rad won't be a problem (BTDT). I think the fender will be hitting either the coolant rad or cylinder head on full compression.

The dark green (DG) are grounds. I recently upgraded my computer and don't have the cbr manual I downloaded on it so I can't check to see nor recall what the common ground wire color is on that bike.

Yeah I know what you mean about listening for the redline but I wanted a set of clocks that were close. Just an attention to detail kind of thing.

I'm, ahemmm, nearly as old as Baileyroc :fing02: and a more comfy riding position is a priority item so I try to add superbike bars to my bikes if at all possible.

Keep at it. :wheel:

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Guest roadkill
No, I'm referring to the coolant rad, even hanging down your oil rad won't be a problem (BTDT). I think the fender will be hitting either the coolant rad or cylinder head on full compression.

The dark green (DG) are grounds. I recently upgraded my computer and don't have the cbr manual I downloaded on it so I can't check to see nor recall what the common ground wire color is on that bike.

Yeah I know what you mean about listening for the redline but I wanted a set of clocks that were close. Just an attention to detail kind of thing.

I'm, ahemmm, nearly as old as Baileyroc :biggrin: and a more comfy riding position is a priority item so I try to add superbike bars to my bikes if at all possible.

Keep at it. :fing02:

Doug.....

Well, we are making steady progress....the beast is running and I have put hundreds of miles on it already....rode for like five hours on Monday.....no gauges but what the heck....although it would have been a real help to have actually had mirrors.

The '08 CBR front is a whopping 4" lower so the riding position is very CBR like but the steering and braking are light years ahead of this old VFR....just a real hoot to carve up winding roads like being on a crotch rocket.....hey, ya gotta do something fun when you are 61 going on 29.

Now to the real challenge....the gauges....am trying to mate the old analog VFR wiring to the new CBR wiring.....I see lots of differences already (we had to ditch the CBR left side pod because the default position is exactly opposite the VFR....will revisit this later as I like the CBR look and feel of the pod).....what I see so far....

the VFR has a side stand light, not so the CBR...don't care.

the VFR and CBR speedo leads are quite different....gonna take some experimenting around to figure out why they are so different and what works. Any thoughts?

the CBR has some FI stuff that I don't need so it will be unconnected pin outs.

the CBR has a grey wire labeled "W/N OUT".....have no idea what that is or means.

the CBR has two bank angle sensors....one on the left and one on the right....can't see as to how I need them as they have no VFR counterpart.

the CBR has has a white and green wire labeled "WIN - IN".......ain't gotta clue what it is or means. Hope it ain't critical as it has no VFR counterpart.

Any thoughts or suggestions will be most gratefully accepted.

Gonna spend the whole day tomorrow on the thing....made adapter plates and put some el cheapo EMGO GSXR mirrors from the local Cycle Gear store so I can see around me......ain't got no fuel gauge so I have to stop fairly often just to make sure....too old to walk to a gas station.

Dang....I love this frankenbike.....what a hoot to ride around on.

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Guest GAZMAN

HI VFR PARTNER!!! I READ YOUR POST FROM SPAIN AND I THIN IS A VERY PROFESSIONAL WORK. I´M FINISHING NOW MY VFR 90-93 STREETFIGHTER PROJECT, YOU CAN FIND IT HERE:

http://streetfighterspain.es/foro/viewtopic.php?t=93

I PURCHASED A KOSO RX2 BUT I CANNOT MAKE IT WORK CORRECTLY AND NOW I´M SELLING IT.

ONE DAY READING YOUR POST I SEE THE 1000RR GAUGES AND PURCHASED ONE FROM EBAY TO FIT MY 90-93 VFR 750 F. I HAVE DOWNLOADED THE SERVICE MANUAL OF BOTH BIKES TO SEE HOW CAN I CONNECT IT. THE VFR ELECTRIC DIAGRAM IS VERY CLEAR BUT THE 1000 RR ONE APPEARS WITH SOME KIND OF FOG. CAN YOU TELL ME THE COLOUR OF THE CABLES YOU USED TO CONNECT THE GAUGES OF THE 1000 RR I COULD FIND THE FOLLOWING:

GR/R - TEMPERATURE SENSOR

Y/G - TACHOMETER (RPM)

BU/R - OIL

BR/BL - RESERVE FUEL

LG/BL - NEUTRAL

LB - RIGHT TURN

BL/BU - HIGH BEAM

O - LEFT TURN

G/BL - SPEED SENSOR

ARE THEY CORRECT?

I SEND YOU A PIC OF MY CONNECTION DIAGRAM. I´LL BE VERY PLEASED IF YOU CAN CORRECT IT AND SEND ME AGAIN THE CORRECTED ONE. ARE THERE ANYTHING I MUST KNOW BEFORE STARTING THE INSTALLATION.

