[bonehead]

Good progress,
You need to loose the rear end, here's pics of my black VFR, latter model with the monster seat and sub frame that I made, CBR 954 forks, etc
You can relocate an after market oil cooler to between headers and use stick coils to eliminate the large frame mounted stock, rear brake line thru the swing arm.
Check out any of Sebspeeds work here or VFR discusion, I borrowed a lot of his ideas, but nowhere near his standard.
Sub frame that will fit a standard battery is a lot smarter than the anti gravity, even though they are super small, super light and super exensive

(20mm gal tube)

 

[drt7877355]

Good progress,
You need to loose the rear end, here's pics of my black VFR, latter model with the monster seat and sub frame that I made, CBR 954 forks, etc
You can relocate an after market oil cooler to between headers and use stick coils to eliminate the large frame mounted stock, rear brake line thru the swing arm.
Check out any of Sebspeeds work here or VFR discusion, I borrowed a lot of his ideas, but nowhere near his standard.
Sub frame that will fit a standard battery is a lot smarter than the anti gravity, even though they are super small, super light and super exensive View attachment 152891


View attachment 152892

(20mm gal tube)

Looks Sweet Bonehead! Yes 100% going to loose the rear with a custom subframe and Yamaha R1 seat.

I did read about Seb's coil on plug conversion. There was a lot of talk about compatibility and measuring the resistance between the primary and secondary windings etcetera, but there sounded like it wasn't that straight forward so I wasn't 100% convinced that it all worked out. I have some R6 coils here that are too long as standard to fit but with some modification to the rubber boot could possibly be made to work. I think I'll keep it simple for now with the stock coils.

I have 3d printed some different designs for a bracket to hold the coils within the frame (photos below), but I haven't landed on a preferred solution and I might need to make some new ignition leads for them to fit properly.

I did remount the two front ones to the left side of the engine (you can see them in the photo below). I've also relocated the oil cooler to below the radiator which works well enough for now.

The rear brake line through the swing arm it a top idea. The brake line and the OEM chain guard will look really goofy with a more slimline rear end.

I agree 100% about the battery, it's great to have a micro battery hidden away, but being able to fit a standard battery is pretty sensible. The width of the frame where the subframe bolts up is 170mm apart to maintaining enough width to fit a 150mm wide battery shouldn't be too hard I hope.

 

[drt7877355]

Progress update.

Exhaust wrap on the headers and got a new muffler. Vinyl wrapped the tank just to try out a new colour. The wrap was harder to form around the contours than I was expecting so I'll have to paint the tank and mudguard properly, but I think I like the idea of a dark metalic grey for the cokour to contrast against the black parts and the clear anodised frame. I've rewired the bike front-to-rear and have prototype a battery tray under the seat, but the whole rear subframe is not looking quite like I had hoped so I might need to start again on that. I was planning on a tail hump/cowel at the back with a compartment for storage but the R1 seat is too wide and flat that it makes any hump look out of place. I am thinking a proper short rear subframe, more of a streetfighter look could be the best solution provided I can find room for a battery somewhere. I think a brushed aluminium panel blocking off the bottom of the tank and sweeping upto the seat will be the way to go.

 

[drt7877355]

It's been a while, but progress has been made and test ridden successfully!

 

[ToadofToadHall]

Are you planning to add a seat cowl to tidy up the back?

 

[drt7877355]

Are you planning to add a seat cowl to tidy up the back?

Yes, but in the long term I think I'll try harder to hide the battery somewhere and have the tail end at the seat (like my profile picture).

I had a go a using expanding foam and shaping something which turned out okay, so my next task it to try again with more foam and some overlay with fiberglass. This was attempt number 1.

 

[ToadofToadHall]

I like the shape !

imho bikes with a cowl look more balanced than bikes without, but that's just me..
How much space is there under the tank to hide a battery ? guessing not much ?

 

[lynchingacers]

that tail gives me 929 vibes...hehe
somthing off the internet-

 

[drt7877355]

Unfortunately no room for a battery under the tank with all the space taken up by the V4 carbs and airbox, and the underside of the tank fits too close. The only alternative batter location is on the side of the cylinder head, but a standard battery would poke out wider than the radiator, or under the bike perhaps next to the sump. A slim anti-gravity battery could work but I'd prefer a solution which can fit a regular battery just in case.

 

[mkwilcox]

If you wanted to go without the seat cowl, you might find that the battery space that you are looking for can be created under the seat and between the subframe rails. Having the bottom of the battery sightly below the rails and painted black it will disappear.

Using a similar technique you can hide a battery under the smallest of seat humps if you decide to go between the rails. Also, you could bend the last bit of the subframe up, and wrap the seat cowl around and under the subframe rails giving you more of the 929 look.

i.e. in your foam example, I'd bury the last bit of the frame rails into the foam, smooth the the underside and carve a cavity for the battery. Personally I like a smooth rounded seat cowl underside.

If you are getting 'writer's block' on where to take the tail, consider picking up a used beat up tail to envision how it all can come together. Your foam example reminds me of a Ducati 916 tail, although I'm liking the 929 tail.

Just some thoughts. I really like where you are headed.

 

[drt7877355]

If you wanted to go without the seat cowl, you might find that the battery space that you are looking for can be created under the seat and between the subframe rails. Having the bottom of the battery sightly below the rails and painted black it will disappear.

Using a similar technique you can hide a battery under the smallest of seat humps if you decide to go between the rails. Also, you could bend the last bit of the subframe up, and wrap the seat cowl around and under the subframe rails giving you more of the 929 look.

i.e. in your foam example, I'd bury the last bit of the frame rails into the foam, smooth the the underside and carve a cavity for the battery. Personally I like a smooth rounded seat cowl underside.

