Hey everyone, thanks for a great forum.
I have pined for a vf1000 for a long time and finally got a hold of a vf1000ff and a vf1000fe parts bike.
The fe will be my final runner as I prefer the tail end but it has no motor so the idea is to service the ff so its running well, strip the fe down to the frame, and rebuild it bit by bit replacing and refinishing everything as I go.
I have been restoring bikes for the best part of 30 years so I am happy with the process, mostly.
I am not familiar with this particular bike so I may pester you genius a little on the way.
Are there any differences between the two motors or wiring loom that I should be aware of?
I have done quite a bit of reading and can’t find any reason why the motor shouldn’t just slot into the new frame.
I have been massively impressed by the idea of a wheel change in order to increase the choice of modern front tyre I have and I very aware the most popular cbr600 option.
However!
I have in the shed an early 90’s cb750(rc42) with a frame that is too butchered to save (not by me)
I did some basic measurements of the yoke and the head bearings on the cb750 and they seemed to be extremely close to the dimensions of the vf1000.
I offered them up to to the head stock of the fe frame tonight and they just slot into place. It needs a little mod to the steering stops but other than that it just dropped into place.
The forks are a little short at 760mm but I was gong to drop the original forks through the yoke a bit anyway and the internals need servicing so I think I’ll put some nice yss progressive springs in at the same time. It also gives me the ability to put on handle bars rather than clip ons, something I had planned to do anyway.
Can anyone see any issues with this plan? I’d love to hear if anyone else has done this option and if it was a good route to go. The two bikes are of a similar dry weight so I’m happy that the cb forks are upto the challenge.
I also wanted to keep the rear wheel the same as the front so I offered up the rim from the cb750 into the swingarm after doing some basic comparison measurements. The distance between outer face of the brake disc and the outer face of the sprocket is exactly the same on both bikes and the outer diameter of the bearing is also the same meaning I can but new vf bearings and use the spindle from the vf.
When I offered it up, again it seems to slot straight into place. The sprocket lines up beautifully with the middle of the chain guard so on early assessment it looks like it’ll be pretty close to lining up with the front sprocket when in place.
The brake disc is hard to determine as its a bit smaller then the vf disc so doesn’t fit into the caliper as yet.
So here’s the dilemma, do I use the caliper and its hanger from the cb750 and weld a small block onto the inside of the swingarm to locate it correctly and stop it spinning or do I try to find a larger disc that fits the cb wheel so that I can use the vf caliper and hangar.
Any feedback on this little project/experiment is greatly appreciated.