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Vfr8 Streetfighter


keef

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Hi Guys,

first post after lurking on here for a while, and some admin help to get my account up and running.

I've been riding for about 18 years, and love streetfighters.My last one was an 88 model GSXR 711. In 2009, i broke it and myself quite spectacularly. After as few bikes in between, i ended up with a drz 400 SM top commute on, and a 2000 VFR8 as a project. It was bought from a dealer as a complete and fully running bike. I'll let teh pics do the talking for a bit.

vfr15-5-11001.jpg

IMG_2415.jpg

ninjaseatonvfr4.jpg

vfr800with1098wheel.jpg

newparts1.jpg

vfrtlrradandnewbarsandrisers.jpg

tlrradfronton.jpg

So far the bike as it stands has:

04 gsxr forks and yokes and calipers, with ducati 848 front wheel, 01 GSXR 1000 rotors, and a ninja 250 front guard

Ducati 1098s forged rear wheel, basically vfr arm, ducati hub/eccentric/caliper/brake rotor/sprocket, just a shim and a spacer to centre the wheel

ninja 250 seat and subframe

driven supercross bars, acewell dash, acerbis headlight

I ran it like this for the last year or so.

And recently

sp1 oil cooler and TL100R top rad as a front mount. The oil cooler is perfect, the front mount rad is almost perfect, just a few minor leak that thread locker and new crush washers should fix.

I do have a question though, does the air bleed hose that usually connects to the right hand rad need to be plumbed into teh system? or can i use it to bleed the air, and then block it up with a bolt and worm clip?

Looking forward to being a part of teh forum, and passing on what i have learnt about vfrs along the way.

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Looks like a fun project. Definitely keep posting your progress, this looks like it will be quite nice once it's all done.

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Welcome Keef! Great work, you've mixed some very interesting parts there.

On the cooling system bleed question - I reckon that the plumbed link was necessary on the dual rad set-up but is probably redundant on the single rad. Someone who knows more about 800 cooling systems than me should know the answer for sure.

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If it needs to stay i could drill and tap one of the in line hose adapters i have. I have 2 in the right hand hose, one for a koso temp gauge (the acewell dash didn't have a temp one) and one for the temp sensor for the rad fan.

I could drill and tap a nipple on the bottom of the adapter, so any air that comes out flows up to the rad cap, or is forced out the overflow into the expansion bottle.

Once all this external work is done, i will pinch all the info on vfrd for new cams and big bores.

post-28591-0-08224700-1382328061.jpg

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Looks nice, but my god what happened to that oil cooler!?! Also, what exhaust is that? Custom mid pipe?

I watered it and it grew, so i filled it with coolant.

it's a scorpion can from a gladius 650 that i saw at the wreckers, and yep, custom mid pipe. Its the best sounding bike I've ever had. Also the first bike that had the mechanic have a word to me about how loud it was at rego time.

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Welcome to the forum, and great streetfighter project, hopefully you come on an OzVFR group ride so we can see it in the flesh.

You going on the Snowy Ride ?

I'll have to have a look at Ozvfr. Don't get much time for fun rides anymore (this has been pulled apart for about 3 months, now). Never done the snowies ride, but do go down there the weekend after with guys from the Aussie Streetfighters forum. Hoping i get to take it for a small shakedown run first though.

I filled it up and ran it yesterday for the first time yesterday, sounds good, coolant flowing where it should, and unfortunately also where it shouldn't. A few leaks from around some threads/joints, but shouldn't be a big issue.

Once i get it all water tight, i'll post up a few pics of what goes where for the front mount. It was a lot easier than i thought. And after the ASF run in November I'll be able to tell you all if the slightly smaller (but front facing, so more efficient) TL1000R rad is up to the task. At the moment i have only wired in one TLR rad fan because it was easier, if temps rise a bit, i may wire in the second one.

Running it naked with the 2 side mounts the fan was always on, never overheated, but no matter whether it was stop and start, freeway or trackday, the fan always ran. Hoping the front mount cures that.

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Nice work! The Duc rear wheel is something I think about doing to my fighter sometimes. But only if I did the whole spindle, rotor, caliper etc, like you did to actually save weight. I also like the look of that muffler.

