Late last year I picked up a 98 YZF600R front end for $300. It was missing a front fender, but the price seemed right.
However, the bike had been stored outside for a few years, so it was not in the best condition.
When it was disassembled, I found:
-bent forks
-bent right clip on
-stripped gear in speedo drive
Work done:
-straightened and rebuilt forks with .85 kg/mm springs, 15mm preload, 10 weight oil at factory level.
-removed YZF600R ignition switch from upper triple clamp. (extractor broke off, making this much more difficult)
-polished brake rotor bolts (very rusty, bike was stored OUTSIDE!!)
-rebuilt both calipers & polished caliper pistons (reused original seals, they were is excellent condition)
-polished upper triple (lots of small nicks from keys bouncing off it)
-removed old tire / installed track scrub (120-70-17)
-straightened bent clip on (+/- 1 mm to original)
-new wheel bearings in YZF front and CBR F2 rear.
With the warmer weather, I hope to start to take apart the VFR and start the swap this week.
I am taking lots of pics and will update hondavfr.org after everything is done.
I can't wait for awesome brakes, better suspension, and modern rubber!!!
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on Mar 19 2009, 10:11 AM, said:
Pics!!
I have taken lots of pics and they will be comming soon.
If the weather is warm this weekend, I should be able to start the swap!!
Also, I will be putting on a F3 rear tire. The rims don't match (3 spoke and 6 spoke) but I don't care. The F3 is a spare rime for my track bike, so the price was right!!!
The weather was OK, so I started the front end swop. Here are a few pics: [image: Posted Image]
Stock Front End Removed.
[image: Posted Image]
Test Fit: Checking steering locks and clip on & tank clearance.
[image: Posted Image]
Full bump simulation. I wanted to make sure the front wheel would not hit the rad or cylinder head at full bump. When I did this I didn't know the front suspension travel (130mm) so I assumed it could use all available travel. Anyways, this method showed 1/2" clearance between the tire and rad.
I will re-do this today and only move the forks up the actual travel of 130mm and see how much clearance we have.
(A friend of mine adapted a 929 front end on his 86 VFR, and when he tested it under hard braking, the tire touched and he went down.)
Interesting day... not too much progress, but I got a few things figured out.
(1) Steering stops: On my bike, at full turn, the YZF forks hit the clip/wire that holds the oil hose as it goes to the oil cooler. I drilled the YZF stops, tapped them for a 4M x.07 bolt and that gave me the clearance I wanted.
(2) Steering Stem Dust Seal: I was able to re-use the "All Balls" upper bearing dust seal, however, you must use a knife and remove the inner lip, so the seal sits flat.
(3) Front wheel clearance at full bump: With the top of the fork level with the clip-on, there is 130mm space between the lower triple and the fork dust seal. This is also the front suspension travel. SO if you raise the forks (lower the front) there is a chance the suspension may bottom on the lower triple!! Be careful with your spring selection!!
Next up: Making the VFR ignition switch work in the YZF upper triple...
Don't just post them for me, there are lots of people who read posts like this. As a result, they might want to do a similar mod to their own bike and pics help so much when you try new mods! :fing02:
[image: View Post]Franko!, on Mar 29 2009, 04:37 PM, said:
(A friend of mine adapted a 929 front end on his 86 VFR, and when he tested it under hard braking, the tire touched and he went down.)
Your method seems a lot safer :biggrin: I hope your friend didn't hurt himself when he tested his 'tire clearance'.
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on Mar 30 2009, 12:06 PM, said:
Don't just post them for me, there are lots of people who read posts like this.
Yeah, just noticed this topic today. Very cool mod and keep us posted :fing02:
As you can see, they are quite different. I send "Paul" an email on the Yahoo VFR list, since he has done this already, and he explained what he did. He cut down the two "mounting posts", drilled and tapped the mounting holes on an angle.
At this point, I don't think I need to angle the ignition switch. I am going to remove 4-5mm more on the YZF triple to gain some more clearance. I will create an "offset" bracket to move the ignition switch out just a little and this will allow me to use the YZF triple to bolt on the ignition switch.
After this is figured out, I want to see if I can mount the fuses by the ignition switch. (like factory)
More to come...
[image: View Post]Franko!, on Mar 29 2009, 09:37 AM, said:
Full bump simulation. I wanted to make sure the front wheel would not hit the rad or cylinder head at full bump. When I did this I didn't know the front suspension travel (130mm) so I assumed it could use all available travel. Anyways, this method showed 1/2" clearance between the tire and rad.
I will re-do this today and only move the forks up the actual travel of 130mm and see how much clearance we have.
