I had started a thread a while back but it's gone so made a new one
So I bought My 02 VFR back in 2011 that was in a rough cosmetic condition for $900. It had just under 5k miles and ran perfect. Came with the side fairings and a banged up tank from an earlier model but was missing the rest along with the headlight. I decided i was going to make it into a street fighter. Started the project but then got caught up with my car's modding and engine rebuild. Now that that's out of the way I'm back to the VFR and will be documenting my work on this thread.
How it looked when I first brought it home in october 2011. Then added projectors and a tail light.
Painted the tank and frame then later added a windshield, replaced and painted the right case cover, painted the radiators and front fender. Thats how it stayed for a while cause i was short on free time but now I'm back on it and getting things done.
It looks great naked. EXCEPT - the radiators. Wonder if there's enough room behind the front wheel to put one there in a more conventional position. And how large would it need to be? Does the VFR have two honking radiators because it requires the capacity or because they had to be mounted on the sides for space reasons, therefore more surface area to make up for the loss of direct airflow?
Just recently I fabbed a cover for the coolant tank out of sheet metal with just pliers, a sharpie, and metal cutters. nothing too fancy. Yesterday I started chopping up the subframe and fabbing up an under tail and this is where I'm currently at. Almost done but still need to do some finer cuts and need to bold it up completely. Still thinking how I'm gonna do the new taillight setup.
It looks great naked. EXCEPT - the radiators. Wonder if there's enough room behind the front wheel to put one there in a more conventional position. And how large would it need to be? Does the VFR have two honking radiators because it requires the capacity or because they had to be mounted on the sides for space reasons, therefore more surface area to make up for the loss of direct airflow?
I have wondered that myself.
Also, I would replace the overflow bottle with a metal one and feature it.
I'd like to see a shot from the front with the headlights and shield. What did you get the lights from?
Following so I can keep up with your build. Curious what can be done with a 6th gen.
The 6th Gen certainly lends itself to the streetfighter style a lot better than I expected it to. Looking good :fing02:
On the dual side-mounted rads, there seems to be a few reasons why Honda did this:
- moving to side-mounted rads meant they could shorten the wheelbase as there was no rad for the front wheel to hit - 5th Gen wheelbase is 15-20mm shorter than 4th Gen
- no one else was doing it
- it's Honda, we do stuff just because we can
There's plenty of anectodal evidence here that you can ditch one rad, reroute the plumbing, and still have decent cooling, although maybe not for heavy traffic commuting.
It looks great naked. EXCEPT - the radiators. Wonder if there's enough room behind the front wheel to put one there in a more conventional position. And how large would it need to be? Does the VFR have two honking radiators because it requires the capacity or because they had to be mounted on the sides for space reasons, therefore more surface area to make up for the loss of direct airflow?
There is zero room for a radiator behind the front wheel. I believe it has two on the side because of the engine's v4 design, and with one cylinder head going out towards the front wheel it eats up all the space. There was barely enough room to relocate the oil cooler back there.
@AndyB: Hmm... where would I find a metal overflow bottle? And i was thinking of making a cover to hide all that stuff. Here are a some frontal nudity pics. Got the projectors from the junk yard off a daewoo. lenses are from lexus projectors.
@NorthernVFRDave: Good idea. Time to find me a mint VFR and chop it up. :tongue:
So I finished the under tail this weekend and i'm happy with the results. Could have been a bit better but not complaining. the tail light setup is only temporary until i get the LEDs i ordered. I'll probably get shorter screws in black so they aren't so noticeable.
I find it funny and a bit irritating when people come up to me and try to tell me what my bike is when they don't have the slightest clue lol.
I've heard that front mounted radiators don't flow that well to start off with. They obviously flow a little bit, but the front wheel creates so much turbulence that there never really is direct airflow like in a cage.
There was one (Italian?) bike that had the radiator mounted under the seat with two puller motors mounted undertail. I thought is was a Mondial, but I cant find it. Not the pic I remember, but http://images.search...&fr=yfp-t-622-1 I think I'd go with black fans, but that's just me.
There was one (Italian?) bike that had the radiator mounted under the seat with two puller motors mounted undertail. I thought is was a Mondial, but I cant find it
Benelli Tornado Tre.
Standard the rotors/ventilators were yellow.....
[image: 003123407@Benelli-Tornado-Tre-.jpg]
Benelli found out the hard way that cooling is taken care of at the front on 99.9999999% of other bikes. It suffered cooling issues. apart from that, the Tornado showed what good looking bike can be made when money is no object, but that money alone doesnot make a good motorcycle.... engine that would blwo, parts vibrating off, oil not staying inside, too weak a battery, electronic nightmares. The dutch importer bringing out regular "fixes/updates".
Revised the tail a bit and changed the light setup but moving the Plate under the tail wasn't the best cause it hit a few times. Removed the ugly messed up yoshi pipe it had and opened up the cat, gutted it, made a baffle and created my own exhaust out of it. Not too loud, not too raw, i think it sounds perfect. Added a short clip of a quick roll thru my street. Doesn't sound very good on vid tho.
I used an aluminum plate behind my gauges to get rid of the tie-wrap problem like you seem to have also on my 929 streetfighter. The guages were actually connected with a big pad of velcro and that held them at the perfect spot and they didn't move a bit.
Also, I painted the stock coolant tank with "aluminum" paint, but on this bike it is hidden between the header and the front of the block next to the oil filter. Might work on a VFR also?
I used an aluminum plate behind my gauges to get rid of the tie-wrap problem like you seem to have also on my 929 streetfighter. The guages were actually connected with a big pad of velcro and that held them at the perfect spot and they didn't move a bit.
Also, I painted the stock coolant tank with "aluminum" paint, but on this bike it is hidden between the header and the front of the block next to the oil filter. Might work on a VFR also?
Yeah I haven't gotten around to making a proper bracket for the headlights, windshield, and speedo. Making a plate is a clever Idea, I might try that. As for the coolant reservoir I'm thinking of painting it black so it can't be noticed much under the cover.
Looks great man! I'm currently looking into making my 06 Vfr into a street fighter. And I just love how you used the stock seat. A couple questions. When you were making the under tail, I noticed on a few pictures the seat being yellow? Is that from removing the black plastic from the seat? I'm trying to piece out how much sheet metal I need to get in order to do it on mine. Any help would be great. Thanks
End of thread · 25 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 5 Oct 2015
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