[Reed]

Hey guys, new to posting here. I found and became a cursory user of this site in 2010ish and signed up in 2011.

First bike was an anemic facelifted 2008 Kawi Ninja 250 that I bought off the showroom floor. It was fun for about 2 weeks until I realized that I had no love for it A because it was too small of displacement, and B because it was the first brand new thing I had ever had in my life as I was used to and addicted to building my own shit.

Needless to say, I rode it for about a year and a half with no accidents and no mishaps, but also no real excitement or passion. One thing I will give the bike is it was light as fuck and very tossable. I sold the bike in 2010 and have been waiting to get another bike ever since.

Two years of trolling CF, a marriage, and a baby boy later, I decided what I wanted and pulled the trigger on a 1998 fifth gen VFR 800 vtec. I've been sculpting this bike in my mind for about a year or more now and while it may be spring before things start moving really quickly, I'll have some fun shit coming in this winter while I finish up some other projects.

Rode it home 150 miles last Saturday. 45k miles, 3 owner, salvaged title vfr but it's in what seems to be solid condition with the salvage title coming from a LOW speed drop that scratched the plastics and barely grazed the engine cover. PO took e insurance money never resprayed the bike I guess.

Anyhow, it's getting stripped and a salvage title, well, igaf really. Moving on, shit pic but my camera wasn't handy.

Has polished swinger, wheels lips, and faces and slip on pipe. For $1600 I'll listen to those gear driven cams all day long baby. Here she blows ..

I don't usually name shit simply because I buy and sell a lot of cars, but I think this project might be around my garage for a while and I'd like to give it a proper name. Because of my fondness for gratuitous cereal pulp garbage tv I'm thinking maybe 'The Biggest Loser' because this fat bitch needs to lose some lbs, but I'm thinking perhaps the 'The Axis Of Evil' simply because this bike will be an amalgamation of Japanese, German, and Italian parts (more on this later) but time will tell.

To give you an idea of what I'm normally wrenching on,

I've had a dozen or so old BMWs ranging from e30s (mostly) but some e28, e36, and e34. The above is just my current project.

Oh and my other sssa Honda that I inherited in pieces. :rock:

This is an old pic right after I got it mostly put back together. It now looks much different but I'll have to throw up a pic of that later. Needless to say the garage is pretty cramped right now so the ruckus will be for sale soon.

Anyhow, enough bullshit from me. I'll update this thread with parts as I get them and plans for the vfr. And try and keep lots of pics in my thread for your effective time wasting pleasure.

Cheers

 

[Reed]

Well, did a bit of work. Not much but its exciting. I'll let the pics do the talking.

Then I got a big box in the mail..

And crude mock up

Now I need forks to make it look halfway decent.

As far as subframe comparison, the ducati frame is heavier than I thought it would be. Contrarily, the vfr8 frame is lighter than I suspected. Granted the ducati tail has to hold a 20lb exhaust and potentially two riders so its pretty beefy but I had too much hope that it would be featherweight comparatively.

I suspect between the two I've saved 3-7 lbs between frame and passenger pegs and relocating electronics. The other weight will come from the light, seat, and plastics.

The tail will be getting an exhaust tucked up under it so while it looks high in the pic that's a rough guestimate for the clearances and aesthetic I'm looking for

Might not see anything staggeringly new or unique on this bike, its my first two wheeled project and Im not trying to reinvent the wheel or nothin.

Cheers, more to come. 929 Rear shock upgrade on the way.

 

[Reed]

PS:

On the lookout for an 04-05 GSXR 600/750 complete front end. Triples, stem, forks, feet, calipers and discs. Would even buy controls, and handlebars if its that complete.

Pass the word back to me if any of you guys have a lead or know someone. Thank ye kindly

 

[Reed]

got some shit done girls and boys

clever (lol) tail positioning and support device while tubing being tacked in

Pretty fookin straight for my first sub ever.

After spending rookie hour on the top mount tubing I decided to just tack the bottoms and run them by a pro to fix and make look all pretty.

Definitely showed improvement.

played with my $50 600rr exhaust. Think it'll do with some modifications

And the new (possibly) side fairings (with modifications of their own of course)

DW guys. (Best Ned Stark) ... Winter is Coming....

 

[F'dup]

In and watching!
Nice....

 

[Reed]

Not too much going on ATM. But I figured I'd update with a couple tear down pics for posterity.


First, got my hands on these beauties from DBDesigns and they are lovely.

And here is where the bike is at ATM. It's cold as fuck here so it's coming along slowly but the rear wheel should be here by January and then the boss status begins.

