toro1

I do, all too well...

Guys and gals, as I've said all along, when the time is right and everything is ready, I promise something special. That time is a few days away. :biggrin: --Dan

Hmm, I don't even want to hazard a guess on that one. If the 2 bikes are as similar as I think they are, not long. I'll just need to borrow someone's 6th-gen for a while. Let's see how the 5th-gen kit works out first.

Enough to do a production run... :biggrin:

I'm working on the final pricing now. With close to 100 different components in the kit, it's no easy task.

Hardly my friend. I just don't think it's fair to you guys to string along bits of information or product shots until I have truly concrete pricing or production details. However, since this thread has been updated, now might be a good time to judge current interest, so... If you have a 5th-gen VFR and would be legitimately interested in purchasing a supercharger kit, please send me a PM indicating your intent. --Dan

What's that saying again, "good things come to those who wait?" Let's just say that when the time is right, a whole slew of information will become available. In the meantime, though, I can tell you that the bike is running better than ever... ...way better than ever :fing02:

As I have been down this path, I'll share some of my own experiences with you... First off, an unmuffled VFR (that is, taking the muffler off at the end of the exhaust header) without a catalytic converter does not sound good at WOT. It's very blatty, unrefined, and just not pleasant to listen to -- nothing at all like an uncorked V8. Cat-equipped bikes might differ here since the cat muffles & smoothes out some of the sound, but my '98 was not at all pleasing with the exhaust removed. Adding tubing after the header will alter the sound and might make it better as well, but as it stands, the 98-99 bikes sound awful, I repeat, awful (and insanely loud) at WOT with no pipe. Also, the notion that NA engines need exhaust backpressure to make power is a myth. Anything that impedes air from entering or leaving an engine is a restriction, and any restriction (that is, loss of energy) robs power. This is why good exhausts have mandrel bends and smooth transitions in the merge collectors, all in the effort of reducing unwanted restriction (aka backpressure). The key design considerations for an exhaust are pipe length and pipe diameter, for the primary, secondary, and collector sections -- these factors are what really determine the powerband-altering aspects of an exhaust system, as exhaust gas velocity can be custom tuned to boost power in a certain part of the rev range. I haven't even mentioned the scavenging effects offered by a well designed header, nor do I need to. The header on our bikes is designed to offer a broad range of power, and what goes on after the final exhaust clamp can only really squash power. For example, when I first designed my shorty exhaust, I had a 2-disk insert inside the core of the muffler, designed to reduce the decibels to an appropriate level. It worked on the noise reduction level, but put out weaker power than my old Staintune pipe (about 10hp less, actually). Once I pulled the insert out of the exhaust, not only did I gain back power, I gained almost 7hp compared to the Staintune! This is with a large diameter, short section of lightly muffled pipe right after the exhaust header -- no backpressure here, folks. Power was up everywhere, leading me to discover that the stock header will work quite well with just a short leader pipe attached to the header, and any muffler configuration can only lead to a reduction in power. High exhaust gas velocity = complete evacuation of unburnt gasses from the cylinder = power, it's as simple as that. Unfortunately, there are always compromises to make, and while small diameter pipes keep the velocity high when the revs are low, they choke the flow when revs are high. Conversely, large diameter pipes kill flow when rpms are down (the gas expands, cools down, loses energy, and slows down), but when revs are high, they allow for unrestricted flow. I'd be willing to bet that if I equipped my supercharged bike with larger diameter pipes from the head on down, I'd pick up an easy 10-15hp without breaking a sweat. Hope this clears up some things for you. Or maybe it just made a bigger mess.

The mods look good. :fing02: As for the breather cap, even though I oftentimes also have a "light" front end, I never have oil come out. You need no more than for the reservoir to be half full -- is your filled more than that? If so, take some of that fluid out of there and see how it works. Rob, just start saving a penny here and a $100 bill there, and it'll add up in no time.

Okay, if you find out that you can't pull any more power out of your bike, it's probably time to upgrade the supercharger to a C30 series. The blower is beyond its limit, as can be seen from the dyno graph where it maxes out at 11,500. Even if you keep the same boost ratio, just by stepping up to the C30-74 you'll see substantial power increases due to much increased efficiency and breathing room of the supercharger, and should put peak power somewhere in the 230-240 range, and peak boost just under 9psi. If you choose to increase the boost to say, 12psi max, then the power jumps to over 260, maybe even approaching 275 under the right conditions. Whoa mama.

Nice job Tyler. I forget, are you running a C15-60 on there? The reason I ask is that you are very close to maxing the blower out if that is indeed the model. I can't wait to see what you come up with after the next dyno session. I'm helping out another one of calisuperbike's customers now; he's got a ZX-10R and actually got shafted worse than you. Let's just hope his turns out as well as yours did.

