Tinman tinkers - 1983 VF750F project

It has been quiet a while since I last posted on here. I rode my interceptor for several years before stuffing it into a corner and forsaking it for my MG Midget and other projects for the last couple years. I finally decided to retire the Midget this summer and breath new life into my VF750F.

The plan: Dig it out of the garage. Clean the carbs, air up the tires, new battery, new gas and ride.
Reality: I started to mess with it.

There were always so many things I wanted to do with the bike and after having it in front of me after so long of not even seeing it, I just couldn't help myself.

The new plan: Remove the sidecovers and clear out the electronics, battery, fuel pump, coolant reservoir, etc. Relocate battery to under gas tank and electronics to undertail. Create undertail out of fiberglass. Create slick coolant reservoirs. New exhaust. Fix bits here and there.

To get you up to speed with modifications:
-Chopped up air box, pod filters in place
-folding aftermarket pegs
-cut up chin spoiler
-gauges cut up and remounted lower
-Front end lowered several inches
-Front fender butchered
-Removed front fairings
-UFO "streetfighter" fairing
-External oil cooler w/filter adapter
-Aftermarket German tail (not intended for this bike)
-Tank pads (actually meant for this bike)
-Custom exhaust (straight with baffles)
-Gear indicator
-Bar end mirrors
-Clip on bars
-Gloss black frame, Flat black everything else
-LED tail lights
-Fan override
-I'm sure there is more I can't think of at the moment. This is all in addition to clutch replacement, tires, cooling repairs, etc that go along with keeping it road worthy.

What I've done so far:
-Removed side covers
-Stuff electronics in undertail
-Made a very rough undertail, brackets to mount, etc
-mounted new coolant reservoirs
-Got rid of all the wire mesh I had before in the air box opening
-Got a hold of a smaller battery that should work just fine
-Cleaned carbs, drained tank, etc



On to the pics!

This is the bike before the undertail. I used to have a piece of sheet metal blocking most of the tail off. The frame had LED lights hiding the cuts.


Prepping for fiberglass. Keep in mind I had never done it before. I stumbled my way through it.


A picture of the stainless clamps I'm using to mount the new coolant reservoirs and the foam I'm using as an insulator. I suspect I may need to use higher temp rubber I have. I attached the foam to the inside of the clamps.


The mounting for the reservoirs. I took .49 metal C shape plumbing pipe mounts and hammered them flat. I then bent the ends slightly and hammered them curved to follow the glass contour. A bonus to the new reservoirs is that I get to hide my hideous rear shock.


Where I'm at so far. I love the look of the exposed coolant; it looks like some strange power source.


Though I only need one, I plan to run two reservoirs to be symmetrical. The left will be the overflow from the radiator and the right the overflow from the left. It's all just mocked up for now. I dig the open look of the frame; it makes the bike look much lighter.


A picture of the pod filters. I plan on stuffing the battery just under the gas tank so it should be hidden out of sight as well and the area where the air box was open like the rear of the frame. I will make a box or something to insulate the AGM battery from the heat and gas tank. A fiberglass box and plastic shielding should do the trick.


The interceptor nestled next to another project I was supposed to be working on.




Still lots to do and most of this is just mocked up as you can tell from the taped on undertail and the coolant reservoirs with no piping. I figured I would post pics as I have had a handful of people email me over years of inactivity and ask questions. Perhaps there are still a few lurking around the board? If the bike is not to your taste then it's not a big deal; hit the back button and find something that does interest you. :0)

 

I think it looks great. A nice way to show your creativity. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Looks great. I will be following this thread. The reservoirs are really going to stand out. What type of Gear Indicator are you using?
Thanks

 

Thanks fellas. The bike is for me but it's nice to know that others share similar interests.

I'm at work so I can't see what brand it is now but it's some old cube style digital gear indicator. It's made by the company that really started to first manufacture them for bikes years ago as a universal application. I had to purchase separately the kit for non electric speedo bikes which uses a sensor and magnets on the back wheel. It always worked well enough until my magnets went flying off. I may put it back on later but for now I'm going to remove a lot of the excess junk.

