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1986 Vfr 750R Rebuild


rc30fan

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1st up..

welcome! :smile2:

2nd.. please tell me you live with in 3 hours of DC!! pretty please!!

:biggrin:

3rd. Durbahn in germany make a bunch of goodies that seem right up your ally. :fing02:

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Thanks guys.

The rebuild is about done. All I have left is replacing a few hardware store fasteners with high strength bolts that can only be found online, new chain/tires and brake pads and thats about it.

Heres a video of the engine running:

http://youtu.be/fyLLQviL3To

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Great bike, thanks for sharing al those pics.

Here in Holland in 2008 a guy bought 4 rc30 endurance racers, including a NLOB version, wich is completely factory built. Some parts like the racing carbs where lease only in that time. The bikes were kept for 14 years in a shed.

Here a link to the Dutch forum, language Dutch off course, but a bunch off pics will tell the story.http://www.vfroc.nl/forumVFR/index.php?showtopic=10795

An rc30 having NLOB parts is rare.

Edited by VFRBert
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My mill didnt do a very good job of the foam instrument surround. I'll just have to cut the next one by hand.

PC030004_zps061653ae.jpg

Lots of plumbing. I have a new catch bottle on its way from England. Making the oil cooler lines was dead simple.

PC030005_zps2f9f9693.jpg

Still need to finish the front brake lines. They're not so simple to make.

PC030007_zps8169c81a.jpg

Closeup of the kit CDI, new wiring harness connectors and fairing bracket I made 15 years ago.

PC030008_zpsdbee43c7.jpg

I found the original connectors for the kit tach. Shipped all the way from England.

PC030011_zpse1950baa.jpg

New cast iron Brembos compared to cast iron HRC discs that are worn out after a lot of fun track time.

PC030013_zps1b7d5f6c.jpg

One of the many plastic items I had to make.

PC030014_zpsad448541.jpg

Its still a little cold blooded. I havent reconnected the choke yet so it takes some convincing to start up.

GOPR1388_zps7ff7712a.jpg

The tank needs to be repainted. I had a friend remake all the winfield graphics based on the existing decals on the fairings.

I lost the original front fender when I made a mold for the carbon fender in school. I have another one ready for paint and graphics.

GOPR1392_zpsb662aa44.jpg

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Guest ajcmbrown

Wow! That's a very trick piece of (Aussie) motorcycle history you have there! The high standard of your work will ensure that it can be enjoyed for many years to come.

Tony

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wow you really know your bike? holy cow tore the whole thing down. If you don't mind me asking where did you learn how to do this? i am thinking of taking motorcycle certification classes so i can work on my own bike doing whta you are doing -- Good luck awesome ride..

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Thanks for the feedback guys.

Damn Kel, that's about the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me!

Phantom - we have spoken. I'm a machinist also and boasted about the merits of CNC. Larry wasn't convinced!

wow you really know your bike? holy cow tore the whole thing down. If you don't mind me asking where did you learn how to do this? i am thinking of taking motorcycle certification classes so i can work on my own bike doing whta you are doing -- Good luck awesome ride..

I started teaching myself after a series of screw ups every time I took my bikes in for service - at multiple dealerships. Various ham fisted morons scratched a brand new tank to hell, cross threaded a sump plug, reassembled a gear train incorrectly, left spacers out of a front wheel, lost various fairing fasteners (and didn't replace them), and many more. One even forgot they had my bike.

If it had been only one dealership that would be easy to fix but this all happened at Honda, Suzuki, Ducati and KTM dealerships.

As a result I started out by doing an oil change myself. Then I learned how to change tires, and worked my way up to 2-stroke rebuilds. Then a 4-stroke dirt bike rebuild, then a 4-stroke single street bike rebuild, then a 4 cylinder rebuild. You get the idea.

All it takes really is a Haynes manual and a willingness to invest the money in tools that will pay for themselves many times over.
Check out my YouTube channel for a few different bike rebuilds, http://youtu.be/Jz-MzJ6yKUo

If I had one piece of advice to offer it would be this - buy a dirt bike that's not running. Then buy a Haynes manual for it and use it to learn. If you screw up, the parts are cheap and there's only one cylinder so its simple. Then when its fixed, either ride the hell out of it or sell it to pay for all the tools you had to buy. Then, when you need to work on something more complex/more important to you, the confidence is there because you know what needs to be done.

I personally consider the tech schools out there a total waste of time. They are nothing but profit machines designed to take money from people. If they just happen to turn out a good mechanic its by accident not design. There are so many truly horrific techs working in dealerships that it makes no sense to let them work on a bike. Obviously they aren't all incompetent but the ones who do know what they're doing are under pressure to do their work faster than is possible and get paid barely more than minimum wage to do so. They are not allowed to check their work because that takes time away from other jobs so bikes go back to customers with loose wires, missing bolts and cross threaded plugs.

Damn, I sound cynical but this is all from personal experience, not hearsay.

Seb,

that's a breather for oil vapor. The hose goes up to a catch tank in the tail which is then vented into the carbs.

