JamieDaugherty

Yeps thats what I said , Did, and posted above aside from the fork oil.. Every thing I have found leads to stock oil being 10wt. Are you sure it is 5wt ? Also several in this thread mentioned that 7 and 5wt oil was to light when they completed this mod. A very well seasoned Local mechanic sugested I try 15wt after taking a test ride with the current 10wt oil i put in there.. I upgraded the springs last year, Front and rear.. 1.0 fronts and 18kg rear.. I've never seen Showa (they make the forks) use anything except 5wt fluid. Every set of forks that I revalve uses 5wt fluid - there is no reason to run anything higher. If the valving isn't correct, a heavier weight fluid will only add harshness and not really fix the problem. Getting the correct valving setup is most important 15wt is WAY too heavy, do not use that.

FYI - The stock VFR fluid is 5w and you should stick with it. There really isn't a lot of difference between the F4/i internals and the stock VFR800 parts. The biggest difference is the external rebound adjustments (fork caps). You would have/want to keep the VFR compression assembly as the CBR's is setup for an external compression adjustment which you won't get on the VFR. Because of this, there are some tricks to getting it setup properly. The swap really consists of changing the damping rods only. You should keep the VFR cartridge tube and compression valve assembly. Replace the VFR damping rods, rebound valves and fork caps with the CBR parts. Be careful to check the spring preload as the spacer length needed is usually different than stock VFR length. If you are bothering to go through this much work, you should also replace the springs with ones matched to your weight also.

It's one of the first, so I'm hoping that you'll e-mail me some feedback once you get it installed. Several others have installed CBR954 shocks so it's sort of a proven thing. The conversion that I did is pretty much the same as the other shocks I've been doing for a few years now.

Total for the conversion and new spring is $240. You can normally pick up a donor shock on eBay for $25-30 including shipping.

Go with the 0.95's, that's going to be better than the 0.90's I think. That's what I recommend for riders that are your weight and have not had any complaints. Just make sure to set your sag properly and you would be all set.

Yeah, it's a big improvement over stock. Not only is the performance better but the ride quality is improved as well. It's an all around better shock in every way, especially with the revalve.

Yeah, there have been a couple of guys who have fitted the 954 shock to the VTECs. The 929 is a better choice for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th gens.

I've promised some folks an update once I got this ready, so here it is: This is the first CBR954 shock that I've converted to fit the 6th gen VFR's. Pretty straightforward and similar to the conversions I already do with the exception that the extension is at the top mount instead of the lower. That took some interesting/expensive fixtures and tooling, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out. If anyone is interested in converting a CBR954 rear shock to fit their 6th gen shoot me a PM. New spring is pretty much required unless you are disgustingly light. This particular shock was revalved as well.

As if you needed another opinion - yes, springs by themselves is an improvement. Any suspension setup assumes that the proper spring rates have already been installed. I'd suggest getting the correct spring rates on both ends before tackling the damping. Run 5w fluid even with the higher rate springs, heavier fluid will not really help the performance.

I looked it up in my spreadsheet then double checked on a couple of CBR954 shocks I have: CBR954RR shock travel = 38mm This is the stock shock, aftermarket shocks may be different. The rear wheel has a travel of 135mm for an overall linkage ratio of 3.55:1. I hope this helps!

I guess just from being around and doing a lot of work on shocks. As mentioned previously, I have my own spreadsheet that details the length, stroke, mounting dimensions, spring rates, etc for the various shocks that I deal with regularly. I first noticed this when I guy stated that his Ohlins CBR1000RR had an advertised stroke of 58mm and I measured the one on my bench at 42mm. Ohlins sometimes designs in more stroke to their shocks, but not that much. You can find the Ohlins "advertised" shock travel using a Google search, probably what the author of this spreadsheet did.

FYI - The data for the shock stroke is not correct. This information must have come from Ohlins as they show the stroke without bottom out bumpers, etc. This is not the functional stroke of the shock. Please disregard that information in the spreadsheet!!!

redmarque - Can you just attach the xls file to your post?

I've created my own spreadsheet wit this information and have been populating it over the years. It's by no means an exhaustive list, and it would be interesting to compare my actual measurements with someone else.

Linky no workie..... for me anyway.

For the 6th gens I'm working a CBR954 upper extension. I think the oreintation of the reservoir on the 954's will suit those bikes better. I've got the first CNC parts made I just have a few more details to sort out before building some prototypes. I've been doing lots of CBR929's for the 4th gens and it works great!

Nah, it's too long.

I don't about you guys, but if 24mm is enough to make-or-break, I'd be rethinking what I'm trying to move my bike through.

So, help me understand: you don't like the bar ends because they make the bars too long, yet you make them longer to install longer grips. Did I miss something? The bar end weights that I run are only about 20mm long. That's more than the 8mm you refer to, but is it really that much of a difference? I'd think the mirrors are what keep you from going through a doorway. Which begs another question....

The 92-94's had 15.0kg/mm and all other years had 14.6kg/mm stock. Why?

Were you sure to get the right coils? You should have Accel part number 140403, it's the opposite of what you think it would be. Your bike has CDI ignition but if you use the CDI Accel coils you will see flames come out of the spark boxes - seriously.

At first I thought it was some kind of welding jig, but I wouldn't use 7075 for that. My official guess is a piece for the rear shock linkage.

That would require the same modification as a CBR929RR rear shock. It's also too short to fit the VFR directly. You might be more specific, the shocks changed about three or four times during the 93-99 period and the relative performance of each varies somewhat. The leghts changed as well. The shock is from a '93 CBR900RR. I don't have the data from Honda regarding length and stroke, but from Ohlins, for comparison purposes, they list the 900RR shock length at 319mm, stroke of 54mm. For the 6thGen VFR, for which Ohlins has 2 models, they list length for both models at 317.5mm, and strokes of 53.5 and 54.5mm. At least from this data, the CBR shock is 1.5mm longer, and smack in the middle of the two VFR shocks wrt stroke at 54mm. Thanks in advance for any insight. Yes, the 93's are the longest of the 900RR shocks. My notes show the 93 900RR shock to be 326mm and the 02+ VFR as 315mm, that's a huge difference. I'd measure the 900RR shock to be sure. Ohlins probably makes the shocks shorter to cover more years and let's the user adjust the length to suit. Adjustable ride height is a great thing.

Coils? Are you talking about the shock spring?