You'll need to do this with the fender on to really know for sure. Unless, of course, you aren't going to run a fender. :biggrin:
[image: View Post]FotoMoto, on Apr 3 2009, 04:06 AM, said:
You'll need to do this with the fender on to really know for sure. Unless, of course, you aren't going to run a fender. :biggrin:
Good point!!
BTW:
With the fork is mounted flush with the clip-on, it looks like there is 130mm of space from the fork seal to the lower triple. This is the same as the front suspension travel!!
If you have raised your forks in the triple there is a good chance your fork seals may SMASH into the lower triple clamp depending on your spring rate.
I am going to run the ugly YZF600R fender, and I will test the clearance later.
Franko, put a bit of vaseline on your trip reset knob, that will make it black again.
I also noticed your gauges are faded - there is a member here making new face decal replicas. Mine are being used as a prototype and they will be available in many configurations afterwards! :fing02:
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on Apr 3 2009, 11:14 AM, said:
Franko, put a bit of vaseline on your trip reset knob, that will make it black again.
I also noticed your gauges are faded - there is a member here making new face decal replicas. Mine are being used as a prototype and they will be available in many configurations afterwards! :fing02:
Interesting, I wouldn't of thought of that. How long have you been doing that for? I know vaseline will eat latex... does it do anything to plastic?
As for the gauges, it really doesn't bother me. From what I have seen, most "new" decals greatly reduce the light transfer at night. (I think they sit on top of the OEM decals) Is this still true?
[image: View Post]veefer800canuck, on Apr 4 2009, 04:11 AM, said:
Nice work. And what are the plans for the rear wheel?
I will be using a CBR F3 rim. When I purchased my F2 track bike, it came with a ton of spares. One of those was a nice F3 rear wheel. Two years ago, I purchased a "cut and welded" brake caliper for my VFR. The F2 and F3 have the same spacing at the axle.
This is where my DOT track tires will end up. The track bike only wears the edges, and the street bike wears the middle.
[image: View Post]Franko!, on Apr 3 2009, 10:43 PM, said:
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on Apr 3 2009, 11:14 AM, said:
Franko, put a bit of vaseline on your trip reset knob, that will make it black again.
I also noticed your gauges are faded - there is a member here making new face decal replicas. Mine are being used as a prototype and they will be available in many configurations afterwards! :fing02:
Interesting, I wouldn't of thought of that. How long have you been doing that for? I know vaseline will eat latex... does it do anything to plastic?
As for the gauges, it really doesn't bother me. From what I have seen, most "new" decals greatly reduce the light transfer at night. (I think they sit on top of the OEM decals) Is this still true?
I've been using the trick for over a year, no harmful side effects yet.
If you decide to freshen the gauges, I can also give you a couple part numbers to order from superbrightleds.com, it will only cost a few bucks to get the leds, and you can put them in while you apply the new face decals.
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on Apr 4 2009, 01:35 PM, said:
Also, if you have a spare rear F2/3 brake caliper bracket, you should be able to use that instead of the cut & welded piece.
I looked at my F2 rear brake bracket and it attaches to the swing arm via a slot. The VFR swing arm does not have this slot, so I don't think the F2 bracket would easily be adapted and I don't want to weld anything to the swing arm.
[image: View Post]Franko!, on Apr 9 2009, 11:05 PM, said:
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on Apr 4 2009, 01:35 PM, said:
Also, if you have a spare rear F2/3 brake caliper bracket, you should be able to use that instead of the cut & welded piece.
I looked at my F2 rear brake bracket and it attaches to the swing arm via a slot. The VFR swing arm does not have this slot, so I don't think the F2 bracket would easily be adapted and I don't want to weld anything to the swing arm.
You can reuse the brake torque arm and bolt it to the F2 caliper bracket. It won't look perfect, but neither will the cut & welded piece. Get creative with it!
I have made a bracket that enables the VFR ignition switch to bolt to the YZF upper tripple AND the steering lock works!!
Then I made another smaller bracket to hold the fuses. I am very happy with how it all turned out. Here are a few pics: [image: Posted Image]
[image: View Post]Franko!, on Apr 12 2009, 03:47 AM, said:
Next up bolt on the clip-ons and front wheel, then start the F3 rear tire conversion.
Yeea, not quite that easy... The YZF clip-ons need to be drilled and WOW are they lower than the stock VFR clip-ons... just over 3" (anyone have 90-97 VFR clip-ons for sale??) [image: Posted Image]
Ok, now clip-ons are drilled and installed (except for left grip): [image: Posted Image]
Suspension travel check: With the forks flush with the clip-ons: [image: Posted Image]
There is about 3mm of clearance from the top of fork seal to bottom of lower triple with the suspension fully compressed. [image: Posted Image]
Now I have started the F3 rear conversion. A few years ago I purchased a cut caliper arm and spacers, so this will be much easier than the front. (I hope)
If I am not our riding all day, I might post some pics of the final result.
