JamesHambleton 87' VFR750 Liz

Well it's a rather unusual start I suppose. The bike is 80 miles away from me, I don't have the licence to ride it home yet so there she will sit, 80 miles away.




How ever I've taken inspiration from another fighter (can't remember your name sorry) who had his bike over 200 miles from his flat which is shared with his girlfriend and he did work in his flat and bought a frame to start mocking things up on - this is the route I'll be taking so I'll get the dated photo from that point.

I've decided to call my bike Liz after a friend who sadly lost her life at the age of 22 doing what she loved most - riding her speed triple 1050 - I've decided to try and use as many triumph parts in my build as possible


I've got a few parts already so I can at least start working on things.

If anyone would like to follow the thread on CustomFighters here are the links: http://www.customfighters.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3052118 and here is the discussion thread http://www.customfighters.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3052116  

This thread on Cb500club.net is also welcomed to have discussion between my progress posts.

Just finished work and there was a package waiting for me....






zx10r forks have come, the only disappointment is that what I thought was a scuff is actually a dent
Photo makes it look worse (paint wise) than what it is but shows the dent rather well

[/QUOTE]



Onwards it is... and out of the bedroom. Hang on this is the wrong forum for that. :shocker:

I took the wheel, forks, and finally the calipers downstairs, I got the mounting bolts for the calipers from a pair of very bent 675r forks and the bottom yoke from them too.


and the rest of the stuff


Raided the garden for a bit of tube that's 25mm..ish... this is 23mm typical but this is it cut down to length ish.


With the calipers bolted on I put them on the wheel without the spacers at this point. Looks alright so far.


Until I look at the caliper alignment



I had some tea (to eat) and had a break, looked in my room again for the caliper and I couldn't find it. Found it under some stuff in the shed my mum had been moving (typical - how most of my things go missing), it was last on the kitchen table.



Delighted with my efforts I had a cuppa tea,, more specifically a pint of tea. Why? Because I'm English... and moving onto urm cheesecake.


I then took some measurements for future reference.







Celebratory cheesecake, also just realised the colour scheme of the wheel matches the cheesecake... which remind me I'm hungry again. Dammit!!!




As I say these are for later references.

I wasn't able to do anything else as the tube was bending and not the right diameter, axle bolt - should I find one - will be bought next week. Having that will allow me to work out the front end dimensions easily, I have a few mm to play with either side thanks to the caliper running track for the disc.

No progress has been made but I have new parts, and others on the way. 
Today I bought a rear sub frame, frame and tank, 60 miles from home so I did the only logial thing was -  bungie it onto the back of my trusty cb500. 

Can finally get some dimensions sorted out for the swingarm so that should be good.
 


Couldn't get a dated paper sadly so I've used the monthly issue of motorcycle monthly (November issue)


Oh and I've got the front axle bolt coming at some point next week so that should make the front end workable.. just need someone with a lathe now who's local.

Lost my job today so I was back at home for 8:10am, got the frame and subframe and bolted them together.


Since today is my mum's day off work we sorted out the back end of the shed (her things) and that took most of the day. Managed to move some of my stuff to make better space too.

Managed to finally get my vfr frame into the shed onto a bench that hasn't been free in months, just gave it a quick wipe down with some TFR. Somewhat mocked up the swingarm and it needs a bit of trimming to make it fit the frame - not much but it does a tiny bit.






Oh and I bled through the front calipers and mastercylinder with new brake fluid.

Jameshambleton wrote:Lost my job today so I was back at home for 8:10am, got the frame and subframe and bolted them together.

At least they did the decent thing and told you at the beginning of the day ;)

Best of luck in getting a new job or (alternatively) having enough time to get on with this project!

eternally_troubled wrote:

Jameshambleton wrote:Lost my job today so I was back at home for 8:10am, got the frame and subframe and bolted them together.

At least they did the decent thing and told you at the beginning of the day

Best of luck in getting a new job or (alternatively) having enough time to get on with this project!

Cheers, just means I need to watch the pennies now and stop splashing out on expensive bike parts. Though that will become an issue within the next few weeks as everything that I now need is expensive, custom machining, hydraulic tools, yokes, stainless tube, ect ect. Oh and bodywork and paint. 

I'm thinking about investing in a lathe but then there is learning how to use one properly. 

Jameshambleton wrote:

eternally_troubled wrote:

Jameshambleton wrote:Lost my job today so I was back at home for 8:10am, got the frame and subframe and bolted them together.

At least they did the decent thing and told you at the beginning of the day
Best of luck in getting a new job or (alternatively) having enough time to get on with this project!

Cheers, just means I need to watch the pennies now and stop splashing out on expensive bike parts. Though that will become an issue within the next few weeks as everything that I now need is expensive, custom machining, hydraulic tools, yokes, stainless tube, ect ect. Oh and bodywork and paint. 
I'm thinking about investing in a lathe but then there is learning how to use one properly. 

It's not just the lathe that works out expensive, the tooling you need probably adds up to more than the initial outlay on the lathe.

sorry to hear that james hope you get fixed up with a fresh job soon

Got my job back at the cafe today, it's not much money but it's better than nothing and leaves me with free weekdays for now so I can get a job somewhere else in the mean time. Should start building up the funds rather quickly again after getting a 2nd job I hope

great stuff james glad you cracked a job so soon

Good to hear James.

Done a tonne of cleaning of parts today as well as measuring up, good and bad news... atleast for me. Might be needing custom yokes unless I can manage to somehow claim back a few extra mm on the front.

To claim back a few mm (I'm thinking of spacing out the front discs which is less than ideal, or somehow finding some discs that have the same bolt pattern and pitch but I've got no idea where to start looking this up. Discuss pro's and cons with that please. I think custom yokes will cost more than new discs?  

