restoring & adding a modern touch to a 86 vf500

Matt , I'll bet having the fork tubes slid way up in the clamps played a big part in that little incident. You weren't able to ride that aggressively until you put them back where they belong. You were lucky if you had 3in. of travel the way it was.

 

didnt think about that, but that almost caused me to wreck a few other time after that funny thing is i never even notice it :crazy:

 

"Stiff" is not good. You want a compliant suspension, stiff is what you get from the stock valving.

I run a 160 Dunlop D204 on the read of one of my 500's with no clearance problems.

 

Nice....good to know.

 

A properly setup suspension will actually have better ride quality than stock. I often get comments from folks who are concerned that their suspension was not configured properly because the ride is "too comfy". There is perception that performance has to be stiff, but that is just not the case.

 

sorry i dont know why i didnt think about it, the rear being as stiff as it is the CBR rear shock softens the ride up while adding performance with out all the tire hop from the stock shock,


slow, when i first did this rear wheel swap jamie told me what tire to buy needless to say i must not listen to him i ended up having to eat the cost of a tire.


jamie, you talkrd about a rear swing arm that you where working on for the 500's that would be wider if you went to a 180/60 how much would that affect your turn in for that light of a bike? i figure slower...ideas ideas

 

I'm thinking about getting a different shock for the rear...already sent Jamie an e-mail *cough cough*


Wouldn't a 180 rear be too wide? Having such a fat tire on the rear and a skinny on the front I imagine wouldn't be great for handling.

 

Different swingarm = yes. 180 rear tire = no. Fitting a 180 rear tire would require major surgery/fabrication to the VF500 frame, so it's a non-starter as far as I'm concerned.

That said, a 180 rear and 120 front is perfect for handling. Some say that it 'slows' the steering but I doubt any of 'them' could tell. A 180 is nice because you can get on/stay on the throttle while cornering. That's fine any good for a 100+ hp bike, the 500's don't need anything close to that kind of available traction. There would be added friction (and rotating weight) with a 180 tire would have a net effect of making the bike slower. I kind of doubt that is what you are after!

 

so wheres the middle ground here if your goign to put work into machining a swing arm but all you can get out of it is a 160 i'd say the swing arm is fine the way it is, but seeing how not all 160 tires will fit in the stock swing arm then that could be time well spent, although i am no engineer, 160 rear with a 120 front would be all you'd ever need with this bike i was just looking for the most traction without a huge loss of power

 

Once you get into that stuff, you're getting into chassis tuning. That can become a real can of worms as you try to figure it all out - you'll quickly come to understand why all the big racing teams have super expensive telemetry systems and engineers on hand to set their bikes up. Of course, they are working to optimize one version of one factory bike. When you start making changes like swingarms and forks, which most people do for looks, you're really re-designing the dynamics of the motorcycle as a whole. How far you delve into the specifics will determine how well or how differently your bike performs, and will define how valuable your bike is to you.

 

a newer braced swing arm will only had to chasis stiffness not building a AMA bike but i've came this far and the bike has stepped out of the "street level" and moved to the more of hardcore side of riding

 

Something else to consider is flex. You are running a 160 rear tire on the F2 wheel right now. That has more grip than stock and therefore can transmit more loads through the swingarm into the suspension and frame. Swapping swingarms can have the benefit of making the suspension react more consistently without the 'wishy washy' feel of the stock VF chassis.

Once you start making improvements in one area, such as the swingarm, it starts to expose the weakness of other areas. In this case you will start to notice that the chassis itself begins to be the limiting factor. In the end that will always be the case since none of us here are Spondon and are making our own chassis!

 

just like what we talked about over the phone...i guess theres a point where you got to say enough is enough....or mybe a new chassis is in the works :biggrin:

 

Which is where you hit the next stumbling blocks:

A) How far are you going to go with the bracing/gusseting/frame-making thing? You can build the bike so it has no lateral flex, but you don't want that because the shock and forks only damp vertical movement. Chassis flex is an engineered feature to allow for undulations in the road/track surface to be absorbed in certain amounts in certain areas.

B) If you do swap in a braced & stiffer arm, the next weak link is the swingarm connection, and that general lower frame area.

Not trying to tell you to forget it or knock your ideas, just food for thought in case you go ahead with it! :thumbsup:

 

I think you are missing the whole point. Is the VF500 ever going to have a chassis comparable to a modern bike? The answer is probably no. Just swapping the wheels alone is a huge improvement, and the suspension upgrades that Matt has done have also increased the handling of his bike considerably. Additional modifications are going to feel the effects of diminishing returns, meaning they will not have nearly the magnatude of improvement. This discussion is revolving around the "what if" rather than the "why you shouldn't".

 

Another wonderful way of plugging your stuff, and excuse me if I missed the point of a phone conversation that carried over into a post.

He ended his friggin sentence with "or maybe a new chassis is in the works" so how in your opinion am I missing that point by asking a few hypothetical questions??? "Food for thought in case you go ahead with it" directly relates to "why you shouldn't" in your mind?

And no, with an outlook like that portrayed in your last post, I wouldn't expect any greatly improved 500 chassis to come from you. All I'm going to say to that is that greater bikes have been made with less, and if the guy has a desire to make his 500 into something really special, then he could use a lot more than a negative nancy attitude for support.

Anything can be done with enough time, money, and most importantly, effort.

 

Now now guys, we are all friends here.:makeout:

 

i am sorry i was just joking about the new chassis in the works just kidding around about it i should have said so

 

Boom!
Pow!!
Holy Rusted Metal Batman!!!

 

Matt...did you remove the center stand?