Hobie1dog

Impressive to say the least. :thumbsup:

received the aluminum rear subframe off of a F4i today and held it up in place against the normal VFR mounting points and it was pretty close in alignment. But when I tried putting the solo tail piece on it , then it was evident that it would not work. The subframe sticks out past the solo tail piece about a foot and the solo tail won't even fit over top of the subframe. How you buy a solo tail and put it on a F4i is beyond my understanding. None of the mounting holes line up as well. So anyway the subframe will go back on Ebay where I bought it, and I'm going to fabricate my own subframe out of 3/4" aluminum square tubing. I was able to hold some pieces up in place under the solo tail with the seat held in place, and it looks fairly easy to line everything up. This weekend I'll cut the stock to the right lengths along with the cross braces needed to hold the battery box, muffler, and rear upper mounting points. It should also weigh 1/4 of what the F4i subframe weighs with it even being made out of aluminum. I remember vfroem telling that his RC30 subframe weighed 2.5 lbs Anyway today I got intoduced to a really gifted welder/fabricator who works for one of the race car teams in the area, and he welded some stainless steel for me and it looked like it was painted on, really great quality, so he took an interest after I showed him pictures of Niltons bike and also of Phantoms undertail exhaust setup, and he said " cool, I'm ready". 13 days left till TexasMac....Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm :goofy: Also spent an hour today at the PPG store looking through tons of paint chips trying to find the colors I want to paint the bike in. No luck so far, and it seems like such an easy thing to take a picture in and say, " You can match this one ...right? " Then they look at you funny and say, " Don't think I've every seen that particular color before on a car". :cool: Got my new lights today too. I'll take some pics tomorrow.

These are the ones I just ordered. The rounded front will allow the actual reflector section to be less blocked and stick out further than the others I fitted.. I think it will be a big improvement. I guess it was good having someone say," Those are Fugly" :beer: These will be brighter to boot.

Update: I found new PIAA Driving Lights which are bullet shaped and are rated 55W=85watt and are Dichroic(two colors supposedly) and are recommended more as main driving lights than the ones I bought. They should also fit better/farther forward so that the lens will just stict out the openings giving the light pattern an unrestricted cone( 35 degree pattern). The new SS braided longer clutch and brake lines should be in Wednesday as well. I called Motionpro and Barnett about getting longer throttle cables and they both said, " Those years of VFR's are not in our database and you'll have to send them to us(both in California)." So I called my local Honda dealer and he referred me to another local M/C shop and the guy said no problem, bring them down Saturday morning and we'll make as long as you want them. CBR Subframe should be here this week as well, then all hell will break loose fabricating things. :unsure: OH new Micron Ultralight shorty pipe (240mm long) and weighs only 1 1/2 lbs. then I have to get with a good exhaust man to fit it up under the seat....I act like this is all going to happen before TexasMac. Still haven't even decided what color to paint it ( if I even have time) so don't be suprised if I show up in gray primer. :o

That looks like Darth Vadar's bike.

I haven't seen all the pics (dial-up) but what I have seen is impressive. But why Convertibars, wouldn't stock 4th Gen bars work ok? Or F3/VTR bars, both are lower than 4th Gen and work ok with the tank. Well, when you go back and look at all the pictures of Niltons bike you'll notice that he has totally flat clip-ons that are really low as far as riding position goes. This would be ok for some riding, but I want to be able to raise the bars up into a position that is comfortable for a 3 hour trip(like TexasMac is going to be).

Thanks for the comments.....I agree with you. I have been doing more research on small lights and I've found some 2" diameter PIAA driving lights that will most likely look better and even fit in the openings more forward for better visibility. I'll be taking more pictures with the lights hooked up to show what it looks like at night. I will confess, that I wanted to try these first because they were $ 40.00 for the pair and the other ones like the PIAA brand were $ 300.00 so there is always room for Continuous Improvement Concepts to be implemented in the future......hey when I get done with the initial conversion, I'll have to have something to fiddle with anyway. :D

Looks like no activity on the thread...you must be getting as fed up as I am. :beer: I've gone and done it now. Subframe and exhaust removed. Stock subframe, fender and taillight weighs 15lbs. Muffler weighs 13lbs. Finished the bracket for the lights today. NOW....NO comments allowed on the shadetree fabrication, I don't have a shop, barely have a garage. <_< This is the front view with the lights in place I still have one small angle bracket to put under the lighting horizontal square tubing piece that will hold the oil cooler up and also a RAM mounting ball that has a 10/24 female threaded insert in the bottom so that only the ball will be showing on top of the tubing. I'm starting to have serious doubts as to wether or not it will be ready for TexasMac. :beer: Tomorrow I will order the longer SS braided hydraulic hoses for the clutch and brake master cylinders.