THERE IS THE DIAGRAM OF THE 1000 RR

1000rrgv7.jpg

AND THERE THE 750 DIAGRAM

750bf0.jpg

THANKS MATE!!!

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  • Member Contributer

Great, now I have a waiting line of folks wanting me to take my harness apart since, being the lazy ass person that I am, I didn't write down the wire color codes!!!!! :warranty:

Roadkill, Todd, and Gazman: I must have downloaded the same cbr pdf file as it's also very low quality and I can not make out many of the words at the meter connection. So, here's what I did. Just as in the above image, I could make out the cbr wire color codes but not the words at the gauge connection (grrrrrr). So, I looked all over the cbr schematic till I found the sensor or switch I needed (neutral, oil, high beam, etc) and then followed it back up to the harness connection. Just a process of elimination really and didn't worry about the extra cbr wires used for FI and other uses. Many (most) of the wires run to the ECM first so don't get lost.

I cut off the 4gen green and blue connectors and connected the vfr wires to the cbr gauge harness to plug into the cbr gauge. That way the instrument is removable and not hardwired to the bike. Hope this makes sense. I'm truly sorry I can't take my bike apart and unwrap the harness to give you definite answers to color codes but I'm in the middle of a house restoration, bike is in storage, and I've only ridden once in the past 3 months or so. I'm beginning to understand what PMS is now. :fing02:

Gazman, your 3gen streetfighter is MAGNIFICO! :goofy: Did the RX2 tachometer function not work properly? That was the only thing the RX1 didn't solved or I would have kept it. My 4gen coolant sensor didn't work correctly with the cbr gauge but the KOSO sensor did so I'm using that one. A cbr temperature sensor might bolt onto the vfr thermostat but I don't know that for a fact and am just guessing. You will also need a speedohealer version 4 (latest) to calibrate the speedometer correctly.

Roadkill,

Remember you are adding a digital gauge on an "analog" bike so yes there are going to be many unused functions (wires) on the cbr's end like the electronic steering damper. Don't worry about them. You'll also need the ver4 speedohealer. Post some pics of that front end, please.

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Guest GAZMAN

I COULDN´T FIX THE TACHOMETER FROM ANY OF THE COILS WIRE, PICK UP OR DIRECTLY FROM COIL. ELSEWHERE SPEED ISN´T ACCURATE, BUT I THINK IT´S CAUSED FOR ONE MAGNET INSTALLATION ONLY, I SHOULD INSTALL AT LEAST 3 MAGNETS TO IMPROVE METER SIGNAL. I THINK TACHOMETER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FUNCTION FOR ME, BECAUSE SPEED, TEMPERATURE AND ANYTHING ELSE CAN BE SOLVED EASILY WITH ANOTHER GAUGE OR ACCESORY, BUT RPM SHOULD BE THE MOST ACCURATE POSSIBLE. I WILL POST MY LAST PROGRESSES SOON, IT WILL INCLUDE A GSXR K7 COMPLETE FRONT END FOR THE OLD VIFFER smile.gif. AND A GSXR K6 HEADLIGHT smile.gif

GREETZ FROM SPAIN!!

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Guest roadkill
Roadkill,

Remember you are adding a digital gauge on an "analog" bike so yes there are going to be many unused functions (wires) on the cbr's end like the electronic steering damper. Don't worry about them. You'll also need the ver4 speedohealer. Post some pics of that front end, please.

Doug....I already did....see post #32 for the link.

Also....I have been using a Clymer's Honda manual and now see by comparing their wiring diagram to my bike that the manual has some problems....what is in the manual does NOT match up with my bike's actual pin layout. However, that should not be too much of a problem as it is the color of the wiring that is important, not its location in the connector harness. I mean if the wire is shown on the layout as Pin 4 but in reality is Pin 3, then Pin 3, it is.

Did you have any problems that you remember with the fuel gauge and low fuel warning light hookup?

BTW, I had a blast riding it yesterday for like six hours.....just had to be careful as I do not have a fuel gauge, so I had to just guess....one time it took 1.7 gallons and the last time 3.5, so I really have no idea of how far I have ridden with no odometer or fuel gauge. I fixed the mirror problem by going to Cycle Gear and getting two GSXR mini mirrors (Emgo) and making some crude but effective adapter plates.

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  • Member Contributer
1000rrgv7.jpg

JACKPOT! Guys I did write it down. :wheel: Seeing gazman's schematic finally trigger one of my last functioning brain cells :beer: which let me recall that I enlarged the schematic and printed it in the hopes of reading it better. Anyway, I found that print out and I did label things. Starting from left to right on the above connector of the cbr1000rr gauge harness:

CBR wire colors=function

P= Speedometer (1)

Br/W = Instrument lighting (switched)

R/G= Instrument power (non-switched for clock, etc)

Gr/Y= Not used (cbr steering damper)

G= Ground

Gr/R= Water temp

Y/G= Tachometer

Bu/R= Oil

W/Bu= Not used (FI light)

Br/W= Speedometer (2)

Br/Bl= Fuel Reserve

Lg/Bl= Neutral

Lb= Right Turn

Bl/Bu= High Beam

O= Left Turn

G/Bl= Speedometer (3)

For the three speedometer sensor connections:

CBR=VFR color wire

Speedo (1)= Pink

Speedo (2)= B/Br

Speedo (3)= G/B

Pink is the actual signal wire and the other two are power & ground.

