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Vfr Triple Clamp Project


cassandtim

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BLS, those triples are things of beauty & grace.

I second that opinion. Another fun material to machine is titanium -- drills and endmills love titanium.

If magnesium is not coated, yes, it eats away over time from the elements. I have certainly noticed this on the unpainted areas of my front wheel.

IIRC, Larry has his triples coated in something space-age, let me see if I can dig that up.......

......................................

Nah, couldn't find it, hafta ask Larry.

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What's the easiest way to get super bike bars? Would I need home made upper tripples for that? Is there a kit or something already out there?

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Oh, and BTW, my 7075 material is in and my machinist says we're cued up to begin this weekend. If all goes well I will post up photos of the finished product early next week! Woot!

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BLS, those triples are things of beauty & grace. Did you make those on a conventional Bridgeport type mill?

Thanks... like everything I machine at the Busy Little Shop they were

done by hand eye coordination on a Taiwan copy of a conventional

Bridgeport mill...

833790061_f2f8dba6fd_o.jpg

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Admittedly in my engineering travels I have not had the opportunity to play with magnesium. But doesnt that material degrade over time? (years) Kinda why the major mfrs avoid it for structual parts?

I'm thinking 2024 is a strong candidate.....

MD

Magnesium resistance to weather exposure is good in rural or inland atmospheres... color will

change to dark gray if unprotected... parts may be treated in Dow 7 giving magnesium the

characteristic chocolate brown color so many motorcycle parts are painted to resemble... Dow

#7 is dichromate treatment...

My triple clamps were treated to MIL process which is a chrome pickle treatment for magnesium.

Color may vary from matte gray to yellow-red...

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  • 1 month later...

No longer made out of "Unobtanium".

The real deal just back from the CNC machinist. I popped the stem in moments ago using the old oven/freezer trick

(mucho thanks to Busy Little Shop :blink: )

Thoughts?

gallery_4914_3816_30632.jpg

Triple Clamp Assy 072108.jpg

Here's a view of the two different size risers I had made (7mm & 17mm):

gallery_4914_3816_11663.jpg

Risers 072108.jpg

The view of the bottom of the bottom clamp (massive):

gallery_4914_3816_8248.jpg

Bottom Triple 072108.jpg

And finally, a view of the bottom of the top clamp:

gallery_4914_3816_116021.jpg

Top Triple 072108.jpg

They're off to the anodizer tomorrow. With any luck I'll have the bike back together for the Kootenay Hootenanny PNWVFRD Meet '08 in August. Woot!!!

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Dude, you're killin' me!

"No beer for you!"

I forgot to mention that the machinist made one small mistake when tapping the holes in the top clamp for the bar clamp mounts. He tapped the hole with an M10x1.25 instead of the standard M10x1.5.

I panicked when I couldn't find any stainless socket head capped bolts in that thread at Mcmaster-Carr. When I googled the thread size the first place that came up was Yoyodyne and their vast supply of titanium bolts. Ugghh.

I then had the dilema of purchasing the two bolts that I depserately needed for the bar mounts and use stainless for the rest or go "whole hog". Well, $220 bucks later I'm in it for the win!

I sure hope to hell this whole thing turns out ok.

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As for the bolts, could you have bought the stainless socket heads extra long and not fully threaded and then single point threaded them or used a die on a lathe? Basically cut off the non usable threads and cut new threads? Nice job on the clamps, now onto the 5th generation.

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That's a great idea that I never thought of.

This kind of gave me the excuse to buy the titanium hardware. I had said to Magellan and Darth Bling earlier in this project that I would buy the exotic stuff if I didn't have to pay more than $100 for it so the necessity/opportunity more-or-less pushed me over the edge.

I am, however, concerned about potential galling between the 7075 and the titanium. I have some Vibratite thread patching compound that clearly states that it minimizes galling/stripping. I hope that I don't have too much to worry about.

I believe that these would work on 5th Gens. That is, if it works on my 6th Gen after bolt up.