If you are getting 'writer's block' on where to take the tail, consider picking up a used beat up tail to envision how it all can come together. Your foam example reminds me of a Ducati 916 tail, although I'm liking the 929 tail.

Just some thoughts. I really like where you are headed.

Great suggestions. I did try to make the battery fit below the seat, a bit like the new Norton, which would have give unlimited stying options for the tail, but for some reason I abandoned that idea in pursuit of making that triangle area under the seat as open as possible.

 

[drt7877355]

Some more progress. I got the dash fully setup and calibrated, reconfigured the high beam flash switch to control the different displays on the dash.

Test rides have been epic, sounds really good:

The bike handles great but the rear end felt sketchy, it would spin the rear easily in 1st and 2nd. It turns out the rear tyre was manufactured in 2005 aka 19 years old.

The RC36 VFR750F uses a 5.5" in wide rear tyre which only suits a 170 wide tyre, so I bought a VFR800 rim which is 6" wide to take a 180 tyre and also looks better IMO.

Add to that some brand new Battlax S23 tyres:

Looking sweet after a clean and polish.

Decided to remove the bad wrap job I did and paint the tank. The green looks better in photos than in real life.

There was acutually quite a few dents and it looks like the tank was once red:

In primer:

Done, gun metal grey with a little metalic, followed by 5 coats of clear. I'll wet sand and polish this after a few days.

Also though I'd have another go at the tail. I reshaped the Yamaha R1 seat and 3D printed a battery box cover and then sprayed the expanding foam again, this time using two cans which was clearly excessive haha.

 

[Streetfighterkz]

The RC36 VFR750F uses a 5.5" in wide rear tyre which only suits a 170 wide tyre, so I bought a VFR800 rim which is 6" wide to take a 180 tyre and also looks better IMO.

The 90-93 750 (8-spoke) is 5.5” but the 94-97 750 is 5.0” which uses a 170 tire. The new wheel looks to be a VFR800 5.5” one which should be used with a 180mm. A true 6.0” use a 190-200mm width.

Later, Doug

 

[drt7877355]

VFR800 5.5” one which sh

Yes, my mistake, the new wheel takes it from 5" to 5.5". Main benefit was better tyres in the more common 180mm size.

 

[Smoker]

I love the shape of that tank. In the pic, the paint job looks awesome.

Nice work going on here.

 

[drt7877355]

Big push to get the bike ready for the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride in one weeks time. Lots of bolt checking, finishing the tank and painting small parts, and making the tail piece.

The tank looked nice straight off the gun, but I wanted it to be a bit smoother and flatter, so I blocked it down with 2000 and 3000 grit then machine polished it back upto gloss.

Before:

You can see some of the texture I'm trying to remove:

After 2000 grit sanding:

Before compound:

Before polishing, reflections are looking sharp now:

To make the tail I needed to shape the foam, took a bit of time just cutting and looking.

I kept it quite angular to help make sure it was symmetrical, with the intention of rounding and curving the shape towards the end.

I was going with the suggestion to make it wrap around and smooth the area under the seat, but eventually it would need to be split and the top half removable so I could get to the battery. The shape I ended up with surprised me as I though I'd try and go for something more round but I liked how it was turning out. I needed to put the tank on and stand back to get some perspective on the final scale of the tail compared to the rest of the bike.

Starting to rush now, two days before DGR so I focused on getting the bike ridable and threw some body filler over the tail foam. Unfortunately however the body filler never set, it just stayed soft so I had to come up with a different plan. I took some dimensions from the foam and designed the tail in CAD and started a 20 hour 3D print the day before the ride.

 

[drt7877355]

The afternoon before, I added 5L of fuel and started it up but it wouldn't rev, it turns out it needs more fuel in the tank before the carbs will gravity fill since the bottom of the tank is below the carbs and I'm not running the fuel pump anymore. At least now I know.

Back together in time for a test ride, still with some wet paint and the 3D printed tail only just finished. For the tail the only full roll of plastic I had on hand was blue PETG which looks a bit silly. If i had some black spray paint left I would have painted it. Even still it looks awesome all back together!

 

[XxGRYMMxX]

looks great! Paint turned out really nice and the tail looks good with the tank.

Worried at all about losing fuel when the tank gets down to the 5L mark?

 

[drt7877355]

looks great! Paint turned out really nice and the tail looks good with the tank.

Worried at all about losing fuel when the tank gets down to the 5L mark?

Thanks XxGRYMMxX!

Not too worried about the fuel. I removed the pump because I didn't really have space for it and I found a lot of forum posts from VFR guys who said that you can run the tank empty on the highway without the pump, and that the pump was only necessary when the tank was low and you were using a lot of throttle (think racing or autobahn). I suspect whist riding the fuel will jostle around when you go over bumps or accelerate and that provides enough to keep the carb bowls mostly full whilst cruising. Clearly I've found that the pump is also needed to prime the carbs when the tank is low and the carbs are empty, but that shouldn't happen very often.

Typically I try to keep the tank full so I can go ride anytime, and with a 21 Litre tank that's plenty of capacity. Also I calibrated the Motoscope Pro dash to read the factory fuel sender, so having an accurate fuel guage helps. And it seems the bike is very efficient; I road about 200km, absolutely thrashing it prior to painting the tank and I estimated to have used only 8 litres. My other bike for comparison, 2005 Triumph Speed Triple, 18 Litre tank, no fuel gauge and the reserve light doesn't seem to work after reflashing the ECU, and it guzzles the fuel so I only really ride 200km between fuel stops. So far running out of fuel in the Triumph concerns me, but not so much the VFR.

This is a picture of what the original fuel lines and pump looked like, along the side of the subframe:

 

[XxGRYMMxX]

lot of plumbing there, i can see why you'd want to ditch it. keep up the cool stuff!