mrmatt

Pre-update

I found an awesome mechinist in town and he rethreaded, cut, and drilled everyting I needed on the Speed Triple axle for $60, really helped me out and I will highly recommend him to anyone. He's got several bikes sitting in the shop (mostly Yamaha's, couple FJ's, and rides a CB550). I'm hoping tomorrow I can get it all back together and ride with the new rear end.

RC45 bodywork may have to wait for a little while longer... (sorry to anyone waiting to see this part)

Thanks for putting this up, great job on the write up and pics :blink:

Update

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I took the entire rear subframe and wheel off and started matching up the new stuff I'll be putting in. My spacers came in so I was able to bolt on the rear axle to see how it looked

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I still need to check with a local machine shop if they can modify the axle and spacer for me, then I can put it together for real. The CBR900 subframe will take a lot of work, but first I'm trying to fit the tailpiece in place so I can see where the subframe will need to be. The tail needs some material taken out of the middle to match the tank, and on the sides to fit over the frame, but it's pretty close.

I tried to fit up the upper and lower fairing as well, but I think the exhaust is getting in the way where the 4 headers join into 1, also the center stand will have to go. I really hope this doesn't drive me to a full exhaust system change, which would be a nice but unanticipated expense.

Edit:

One thing I forgot to mention, the first spacer that is on the axle that fits inside the eccentric hub is 5mm (for the wheel alignment), and the one that fits inside of the cush drive/sprocket carrier is 2.5mm (for chain alignment).

Good to hear things are going well on the IoM. Pics and vid of any racing you do on the VFR are a necessity you know :biggrin:

The owner of that other Indigo system knows to contact me if he ever wants to sell it (the 3rd Gen it's on has been sitting around for a few years now since he bought 4th Gen). Did you sort that TBR system out? (sorry for the threadjack Matt but Kev's project would be interesting to you).

No worries, that's the kind of discussion I want to keep going.

Thanks for posting this up, another great project, don't forget to show some final pics with that 916 body and some steps along the way if you can. I'm very interested in the rear wheel conversion, and the ducati subframe if you have some more details on those, things like spacing and alignment on the wheel and modifications you had to make to the subframe.

Update on my project, all of my RC45 bodywork has come in now so I can finally start the grinding/sanding/cutting... (not as much fun as the suspension). I found some 5 3/4 inch headlights from Aztec8, rather expensive but I'm keeping them in mind if I can't get the CBR headlights to work.

Also fitting 954 front 2 me 4th gen. aNY CHANCE YOU CAN DROP ME THE bearing sizes, any clues to fitting the yokes to slip in front. Keep it up the work.. i know i will till im dun!

I just ordered the stock VFR top and bottom bearings online (hdlparts.com) and they are the same size that will fit on the 954 triple. Sorry I don't know the exact sizes, but if you look up on allballs I think they have the equivalent tapered roller bearing part numbers that will fit as well if you want roller instead of ball.

I am not sure what you're asking on the second part about the yokes, for the height of the forks above the top triple I set them just below the blue cap and made sure that they were even by sliding the axle through.

Also with the stock body there are at least three issues that I am aware of: dashboard clearance, oil radiator interference, and inner shroud/wind deflector clearance.

The brake and clutch reservoirs/master cylinders will not fit with the 954 clipons and would hit the dash since the clipons have to go below the top triple, this could be probably fixed with some tall helibars. The front forks and lower triple will also hit the oil radiator and oil lines, this can be temporarily fixed by moving the radiator to the lowest hole in the upper stay, or a better/more permanent solution is to put a slight bend in it and curve it away from the forks. I just discovered the last problem this weekend, the inner U shaped shroud will need some cutting away at the top which shouldn't be very hard at all, and won't effect any of the tie in points.

Hope this helps, have any more questions post them up

4 miles to the gallon?

Couple of days with the new gauges and hate to say that the speedometer didn't convert correctly, reads somewhere around 10x slower. All indicators work, and the tach feels close so it wasn't a total failure . Right now it looks like I'll be investing in a speedohealer. I ordered a CBR900 temp sensor so when I put that in hopefully it will fix the temperature reading. Also have a 2 wire voltmeter from Datel digital meters and a fuel gauge from Cyberdyne that I can put in somewhere next week.

Front fender is in but mounting hardware is not (forgot to order it before), should be able to use the same screws when I get the RC45 fender so it won't be a waste.

