Firestorm Fork Conversion On 4th Gen... What Exactly Do I Need?

[Guest YorkshireWhippet]

Hello All... and calling on your collective wisdom

After owning a VFR800 some years ago I now find myself drawn back into the fold and have acquired a dark blue VFR750FV.

One of the things I want to improve is the braking and feel from the front end. Having scoured this forum and others I realise that the way to go is to convert to Firestorm (vtr1000) forks and to this end I've managed to pick up a pair - although they do have bent stantions! I'm not in any particular rush to do the job but realise that I obviously need firestorm calipers or CBR 929/ 954 ones (are they the same?) along with a new master cylinder - presumably from the same bikes, although I believe I could use one off a VFR800 (all years, vtec, non vtec?) I might even want to swap the clutch side over at some point as well just for asthetics. I believe I will also need a firestorm mudguard, but I'm confused as to whether or not I will need a firestorm spindle - some posts seem to make reference to this and others don't mention it?

At the moment I intend to get the forks sorted over the winter. I'm thinking of getting new stantions and having them gold nitrided and then getting the fork sliders powder coated in black. I don't know what the state of the internals are on the bent forks yet but presumably the damper rods will be bent as well and the fork springs may well be kaputt - although I'd probably want to upgrade these anyway.

Another interim possibilty is just swapping the sliders over from the firestorm forks onto my existing 750 fork stantions - is this feasable and what would be involved in doing this? Are there any other parts than the sliders from the firestorm that would need to be transferred. If I initially went this way I'd gain the better brakes but would I gain more adjustability on the forks or would the whole firestorm fork be required?

Thankyou in advance and hope these ramblings make sense

Rob

[JZH]

LOL. The same criticism is always levelled at Firestorm forks (seemingly by the same people...), but the fact is, apart from the HMAS valve that gets binned when you install Gold Valves anyway, they are internally exactly the same as all the other Showa conventional cartridge forks.

The VTR1000F fork swap isn't the most trick or technologically advanced swap you can do to a VFR, but it does give you pretty good bang for your buck. It's simple and relatively cheap. That was exactly what I was aiming for when I originated this swap ten years ago (did I mention that fact yet this week? :biggrin: ). If you had the extra cash, time and ability to do more, why would you stop at a poncy F4i swap, anyway? FFS, fit some USDs and get your name on the "Featured Modifications" wall...

Ciao,

[Henkies]

On 2-10-2008 at 8:57 PM, thx1139 said:

Blackbird triples are 43mm and have an offset closer to the 4thGenVFR (even closer than 6thGen).

What is the offset then?

[JZH]

Sorry, I don't have the data for that bike.  (Which is again, strange, because I definitely have a set of BBird triples somewhere...)  Remind me on Saturday and I'll dig them out.

 

Ciao,