CBR600RR / VFR800 Fork Swap

A friend of mine has an 07 cbr600rr, that he laid down a few months back. He attempted to rebuild it, but after stripping the bike we found that the frame sliders he had, caught on the ground and ripped the frame in a couple spots a snapped one of the motor mounts too. So the bike is totaled and he's going to part it out. With the beautiful suspension and brakes this bike has, I'd really like to put the forks or shock to use on my vfr. (I know that they would have to be revalved and sprung to perform on my 100lb heavier bike, and a brake delink would be necessary). I have seen the common swap f4i's and rc51's, but I've also seen a R1 front end swap and I'm wondering if it would be at all possible (maybe with a little fabrication), especially with a complete donor bike right down the street ... Any thoughts?

 

Thoughts? Sure, get the parts and do it over the winter.

I'm no engineer, but make sure you get ALL the fronts end parts, bolts, triples (upper and lower) calipers, etc.

Then please document.

BZ

 

You might want to check the length of the CBR600RR forks. From my experiences, the CBR forks are pretty short and the VFR800 does not have very much clearance (i.e. they need long forks).

Assuming you still want to proceed, here is what I would suggest: With the new front end in place, remove the fork springs but put everything else back together. This will allow you to observe the actual travel of the forks. Compress the forks fully and move the steering from lock to lock. This will let you check all of the clearances to see if there are any problems. I usually like to see 10mm of gap between hard parts like the front head, radiators, etc. This doesn't get into geometry at all but is just the first pass to see if the forks are long enough to move on to the next steps.

Good luck!

 

thanks guys. im goin to measure both forks and go from there.
any ideas about the rear shock?

 

I'm pretty sure you'll need the RC51 SP1 lower triple clamp and a 954 upper triple, I don't think the 600's steering stem will work in the VFR frame - get the RC SP1 steering bearings. Then need to see if the fork spacing is the same between the RC and 600, if not you'll need new wheel &/or rotor spacers for the 600 parts. If the forks are more than 30mm shorter than the VFR's it isn't going to work IMO. Give it a shot and post pics.

 

If you are thinking about a 600RR shock, I don't think it will work. The reservoir on those stick out pretty far and would probably cause interference. Either a CBR600F4/F4i or CBR929 shock is what most people choose.

 

thanks guys i just wanted to get some opinions before i gave my friend the go ahead to start parting out the bike.