Well, in the interest of riding my 750 until all the rest of the bodywork comes in and my ambition builds up again, I've put it all back together and ordered a 954 front fender. Tonight I was working on the dashboard and was finally successful.

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To mount the CBR900 gauges I needed an L bracket that would tie in to the fairing stay. I found a thin piece of aluminum at home depot that would work nicely. I first cut it down to about 6"x6" and bent a 1.5" L in the bottom that would hold the dash. Then 3 holes in the upright to match the fairing stay, 2 holes in the L to hold the dash, and a final one for the solitary screw that keeps the dash from falling off.

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I had to reroute the wiring harness to go beneath the dash since I didn't make the wires long enough from my gauges. The oil radiator I had moved lower for clearance for the forks so there was plenty of room anyway.

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At full lock the brake and clutch masters pass overtop of the gauges nicely, though it is a close fit. Also it barely fits under the windscreen (I think it's just touching), something I didn't measure for and just happened to work out. To do it again, I would move the dash about 1/2 to 1 inch lower for good clearance with the windscreen and gauge wiring, but I think this will work.

Matt, show me a pic of what you want to do on the rad, I might be able to help you.

Thanks Seb, I might take you up on that but we'll see. I've sort of not been thinking about the radiator with trying to get the rear wheel aligned.

On the right side just the bottom corner of the rad needs to have an angle on it instead of being square, but on the left there is the hose to the water pump so it might have to be moved higher which would require a bit more work. If I can find one on fleabay that's the right size/price I'll probably go for it, but I haven't really looked yet. I just saw vfroem's work on his VFR837 and he's really changed up his cooling system. I probably won't go for all of it but maybe some ideas will come.

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I had to take the exhaust off to slip the wheel on, but will look great when I get this finished.

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The sprocket lines up very well with the chain, also it is the same size as the VFR (42T) so no chain conversion will be necessary.

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I took a straight edge and marked the relative offset on the swingarm of each wheel and sprocket. The hub is actually about 1mm off and the wheel may be about 5mm. This was with the tires on the wheels and not from measuring the rim. The Dunlop on the VFR rim actually slopes out from the rim edge so the width of each with their respective tires is very close. I think the Ducati is around 2mm wider, so the offset I have to account for would be 4mm (not finalized yet, I'll post up exact numbers when I know)

I probably am making things harder than should/could be, but I started going this way for a couple of reasons. The bearing hub that fits in the swingarm is the exact same size as the VFR, so now I don't have to worry about matching the inner/outer diameter on the bearings since the complete assembly is from the same model. Also, the sprocket is the same size so no chain/sprocket/gearing conversion, I might look into this later but right now I didn't want to mess with that. Again, since the assembly is from the same model the rear brake caliper will fit on the disc inside the wheel and I only have to think about the torque arm to fit to the swingarm. Initially I was trying for a way to not have to machine anything and be a bolt on, but the axle is just too long.

I don't know how close the VFR400 axle swap would be, but this seemed to be viable and I haven't seen anyone else try it so I thought I would. Then at least we'll know what works and how much work is needed. Going the Ducati route is very interesting, be sure to post up and let us know the result (might try it myself if I can't conquer the Speed Triple)

Ah, he's found a way to reduce the size of the frame by 1/100, taking another 120lbs off the bike

Alright, have had some time to look things over and got a better grasp of this one

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Rear wheel from 07 Ducati Multistrada

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Rear hub from 06/07 Speed Triple

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I got the hub from a member here that was trying a similar conversion on his 5th gen but it didn't quite fit for him, wheel from ebay. Two issues that I know of right now, alignment and axle length. It looks like the axle can lose around an inch, so I'll need to find a good machinist to cut and rethread it for me. Alignment looks very close, I haven't actually put it on yet, but from sighting the hub I might be 4-5mm to the left (max).

Any ideas on these two? Hopefully tomorrow I can actually get it mounted up and check the alignment for real.