In other news this muthafuckin ruckus (lol) is nearly complete. So if you wanna get this ill beast to cruise it's for sale. Pretty reasonable. Lmk. This is how she looks currently.

:rock: can't wait for spring

 

[Reed]

Front end is almost ready to go on.

This is how she currently sits.

This is the mock up of the 06 gsxr600 stuff. Need to lose 1mm on the OD of the top bearing and it will plop right in Im hoping.

Not using any of this terrible linked brake shit. Thank god. It weighs a ton! PAIR removal coming next.

And last but not least I got this sexy MF'er waiting to go on.

 

[Reed]

 

[Reed]

The front end is ready save for proper bolts for the bar risers. Ended up using an ALLBALLSracing conversion bearing that worked like a peach.

Did PAIR removal and just a touch of cleaning

This is how I ended up plugging the airbox, with a 5/8 vaccum cap

The bike is going to be put together and ridden for a couple hundred miles before the final teardown so Im hopin I can at least have it rideable by March.

 

[jnimbostratus]

i think this could be great. anticipation..

 

[Reed]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151979472687753&l=1608133388448790782

Well, I sat on it.

 

[Reed]

so quiet in this thread......




Got some new parts on order so I should have some interesting updates soon.

Ballistic 8 cell
Mt03 headlight and knifemaker brackets
Ducati 750 ss oil cooler
Rc51 clutch master

Question: I'm looking for some nice silicone coolant hose to use with the SV front mount rad. Does anyone know of a good quality supplier? Will I need to get couplers for angle or is it flexible a enough to make a pretty tight 90 degree?

 

[Reed]

Also, here are mock up pics with the radiator. Some brackets need modification and some need shaving. We will see how it turns out. But I think I'll have plenty of cooling capacity and suspension travel

And a couple bonus shots

 

[Tusch]

Honestly love the build, just a couple things bugging me though. Subframe looks crazy high but that might just be the pics, those rad shrouds are enormous (just not a fan of shrouds anyways) and I would angle that can backward/down more. But those are just my opinions, can't wait to see this thing start to really come together.

 

[Reed]

Thanks for the comments man. I like the other point of views.

There are some changes in store for the sub. I've had a couple minor rookie mistakes already in this build. One of them was building the subframe without even having the seat or the tail fairing.

It came close but definitely will be lowered and snugged up to the tank. My only concern here is whether or not I need to get another subframe to chop up and weld considering this one has had quite a bit of working with and heat exposure already. I don't know how that might have affected its long term strength.

The lobster claws will look better when finally mounted I think and they're really necessary as they're going to hide a number of things. Radiator, ignition coils, coolant res, coolant hoses, perhaps wiring etc.

 

[Tusch]

In that case it sounds like it'll fit your image, so go for it! Like I said just my opinions, but we're all building different bikes for ourselves not someone else

 

[Fate]

Make your exhaust angle match your sub-frame and get rid of those pods. Make you own or find a better solution those look horrible.

 

[GSX750_SF]

I hope you got your sub-frame welded properly...? If not, your nuts are going to be doubling for a hoodie when they break, and your arse meets the rear wheel...lol.

 

[eatabullet]

Yeah, you should redo the subframe. Eliminate the butt joints, or slug them for greater strength.

 

[Reed]

Make your exhaust angle match your sub-frame and get rid of those pods. Make you own or find a better solution those look horrible.

Unless the exhaust looks better as a high mount I'll be keeping it as is. I like the GP/Stubby look but I want to mock it up high on the right side too to see how it looks. The fairings I generally like. I may experiment down the road with some one-offs but I'd like to get this thing riding mid next month and all the fit and finish by mid march so I can enjoy it this year.

I hope you got your sub-frame welded properly...? If not, your nuts are going to be doubling for a hoodie when they break, and your arse meets the rear wheel...lol.

I had it welded by a pro. The welds have great penetration and are contiguous throughout.

Yeah, you should redo the subframe. Eliminate the butt joints, or slug them for greater strength.

I'm thinking I may just get a new sub ($50 or so) and do it over. I think the design (link pipes) are fine but Im worried I now do not have enough original material in those areas to safely work through it.

As for rigidity and strength of the actual current sub it is just fine. I (admittedly as a rookie) kind of think that that is too often the first (low hanging) criticism on a build. I don't know personally from experience or from stories of any subframe failures. Im sure they've happened but I've seen some super sketchy looking subframe mods that work brilliantly for the life of the machine. In this case we are talking about .060 thickness steel pipe with 4 points of mounting and braced with what will be a steel battery enclosure. This thing won't sweat the maximum 300lbs atop it.