They are shown now below the triple clamp. The brake and clutch master cylinders are rather tall. I took a trip to the local Honda dealer to look in the showroom at all the bikes to compare heights of them. The one salesman directed me to the service department, where a guy took me in the back room which was filled full of old used bikes. In the dark corner is a 86 VFR with a locked up motor. The brake master cylinder was gone but the clutch cylinder was still there and it looked only 1/2 as tall as the 97 model. He wanted 50.00 for it, so I said I'll be back....went back to work....OOPS...and looked them up on Ebay and found a 86 model being parted out and won both the clutch and brake master cylinders for 15.90 I will most likely be ordering all Goodridge SS hoses as I can get the Yamaha dealer which is 1 mile from my house, to get them in 1 inch increments.....most likely every hose up front has to be about 4 inches longer than stock. Also had to notch out the bottom fiberglas to position the oil cooler farther forward than the CBR bodywork would allow, otherwise the oil cooler would hit the fork tubes boots at full lock. You can see the red lines that had to be cut out for clearance. I'm just about done with the front bracket that will hold the small lights positioned inside the fairing/vent openings and attach that aluminum angle bracket to the bottom factory fairing mounting boss on the steering head...I had to take off about 1/16" off each side so that a notched piece of square tubing could slide over it. The bracket to hold the two small driving lights is made of lightweight aluminum(isn't it all light? :beer: )shown in close position of where it will end up. The driving lights are rated at 55 watts each and have H3 bulbs in them...they are sold as auxillary driving lights and usually mounted on big Cruisers/Touring bikes for additional lighting. I called the Mfg and asked him about using them as regular driving lights since they were 55 watters and he said they work fine. I did hook one up to see how bright it was, and my son and I both went. JEESH....pretty good for lights that only weigh 7 ozs each. I'm tired, enough for this time. More pictures later. Stay tooned for more lunacy. :beer:

Got some more pictures to show all the issues I'm dealing with. The Helibars naturally put the clutch master cylinder up high which hits the fairing. ON both sides So the only solution is to get Convertibars Which means taking the top triple clamp off so that the Convertibar main clamps can be positioned below the triple clamp.

What are you doing about mirrors? Didn't see any on there..did see mirror block-off plates on the fairing.

The front has to be completed before I'm going to start on the back. I will be getting a F4i subframe and adapting it over as necessary. The two subframes are not very different in dimensions from what I initially measured. I'll make it fit if it takes the last dollar I have. :beer: I am at the point of no return. :o The gas tank to seat is definitely different on the 3rd Gen, but now I'm going to concentrate on grafting the rear f4i solo tail on the bike and then figure out if/when I want to get a 3rd Gen tank. Well, I do want to change to the 3rd Gen tank, as I just like the looks of it better. Anyone got a donor tank out there? The only one on Ebay now is beat up pretty bad. I like the frame with out the vents .....good job on the Photoshop as usual. :thumbsup: Last note: Do you think 767 Fixer will shake my hand at the TexasMac meet now? No more NACA ducts. :lol:

This is a photo based thread to expand and hopefully find out all the modifications and hassles in converting a 4th Gen bike bodywork over the the CBR F4i style bodywork. All credit and inspiration goes to Nilton Carlos Barbosa who posted pictures of his Brazilian bike. The initial research showed that he used aftermarket race bodywork. I called around and found out inside information on several companies and quickly dismissed HotBodies Racing. I was pointed towards the Attack Performance race kit which is a two piece front unit(upper/lower) and a one piece solo race tail. This stuff is featherweight...I'll be getting some digital scales this week and will post up the weight reductions in various areas. Thanks to member vfroem who dropped 150lbs off his bike, I decided that I would set a goal of 100lbs for my bike. I have about 28 days left to finish it...started last week with the initial removal of stock bodywork and trial fitting of the Attack stuff. This is Nilton's fantastic bike. Trial fitting Installed the Dzus fasteners in the supplied dimpled alignment holes. Used the factory fairing mounting brackets and locations and drilled the Attack bodywork. Next post will show some of the places I had to remove fiberglas for clearance issues. And also show the major issues with the handlebars/brake resevoir and clutch resevoirs.

BTW....hurry up and put that sucker together. :goofy:

We are all Proud of you. Great color choice.....classy looking like Safe-T. :salesman:

Truly Unique......nice job

Got the magazine, read the article, said, " Cool Stuff "

Looks great. OK whats with the pacifier on the keyring?

Lookin good......conformed pretty well to all the surfaces.....must be thin stuff. :thumbsup:

Thanks for blazing the trail for future fork swaps. Lookin' Good. :salesman:

Could you take a picture of your hugger so that I can see how it mounts up or where it is bolted? Thanks

Not to hijack the thread, but has anyone weighed the stock horn versus the Stebel? Curious about that too.

When is the test ride report coming?

Is Hyperpro the only spring out there that has a progressive rate to it? All the ones I see are one spring rate.