[image: View Post]Franko!, on Apr 18 2009, 06:39 AM, said:
I have started the F3 rear conversion. A few years ago I purchased a cut caliper arm and spacers, so this will be much easier than the front. (I hope)
Well, it was not "easy". I broke the rear caliper torque arm while trying to give it a nice "S" bend. The local welder was closed, so I used to tube steel to re-connect the arm and give it more of a twist. [image: Posted Image]
AND that caliper arm that I purchased is twisted by 5 degrees, causing the rear pads to drag. [image: Posted Image]
I tried to mix Yamaha and Honda steering head bearings. They have the same bearing number, but a different manufacturer. That didn't work, as they were binding and the bike did not want to turn.
Tomorrow I will order new steering head bearings and see if the local fabricator can fix the twist.
Here is the bike with the 17s on: [image: Posted Image]
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on Apr 19 2009, 11:58 PM, said:
It's never easy, is it Franko?
I like the front fender!
This has taken much more time than I expected, but it has been fun. Once the suspension is dialed in, I hope it is worth it.
As for the fender, I HATE IT! To me, it looks like a falcon beak and does not match the rest of the bike. I may "square up" the front of the fender to match the rest of the bike.
[image: View Post]HispanicSlammer, on Apr 20 2009, 02:16 AM, said:
Interested to know how you straigtened the forks? were the tubes bent then straitened somehow or just replaced?Here is how I did it. After many ideas, I came up with this: [image: Posted Image]
I have two pieces on angle iron (one was not enough!!) back to back.
On the left is an old clip-on from a CBR F4 (41mm dia)
On the right is an upper triple from a CBR F2 (41mm dia)
The big clamp is from my Princess Auto universal joint tool
The trick is to hold the tube with something round, so you don't flatten the tube. The old upper triple & clip on worked great. The tube has a max of .001" out of round.
2" PVC plastic tube with one side cut. (so it fits over the fork)
Then I bent some .060" sheet metal as a spacer
Then a 2" x 3" nipple (it has a smooth surface on the inside)
Every inch I would find the low spot, reset the deflection gauge, and mark the high spot.
I would deflect the fork about .200" for 30 seconds at the high spot. That would take out about 0.005" I took a few times to do this, and I actually over bent it by .012" but I was able to get it back to 0.003"
I am so happy!! I was hoping to get it under 0.010", but 0.003" is awesome!
The other fork was bent .024" and I got it down to .006".
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on Apr 23 2009, 12:12 PM, said:
What kind of measuring tools did you use?
A $30 deflection gauge, magnetic stand, and v-blocks. It may not be the most accurate, but good enough for me.
Last week end I went for a test ride and it sucked!! The bike did not want to turn, and the rear brake was dragging due to the twisted caliper bracket. (purchased from Yahoo VFR group)
I had my original bracket cut and welded and the rear brake does not drag.
As for the steering, I tried to reuse the existing bearing and seal on the YZF triple. As it turns out the bearings were fine, but the seal was being pinched, and that caused the slow/sticky steering. New bearings and seals were put in.
Now I just finished the second test drive and the bike is much better. Tomorrow I will raise the rear 25-30mm and go for a nice long ride. I am almost done!!
Well, it is done!! AND the test drive was great!! (until the hail & rain...)
In the morning I cleaned and greased the needle bearings in the rear suspension.
I also increased the rear pre-load by 2mm to 9mm and extended the Penske shock by 6mm to increase the rear by about height by about 30mm.
I am very happy with how the ignition switch turned out. It only took a week of planning and making a bracket... [image: Posted Image]
I still need to re-measure the bike, but I should around 26 degrees rake, and 109mm trail.
From the short ride, it felt great, but a little slower turning in. (part of that is the additional 6 pounds in wheel weight.
We had great weather this weekend, so I spent Sunday morning setting up the suspension.
The front and rear race sag (bike and rider) is now 30-35mm. On the front, the rebound and compression are set in the middle.
I spent the next 8 hours riding the bike. I must say, with the suspension dialed in and the radial tires the bike is amazing when going over bumps. AND the skittishness of the 16" is now gone BUT some of the "flickability" as the speed increases is gone.
I also dropped the gearing ~4% (16:43 on 17") and like I the extra zoom...
Overall, I am very, very happy with the upgrade! The bike feels very planted and gives great feedback.
[image: View Post]Franko!, on May 4 2009, 04:27 PM, said:
AND the skittishness of the 16" is now gone BUT some of the "flickability" as the speed increases is gone.
