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Showing results for tags 'swingarm'.
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Hello all! So I did this mod a couple years ago and I've absolutely loved it! I originally did it to my first vfr800 which was a silver 2003 non-abs model. I put about 17,000 miles on that bike with about 8,000 - 10,000 of those miles after I did this mod. Unfortunately I was in an accident and the bike got totaled. I skipped between a couple other bikes but eventually bought myself another vfr! My lovely white 2006 abs viffer I currently ride. I swapped the aftermarket rear wheel from my old bike onto the new one right away and I've put 3,000 miles on it since then! If done right this mod works amazingly! I trust my bike any distance on any road, from the city to highway, and even the mountains to the canyons! Rain or shine! When it comes down to performance, I've never noticed any less after the mod was done as compared to stock. With the new rim I went with and the wider tire, the rear wheel for me weighs about 3 pounds or so more than the stock one did, sure That may make an incremental difference to a very experienced track rider but these bikes aren't designed for track only use and they are far from the fastest bikes out there, so to me, the extra weight is well worth the look! And again all that being said I've never noticed any kind of performance loss, I've burned trough my chicken strips with easy and the bike seems to have all of the get up and go that it did before. So I definitely recommend this mod! Before doing this mod I referred to many of the other forums where people have discussed this. And I took a little bit from each of them to get it done. I still recommend reading through all of those as well as this one to get as much of an understanding of it as possible. The biggest problem for most people was finding a good rim that worked well with a motorcycle tire. I don't remember exactly what brands, but there are some brands that you definitely want to avoid and others that are very safe to use. I found that out from reading those other forums and hearing how some people struggled while others did not. This issue comes from the fact that you are using a car rim with a motorcycle tire and they aren't exactly designed for one another. That being said each rim manufacturer varies somewhat from one another so some rim work great while other not at all to mount the tire to. The rim brand I went with is NinjaWheels, and the exact rim I bought was the Ninja NJ11. My tire guy had to use a little extra elbow grease to get that tire on there but it went on without any problems and hasn't caused me a single issue since! Now the rim I bought was a 17"x7" rim with a 40mm offset. This offset was too large to fit center when mounted to the hub. So in order to correct the offset, a spacer was necessary. I took a spacer I already had and had it machined to fit my application. I drew up some specs for it in the picture below. Its a 20mm spacer with the 4x100mm holes drilled for the studs to go through and the center cut out in a way to maintain strength and cut weight. (This particular spacer also had 4x114.3mm holes drilled in it that are unnecessary). It may be worth noting that this 20mm spacer was required since the rim used was a 40mm offset. If you choose a different rim with a different offset, the spacer and stud length will need to be adjusted accordingly. With the VFR, I wanted a good sport touring tire, and with the rim being a 7 inch wide rim, my options were limited. That being said I found an amazing tire (that I've bought again for the rear and the front) which is surprisingly, the Shinko Verge 011. Now yes, you dont got to tell me twice about the general perception of shinko's, I know that alot of them are just trash, BUT NOT THE 011 VERGE!!! Haha Since I was searching for a 200/50r17 tire, the Verge kept popping up as one of the few sport touring tires offered in this size, and after reading countless reviews almost entirely 5 star rating, I was sold enough to give it a shot. Now I've used dunlop Q3's and Pilot Road 4's before and they are both amazing tires, but the Verge is honestly just as good! It's a dual compound tire so it's center offers incredible longevity while the sides are very soft and sticky allowing for excellent cornering in the twisties! Plus it does absolutely amazing in the rain! And on top of all that, you just cannot beat its price point of ~$140! Lastly, since you are using a spacer for the rear rim you will need longer wheel studs to account for that. I went with ARP Extended Wheel Studs. Now I used 12.5*1.5 wheel studs that were 2.5 inches long but I ended up having the cut just a little bit off of the tips so that my lug nuts could secure all the way tight. If you can find 2 inch long wheel studs those would probably work, but for the peace of mind that you have as much threads in there making contact with the lug nuts, you can do what I did and just remove any extra as necessary with a hack saw. Also, With this specific rim, there was not enough space for normal lug nuts to fit so i bought a 4 pack of splined lug nuts with the special splined socket that came with it. These are slimmer in profile and fit into the lugnut holes into the rim perfectly. This may or may not be a problem for you depending if you bought the same brand rim as me. One thing worth noting here is that the rear wheel studs are pressed in and will require you to take the hub (once its removed from the bike) to a shop where they can then use a hydraulic press to press out the old studs and press in the new ones. There are ways to do this at home but with this sort of thing I didn't want to risk messing up anything or damaging my hub, so I had a friend at a shop do it for me. After all of that the final thing you need is to slightly modify you chain guard by cutting off on small part of it so it will not rub on your rear wheel. The wheel will have about 1/4 inch of clearance between it and your swing arm when its all done and tight. The slight modification done to the chain guard can be seen in the picture below. Summary List of Parts Used: Ninja NJ11 Rim, 17"x7" size, 40mm Offset, 4*100mm bolt pattern 200/50r17 rear tire, Shinko Verge 011 Custom made, 20mm thick, aluminum wheel spacer (as seen in pictures above) Extend ARP Wheel Studs, 12.5*1.5, 2.5 inches long (with some of the tip of the bolts removed for secure fit) Slight modification to the chain guard (to eliminate any wheel rubbing) The exact process of doing this mod consists of: 1) With the bike on its center stand and in first gear (and possibly with the help of a friend holding the rear brake) brake loose the large hub nut on the left hand side of the swing arm 2) Remove the rear wheel and real break caliper 3) Remove the large hub nut on the left hand side of the bike 4) Loosen the chain bolt and then put all of the slack in the chain 5) Pull the chain off of the rear sprocket and let it hang down onto the ground 6) Pull off the left hand side of the rear hub assembly (the big bowl like piece the sprocket is bolted to) 7) Slide out the rear axle/hub out the right side of the swing arm 😎 Replace the wheel studs as described above 9) Reassemble in reverse order of the steps described above with the new wheel And here's Just a bunch of pics of the bike with the wheel! Please wheel free to ask any questions or comment below!
