meet the pig... ... oink oink

A little something to keep me busy over the long winter evenings

modified late model cbr1000f wheels, 5.5" rear…3.5 x 17 front
cbr1000f modified forks.
yamaha yzf R6 swingarm,
ZZR1100 footpegs.
cbr600 rear shock.
modified rear shock mounting and linkages.

still loads to do

looks like a great starting point Pete! Which year model is that? Do you have any more info on the forks and what was required to make them fit? And the R6 swingarm/CBR600 shock?

Thats a lovely project Pete. Keep us posted mate.

Hi tony, good starting point, your having a giraffe, ive been at this six months now… fair enough 5 of those have been thinking time lol, will keep you posted martin

I bought the cbr1000f forks off eBay for £30 just as a experiment to see if I could get them to fit on the project bike, I had already decided to fit late model cbr wheels so it seemed like a natural choice, the big thing that worried me was the overall length (12mm shorter than the vf) and the suspension travel (150mm as opposed to 125mm for the vf).

The first thing to do was to shorten the length of travel, as I wanted to lower the front end of the vf a little I decided to reduce the travel to aprox 110mm, I did this by cutting a piece of 42.04mm diameter aluminium tube (3mm wall thickness) to 42.50 and inserting it into the bottom of the slider, it was a really snug fit and took a bit of pressure to push it all the way down, the spacer for the anti-dive leg had to have holes and a slot drilled in it so oil could flow through the anti-dive system.

Now with the suspension travel reduced you have to strengthen the spring. I did this by first measuring the strength of a normal vf and cbr spring.
Using a set of bathroom scales and a home made spring press I found that it takes approx 12.5 stone to compress a vf spring to 125mm (max travel), and also 12.5 stone to compress the cbr spring to 150mm (max travel)… (note cbr springs are longer than the vf ones)…
To strengthen a spring you need to shorten it, so I set about cutting 25mm at a time off the cbr springs, then testing the strength, eventually I got to the point where it was taking 12.5 stone to compress the spring to 110mm (approx 100mm removed).
Then You need to bend the last spring coil down and grind it flat, I did this by gripping the last 2 coils together with pliers and heating up, a normal plumbers torch provided enough heat to lay the coils down.
Then you need to make some longer spacers for above the springs and assemble everything as normal, not forgetting to allow an extra 42mm on top of the 173mm when measuring down for the oil level…

holes drilled in anti-dive spacer

shortened springs ready for assembley

fork caps removed showing full travel, new spacers poking out of top

Whoops! Sorry Pete, the first paragraph had me thinking that you had just picked this one up for a winter project.
You sound like me, lots of thinking, wondering, considering modifying other parts etc, but sadly in my case not enough action.
I have however been making some serious progress on the paintwork of my FF. Once it is finished I will post some pics for some opinions, good or bad.
Here are a couple of pics of the progress so far.
The last pic is what I started with.

[/URL]
[/img]
[/URL][/img]
[/URL][/img]

Any Aussies recognise this poor old girl? I still don’t know how this model will look in RWB, but I just couldn’t help myself.
Once I had all the plastics prepped/repaired I had a look at different colour schemes on this forum and google, I couldn’t find any of this model in RWB. So I just had to try it.
So far the actual paintwork is turning out better than I had expected, how it will all look on the bike could be another matter entirely!
If nothing else, I will have taught myself to spray paint, even if not at a professional level.

The finishing coat of clear has not been applied yet, too humid here today but should look heaps better with many coats of clear then buffed to a “wet look” shine.

hi tony, its the way i write “cant speek propa inglish” and punctuation…whats all that about ?? [:D]

The bike came to me about six months ago from phil who was passing it on because he didnt really have the time to spend on it,and needed to make some room in his garage, It consisted of a frame, one complete engine (not running yet!), set of standard wheels, standard swingarm, all the electrics and about seven boxes of other bits mainly engine stuff, no plastics,tank or forks.
I fully intended not to do anything with it untill winter apart from collecting a few bit needed, but once you started buying a few bits, you have to try fitting them, before you know it your in the middle of the garage surrounded with spanners and bike bits…
Anyway, i will post a bit of stuff up about the swingarm shortly, it took some figuring out and was more complicated than i originally thought it would be, and has major implications for the exhaust system which is my next project…

the panel’s youve sprayed look cock on tony, think the ff will look great in R/W/B… new mud guard and a clean and it will look like new.

Pete, I think you have a very good grasp of the “propa inglish” and punctuation, especially after looking at some local classified ads.
It seems that anyone under 25 is unable to accomplish either!
I should post some of them so you too can cringe as you read them.
I can relate to your comment about being surrounded by bike parts and tools, just have a look at my shed. I go through a monthly ritual of clean up and have plenty of room, tools all in their place until I realise now I have room to do a small job without tripping over parts and tools, before I know it I am back to where I started.
Tony