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1996 Honda VFR750SF

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37K views 136 replies 36 participants last post by  SEBSPEED  
#1 ·
#2 ·
I got to see the upholstery process, and saw some cell phone pics my brother had a few days ago, awesome to finally see the top secret VFR in all its fightered glory.

Congrats on finishing the build! I know this one has been a very special one from the way Trav was talking about it. Seeing it with my own eyes now just reinforces that fact in a huge way.

:party-smiley:
 
#12 ·
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#23 ·
This is what started it all... a spare motor obtained in October of 2009...

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By December 09 it had gone through a couple iterations...

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I originally saw it having clip ons and being more of a track animal



By January I had changed my mind a couple more times...
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That evolved into a bit of rolling my own

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Got some schmancy controls

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I modified an RC51 SP2 front wheel to fit in the CBR forks

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Added some PAIR block off plates - Hayabusa parts from ebay fit perfectly

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Sold the FOX shock I had and picked up a nice Wilbers 641 with a fresh rebuild

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It was around this time that I changed from clip ons to dirt bike bars

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In September 2010, a friend picked up a 96 parts bike, and as it had lower mileage than the one I had, we negotiated a deal for the motor. Easiest way to drop 30k miles... the "new" lump has only 14,093 miles on it.

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I decided that I wanted to paint the motor black. To accomplish this, I started by degreasing and washing the motor. I followed that with a soda blast, primer, and high temp ceramic black engine paint.

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I am going to end up skipping around a bit in the timeline. The project took a bit of a turn 2 years ago after I was hit by a "lethal lefty" on my maiden voyage with my CB900F. That accident really messed with my head as I had put a lot of effort into that bike and it was difficult to see it laying on its side within 2 hours of putting the license plate on it.

It greatly influenced some decisions regarding this project - mainly the rear bodywork. I was planning to make a big deal out of creating some one-off bodywork, and I decided against this in favor of parts that I could adapt to the bike, and therefore also replace with relative ease if the worst case were to repeat itself.

Along the way, I found some rocking horse shit... Two Brothers full system!

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This photo marks the end of the "make everythign from scratch" phase, and the beginning of the evolution into the bike you see at the top of the page.

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With the freshly painted motor ready, and a spare swingarm that I sent out for powdercoat, I set about rearranging parts.

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#24 ·
Another fork in the road... frame in hand, about to install on the freshly painted motor... leave it stock, or do something different with it?

Hmm...

Something different it is!!

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At this time I also had some neat ideas for the forks. Knowing they were super short, I rebuilt them with heavier springs for my weight, and lengthened them internally by about 1/2". I also rebuilt the compression shim stack to my liking, and prepped them for paint.

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While the carbs were still off, I opened them up to install new rubber and a Factory Pro jet kit.

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I had a set of Vortex frame sliders kicking around from my CBR600, so I modified them to fit the VFR frame

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Tasty

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With visions of John Player Special livery dancing in my head, I set about dosing the CBR forks with some House of Kolors magic...

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Pagan Gold Kandy on the sliders, Orion silver on the bottoms. Custom decals by Throttlepimp (Kevin Sigler @ Switchblade Designs) - he is my go-to guy for custom graphics and he's been great for years!

Wheels were sent out to a V4bbs forum member who totally botched them, then they were re-done by a semi-local shop.

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I attempted to wrap the tank with black fiberglass, but that was a miserable failure.

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Luckily, I was able to realize my error quickly, and peeled it back off before it really turned into a lot of work.

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A bit of reassembly to cheer me up

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Rear down tubes were wrapped with black header wrap and stainless ties

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It took a bit of fanagling to get those tubes in place properly

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Then this crazy idea happened... CRF250R exhaust can

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Then another (much more infamous) idea:

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Raw cover and primered tank:

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Made up some front brakes lines using Earl's hose and fittings. These were later replaced for cosmetic reasons, but they worked well.

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#25 ·
How I made the tiny exhaust fit the bike...

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I opened the top of the can by chucking a mill cutter in my drill press... not the smartest thing, but it was kinda sorta necessary. It slipped out of my hand, and I had to touch up a few "chew" marks...

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Packed with ceramic blanket

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#26 ·
I liked how the Honda dirt bike rear masters had integrated reservoirs, and I also didn't like the cost of billet parts... so I bought a CRF rear master, and reamed it out to fit the larger VFR brake piston parts. VFR is 1/2" vs CRF 3/8".

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A little polish and paint, plus a pressure switch for the brake light, good to go.

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Bar end mirrors needed solid mounts not provided by the dirt bike bar, so parts had to be made.

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They are retained with set screws hidden under the grips

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Use of the oil cooler mounted in a vertical position meant the fittings had to be reworked - more on this later

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The HRC 600RR quick turn throttle was coupled with a custom length throttle cable... and by custom, I mean that I cut a ST1100 cable to length, and soldered on a new brass end that I cut from a wood screw...

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I came across a build on customfighters.com where a member had used a KTM dirtbike headlight on a build. I really liked the look and shape of the light, I just had to have one and do my own take on it.

I started with the light, a sketch, and some cardboard, then replicated it in aluminum.

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Around the same time, I found that I really preferred the shape of the 3rd gen 90-93 tank, the straight line vs the knee pocket really drew me in.

I think it transformed the entire build!

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Fitting the tank wasn't all peaches and cream, I had to cut the rear mount off and replace it with the mount from the 4th gen.

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