Project VF500F2

Fair enough. I understand your tank will not rust as long as it is full of fuel. We have Ethanol fuel here in Houston so I have to use a stabilizer in the fuel or it goes bad. Nasty stuff the E10 is. Lawnmowers hate it also.

My vote is for the Caswell's. Expensive but worth it.

 

Ive only used Por15 with good results but I know others who swear by Caswell's

 

Yes - lol & its really cheap...
Its really amazing how little oil is needed to have an effect. It will also burn happily in the engine. After a couple of tanks it will wash out but for storage works very well...

 

I only do it for a tank that has needed treatments or just been worked on. I use StaBil for normal storage.

 

Yeah I'm hoping keeping it topped up while using it this year will minimise any rust returning. We have E10 coming to the UK later this year too though. Supposedly it's the ethanol that attracts any moisture which is probably another good incentive to make sure I get the tank sealed up when the bike comes back off the road.

Yeah they seem to be the two best reviewed ones. It's just good to know there are good options out there. We have an old CB175 that has had it's tank sealed at some point but it's now a cracking disintegrating mess and seeing the state of it put me off sealing a little bit... your 1000 tank thread has definitely made me think again though! I guess as with everything, the outcome is only going to be as good as the prep work and care taken doing it.

Cool, I'll throw some in when I fill it back up. As you say, it is cheap and can't really do any harm - thanks!

 

Got some really great results from the DEOX

From this:


I now have this:


I was hoping to get it drained out and dry today but unfortunately despite being filled to the brim and gently shaken to burp any air bubbles out the fluid doesn't seem to have touched the top of the tank. As my filler cap doesn't seal I've now left it upside down with just enough in it that it covers the top of the tank but doesn't spill out the filler.

Fingers crossed I won't get any flash rust on the bottom and enter a never ending cycle rotating it round!!

 

When I cleaned my tank using acid, I found that using an emergency plastic cap meant that I could rotate the tank easier... - Also it means you don't have to worry about your nice cap.

 

Spent most of this morning sat like this... alternating between the filler neck and the fuel tap hole



And the final results:





I'm really impressed with the results from the DEOX, especially for something that is supposedly safe to go straight down the drain! I've bottled it up as I have another tank that could do with some attention later this year.

The tank was finished just as the sun started to come out this afternoon so I took the bike the long way round to fill it up. The bike is running really nicely and its good to finally have it all running without having to borrow parts!!

 

Brilliant stuff


VF1000F2F, in bits

 

What a nice ride. One we did not get in the States.

 

Wow, great thread with a very satisfying ending. The bike looks amazing. I have a few questions about the wheel swap:
Did you use CBR600F2 wheels or F wheels? What clearance issues did you have in the back? Were you able to mount the original front fender without modification? Did you adjust the final drive to make up for the smaller rear tire diameter? How about the rear ride height?
Sorry I know that's a lot of questions but I'm putting together a ~90 percent complete F2 wheel swap on my 500 and there is so little information available. Thanks so much for any answers you're able to provide.

 

Thanks! It is great to finally have the bike out on the road.

I bought the wheel swap with a whole bunch of spares from the previous owner of my Dad's 500 so I don't have all the details but I'll try and answer what I know. All the spacer etc are the DMr kit :

-The wheels are from a CBR600 FM (think that's a F2?)

-The clearance at the back with a 150/70 is VERY tight but it does clear. I found the centre stand was rubbing against the tyre too so I have removed it.

- The front fender is modified to take the wider tyre.

- The final drive is corrected by a 14/40. It still works out very slightly shorter than stock but not by much.

- Rear ride height has not been corrected on mine... I hadn't really thought about it until now . Just running simple maths on the tyre size the difference in diameter works out as 12mm rear and 10mm front. So I'd say close enough not to need to worry... I don't really know much about altering ride heights though so perhaps someone will correct me and it's something I should look at!!

- Other points of note... as I said, my rear brake carrier is the DMr kit. I had issues with the torque lug on the swing arm being too deep for the carrier and pushing the rear calliper off centre as the rear axle was tightened. I found information of a few other people having this problem but it was easily resolved by just carefully filing down the lug a couple of mm.

If you have any more questions just shout, as I say I got it as pretty much a ready to go bolt on swap but I'll try and answer what I can!

 

Thanks so much shields, this is very helpful. I guess the only thing I would like to know more about is how the front fender is modified. Any pics would be appreciated. I don't want to hijack this thread so if you would rather PM me that's fine. Thanks again for the info!

 

No problem - it's not hijacking at all, it's all good 500 stuff!!

Yeah I'm not too sure on the front fender to be honest - again it came to me already done. I'm away from the bike at the moment a won't be back for a little while to compare . I've had a trawl through the photos I have and there's nothing obvious so I'd guess maybe all that's been done is making it a little wider to clear the wider tyre?

There's loads of knowledge on here about these bikes so I'm sure some will have the answer for you. It might be worth starting a new thread on the wheel swap? I know when I went searching for information about the issues I had it was pretty tricky to find answers. It'd be good to get some of the information together in an up to date thread!