Have you checked that the new rad allows room for the front wheel to fully compress? I might have used a 5th gen for my fighter had I already seen a front mount rad setup that was relatively simple and readily available.

Keep up the good work man!

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There should be enough room, the rad sits above the height of the standard oil cooler. I had almost given up on doing a front mount, I had seen a lot of almost complete conversions, and a few that had no room at all for the front wheel.

At the moment, it's still in the "almost finished " category, but I'm hopeful.

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Nice work! The Duc rear wheel is something I think about doing to my fighter sometimes. But only if I did the whole spindle, rotor, caliper etc, like you did to actually save weight. I also like the look of that muffler.

Have you checked that the new rad allows room for the front wheel to fully compress? I might have used a 5th gen for my fighter had I already seen a front mount rad setup that was relatively simple and readily available.

Keep up the good work man!

Pardon me asking Apex, but should you do this swap, perhaps could I ask of you DIBBS on the eight spoke rear wheel?? Glad to contribute to your project fund............... Hope that doesn't sound too opportunistic.

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04 gsxr forks and yokes and calipers, with ducati 848 front wheel, 01 GSXR 1000 rotors, and a ninja 250 front guard

How did you mount this thick gsxr steering stem in the vfr frame?

What bearings did you use? Most mods use thinner 00-01 RC51 stem to fit?

Did the Ninja front guard need to be modified?

ninja 250 seat and subframe

Any mods to mount the subframe to the 5th gen VFR?

Does the battery mount in the subframe?

driven supercross bars, acewell dash, acerbis headlight

How does the Acewell dash attach? and what about the stock instrument panel with it's ECM connectors?

Great job, very impressive, the best I've seen.

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Pardon me asking Apex, but should you do this swap, perhaps could I ask of you DIBBS on the eight spoke rear wheel?? Glad to contribute to your project fund............... Hope that doesn't sound too opportunistic.

Lol... you can have dibs. I don't think it'll happen though. Too many other things to spend time and money on. Besides, I do like the classic 8 spoker :)

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04 gsxr forks and yokes and calipers, with ducati 848 front wheel, 01 GSXR 1000 rotors, and a ninja 250 front guard

How did you mount this thick gsxr steering stem in the vfr frame?

What bearings did you use? Most mods use thinner 00-01 RC51 stem to fit?

Did the Ninja front guard need to be modified?

ninja 250 seat and subframe

Any mods to mount the subframe to the 5th gen VFR?

Does the battery mount in the subframe?

driven supercross bars, acewell dash, acerbis headlight

How does the Acewell dash attach? and what about the stock instrument panel with it's ECM connectors?

Great job, very impressive, the best I've seen.

Most of what i had read on line was that you had to use cbr yokes and stem. When a gsxr front end came up cheap i bought it, and took it to RB racing to get the mechanic there to get it to fit - he'd done some bits and pieces for me before including building my 1200cc big bore gsxr motor. Plus he can weld, and has a press. RB racing sponsors the 400cc race class here, and harley is a great mechanic, not a 3 hours $300 service monkey, but a proper mechanic. I thought it may need the stem machined, or built up with weld etc.

Turns out the gsxr stem fits with a top bearing from a yamaha srx 400, the OD is perfect, the ID was 1mm to too small, a quick file, in the freezer to shrink it a bit and pop it on.The bottom bearing for the gixxer fit, no changes there.

I cut down the front guard a bit to look a bit better, and so it fit the forks properly. I made new brackets from some ally flatbar to make the guard fit the gixxer forks.

The seat and subframe, again, harley at RB because he can weld. Remove vfr subframe, cut off tabs. weld tabs onto the ninja subframe, and away we go.

We slid the seat down the vfr tank until the curves matched up. It's about 50mm higher than stock, which is perfect, i'm 6 foot 3. The top mount lines up great, the bottom mount had a 50mm vertical piece added. the width of ninja subframe lines up perfectly with the vfr mainframe.

The seat is also about 150mm shorter than the VFR seat unit. It still has full size rider and pillion seats, but a lot shorter as it's off a much smaller bike. Adds to the short and stumpy fighter look, while still being practical. I have done 800km days in the saddle, no probs.

I have the ninja battery box in there as well, i bought a motobatt battery that fit the ninja battery box dimensions, but with the highest CCA i could get. Starts first time every time, even if i haven't started it in 3 months.

The Acewell came in a package deal with the forks. It was pretty easy with the VFR wiring diagram, cut off the OEM dash connectors, and solder the acewell connections onto the correct wires. Not exactly plug and play, but pretty easy. Unless you are colour blind. Then you're a bit screwed.

If i was doing it again, id get a dash that has an in built temp guage, i just wired up a separate koso temp guage yesterday.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So i rode the bike in to work today, commuting at freeway (and walking) speeds.

This morning air temp was maybe 15 deg celsius, so not hot weather, but the bike coolant temp was at about 78 deg, then went up to 86 deg going through a tunnel (warmer air in there), then back down to around 78.

Only about a 20 -25 minute easy ride.

The koso temp sensor is in the hose just as it exits the motor on the right hand side of the bike.

Going home will be mush hotter air temps, and slower traffic. I'll post again after i get home.

I'm also going for a ride with the ASF streetfighter guys this weekend, if it doesn't overheat after a weekend of thrashing it, i think it's a winner. Last year (same place, same roads, same time of year) with the side mounts, the fan was always running. Curious to see if the temps stay under 105.

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The worst heat I've seen comes from slow moving traffic in direct sunlight and 30C+ air temp, where it can climb to 109C. I believe the slow moving air counters the electric fans which makes the slow traffic worst for temps, as sitting stationary in the same heat it will drop back below 105.

I'm curious to see how it goes with a front mount

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So, back today after a weekend away riding on very twisty roads.

The front mount radiator is bloody brilliant. At normal ambient air temps, coolant temps stayed at about 80 or 85 Celsius. Plenty of airflow through the rad, the fan was almost always spinning, not because it was on, but because of the amount of air pushing through the rad.

On the loop we ride, there are quite a few long (10 to 20 ks long ) steep downhill sections, so a lot of weight on the forks. No issues with clearance, even with the shorter Gixxer forks.

Last year with the side mounts, the fan was always on, this year, as I said, a nice 85 degrees, didn't need the fan at all. One of the other guys on the ride has a fightered vtr 1000 firestorm/super hawk with a front mount rad, he doesn't run a fan at all. In the pics you'll also see the nomex honeycomb I used as a rad and oil cooler guard. Comes in a 19 x 26 inch sheet, can cut it with a razor, can squish it side to side or curve it, but is incredibly stiff from front on, worked a treat.

post-28591-0-34293500-1384083173.jpgpost-28591-0-26847500-1384083197.jpgpost-28591-0-70588000-1384083224.jpgpost-28591-0-68220000-1384083249.jpgpost-28591-0-15598500-1384083320.jpgpost-28591-0-78818900-1384083410.jpg

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Every streetfighter needs knuckles, right?

After commuting and lane splitting on motards (and now the Versys) with handguards for the last few years, they come in really handy. I felt a bit exposed without them on the VFR, so went out and put a set of barkbusters on. I won't be using the big plastic guards, just the alloy, and maybe some supermoto style sliders. I'll probably powder coat them black at some stage.

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Well they definitely look good!

I just remember them on my old WR450F and having them regularly save my hands and levers, wasn't sure if you were planning on riding through the woods anytime soon, but I guess lane splitting is a real good reason to have them too!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Member Contributer

Keef, how's the rad holding up? I'm almost swayed that I need a front mount. Would also be nice to get rid of the extra weight and bulk.

Wonder if I could even run a smaller unit?? Doesn't get as hot consistently here as it does down under.

Also, how is the handling with the gsxr front setup with the offset and trail changes? I've been reading up a lot on suspension dynamics on bikes and curious for a firsthand account.

I assume the gsxr steering stem is the same length as the vfr one? 28mm? Or did you press the vfr stem into the gsxr lower?

Also having a hard time finding the top bearing from the Yamaha, there was no US release of that model bike. Was jus thinking about getting a 30x48x15 tapered bearing and machining off 1mm from the OD unless I can find this srx400 bearing.

Keep up the awesome work man! Still Interested to see if the rear wheel I'm building will be as light as your marchesini ducati unit.

Cheers breh

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