tok tokkie

Basically you are wanting to convert your bike into a Cross Runner. Look at the thread about it. Suspension travel & ground clearance will limit the roughness of your routes. Need a decent bash plate to protect the sump. Four cylinder power/torque characteristics also are not good for really technical riding - but anyway that is not your aim.

The spring tubes are not on that Vincent. The springs were in long thin tubes behind the blades in your photo; you can see the 2 bolts where they mount at the bottom. The tops mount to the bobbin like thing just behind the steel joining plate. That is where the spring load goes. The thing that looks like a small modern shock at the top is, in fact, just an hydraulic damper - no spring there. The spring load is carried from the bottom of the girder to the lower wishbone. In your design the entire wheel load is transmitted up to the 4 short angled tubes onto the spring/shock unit. There is a spreading load there whereas the Vincent has only the damping forces there. I agree with VFRider about the spreading but have no gut feel if it is significant or not.

My 550 packed up. The screen digitiser failed; if you touched the screen it kept getting the input after you lifted your finger. Had to wait an age for the false input to go away. I did a little Googling & found there is a $28 spare part available. I have it on order from Hong Kong. Thread with pictures of how to fit it here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=528905

Nice work Red. Tony Foale is much younger looking than I expected.

I have followed this with interest. I look forward to the dyno test results though I don't expect any improvement. I compliment you on the way you have responded to the doubters & challengers - you have politely & patiently stated your interpretation of the theory each time. It strikes me that if we are looking for more power how difficult is it to replace the existing alternator with one that generates the required Amps at the required Volts instead of running full tilt all the time & dumping the excess Watts as heat?

Mate you are almost as far removed from your Scarab VFR800 as it's possible to get with that little number. Is it a TW200? I only know them through a shop in Sydney that customises them but I haven't seen many other 200cc bikes with tyres like that. I take it you're on www.advrider.com? Some great reports there set in your neck of the woods from MetalJockey, of Eastern Cape. I am on ADVRider but only the Jo Moma forum regularly. Yea it is a TW. I also have a BMW F650 Dakar but I much prefer the TW. Metaljockey! What a civilised man (though he is an animal when drunk I hear). He sets such a high standard locally which means the pricks who want to show off and be antisocial are kept somewhat in check by his example. I have met him. His most well known trip was through Angola: http://www.wilddog.za.net/forum/index.php?topic=10359.0 But his latest was together with his wife and child; check where she took her bike. http://www.wilddog.za.net/forum/index.php?topic=39411.0 Here's one I did on the TW http://www.wilddog.za.net/forum/index.php?topic=39398.0

I, like you, want to do this (although not on this bike) and want to keep the aero look. My 93 rear lower fairing though is metal. So, may I suggest you make your undercan WITH lower fairing built in/on in metal. No plastic to burn. Larry VFRrider That muffler is in Canada complete with the headers. I retrieved it from the crashed bike & sent it to Canadian Ken (?) who gave it as a gift to someone who liked the idea. Instead of simply bolting it onto his bike he decided against the idea & it is either wasting its time in his den or has been thrown out. This should make you lot smile. I have now downscaled to a single 200cc cylinder = 1/4 of a VFR. Where I now go. I also do multi day solo trips on very deserted gravel roads in the boondocks.

Good lord, the trail on that MTB front end is nuts!!! It is nothing out of the ordinary. The trail is the distance between the centerline of the steering axis & where the tire touches the ground. In this case the uprights of the suspension are unusually far forward so the wheel axle has to be moved well behind them to restore the conventional trail dimension.

That is a very old Vincent with ordinary girder forks. I had a Vincent Comet like this. Those are 'Girdraulic' forks. The fork blade is a big aluminium forging with the springs in the narrow tube behind. The Whyte forks are very interesting because they don't have the scissors linkage. The top link is like a standard girder fork - the top link is steered by the handlebars. The lower link is like a Hossack. The suspension forces will be carried by the lower link so those loads will not go through the steering bearings. The brake loads will not go through the shock so there will be little front end dive (depends on angle of the pivot points). Would it not be simpler to do it like Whyte?

I have been to the UK VFR board in the past. My recollection is GreenVFR is the technical authority there. In other words that opinion is from someone who knows a lot about VFRs and has a special affection for them.

WSBK: Ten Kate Drop WP Suspension In Favour Of Ohlins Setup http://bikerholic.com/2009/06/26/wsbk-ten-...f-ohlins-setup/ I have WP suspension on my BMW Dakar - scored a used setup. Was very surprised to read on that old thread that BMW use it as original equipment when it is a subsidiary of KTM.