Switchblade,

As far as I know the motor mount position is stock. What you're seeing is extra aluminum welded on by the race team to reduce/prevent flexing. I have noticed though that the Moriwaki chassis made for this engine actually uses the motor mount down in front of the sump - much like the RC45. That's some forward thinking engineering right there.

Edited by rc30fan
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  • Member Contributer

Switchblade,


As far as I know the motor mount is stock. What you're seeing is extra aluminum welded on by the race team to reduce/prevent flexing. I have noticed though that the Moriwaki chassis made for this engine actually uses the motor mount down in front of the sump - much like the RC45. That's some forward thinking engineering right there.




Thanks, wonderful bike.

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Thanks for the feedback guys.

Damn Kel, that's about the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me!

Phantom - we have spoken. I'm a machinist also and boasted about the merits of CNC. Larry wasn't convinced!

wow you really know your bike? holy cow tore the whole thing down. If you don't mind me asking where did you learn how to do this? i am thinking of taking motorcycle certification classes so i can work on my own bike doing whta you are doing -- Good luck awesome ride..

I started teaching myself after a series of screw ups every time I took my bikes in for service - at multiple dealerships. Various ham fisted morons scratched a brand new tank to hell, cross threaded a sump plug, reassembled a gear train incorrectly, left spacers out of a front wheel, lost various fairing fasteners (and didn't replace them), and many more. One even forgot they had my bike.

If it had been only one dealership that would be easy to fix but this all happened at Honda, Suzuki, Ducati and KTM dealerships.

As a result I started out by doing an oil change myself. Then I learned how to change tires, and worked my way up to 2-stroke rebuilds. Then a 4-stroke dirt bike rebuild, then a 4-stroke single street bike rebuild, then a 4 cylinder rebuild. You get the idea.

All it takes really is a Haynes manual and a willingness to invest the money in tools that will pay for themselves many times over.

Check out my YouTube channel for a few different bike rebuilds, http://youtu.be/Jz-MzJ6yKUo

If I had one piece of advice to offer it would be this - buy a dirt bike that's not running. Then buy a Haynes manual for it and use it to learn. If you screw up, the parts are cheap and there's only one cylinder so its simple. Then when its fixed, either ride the hell out of it or sell it to pay for all the tools you had to buy. Then, when you need to work on something more complex/more important to you, the confidence is there because you know what needs to be done.

I personally consider the tech schools out there a total waste of time. They are nothing but profit machines designed to take money from people. If they just happen to turn out a good mechanic its by accident not design. There are so many truly horrific techs working in dealerships that it makes no sense to let them work on a bike. Obviously they aren't all incompetent but the ones who do know what they're doing are under pressure to do their work faster than is possible and get paid barely more than minimum wage to do so. They are not allowed to check their work because that takes time away from other jobs so bikes go back to customers with loose wires, missing bolts and cross threaded plugs.

Damn, I sound cynical but this is all from personal experience, not hearsay.

Seb,

that's a breather for oil vapor. The hose goes up to a catch tank in the tail which is then vented into the carbs.

Switchblade,

As far as I know the motor mount position is stock. What you're seeing is extra aluminum welded on by the race team to reduce/prevent flexing. I have noticed though that the Moriwaki chassis made for this engine actually uses the motor mount down in front of the sump - much like the RC45. That's some forward thinking engineering right there.

Amen !!!!

I started driving cars 27 years ago and my experience with dealers was about the same. They send me on the street with a subframe with loose bolts, repaired accident damage, but forgot to replace the fill nipple used for filling up the lpg tank. (I drove cars on liqified petroleum gas, wich is cheap and much better for the environment) Resulting in a pair of shoes, filled with liquid lpg. And that was cold on my feet. :wacko: And at the same time my head turned red (very angry) And many more dumb and even dangerous things happened. So i started to do my own maintenance and repairs. Buy the tools and save lots of money. After a few years i got my motorcycle license and bought a bike. And off course i did and still do all the repairs and maintenance myself.

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WOW....I have been traveling all month for work and just stumbled across this thread...holy crap.

What a rare RC30 you have, I didn't notice the mods to the seat/tank intersect that provide room for the attachments required to remove every fastener and wire on the bike.

Those Carrillo Ti I-beam rods are even more beautiful than the stock Honda Ti rods if that is possible.

Awesome thread, amazing bike, great to see it being used as intended.

Welcome Aboard. Check you calendar to see if you can make it to North Carolina in late May and if not I will gladly give of my time to show your bike around and answer any questions that others may have of your unique and important piece of Honda Racing History.

Keith

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  • 5 weeks later...

Small update on this project.

This bike was originally fitted with a tach from the HRC catalog (which only goes down to 3,000 rpm and runs to 15,000 with no red line) which is designed to work with 2-strokes. As a result, the 4-stroke CDI is incompatible and requires a small converter box to talk to the tach.

My converter box was lost in shipping so I was able to borrow one from a fellow enthusiast on the condition that I return it when I've reverse engineered it. To do this I've enlisted the help of an avionics specialist currently working on F-35 systems. He whipped up a circuit and we tested it tonight. With a few more mods the new converter should be complete.

Here is a video of the testing process:

http://youtu.be/U3X9FLwV7PQ

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