Here is a photo of the mocked up rear end that I took before the build off (thanks to Cookie and his thread for the details)


I wasn't happy with how rusty the rear nut, axle and rear disc looked - also a pre-build off photo



I started with cleaning up the nut, look at them bubbles go (and that is real time as you can also hear from the song)
Video won't embed so here is a link https://1drv.ms/v/s!ArP4grxhMWOpnhO3YhlTyi8c1GV0




A bit better than before




Still not 100% happy with it but it's much much better than what it was, just the inside of the axle letting it down now.



So onto the front end... The axle bolt came today



fitted the axle bolt and pumped out the pistons in the calipers to make sure they were centered and on the disc correctly.


Poor photo but this shows that I need a 5mm spacer for the caliper to clear the disc.


And this one shows how much of the spacer needs to have removed to get the alignment correct. 4mm


With the current spacing I'm roughly at 204mm but to get the alignment correct for the disc I lose 8mm, putting me down to 196mm and there isn't any yokes with that eye to eye distance. Lowest I can find is 204 (08-10 cbr1000rr) so it's either spacing out the discs, somehow finding some offset discs or buying some custom yokes.

Here is a load of measurements for the rc24 frame, axle points, swing arm pins ect.I don't want to clutter them all on the thread as they're kinda irrelevant for now - that and this thread isn't lacking in other photos https://1drv.ms/f/s!ArP4grxhMWOpnh8aUFzIhM9ezbHA

Turns out... don't do measuring when you've got a headache and you're very tired. Measured up the front end wrong yesterday.


I've remeasured it this morning and with the custom front spacers come the fork eye to eye should be 204mm, meaning I won't be needing offset discs and that the cbr1000rr yokes (or any 204mm yokes) should fit.

The spacing should be quite universal but that would be tooooo easy James, the diameters of the fork mountings often differ from bike to bike on the USD forks. Conventional right way up forks you knew where you stood with the stanchion diameters being consistent

54 lower, 50 upper, 43mm stanchion.
Given the hope that the forks are 100% spot on then the centers at the top will be inline with the bottom.

Oh Andy also don't worry about the spacers, a guy on the fighter forum has got some spare tube the correct size and is going to do some for me.

Just been speaking to Yorkshiregooner and he says that the Gen 3 and Gen 4 cbr1000rr yokes are the same dimensions meaning the 2008-2016 yokes are all interchangeable with each other. So I'm picking them up on Sunday at a bargain price too!

Picked up some cbr1000rr yokes this evening for a bargain price, went to meet the guy instead of getting him to post them (making connections) even though it for me about £7 in fuel and 2 hours of time. He also pressed out the stem for me so I can just get mine pressed in.

I was in a bit of a rush so no photos of them loose but here is them mounted to the top of the forks, I could have got some suzuki parts but urm... suzuki... Moving on Loving the look of these.




I did some measuring and some remeasuring and got the spacer sizes figured out. They're not exactly ideal for the caliper alignment but it's close enough and besides the pistons can take up the extra few mm.

Between the bottom of the forks there is 160mm of space. The wheel with bearings is 107mm, this leaves me with 53mm of space. I need x2 spacers so it means each spacers will need to be 26.5mm

Not much of an update but still an update nevertheless.

Managed to find a set of interceptor decals for 185 usd and they would even post it to the uk. Much less than the 300 usd website than I found for the exact same kit. So that's a nice little saving once I've got the money for it.
I'll post the link here for my own reference as I have a habit of losing website links. [URL="https://talonbillets.com/products/86-honda-vfr750f-complete-decal-set-pin-striping-warning-caution-decals-1986?variant=28346507145"]**website link**[/URL]

I sent at email off to the local paint shop so I'll wait back from them with a quote. I've got no idea what to expect price wise.

Edit: I've heard back from them but I need to go in and speak to Mick (the paint guy) tomorrow.

I heard back from the guy who's making the fiberglass rear cowling and side panels yesterday. They've been made and will be getting posted after I've paid in full for them, hopefully sometime next week or so.

Been reading into and trying to understand how the rear suspension linkage is going to happen thanks to honda's "pro-arm linkage", as well as the dilemma of Nitron or Ohlins for the rear shock, but that's quite a way off yet.

Well I might be out of the running for the winter build off. The waiting time for the paint is at least 4 months (March) and will cost £600. Given that I've still got my bike licence to do again this isn't looking good, at least for finishing on time. Managed to sell a bike but that doesn't even cover the cost of paint really, though I finally have some room in the shed.


The spacers came from Yantosh yesterday, so I mocked up the front end. Didn't quite want to work exactly so I had to "finesse" the axle bolt....and no, you're not getting a photo of that for urm... reasons..

Got the front end build up again as it was in parts on my window ledge.



One of the calipers slipped and well..



Replacement tank came (this will be the 3rd tank) and is in great condition minus the dent on the top.


And my hand for some form of sizing.


Going to get the yokes more specifically the stem taken the the local machine shop.. which I'd forgotten existed. To get the yokes sorted out. I'll buy some clip ons. Then that will be it for a while apart from the fiberglass panels that are coming next week hopefully.

I'll distract myself with last years project and get that sorted out this winter, while the fighter gets put on the back burner... in theory.

Long time no update....
Nothing else has gotten done ran out of money, spent some christmas money and picked up these little beauties though.
Delkevic twin carbon stubby cans, and the link pipes to go with it.

nothing wrong with delkevic cans that one sounded well on my cb5 crispy

I know what these cans are like with the baffles in (with a triple engine), god knows how many complaints I'm going to get running these without the baffle and with a v4 engine

well rc30

skyrider wrote:well rc30

Not quite, the rc30 has a 360 crank as the rc24 has a 180 crank

you will be well impressed with the engine note though