Those clip-ons are pretty. Not seen that before.

I did something very similar on a dirt road (on a similar bike to your 'vfr'). I was very interested to look on the Zumo some days later (I was concussed & had no recollection & had to be collected by my wife from the local hospital) to see what my speed was when I binned it = 86 kph = 54 mph. Advice I had been given was gas it through thick sand so I was doing as I was told.

I have followed this all the way. There was such an extended silence from you that I feared you had moved on & it would never materialise. That kit looks beautiful - as does the dyno chart. Economics have turned against you so sales will be lower than they would have been. Once some of these have humiliated 1000 cc superbikes and the even bigger bikes they will gain a legendary reputation. The birth of a legend I predict. Brilliantly done Dan. (That it can be a sleeper is wonderful but most will have your logo all over them I suppose.)

LH side with the brake! Yea I had a Triumph Tiger Cub and a Vincent Comet like that but things have moved on since then.

At the site linked here they say that 'memory foam' does not make a good seat. I re-did the seat on my (non VFR) bike with the hardest memory foam I could get. It was horrible. 1. it transmitted a lot of road 'noise' which conventional foam completely eliminates. 2. When accelerating or braking it was as if you were sitting on a ball, the back or front of the seat would give way under the increased load - it felt really unstable. I re-did the seat with other foam and it was much better. I shaped the foam with a sanding flap disk as shown in the link.

You mean it might have improved on Mitsuyoshi Kohama's design of the NR, subsequently copied by Pierre Treblanche 5 years later? :fing02: Nah, the crooked front guard is one of the 4th Gen's most recognizable design features! Massimo Tamburini designed the 916. Terblanche was responsible for the 999. But just my opinion, I believe the 916 to be the most beautiful bike. This hybrid is interesting, but can't touch the original 916. Absolutely right in all respects. Terblanche designed some nice 'retro' bikes but his contemporary designs appealed to very few. I chuckle that the NACA ducts live on in this bike; they are the aspect that has been the subject of most criticsm of the 4th gen.

I had missed this thread until now. Congratulations on both what you have done & that it now runs. Global warming as a consequence of burning fossil fuel is undeniable as far as I am concerned. I am amazed by the prevalence of naysayers in the US. There are three fascinating projects on this board. Toro's supercharger, Redmarque's Hossack front end & trellis frame and this one. I salute the three of you. I have pondered why we can't have a domestic photovoltaic water splitter to generate our own hydrogen to fuel our cooking/heating and hydrogen fuel-celled vehicles.

This thread has gone on for so long it has become boring. There has been good solid innovation when something new is posted then another long delay before the next installment. Gets to the road-going prototype then the longest delay of all. I could not imagine what was taking so long since it all seemed just fine. Since it was mainly cnc all Toro needed to do was stick in another chunc of ally, register the job center & press Go to make more. Then he teased us with a photo of the intercooler. Now he shows those exquisite plenums. I do a bit of cnc occasionally and appreciate the workmanship. Those chamfers on the edges are a ballache to do but it makes the job stand out. Exquisite work there Toro but get this thing done already. Don't agree with BLS. You have cut out unfunctional material around the neutral axis. Have to acknowledge that vibration induced cracking may develop.

What you propose for the rear brake is novel. Like the front end is. What I notice about your workshop is more how small the space you have created this in rather than how cluttered it is.

BLS, those triples are things of beauty & grace. Did you make those on a conventional Bridgeport type mill?

I like your style. I made my own simply because I could & wanted to (no need because I had a gull wing in stock). If I had seen yours mine would have also had holes as that looks better to me than the one I made. scarab 13.jpg scarab 4.jpg

Banjo connector.jpg

Very nice. On a 5th gen there is a big hole leading into the SSA when you remove the wheel hub. Many thanks for the video. I have altered a stainless hose & did not know you cut it with a sharpened chisel. I Dremelled through the braiding which spread it out & it was EXTREMELY difficult getting the nut over the braids after that. Now I know for next time.

Page 8.22 of the workshop manual identifies that as the crankcase breather. A 'breather seperator' is bolted to the inside covered by a 'breather plate' torqued to 12 Nm with blue loctite. The rubber breather tube connects to the nipple on the front of that lump. I assume you have taken off all the PAIR gubbins. Can you swop the front & rear cam covers around?