 

Long time no post here - life and other bikes have been in the way but the VF500 is finally ready to get back out this summer. A few updates and a few questions for the forum wisdom!

Not being used the bike had some issues to sort, the rear brake reservoir hose was reacting to the brake fluid and sweating brake fluid out... I drained the system out and replaced the hose with hopefully a higher quality EPDM hose and fresh brake fluid. The bigger problem I had was the coolant had also reacted to something BADLY. The system was full of crystals and took a full disassembly and flush to clear. I think I may be to blame for this one, the coolant I had used was OAT type... from what I can find this may have reacted with the brass parts? Either that or residue in the engine I didn't flush well enough reacted. Either way it is now clean and the correct coolant in...time will tell if there's a bigger problem somewhere I guess.

The fleet has also grown. Another 500 came up for sale locally for what I thought was a fair price for what I needed. Its pretty untidy with a badly painted frame and engine and hadn't been used much by the last owner sitting in his friends show room. The main draw was really clean plastics and paint, something mine was missing so now there are 3 in the garage

Mine with the F2 wheels at the front, the new winter/donor in the middle and my Dad's very clean standard bike at the back.

In hindsight the new bike was not worth what I paid. The clutch is knackered, slipping at higher revs and occasionally rattling at lower revs until you stop and pull the clutch in. The fuel tap wasn't stopping fuel. It needed fork seals and the tyres are in a worse state than I originally realised and realistically need replacing before any more miles. But on the upside I got the nice plastics and another of the 500s will be kept on the road.

I also got a good deal on a set of NOS exhausts, so the Marvings are off and standard are on!

You can see there's some misting on the left side. I think from the years of being sat in the packaging oil. I degreased them as best I could before fitting but some of it remains. I'm hesitant to try any polishing of the black chrome - any thoughts?

I am also now back thinking towards sorting the suspension and have a few questions:
- RaceTech Emulators are pretty expensive over here, the YSS ones are over half the cost. From the recent thread on here I understand I'll need the PD290 kit and NOT PD238 as sellers seem to be listing for it?

-I'm going to do springs at the same time... the only linear springs for it I can find in the UK are a company who import RaceTech unless anyone knows differently? I have used their calculator and it recommends 0.75-0.80 for a 170-180lb rider, however I know Cold Devil went for the 0.85s in his and that was recommended as a good move by the forum. I won't be on the track with my bike like him so it will be the potholed streets of the UK only - is it still worth going heavier in this case or should I stick to the calculator?

-I'm also likely going to swap the rear shock. I got the Hagon cheap when I did the initial rebuild but riding my Dad's with a Wilbers and the difference is noticeable. The new bikes shock is in the standard bad way so I'm thinking that one might get the Hagon fitting and a new one onto mine. If I do I'm thinking of going for the full spend and going for the Wilbers as I know I like how it rides. Any other options worth considering first?

-Finally, if I am doing the rear shock... I was reading through the old F2 wheel swap mega thread and noticed Jamie recommends increasing ride height, both for standard bikes but also for the wheel swap with ~15mm smaller rear wheel. I believe he set his moded F2/F4 units to +25mm ride height but alluded to the more the better. I might just need to send him this question direct but I was wondering if the +25mm was a limitation of using the CBR shocks, or that going any higher would be unwise for geometry/linkages etc. Does anyone else have any thoughts or experience with this?

 

Beautiful bike

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

 

You’ll def need the PD290. I also installed the YSS springs. I used Motul 15W oil. I have now done several hundred miles of our wonderful roads in the south east and the improvement is fantastic. Best mod I have done. It even made the stock rear shock seem to improve, although it is slated for replacement at some point.

Where did you find NOS silencers? Are there any more?

I too bought a spares bike that turned out to just needed a carb clean. Runs fantastic and mechanically sound all round but tatty in most other areas due to it sitting for 12 years. I picked up a basket case too, just for the tank and plastics, so I now have the option of the Red/White/Blue or the earlier Red/White.

 

Perfect thanks - nice to hear you got a good improvement! My Dad’s has the emulators too and combined with the rear shock it just all feels much more put together, especially compared the full stock bike. I’m very glad I found your recent thread when looking into the YSS Emulators - I’ve never fitted them before so the wrong sizes would’ve been causing me a lot of head scratching! I looked into the YSS springs too but was hoping to fit a linear spring if I could get them for sensible money. I finally found TW Suspension importing RaceTech stuff at a more reasonable price, still works out a chunk more than the YSS mind.

The exhausts came from a guy on one of the other VF500 groups, so just the one pair I’m afraid. He’d bought them when they were still available on CMSNL as a “just in case” and put them in his loft. He’d sold his VF a few years ago and was selling them as a part of a clear out.

Having a second bike has proved very helpful on many occasions rebuilding mine. Being able to directly compare fittings/routings etc saved a lot of bother. I’ll likely sell the third bike next year but I want it to go as a proper runner so the clutch and tyres will need sorting and then I’ll use it over winter.