You can now buy cheap-o chinese gear indicators for around $10 shipped. You would still need the wheel sensor though for our first gen bikes.

 

Following your own style, good for you. Who says it has to look like everyone else's.

 

Any thoughts on clear tubing I could use in the coolant bottles? It would need to withstand higher temps for a short duration while the overflow cools off and not breakdown in some way and thus contaminate the coolant. I would prefer not to run heater hose. Maybe washing machine tubing? It is made to handle high pressure and pretty hot water.

Any ideas?

 

Here is a crazy thought and I know it's not clear hose but maybe some of the braided stainless type hose running from the bottles might add some interesting visual effect. Looks like a cool porject and good luck.

One of the things you may want to consider for the battery is one of the Lithium Polymer batteries. They are fairly pricey compared to regular batteries but the lithium batteries have great power, extremely low weight (we're talking less than 3 pounds) and they are also quite a bit smaller than a regular battery. I know there was a thread on the site not that long ago about these kind of batteries so maybe take a look and see if you can find it. Might give you a few more options for where to mount the battery out of sight.

 

The idea on the stainless is interesting. If I couldn't go with clear tubing then it might add an interesting reflection effect with the LED I put in the cap. Would stainless have any interactions with the stainless? I suspect not.

I will have to look into the lithium poly batteries. They will likely be out of my budget but its worth looking into at least. I'm planning to use an AGM battery that has roughly the same CCA as the previous 12aa battery.

This bike has been a fairly inexpensive project overall. Including the purchase price, several gas tanks and tons of other bits I have maybe $600 into it as is. I try to keep my costs as low as possible.

 

Here is a link to a thread on this site for the Shorai Lithium Poly battery and a bunch of comments about it. Have a look and see what you think. They are certainly pricey and I have heard the odd person comment on the fact that they may not be the best choice for cooler climate areas but all in all a good alternative. Up here in Canada I checked with a local battery supplier and, for here at least, they are around $300 Canadian. The same battery in the US, according to the Shorai website is around $200 and they list the battery (I searched for my bike, a 2000 VFR800) at 270 CCA

http://vfrworld.com/forums/7th-generation-2010-present/40774-shorai-battery-lfx18a1-lfx.html

The braided lines leading from the reservoirs to the rad might make it look like the bike was powered by some new plasma based warp drive. LOL. Yes, I'm a bit of a Trekkie. LOL. Seriously though it may add some visual draw to the side of the bike and serve to a break in the mostly black color scheme. I think you might even be able to get the braided hose in various other colors as well (maybe black if you like).

 

Great looking project sir!

Really digging the clear coolant reservoirs. I may have missed it, but what are they made of? I'm wondering if they'll discolor over time. I was looking into clear lines, some import car guys are using what looks like the tubing for a fridge, like from Home Depot. They said it discolors over time though. That's what I got from my internet digging. My vote would be for braided lines and maybe aircraft fittings.

 

The reservoirs are glass water bottles. I used a razor blade to remove all the writing. Because they're glass I wouldn't think they would discolor but time will tell. They cost about $2 each so it wouldn't be much to replace once a riding season if needed.

The fridge lines are what I was thinking of as I have also seen them used on in counter dish washers. I'm thinking I may use the kitchen water lines for inside the bottles and the braided for outside. I would probably just use some clear barb fittings I have laying around from another project. The problem is that I have to fit in inlet, outlet and still have room for an LED in a space of 1", which is about the opening of the bottle neck. With this space limitation I likely won't be able to use any connections that require they be screwed together. Sliding a hose over a barb and using a clamp takes up much less space. I'll have to look around the hardware/auto parts stores and see what I find.

 

Ah, ok I understand now. Yes the barb and clamp makes more sense. The only thing I'm not sure of is how much heat that kind of line can withstand. Actually I just realized that we have a coolant flush machine here at work, I'll take a look at it and see what it has for lines.