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I am, however, concerned about potential galling between the 7075 and the titanium. I have some Vibratite thread patching compound that clearly states that it minimizes galling/stripping. I hope that I don't have too much to worry about.

I believe that these would work on 5th Gens. That is, if it works on my 6th Gen after bolt up.

Yes, these are direct bolt-ons for a 5th gen, as long as you're installing RC51 (or same diameter) forks.

As far as galling, it'll never happen as long as you use anti-seize or Vibratite. These parts will never experience widely ranging heating and cooling cycles which cause dissimilar alloys to gall when in contact with one another.

Beautiful parts, proud papa! :biggrin: Can't wait to see it all installed!

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WOW! WOW! Totally cool!

Stem questions - so did you make a stem from steel alloy or is it Honda part? What is the oven/freezer trick?

(I can make a guess, but it doesnt hurt to ask.)

Again beautifull!

MD

Edited by mello dude
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I love titanium, but would for my project have used steel in the clamping area, stainless or a chromed stee. That being that under failure the ti bolt would fracture, and the steel would stretch. I wouldn't worry about the galling, based on my experience that disimiliar metals are more unlikely to do so. If you are going to apply any material to the threading section, torquing the titanium bolts might not be accurate. Most torque standards that I know of are dry states. Are you going to clear anodize and if you are going to color it, are you going for a UV stabilized color?

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No longer made out of "Unobtanium".

The real deal just back from the CNC machinist. I popped the stem in moments ago using the old oven/freezer trick

(mucho thanks to Busy Little Shop :biggrin: )

Thoughts?

You're welcome Tim... the clamps look the biz... 40mm offset is very important because it preserves the VFR

quick handling rate whereas the stock RC51 offset doesn't... the only the thought that comes to mind is to

gull the top clamp like the bottom in order preserver the VFR's front end height and in addition there might

be enough room to hang a clip on...

If you weight them post the number so I may advise prospective customers...

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I had to use a gull set up for my R to keep the stock stance and allow me to use RC51 bars above the triple. I love that lower! Could use it on my bike!

gallery_13847_3747_109529.jpg

upper

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Stem questions - so did you make a stem from steel alloy or is it Honda part? What is the oven/freezer trick?

(I can make a guess, but it doesnt hurt to ask.)

I used the stock RC51 (SP1) steering stem. I do intend on modelling the stem as I would like to have one machined that uses the internal thread style top bolt similar to the Aprillia and Ducati stems.

Because the stem and lower clamp use a force fit (0.002") I put the clamp in the oven at 300º for 35 mins and the stem in the freezer overnight. I put a little marvels mystery oil on the stem as well per Larry's advice and they went together with a tap from a dead-blow hammer and hardwood dowel.

You're welcome Tim... the clamps look the biz... 40mm offset is very important because it preserves the VFR

quick handling rate whereas the stock RC51 offset doesn't... the only the thought that comes to mind is to

gull the top clamp like the bottom in order preserver the VFR's front end height and in addition there might

be enough room to hang a clip on...

If you weight them post the number so I may advise prospective customers...

Because I'm going the "Superbike Bar" style setup there's no need for clip-ons. I did do the measurements on fork length differences and it came out (measured from center of axle to top of fork):

Stock = 772mm

RC51 (SP1) = 759mm

Stock fork is supposed to be set 41mm from top of top clamp to top of fork (per Honda service manual)

So I should have 28mm of fork tube above the top clamp when done.

I have pondered modelling a set of gullwings in case somebody would rather go with clip-ons. It's all about finding the time.

I will weigh these after I get them back from the anodizer but I suspect that with the bar clamps and associated hardware they will weigh a little more than the stock RC51 triples.

I am hoping that I might be able to offer up the .DXF files after I verify that everything works well on my bike so that others can do this same conversion. I have discovered through this whole process that "where there's a will, there's a way" and it's not as tough as initially thought.

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