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Hi all, In the middle of doing a Nitron shock install on my 1999 VFR. All was going well, removed the linkage plates, found the top mount nut, and then I discovered I didn't have the large hex bit required to undo the bolt securing the connecting link. I attempted to undo the nut on the opposing side but suceeded only in rounding it slighty - it was tight as hell. So, one taxi ride to Halfords and back later and I have the hex bit, bit because it's so damn tight I rounded the bolt head - now I'm truly screwed. The way I see it, I cannot manoeuvre the old shock out of position without getting the connecting link out of the way, and I cannot get the top mount off the shock (to allow the shock to come further down and possibly allow me to articulate it out of the way) because access is so damn poor. I'm in crisis mode here - save me people!!!! The pic will hopefully show the extent of the problem.
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Hey everyone, long time lurker, first post... I'm just finishing up replacing the chain and sprockets, but I can't find my service manual after a recent move. Can someone please tell me the torque spec for the swingarm pivot bolt? Thanks! Here she is...
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So I am starting a VFR Project bike to keep me busy until the weather gets better so I can ride again. Though I do think I will still be working on this project even after it is riding season. I have found that trying to find actual specs either hard to come by, wrong or people throw their opinion into a thread that might have real info in there but has so many inaccuate infomation that the facts have become untrustworthy. One such fact was trying to find the weight of the VFR swingarm. I couldnt find any true hard facts on the actual weight but I read how heavy it is...some people even said it was twice the weight as a modern DSSA. Well I had the bike in pieces so why not find out...To be fair the VFR swingarm has stuff like the sprocket, cush drive, and brake disk attached to it so to get an actual comparison I weighed the complete swingarm, with wheel/tire, brake caliper and complete shock assembly. I just happen to have my swingarm off my 2011 CBR600RR...so I am using that as a comparison. The VFR has a BT023 tire on and the CBR has a Pilot Power 2CT. Both are pretty worn so no real advantage of new tire vs old tire. I know some will say I should have taken the tires off but in the real world you would have them on and I don't know about you but I do not go around with my scale and pick the lightest tire I can find when I get new ones. What was the outcome...well the VFR swingarm assembly was heavier no surprise... but not by the amount I was expecting. 2004 VFR swingarm/tire/shock - 67lbs 2011 CBR600RR swingarm/tire/shock - 59lbs That is 8 lbs!!! I was fully expecting over twice that... To me I will take the 8 pound penalty and keep the SSSA for no other reason besides they are cool. I figure I need to go on a diet anyway and can easily lose that much. I hope this helps people.
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I am a newcomer to this forum and as with most newcomers I begin with a problem. I own a 95 VFR which is currently in pieces in my basement pending reassembly. I am attempting to remove the rear axle and bearing holder in order to regrease bearings and machine the rotor, however the splines seem to be frozen in the bearing holder or sprocket mount. When I removed the axle nut I used a 24" breaker bar and around 250 ft-lb which is way more than what should be expected considering the 141 ft-lb torque req. Upon removal I noted some corrosion on the axle but nothing significant. I am now stuck with the rest of the assembly. The flange collar is still in place and it seems like it should just slide out but I have resorted to trying to remove it with the sprocket mount. I have tried a gear puller, blunt force and the setup shown in the pic to remove the sprocket mount with no movement on the shaft. My next step would be to try a machine shop and have it hydraulically pressed since I will be removing the swingarm anyways. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. And note that the bar started out flat.