Wouldnt the air flow from the engine be able to still rotate the blades. Just like how wind going through fan blades (thats turned off). Yes, you could run it without the belt attached. The outlet of the supercharger has 1.5" ID hole, and it can pull air past the impeller blades. If you really wanted to bypass the blower, you can always just unhook the tubing from the outlet, too. The question now becomes, why? The way this system is set-up, while cruising or under part throttle conditions, it's just like having a stock bike as the boost is bypassed and there's virtually no parasitic load from the supercharger. In other words, ride it normal and it will get the same fuel mileage as stock. In the past, the big roots blowers and earlier centrifugals didn't run any type of bypass, so essentially they were always compressing air and doing work (and sapping power from the engine). With the bypass, the impeller spins in a vacuum, doing no work, thus the power required to keep the roller-friction gearbox and small impeller spinning is minimal to say the least. I too highly doubt the impeller would turn, and remember, this unit spins to 150,000 RPM! If the bike was run without the blower and nothing else changed, the mapping would be off and it certainly wouldn't be more efficient than running the supercharger at all times.

Oh yeah, that was sorted a while ago. The light came on due to the MAP sensor seeing positive pressure (that is, boost). No sprocket change necessary, though I currently run the bike with -1 front/+2 rear, which makes the front end very light, very often. :goofy: Well, no one has really committed to anything yet. I just saw demand coming from all over the place and thought I'd give it a shot. Despite having an excellent hp/$ ratio, it's not going to be a cheap kit, but then again, you get what you pay for. The 5th-gen was developed first as that is the bike I own, but there is obviously more business in the 6th-gen marketplace. I look at this upgrade in the following manner: if you love your bike (like I do) -- the way it rides, the comfort it has, the uniqueness that comes with having a V4, gear driven cams (or VTEC), & a single sided swingarm, the exhaust note to die for -- and find yourself wanting the power that the current big boys have, this is the best, most affordable route to go. Even with a good trade-in or sale price, adding a supercharger to your current ride is still cheaper than buying new or slightly used, and you get to keep the bike you know and love. Obviously this is not a mod for everyone, as quite a few riders are more than happy with their bike's performance. Rather, this is for the riders who want something different, something more. It will not net you better fuel mileage, it will not improve your handling, and it will not transform your VFR into a GP bike, but it will put the biggest, stupidest grin on your face every time you twist the throttle, and that, to me, is what it's all about.

I've gotta say, Steve's bike is really clean and quite a looker -- he's done a great job very tastefully modding it. He was also nice enough to let me take it for a spin, and being the first 6th-gen I've ever ridden, I can now add my own input to the 5th vs 6th-gen debate. Granted, I didn't spend too much time on it, but during my short jaunt, I found the non-PC enhanced VTEC to be a non-issue. The sound changed, and the bike moves faster, but it wasn't a jarring experience and certainly not a deal breaker. Also, as I've read before, the suspension on the 6th-gen bikes is superior to the 5th, and it certainly didn't feel as heavy as it would seem to be on paper. Overall, I liked it a lot. It's still a VFR, after all.

That's 0.500" thick 7075, with generous corner radii. If that bracket cracks, then something has gone incredibly wrong. Believe it or not Beck, it is still cheaper to machine those parts out of aluminum than it is out of CF/composite or to have it cast, unless of course I start selling vast quantities. Plus, who said I wasn't making certain parts out of carbon fiber?... John, that plenum was designed for both "stages" as it can accept an intercooler or simply the intake hat. I had to do quite a bit of design work to figure out an airbox that would perform a double function like that, but I think it's going to work out great. Plus, it will let an existing customer in the field upgrade their kit, if they ever want to, without having to buy different parts. Sorry to disappoint, Ralph. I still have to work in order to afford this development, thus my time is stretched thin. Plus, every part (and I mean every single part) of the first prototype has been redesigned for this kit. I refuse to offer a subpar product to anyone, and that meant tweaking of what I had already done. Again, that cut-out portion of the bracket has the same bending resistance as the lower portion of the bracket and even greater torsional rigidity. I can't forsee it ever becoming a problem as it is already over-engineered. Also, as far as the ETA for the kits is concerned, wait until I get the bike running again. I hate making promises I can't keep...

Fine John, I wanted to keep this a surprise until I got everything anodized, but you now have left me no choice... prototype_pics.jpg prototype_pics2.jpg prototype_pics3.jpg prototype_pics4.jpg I have been really really busy lately.