No update on the radiator situation yet, still thinking about this one. The VFR radiator is 17in wide and 7in tall. If I were a welder a couple of cuts to the corners is all I need, however (sadly) no welder am I, so off to take some measurements, maybe all I need is one from a 400 (good idea), we'll see

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I've taken the front apart again, all the way back to the frame now, so I'm committed and probably won't be riding it until the new body is done (but at least I'll still be riding thanks to MBD )

The fairing stays that hang the radiator were in the way of sliding the RC45 upper on, the Dremel took care of this. Now they still hang the radiator and front ignition coils, but not the fairing, so coming from a bit of an upward angle I can slide my new fairing into place, approximately. But with moving it around to where I think it should go, I've run into my first problem. The RC45 is apparently pretty narrow, so now some oil lines on the right and both bottom sides of my radiator are hitting the body. I think I can work with the oil lines, but not so much on the radiator.

My first thought is to look for some other radiators that I can swap out and would have a more narrow profile, it would not have to be by much. I found a CBR F4 looks like it might angle inward at the very bottom, also the CBR 1000 is very much like a 'V'.

So now I need some help on a couple questions, what are the dimentions of the F4 and 1000 radiators, and are either the right size? If I get one too small I'm sure to have overheating problems, too big and I might run too cold. If those of you with CBR's can measure your radiators for me I'd be really grateful and give me a better idea of what space I have

Looking good

Nice work on the under seat exhaust, how did you work it in with the rear fender/mudguard? Add any heat shielding?

Glad you got your camera back

After waiting about 1-2 weeks, I have my upper from Beasley Composites

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I am pretty happy with the turn around, I still have not heard anything from ARD who took my money 3 weeks ago. Hopefully it's in the mail. I still need to order a lower, the one Beasley makes is slightly different in the front, does not have the small shroud at the bottom of the V, so I may just get one from Airtech since it is taking so long to get anything from ARD (who is cheaper even with shipping).

I spent some time trying to make a $5 multimeter into a fuel gauge/voltage monitor combo, but was not able to make anything of it. I wanted to hook it up so a push-button switch would toggle between the two modes and get rid of the dial, but there were too many wires for me to simply connect. I think I would need some logic circuits to make it work, which is beyond what I had in mind. I'm looking at the Datel ones but haven't bought anything yet. Would really like to combine these on one display.

I also need to figure out what upper fairing stay I'm going to use/modify. I think the 93-94 900RR might be the closest candidate which should be able to bolt onto the two stays on either side of the steering head.

Also I've got another mod sitting in the back of my garage that may or may not work... more on this later :biggrin:

Latest

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I got the gauges hooked up and (mostly) working! There's one spot on the tach at 9krpm that's messed up, I've been looking for some different backings but haven't found it yet. Might just have to put some paint over it.

For some reason it thinks it's a little warm in my garage, but all the signals and tach looked good, haven't taken it out so I can't say about the speedometer.

To splice it into the VFR wiring harness, I found these at the local Home Depot, it was even the correct size for the small wire ends.

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All the connectors together is a little messy, I wish I could find some that take more than 3 on each side so I'll keep looking, but for now it works much better than more permanent things like wire nuts.

I tried to figure out what was wrong with the temp sensor, but have so far not come up with anything. From the VFR manual the resistance on the wire to ground should have been around 60 ohms, which it was, so I cross checked it with the CBR and it appears to have close to the same temperature scale. Anyone know what might be going on?

For all of the other wires, here's the map I used. Most turned out to be the same color anyway.

From the '98 CBR900 side: function/ CBR wire color/ VFR wire color

Right turn / L Blue / L Blue

Left turn / Orange / Orange

Neutral light / L Green:Red / L Green:Red

Oil / Blue:Red / Blue:Red

High beam / Blue / Blue:Black

Tachometer / Yellow:Green / Yellow:Green

Ground / Green / Green or Green:Black

Ground / Green / Green or Green:Black

Battery (to main fuse) / Red / Red:Green*

Speed Sensor / Pink:Green / Pink

Meter and lights common to 10A fuse / Black:Brown / Black:Brown

Temperature / Green:Blue / Green:Blue

Dash illumination / Brown / Brown:White

Speed Sensor Ground / Green:Black / Green or Green:Black

14 leads on CBR gauges, 20 leads on VFR

*for the Battery I used the positive clock lead since it is the same, only passes through a 10A fuse

This wiring is still untested, but by looking at the diagrams I believe it should work (minus the temperature)

I didn't get time to look at the subframe, I want to wait until the tailpiece comes in anyway. All of the fairings have been ordered now, maybe they'll start coming in this week, though some is coming from ARD so it might take a bit longer.