HTH and, oh yeah, disconnect battery before surgery! :wheel: Good luck :beer:

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Guest roadkill

Well......today was the day we put all the hours and hours and hours of comparative charts, diagrams, lines, boxes and assorted squiggles all together.....

As a preliminary, I chopped off the "ears" on the bodywork bracket and relocated the choke cable to the bored out threaded hole for the bodywork attachment....

leftassembly1.jpg

Back together.....

leftassembly3.jpg

Then on to the main course....finally, at long last, mating the VFR wiring to the '05 CBR600RR gauges.....

Pretty messy.....

wiringmess1.jpg

But, miracle of miracles......it pretty much works....

gaugesdone1.jpg

What works:

tach

clock

neutral indicator light

left/right turn signal indicator lights

high beam indicator light

What needs work:

speedo.....off by a factor of almost 10....registers like 7 doing 55

odometer....same story

I wonder if the Speedohealer has THAT much of a correction factor available.

What doesn't work:

Coolant temperature reading....the VFR, as noted, has a single wire, the CBR a two wire system. I am getting a CBR sensor to possibly correct this problem....also the VFR sensor mounts to the radiator and the CBR as part of the neck of the engine attachment bracket tied into the thermostat....hope they are the same gauge and threading. I will soon find out.

Fuel gauge and low fuel warning light.....very obvious why....the VFR has a carburated system and the tank float is just a mechanical piece whereas the CBR has the actual FI fuel pump as a consolidated unit in the tank......non-FI versus full-FI......however, both the analog VFR gauge and the digital CBR gauge both work off resistance changes.....same thing but different languages.....there must be some way to convert "English into Spanish" as an example.....it can be done....just gotta figure out how.

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Guest GAZMAN

great job mate!!!! did you buy the connection harness of the cbr or you just welded vfr wiring into cbr gauges?

I think I´ll need CBR wiring or at least the little connection of the gauges to do the less mess possible. smile.gif

Keep on the good JOB:)

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Guest roadkill
great job mate!!!! did you buy the connection harness of the cbr or you just welded vfr wiring into cbr gauges?

I think I´ll need CBR wiring or at least the little connection of the gauges to do the less mess possible. smile.gif

Keep on the good JOB:)

When I bought the gauges on ebay, they came with the wiring that plugs into the back of the gauge and then I bought a main wiring harness off ebay for $91 I think it was so we had plenty of wire and connectors to put it mildly.

It did not turn out to the the monster nightmare that we imagined......many things were just simply matching the orange wire to the orange wire kinds of things...very straightforward.

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Guest WERA39
Well......today was the day we put all the hours and hours and hours of comparative charts, diagrams, lines, boxes and assorted squiggles all together.....

As a preliminary, I chopped off the "ears" on the bodywork bracket and relocated the choke cable to the bored out threaded hole for the bodywork attachment....

What works:

tach

clock

neutral indicator light

left/right turn signal indicator lights

high beam indicator light

What needs work:

speedo.....off by a factor of almost 10....registers like 7 doing 55

odometer....same story

I wonder if the Speedohealer has THAT much of a correction factor available.

What doesn't work:

Coolant temperature reading....the VFR, as noted, has a single wire, the CBR a two wire system. I am getting a CBR sensor to possibly correct this problem....also the VFR sensor mounts to the radiator and the CBR as part of the neck of the engine attachment bracket tied into the thermostat....hope they are the same gauge and threading. I will soon find out.

Fuel gauge and low fuel warning light.....very obvious why....the VFR has a carburated system and the tank float is just a mechanical piece whereas the CBR has the actual FI fuel pump as a consolidated unit in the tank......non-FI versus full-FI......however, both the analog VFR gauge and the digital CBR gauge both work off resistance changes.....same thing but different languages.....there must be some way to convert "English into Spanish" as an example.....it can be done....just gotta figure out how.

Todd here, the buddy helping Roadkill with this project.

My biggest concern on the gauges (and this was bugging me all last night after we finished up), is the Speedo inaccuracy.

Doug, when you got your gauges working, was your speedo off THAT much? I mean as much as what we're experiencing? Like Roakill said, at about 50-55 mph, the speedo is only reading 6-7 mph. I just cant see it making THAT much difference in the signal being sent.

This has def. been a learning experience. Most of my moto mechanical stuff has been working on racebikes, not transforming one type of bike to another :unsure:

Edited by WERA39
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