Winter project

Since the model year for my old girl will be 25 years old in a month, I thought it was time to pull her out of the living room and put her back on the road.  The list of things to do;

clean the carbs

rebuild front brake calipers

general tune up

install the rear brake arm

install Maxton ride height adjuster

install 17" rear wheel

new tires

Micron slip on exhaust

Ride her!

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PBR  can't  go  wrong   ....

My red lowers, my white wheels and my Blue ribbon beer!

Yes, ISR calipers, rebuild kit and tool was not cheap, but availible in the US.

Amen  brother   !!!

Nice Job ahead there Sam, good collection of parts to keep you entertained over the cold nights of winter

Clinty

Why was the rear "brake arm" always removed on the RC30s anyway? Was it just a weight saving mod?

Not sure, I think that is the case, it came to me that way, but with the parts too, plus I picked up an extra.  What I have noticed is that I went from no rear brakes to a locked rear wheel with very little in between.  I pulled the original disk and put on an EBC disk and different pads and the results were the same, so I am hoping this will change that and give me a useful rear brake.  Only one way to find out.

Below you can see how it is done, and the light weight option I will be putting back on.

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Carbs are done, they looked much better than I thought they would, I have started it twice since my last ride in Early 2006.  A few of the jets were clogged, but it did not take much to clean them up, it makes me want to throw them on right quick and fire her up, but too many things on the to do list.  The little carb insulation is pretty cool, but makes the quick jet change carb float bowls pretty worthless...  Anyone have a couple of the float bowl screws lying around?  I need a couple of them....

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The leaking capiler is apart, I am going to take my time and try to clean it up before putting it back together.  I am sure there is an easier way to do it, but compressed air and long fingers seem to do the trick.

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Carbs are done and back on, so are the brakes.

The air box is a little different that my other VFR's, the dirt ends up inside the cone filter.

My safety wire job on the pads are not quite as good as what they were, but I am sure they will hold.

Next on the list is to do an oil change and fire her up, then on to the rear wheel and rear brake arm.

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Me  to as for  as  the  air  filter  setup.

OK, got slowed down by the Holidays, the Flu, a Polar Vortex and other projects.  But, she is running like a top now, had to go back into the carbs and clean the filters.  Seems the RC30 does not have an inline filter between the tank and carbs, but each carb has its own little filter above the float valve.

The main focus has been the rear wheel.  I think I can now say what it takes to get a Ducati wheel on the Honda.

Step one - The center bore.[image: DSC02180.JPG]

The Ducati wheel has ~45mm center bore, the Honda has a ~51mm center bore.  So off I went to the Machine shop and had it bored.

Step two - Wheel offset.[image: DSC02185.JPG]

The search on the web indicated that the Ducati wheel had about 6mm more offset than the Honda wheel.  My bike at a 3.5mm spacer already installed, so when I compared the distance to the chain between the Honda wheel and the Ducati wheel, they were pretty close with just the the 3.5mm spacer on the Duc wheel.  But I had the machine shop make the 6mm spacer, I just need the to open up the holes a little more.

Step three - cone spacer for the wheel nut[image: DSC02184.JPG] [image: DSC02187.JPG] [image: DSC02182.JPG]

Not just the 6mm spacer, the duc wheel is also thicker at the hub, so when using the original spacer, there are about 2 threads of the nut not on the bolt, so using the cross bored hole for the clip or safety wire is out of the question.  I tried the Duc spacer, but the Duc uses a much larger nut to hold the wheel on, so the center bore of the spacer is much larger than the Honda.  Now, that seems odd since the Honda has a larger center bore on the wheel, but if you look at the hub, the center bolt is mounted inside the hub, so smaller bolt/larger hub.

I will head back to the machine shop to see if they can make me a spacer for the wheel nut, and have them tweak the other spacer.  But it sure is nice to see a 17" wheel on there!!!

Why was the rear "brake arm" always removed on the RC30s anyway? Was it just a weight saving mod?

And now we know....

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I guess I can scratch that one off the list.

Contact  captain  !!!

Just call me Captain Brain Fart... :rolleyes:

Ignore the post above, just rotate the brake caliper around a little and suddenly there is all sorts of room...

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Now it is on, so it is all good, just need a shorter bolt for the front mount.

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Did  Honda  make  that  swingarm ?  and  not  a  vender,  looks  beefy...

Looks like Honda/elf, please ignore the gross exhaust...

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Ah  there  it  is   the  Elf  label  ..

"gross exhaust", That Kerker is beautiful, if you don't want it post it to me, I'll happily pay the postage. :wub:

Thanks for the offer! :biggrin:   I was not really talking about the exhaust itself, just the black stuff running down from the joint from trying to start it after 7 years in the house. I really need to clean it up.

Nice bike. Do you have video of it running? I'd like to hear that exhaust note.

Nice bike. Do you have video of it running? I'd like to hear that exhaust note.

Thanks, unfortunately I don't, I don't really have a good way to capture video or sound.  But it is a good idea, I have the Kerker on there now, I have a Micron to put on it and I have the stock system, comparing the three would be a good project.

First attempt at a youtube video, but this is the Kerker exhaust on a not quite warm enough RC30...

http://www.youtube.c...eature=youtu.be

Final spacer is back from the machine shop, fits perfect! I put the clip in there just to demonstrate that the holes line up perfect.

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Now, about the wheel weights...  That is pretty pitiful for what it is.  I think I can do better than that.

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How does Michelin mark its tires for balancing?  The Pirellis have a red dot, all I saw on these are a UPC near the bead.

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Now I have a tire on there!!!!!  It clears the swingarm, and look, only a 1/2 oz of weight!

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Look what I got for my Birthday, one more item on the "to do" list.  I have a buddy coming over Saturday to help me with the install, no center stand on this one...

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Niiice

Got the shock on today, not too bad a job, very easy to adjust, I like the top mounted spring adjuster, even though I did not have to adjust it, it was set with about an inch and quarter sag, so I left it alone for now.

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I put the Micron on, I am not very happy with it, the can seems to stick out at a weird angle, I think i would have to cut the mount off the subframe to get it right and the kick stand rests on the pipe.

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I think I am going to put the Kerker back on, looks like too much trouble to try and correct the Micron.

New tire is on the front now, got the ride height adjusted, about an inch difference between the 18" and 17", even with the tires, so I adjusted the height up about 3/4" , 1/2" was for the size difference, I put another 1/4" to try to speed up the side to side transition because of the 180 rear tire.

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Swap the exhaust and body work up next.

The Kerker is back on, got it a little better aligned this time, the fit is so much better.

I got all the body work back on.

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Easy to see why Honda went the way it did when WSBK first got started.

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Now, about that ride....

NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCEEEEE!!!!!

Havnt seen one in person in awhile. 

Bravo

BEAUTIFUL

RC30 - the most incredible bike ever, from the best motorcycle company ever.

Thanks for sharing, we don't get many of you premium members in ;) and fewer still post pics like that...

Strange, my Micron fits really nicely.

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Thank you.  The RC30 has always been my dream bike, fell in love the first time I saw one, sitting on a stand at a motorcycle show in the late 90's.

Your Micron fits much better than mine, love the looks of it. Looks like you have a slight tilt from the 2 into 1 section to the can. mine is straight from the 2 into 1 to the can, which may account for the higher angle of mine, causing it to hit the mount.  Also looks like you installed a protector on the back pipe for the kick stand.

You can sort of see the straight angle in this pic.

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