Do you have a 120/70 or a 120/60 front?
I tryed a 110/70 and a 120/70 front on my when I had a zx9r fork on it, and it was way more flickable whit the 110/70. A 120/60 would do the same as both (110/70 and 120/60) have a smaller diameter and therefore redus the trail.
[image: View Post]keny, on May 11 2009, 07:45 AM, said:
[image: View Post]Franko!, on May 4 2009, 04:27 PM, said:
AND the skittishness of the 16" is now gone BUT some of the "flickability" as the speed increases is gone.Do you have a 120/70 or a 120/60 front?
Great project finnished man :fing02:
I am running 120-70-17.
I know this size increases the trail, but this way I get to re-use my track bike tires :)
Next weekend I will re-measure my bike and see where the rake/trail/sag is at.
I was not too happy with the YZF600R brakes... something was wrong, as they should be awesome brakes.
As it turns out, the pads were the original pads (11 years old!!) that had been stored outside for a few years. EBC HH pads fixed that!
The new pads are still braking in, but the difference is amazing. They now work just like I expected.
One thing that didn't help is last week I went to FAST II (local race school: http://fastridingschool.com and rode a new race prepped R6 on track for a day. Wow, that thing has it all... power, brakes, and handling!! The brakes work so well, you can lock up the front easily with one finger.
It is kind of funny, we spend lots of time and money on very old bikes trying to "update" them. The result is an old bike of mixed parts and mixed results, but I am fine with that. Nobody can say we take the easy way :)
[image: View Post]supertex, on May 11 2009, 06:58 PM, said:
Looks great. Did you reuse your 86 streering stem or did the yzf work?
The YZF stem works great. This is one of the main reasons I went the YZF route. If needed, I can always go back to stock.
The lower bearing is the same size (30x55x17) but the top is different. VFR: 26x47x15, YZF: 25x47x15.
I tried to use the factory YZF lower bearing & seal, BUT the lower Yamaha factory seal was compressed by the VFR steering neck. The bike rode like it had a steering damper set to "too stiff". I had to remove the lower seal, but the only way to do that is to remove the lower bearing race.
I purchased new roller bearings (AllBallsRacing) and their lower seal was a different shape, and fit perfectly. Problem fixed.
July Update:
After about 2,000 KM on the YZF clip-ons I put on the 92 VFR clip-ons. They were fairly easy to install. I had to drill the holes in the clip-on bars to locate the switches, modify the bracket to hold the master cylinder reservoir, and change the routing of the brake lines. (so they are not pulled tight at full droop)
Result:
Much better for sport touring. With the YZF clip-ons my shoulders were tired after an hour. With the 92 VFR clip-ons my shoulders are good for 2+ hours.
The YZF clip-ons are 1/2" below the triple, and angles at about 8 degrees.
The 92 VFR clip-ons are ~2" above the triple and angled at about 5 degrees.
Did you ever get the final rake and trail numbers and if so, how much of the slower steering feel is caused by changes to the rake/trail and how much can be dialed out with a smaller/shorter front tire?
[image: View Post]budgolf, on 27 June 2010 - 09:16 AM, said:
This thread is full of great information!
Do you think an F3 front wheel would fit that fron end without a lot of modification?
I really don't know... you would have to check and see if the rotors would align up with the calipers. If that is OK, then you would need to make custom spacers since the F3 doesn't have a speedo drive off the front wheel.
[image: View Post]cornercarver, on 08 July 2010 - 08:28 AM, said:
Great work Falco? Where are you located?
Did you ever get the final rake and trail numbers and if so, how much of the slower steering feel is caused by changes to the rake/trail and how much can be dialed out with a smaller/shorter front tire?
Thanks, Keith
Thanks! I am in the Mississauga/Toronto area.
I did get the final numbers, but I have since raised the rear a little. (love that Penske shock!)
Right now I run Pirelli Super Corsa Pro (120/70/17 & 160/60/17) track take offs from my F2 track bike.
The problem with that is the tires end up being very pointed and the bike falls into low speed turns.
I am thinking of getting some Michelin 2CTs ((120/60/17 & 160/60/17) which will give a little less trail and a less pointed tire profile.
(Plus good grip in the rain)
Once I have the new tires on, I will re-measure the bike. Hmmm, I may measure before as well. It would be neat to compare...
When you increase the front rotating mass (tires, rims & awesome brakes) it will turn a little slower, however, you do get used to what you have.
I do enjoy how stable it is on the highway passing trucks and on windy days. PLUS the brakes inspire a lot of confidence.
End of thread · 58 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 4 Jun 2011
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