If you had unlimited money
How much weight could you save by replacing the Original Frame and swinging arm from steel to aluminium on a VF1000Fe 1984 .
perfect replica and cost ?
I want one today.
If it were a perfect replica in terms of dimensions as well as appearance then you’d end up with a weaker and more flexible frame.
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If cost doesn’t matter, maybe use carbon fibre or titanium? Use Lithium for the battery.
But it won’t reduce much weight. By block is the engine.
My vf1000 has an ally swingarm anyway so just the frame is steel so I would think that the weight saving would be equal to a good sunday pub lunch washed down with a pint of best bitter, sooo to save the weight just dont eat so much before you ride the vf and save all that money for more fuel to ride it more.
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carbon fibre is 1.5 times lighter
Would the VF1000 engine lend itself to a beam type frame?
The high up width of the heads would probably make the resultant frame very wide, and top heavy.
Maybe a monocoque type, as per the ZX-12R or ZZ-R1400 would be good, that would wrap up and over, but incorporating the air box to keep the overall profile low…
Maybe something a bit more radical like an Omega type frame, ideally incorporating an FFE would be nice.
Imagine Bimota Tesi/Vyrus, but with a meaty v-four?
I’ll get me coat…
Someone tried making a bike like the tessi using a vf engine in the 80’s, the engine was used as the frame and swing arms bolted directly to both ends. Cant remember who did this but I think it wasn’t the 1000 engine, maybe the 750, maybe someone else can remember the details but you don’t get lighter than that, even a carbon fibre frame weighs more than no frame.
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Aye, that rings a bell, but there is usually some sort of sub-frame needed, the casings were never designed to bear that sort of load.