RustyA

Sorry to threadjack, but while you have that beautiful set of forklegs up in the air like that, would you mind posting or PMing the length from the axle center to the top of the fork......please? I got 29 15/16" or 760mm from the axle center to the top of the fork cap. :goofy: And are they RC51 Ohlins, or from another bike? Thanks. Ciao, They're Ohlins off of one of my '03 RC51's.

You got a PM. :goofy:

Thanks Pete.

The SP1 upper and lower look to be in great condition. No obvious dings or bangs. I can see what you´re thinking, especially when one has already been stung, and its completely valid. If the set had a bump as a set then they would still fit together although tweaked. But this would also mean that it wouldn´t sit perfect in the headstock, which my set does. I´m not trying to convince myself that its only the cheap part thats tweaked, therefore saving a lot of swearing, and I mean a lot, but if I can tighten the locknuts etc down to torque spec etc and it still turns free and smooth then I call that straight. Thanks for the thoughts :fing02: Thats how these things are resolved. Bren again nice Öhlins, when you gonna be finished ? I got my calibers. Now waiting on for 320mm rotors, radial brake and clutch master cylinders, and some other odds and ends.

Process of elimination - check the CBR U.T. first, because the '51 piece fits. What he needs to do is double and triple check EVERYTHING, and properly. This means v blocks, dial indicators, and surface plates Bren! :rolleyes: I think the idea of process of elimination is the logical next step. I gotta check the CBR upper to see if thats borked first, the pane of glass trick and measuring the "parallelnessises" is what I´ll do here. As a few others have said, I do hope they´re wrong, that maybe the lower triple is tweaked. What is the best way to check the lower triple? Pane of glass trick again but that will only tell me if its tweaked in the North South plane. What about the stem? I assume it should be at 90 degrees to the lower, as was rightly pointed out earlier, that for our VFR, steering angle is taken care of by the frame neck, some raked choppers can also have it in the triple. I´m thinking if the stem were borked that even the SP1 upper wouldn´t fit down on it as straight as it does. I cant see it that landing a wheelie hard could twist the lower, crash different matter, and/or bend the stem. If so it wouldn´t fit as good as it does in the headstock, with the bearings locknuts etc. I will check it but I thinking no to that one. So v-blocks I know and can organise but what are these surface plates? Never heard the term, unless you mean 2 straight edges to "eye" down the length of the forks, which I did in the lower triple and they were parallel at every point I tried. One other thing I remember is the 954 upper was rather difficult to get on. Its been a week now but I´m sure it took more effort to slide/push/tap down the forks than the SP1 upper. Hmmmmmm Thanks for the GREAT advice guys :fing02: Nice Öhlins Rusty!! (insert finger licking good emoticon) Bren, did you buy the upper RC51 plate, and the lower RC51 triple from the same seller? My thinking is that both parts came from the same bike. and both parts are tweaked. That why they fit together. The parts I got from flea-bay are tweaked. Nothing lined up. The one lower, I could see the bend at where the stem and lower fit together. The other lower had a crack in it. On the upper. One corner of it was bent down some.

Sorry to threadjack, but while you have that beautiful set of forklegs up in the air like that, would you mind posting or PMing the length from the axle center to the top of the fork......please? I got 29 15/16" or 760mm from the axle center to the top of the fork cap. :rolleyes:

Finally got a chance to reply to this thread. I'm with Pete about buying used parts off of flea-bay. I have gotten 2 bad lower triples for a RC51, and a bad upper for a 954. I'm still fighting with paypal over it. :biggrin: So I bought new. I got an '01 RC51 lower, and a 954 upper. Everything fits great. I'm thinking that Bren's lower is bent at the stem and lower bridge from being wheelie, and landing HARD. And the reason that the RC51 upper fits is that he bought both parts off of the same bike. Here's where I'm at now. :rolleyes:

I'm the same as Jason. 220lbs with no gear. I got an Ohlins rear shock with a 19.36Kg (1085lbs) spring. When I first installed the shock with everything backed out. I had 9mm free sag and 39mm rider sag. I had 9 turns on the adjuster to get 7mm free sag, and 35mm rider sag. After reading this thread, I don't feel I was too far off with my spring choice. You all agree?

Thanks for the replys about the wife. It's been an up and down year to say the least. She feels fine. She had her last chemo this week. :biggrin: Still is some concern about her CA125 numbers going up. Wait and see after her doc app. next week. The 2 other sets of forks are long gone. Those were the first things that got sold. Both sets had the superbike valve kit in them too. Larry machine his caliper mounts out of magnesium from what I read. I'm going to ping him later. Here's the pictures of the shock installed. First 2 are of the reservior. And the last 2 are of the spring preloader.

The hose is long enough. The only problem I had fitting the shock was that I had to turn the hose on the shock body to the other side. In the picture. It shows it pointing towards the right side. I turned it to the left by loosing up the bolt on the shock body, twisting the hose around the bolt and tighting the bolt up again. The shock reservoir mounts on the seat frame, in front of the passenger peg. when I get home from work. I'll post a pic, OK. :biggrin:

Your profile shows an RC51 as gone. Did you do a RC51 on your VFR and are installing RC51 R&T forks? What calipers are you using? I had a '03 RC51 that was decked out. Ohlin's, Thorsten carbon fiber parts, PVM wheels, cams, head work, Sato's, etc. When my wife got cancer over a year ago. I wanted her to do some riding with me. So I put the RC back to stock as much as I could, sold it, and sold of the rest of the parts. Bought the VFR. Keep 1 set of Ohlins forks for the VFR, as I had 3 sets of them. When I was looking at the VFR, I was lurking here on the forum for information. :biggrin: That's where I got the :idea3: for the Ohlin forks. LOL As for the calipers. I'm sitting on a set of 108mm Brembo monoblock radial calipers right now. Problem I'm having is that nobody I talk to can give me the information I need for the disc off-set without machining thing some. I want to do this as a complete bolt-on. If I can't use the Brembo's, I use the RC51 calipers, as they are a great set-up to begin with. I just don't have a set right now.

Ohlins all the way. :huh: Can't wait to get the forks on. :laugh:

tightwad, nice write-up. :fing02: By any chance, has anyone ever measured the distance from the head of the shaft to the flat machined surface of the CCT body? I'm wondering if there is a difference between a new one and one that is bad.

Match these numbers with the number in the red on the chart, for spring rate.

:fing02: Wish list! It's going to have to wait. My christmas list is busted BIG time! LOL

I thought it looked farmiliar. It's the same exhaust as on my lawn tractor! :biggrin: