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criticalmass181

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  1. criticalmass181

    This Is Gold!

    By criticalmass181,

    How's this for a good start? Keep in mind, this engine is over 200,000 kilometers old. I started into it, over the weekend, and was going to go to town on it. Something this old SHOULD be showing signs of wear, right? It'd be in need of major work.....right? Well.....no, actually. The next time someone says to you that your VFR is getting a bit long in the tooth, keep this entry in mind. The cam lobes are literally unmarked. All of the warranty yellow marks are uncracked, and there's no real need to go any further, as far as i'm concerned. If I were made of money, i'd go for it, regardless....but i'm not. There are much better things to blow my hard earned on, than speculative rebuilding. The engine has no pair valves (none, as in the castings are left unmachined.), so that's off the list. The carbs are perfect, and all I need to do is hit the whole thing with some glass bead, to make it all shiny, and that's about that, for this bit. If it ever goes pear shaped, i'll drop it back out of the bike, and play with it then. For now, though, why fix something that isn't broken?
  2. criticalmass181
    Oh, my Lord, it's hot down here. Anyway...To the chase! It's a given that you have to seal every single part of the engine, before you attack it with bead blast. I did that, and then ground off all the cast marks, just so it'll look great, once back in the bike....Or once the bike is rebuilt around the engine, to be more precise. My thoughts, for this week, as i've been blasting in 42C (107F)??? The oil cooler has an insane amount of plumbing, to get it to where it lives. I have no idea why, to be honest....Therefore, i'll be moving it to a better place, and making it bigger. It'll be directly in front of the crankcase, from now on. I'm starting to see a COG drama unfolding, aswell. I'll be moving the rear two exhausts to the left hand side of the seat cowl, and also moving the battery up there, in the center of the tail, behind my bum. The tail will be a semi monocoque, but I don't think i'll have shed enough weight, even with the relocation of all of the crap that lives up there, and the sacrifice of the rest of the tail framework, to rebalance the bike. I've looked into having two 6V batteries hooked in parallel, but I still don't think i'll be able to put them anywhere better. Maybe a bit, but not enough to really warrant all of the extra wiring that would go with making it happen. Capacitors? Too hard basket.... Leave it where it is? No can do. That real estate's now taken by the back two exhausts.
    I'm starting to get the impression that you all think this is "pie in the sky' kinds stuff, and I don't blame any of you for thinking that. So, in a nutshell, here's the deal, as far as the redesign of this bike. I'd love to call it a rebuild, but it's not strictly a 'rebuild', by any means. I bought this bike to fix and ride, but I was fooling myself. I've never been very good at just fixing stuff. I can spot a design shortcut a mile away, and this bike has a few of them, to say the least. It's well built.....Don't get me wrong. It's built to a price, and a strict design regime, though. Honda, nor any other manufacturer, makes any money by hand finishing, or using anything better than the material that will fulfill the task. Nor will they get anywhere by making something that's out of reach of their perceived audience. It's a fact of life. I use to own, in a different life, a Ducati 1098S. Now there's a bike that doesn't hold back....Price? What's money? Technology? Yeah...., put a bit more optical fibre into it.....For $38,000.00 they'd want to push the technological boundaries. This bike...No. You have to do it yourself, if you want something special. And that's what i'm going to do. It'll be no match for a 1098S, but it'll be special, none the less. I'd like to hear your thoughts....Good and bad. Nothing ever happened, by good men staying silent. I'm looking forward to some sort of feedback..........Good or not so good.
  3. criticalmass181
    This is what it looks like, when you get to the start of things.......Well, almost the start of things. Most of the engine will be going back into the bike. I'm still tossing up weather it's worth going too much deeper into it. Maybe a hone, and a port job, but just maybe. It DID take alot to get it to this stage, so i'll see how I feel as things progress. My first missions are to replace the steering head bearings with conical items.....but that'll only be once I decide which front end i'm going with. For a bike that has so much potential, and so much weight, i'm surprised that Honda went with such a (reputedly) limp front end. In any case, I was completely taken aback, when I got to the point where there was just an engine and frame. There's less weight in the package than i'd have thought. I'm well aware that there are a hell of a lot of things that will bring the weight back up, but these are the bits that MUST be light to start with. If the core of anything is heavy, then it'll be heavy, no matter what you do to trim the fat off it. I've set a goal to get down to 190 kilo's half wet. For those not familiar with the term, that's with all fluids, minus fuel. The 'curb weight' is 236 kilo's ( 520 lbs). I'd say, at a guess, that 16 kilo's of that would be fuel. So.., 30 kilo's off????? Just the muffler weighs 6.2 kilo's. I'd say that all of the rubber shielding, metal brackets, center stand, obsolete wiring harness parts (wait and see...), huge dash, fuel level indicator, bar end weights, useless tool kit, plastic inserts, and constant overuse of massive bolts that hold tiny parts. Really....they're everywhere...There are, at least six M10X25 bolts holding absolutely nothing...All that would have to be worth another 15 kilo's, at least.
    30 kilo's? A challenge, but not an unrealistic goal, I reckon.
  4. criticalmass181
    Here we are, finally. A bare frame, and alot of ideas. I spent the entire day making up tooling to remove the adjustable inserts for the frame, and finally managed to extract the lump for the perimeter. I don't think there's anything more exciting than a blank canvas. And this about as blank as stuffs get. There's some cleaning up....well......LOTS of cleaning up, to do. I'm actually already looking at a way to make the battery a bit better balanced...with a capacitor setup, and a couple of 6 volt batteries, in series, so I can put them in better places. Why???? Because the exhausts are going to go through where the battery was..... There's a lot of engineering to come...and all of it will be by the seat of my pants....with some good ol' engineering calculations, to get me by. Hell of a ride to come.
  5. criticalmass181
    Enough tomfoolery...... This is serious! I've made some discoveries, in the last few weeks. Number one....You should never undo the inlet hose to the oil cooler, and walk off. So much oil. So much mess.... Secondly....You should never EVER pretend that you're doing one thing, when you know you're going to do the complete opposite. As i've pulled the old girl down, i've been taking notes....making simple drawings....measuring stuffs. I'm sure that onlookers would be horrified to know, and see, that the entire bike is in boxes, and completely disorganized. There's literally just a pile of crap in the middle of the shed. And that particular pile of crap is mixed in with other piles of crap. I'm not fussed, as I know where everything goes. There's only two places for it all to go, in fact. The bin, or E Bay..... If you've been having a look at my posts, and are interested, please keep on looking. I'm a week away from starting the rebuild. I can assure you that you'll see things that you've never thought possible from an average guy. Some of my plans and modifications may even spur you on to do something similar. I'm no rocket scientist, but I have a firm mechanical and engineering background, can fibreglass, vacuum mold, pattern make, and majored in industrial design. I'm already seeing this project as a finished bike. I like what I see in my minds eye. When it's done, it may not be your cup of tea....But i'm sure you'll look at it, and see that it's a better VFR than it's maker had ever reckoned on. Oh....The bike in the picture? It's my Sons FZR 250. A warm up, for the real deal.......
  6. criticalmass181
    Right....... We're back on track. My apologies for not posting for such a long time. Stuff happens....Like my wife's car shi%%ing itself. Head gaskets, inlet manifold gaskets........and still no good. Broken heads. New car....DONE!!! Now back to the chase. I still can't upload photos, but keep watching this space. If I can't get it to happen, we'll have to go to YouTube, and do a video thing on there, instead. Not much to report, at this time. The bike is in a million bits, but still too together to start on the interesting stuff. On a bright note, the engine is as clean as can be, on the inside. I'll be at the core of the project, by the end of the weekend. Stay tuned....This is going to be one hell of a ride.
  7. criticalmass181
    Hi all.
    I recently purchased a 4th gen VFR 750 FV, with all good intention to simply wash the crap off it, fix the fairing, and ride it 'till it died. It's got almost 200,000 k's on the clock, and isn't worth putting an enormous amount of time or money into, as far as i'm concerned....or was concerned, should I say.
    I picked the bike up cheap, with no rego, pretty crappy fairings, and a wish to have it ready to ride before summer gets here. I started off by taking off the fairings, then deciding that the bars are too high....then ditched to pillion stuff, as I probably won't be needing it. Before I knew it, I had a major project on my hands, and no way to turn back. There were bits going in the bin, left right and center. Visions of tuned pipes (2 into 1 for the front cylinders, and 2 into 1 for the rear), clip ons, rear sets, and flash new styling. Wrapped exhausts, single seat, chopped sub-frame, custom instrument panel, and one off glass bodywork. Now all I need to do, is to divide my time between my family, my job, and my Son's half made FZR 250. Simple! I'll be doing pics along the way, so if you're interested, keep an eye out. This may well turn out to be the lightest VFR on the planet.....and quite possibly the ugliest.
    O.K.......First technical hitch, as far as this blog. I'm unable to add any photos, at this time. Some kind of drama between here and there is stopping me. You'll just have to imagine a picture of a half dead VFR, for now. What i've found, so far? Well....The bike won't run, if you turn the handlebars. Simple fix. I've narrowed the fault down to a faulty wire between the ignition, and it's connector. Now to some stuff that's important, if you want to get rid of a few kilos (or pounds, if you're that way inclined). Some of the things that would surprise you.... The bar ends weigh an incredible 195 grams EACH!!!!!! If you add the cap screws that hold them in, The total weight, for something that's not really required, is almost 420 grams. Things like this are usually forgotten, and when all added up, can add a huge amount of weight, with no benefit. Sure, there has to be something there, but nylon ends, with Aluminium cap screws will weigh virtually nothing. I've always taught my Son an important lesson, when it comes to shedding weight off bikes, and that is that a thousand drops make a bucketful. Small parts that are no required can make up a massive weight saving, without having to really do much, except be a bit ruthless. There are so many fancy rubber guards, and plastic shields on this bike, that i'm amazed. All up, so far, i'd say that i've managed to reduce the weight of the bike by three kilos, and haven't spent a cent. Now, I know that there are going to be people who will disagree that this has any real world impact on performance...and you're all welcome to have your say.....BUT, here's the facts of the matter. We'll say the bike weighs 216 kgs, and produces 102 BHP. It has a power to weight ratio of 0.472 HP per kg. The weights and measures may not be right for a VFR 750 FV, but bear with me....it make s no difference. If I just removed 3 kgs from our bike, it now has a power to weight ratio of 0.478 HP per kg. Yeah....not very impressive. I know. Let's say, though, that I can manage to reduce the weight by 20 kg's (which is a realistic possibility). We now have a power to weight ratio of 0.520 HP per kg. That's not bad, when you consider that there has been zero dollars spent.
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