Ok got the shock in but coils a no go for stock placement. Anyone with a 4 gen have an idea what you did? Do the coils need to be grounded via the bracket? Thanks Brian

Coils? Are you talking about the shock spring?

No, the shock reservoir is in the way of the two rear spark plug coils where it is mounted on the back side of the cross member of the frame. I looked at it and I didn't think it needed to be grounded, so I have so far just unscrewed them and let them sit on the rubber heat shield and it still works fine. I'm going to modify the bracket somehow so it will be grounded on the frame again before I'm done. I'm thinking a short piece (1-1/2 or 2 inches) with two holes in it will be enough. I'll post pics on my 750 conversion thread when I get it.

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Next step, my CBR900 subframe finally came in so I could get some rough measurements

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It looks like it is about 1" longer, 1" taller (between the two struts at the bolt locations), the top is the same width as the frame side, and looks a steeper angle, so there's going to be a bit of modification needed for this to work. Stay tuned, if I can pull this one off with my Dremel then anyone can do it. Good thing is that it's very light, will be another good upgrade to the VFR. Also, my tailpiece hasn't come in so nothing can be chopped/bolted yet. Looking at it, I think my exhaust will have to be pulled away from the tail, but there's a lot of room for adjustment on that side for anywhere I want to put it.

I have a pretty good idea of how the gauges are wired, downloaded the CBR900 wiring diagrams so all I need is the harness I ordered yesterday and I'll be able to test them out shortly, speedo and tach are obviously the ones I'm worried about the most. Odd thing is that the back has 20 pins, but the diagram only has 14 wires going to them, guess I'll find out soon. I'll post up the pin numbers and function when I get it figured out.

Wow

Just put the head/taillights back on to take it for a spin and it feels like a competely different bike. Now the steering is much quicker, the lower clipons make me hug the tank. 954 calipers, 330mm rotors, EBC HH pads, Galfer lines all make the brakes very much more responsive than before, all I have to do is touch the brake and I'm stopped. I feel I've made it a bit of a beast just by replacing the suspension, or maybe I was just heavier on the throttle than I usually am, but all of it together was quite a rush switching from the ol' 700. Didn't get out of the city tonight, but tomorrow is looking good. Only problem is that the gauges are still off the bike so speed will be a guessing game

I'm definately still going to put the RC45 body on it (placed an order Monday), just going to ride it for a couple weeks (weather permitting) while I'm waiting for more parts to come in.

and been looking at that marchesini rear wheel a lot lately...

Sunday night update

I finally got my new Pilot Power front tire on the rim and the whole front end bolted on

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When the VTR master cylinder came in, I was pretty excited to find that it still had some really old brake fluid in it, some of which had congealed in the bottom. After some quality time spent cleaning this out, I was able to install the brakes and bleed them. I'm hoping I did it correctly, first time I've ever had to do that.

With the front back on the ground, I could finish installing the rear shock

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Since the 929 rear shock reservoir obstructs the heat shield somewhat, I chopped the lower angle off so I could still shield the battery

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I've done some searching on the single nut rear wheel and am certain I have to do it now. The only thing that would worry me is that I will eliminate the cush drive, but to get one of these on the back would be a great addition

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I found some NC35 spindles in the UK, but I am wondering if a Ducati spindle would fit in the 4th gen SSSA as well? The NC35 also has an inner axle that the Ducati does not seem to have, and the parts may be more available

I have not made any headway on the gauges yet, need to go by a computer store and see if they might have any connectors that I could use, then start to match up the pins.

Ordered the fender, tail, and windscreen from ARD in England, will probably call Beasley Composites this week for the upper and lower fairing, they're the only ones I've found that have the headlight cutouts.

Did you decide on the rear wheel setup? Here's an option I never saw before, go with the Hawk spindle and modify the 3rd gen 8 spoke wheel to make it single nut: :cool: :cool:

I hadn't thought of that either, right now I'm thinking the rear wheel and left side exhaust will be the second part of the series.

Heck, I'm tempted to put the OEM body back on just to see how it rides after all the suspension work.

Do you know if the Hawk spindle will work with a 17" NC35 rear wheel? And is that wheel good to use with the VFR? I see them for sale for around $220 so it would not be hard to get

watching this very clocley mate looking good , i also have 4 gen vfr would like to do some kinda conversion like this does the cbr900 headlight ass faring fit straight up? and the tail sec does it fit a fartory vfr sub frame? ig you know

keep it up ill hopfully post one up some day

I still haven't gotten my headlights in so I don't know how I'll attach them. I was kind of thinking of picking up a 93 CBR900 gauge mount so maybe they'll bolt on there, but haven't found a straight one I'm willing to pay for yet.

I'm still without the body work, hope to order it in the next few weeks, maybe month if I find some more parts I need.

Small update,

Still haven't put the front wheel on, waiting for the Pilot Power tire to come in.

Found a 10x120mm corse thread bolt for the rear shock but the head was too thick to fit between the shock and bracket, so I have to show off some of my Dremel skills

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With about 2-3mm removed at the middle it fits tight around the shock

I also had several aluminum spacers made at different lengths in case I wanted to change the ride height down the road. Right now I'm installing the tallest, 41.5mm, but the three shown here are 39, 40, and 41

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Parts update:

The NC30 taillight came in and I found it will plug directly into the wiring harness, thanks Honda

Brake pads installed, clear Galfer lines look great. I almost went for the super high dollar Goodridge lines but remembered I'm not a superbike racer in time.

98 VTR1000F brake and clutch master cylinders/reservoirs ordered ($100 each). Expensive, but looked to be the best preserved/not weathered/not scratched up I could find, and I wanted these to be in good shape.

98 CBR900 gauges ($100, good deal), wanted the 95-97 gauges but couldn't pass up as long as there's a chance of working. My concern with this is that the odometer is digital which is different than the VFR. Matching up the wires correctly will be tricky, plus I have no idea if the gauge inputs will even be the same scale.

Bidding on 900 subframe, I have even less of an idea if I can get that to work, I'm not much of a welder

The front forks are now officially installed

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With a new front tire next week I'll be able to get it back on the ground.

I'm also anticipating my spacer for the rear shock to come in on Monday, once I grind down the bolt head I can get that hooked up as well.

Been doing a lot of thinking about the subframe, some have gone with the CBR 900 (flyguyeddie) or RC51 (douglasthecook), but I've been thinking about an NC30. The tailpiece is basically the same shape, but I'm not sure on the length or angle from the frame. They are easily bought from the UK, so I might give it a try unless someone has some knowledge they can give me here.

Newest parts ordered:

Galfer SS front brake lines ($90) (I'll probably get the rear sometime too, just not as important right now)

EBC HH brake pads ($30ea) (thought I might as well replace them while its apart)

93-94 CBR900 headlights ($70)

Update

Pics are back, sorry if I repeat myself...

Front end bolted on (loosely)

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With the top of the forks flush with the top triple I figure it is about 1/2 inch short with my highly technical measurement system

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I think I'll settle on having the top of the fork tubes flush with the top triple so the blue cap will stick above the plate.

I've done some searching on the CBR gauges, the 93-94 model will not work as it still uses a speedometer cable

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I am still not certain on the 95 CBR900 gauges, I have not been able to get a good picture, but I am fairly certain that the CBR600 F3 gauges will work, judging from these pics*

*Correction: with my new found skill of counting, the CBR gauges have only 8 pins per connection

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I'm only worried that the F3 gauges will be as big as my VFR so they wouldn't help me much, I think I'll be fighting for space anyway as the clipons are fairly low

I got the inner race off the steering stem by grinding a notch in it with my dremmel and knocking it loose with a cold chisel, shop charged me $10 to press the new one on. I suppose it's worth since I didn't destroy anything trying to hammer it on. I special ordered some washers that are 1mm diameter smaller than the outer races, so I will be able to press these on myself.

Ordered an NC30 taillight, shipping from England was more than the part, oh well

Still many more things to buy

Single nut rear wheel can be achieved by combining a VFR400 hub assembly (fits into the 4th Gen SSS) and either an original RC30/45 wheel ($$$) or a modified 3rd or 5th Gen wheel (or an aftermarket wheel, more $$$). For the exhaust you need a TBR left exit full header...

Good luck with it!

Hmm, is that the VFR400 (NC30) or RVF400 (NC35) ? And could I use an NC30 or 35 rear wheel as well? Project may have gotten a little more expensive...

Been a little slower lately, ordered new steering head bearings and still trying to get the old ones off the steering stem. The new Dremmel may see some action tonight

Still saving up for all the fairings, lights, mounts, and dashboard I have yet to buy...

I'm keeping track of the cost for future members' reference