 

How about a hobby or science shop for the rubber stoppers with 2 holes already in them, they use
these in chemistry classes. They come in different sizes, so you should be able to get one to fit
your overflow tanks

 

The cap is actually the weakest link of the whole thing so the rubber stopper may end up being an option to consider. I was planning to start drilling holes in the caps today but I'm exhausted from work so I probably won't get any more work done until this weekend. Hopefully I can figure out what kind of tubing to go out and buy by then.

I looked at lines for dishwashers, the kind that are braided with screw ends, and came across that they can handle around 165 degrees or so. That may be sufficient. I would really only need the line that goes from the radiator to the first overflow to be able to handle the high temps. If the hose between each fills with fluid then it should be cooler by the time it flows.

I imagine that even the worst cases of contaminating my coolant or a line failing should not have very adverse affects because the bike should be fine as long as the radiator is full; these are just overflows and there as back up.

Thanks for all the help so far fellas.

 

For short straight sections of tubing you may be able to use "Sight Gage Glass" tubing from a heating supply store. They use this on sight gages on heating boilers. It is clear tempered glass. You could make your bends with short pieces of rubber tubing. This gage glass should be at least as strong as your water bottles.

 

Oh Hell Yea !!!

TAG - TAG - TAG!

What are you using for a headlight? Love the tailpipes! I noticed your REMI on the tank, no love at customstreetfighter.com?

How did you make your pipes - your art is covered with exhaust wrap (which is also part of the artwork).

One more stupid question. Obviously you shortened your frame in the back. Did you just cut it after the frame joint, or did you cut and re-weld stuff.

You should stick big fat radioactive decals on that thing, it's obvious it runs on radioactive waste!

 

I believe it's a UFO brand enduro type headlight fairing. It's pretty basic and can be picked up on ebay for about $35

I've actually never considered posting there before. While the bike is more streetfighter than anything else, it's not as extreme as many of the bikes I've seen considered streetfighters. Too many people think a streetfighter is just a bike they crashed so they removed the fairings and put a headlight fairing like mine on and call it a day. The same goes for Cafe Racers; some idiot just puts cheap clubmans on and an ill-fitting fiberglass seat and calls it a cafe. The genres are ruined by those people and more effort needs to be put into a bike before it can be classified as such. This is why I'm hesitant to call my bike a streetfighter through and through; it's several steps away from stock but still closer to stock than to a real streetfighter.

I actually tore the pipes apart yesterday so no more art. They were only supposed to be temporary and I finally decided that along with the other junk I'm doing, the exhaust will get a makeover. It was just flexible exhaust repair tubing bent to shape and then I put a chrome tip on with a baffle inside to keep the popping at bay. I always thought it was super ghetto but it worked well enough. The plan now is to buy some R1 oval cans, megaphones or similar then shorten/race baffle 'em and use some 45 degree exhaust piping to get the bends I want. I will probably run baffles and chrome tips right off the collector until I can find a set of cans for cheap.

Not a stupid question at all. I just cut after the frame joint. I thought about welding in some square tubing to follow the bottom of my pickler tail but then I decided to make an undertail which hides the frame, electronics, etc well. It's low class to leave cut frame rails exposed so if I wasn't doing the undertail then I would figure something else out.

Hmmm, maybe a couple small green ones in place of the knuckles on the tank and seat wouldn't be so bad. Now that you mention it, perhaps I'll pick a couple small ones up for the reservoirs.


Thanks by the way. It's always nice to know that someone else is playing the same tune.

So not a whole lot done this weekend because I picked up a couple old Honda 60s CT90s and a C70. I did tear apart the exhaust, grind off some now useless frame tabs, mess around with the undertail and play around with seeing what an LED in the cap would look like though. I ruined a couple caps trying to get the spacing just right. Running barbed ends into these caps is making me crazy. There is about 1" of space and some of that is taken up by the threaded portion of the cap/glass. I will get it right next time hopefully.


Here's a test shot of one canister with the LED in the cap. Maybe a couple feet away.



Another from about 10 ft away. The small LED gives it a good glow. Ideally I would like to have the reservoirs full but I'll have to play around with my levels once I see how much my Interceptor overflows after warming up.



This undertail is giving me trouble. Well, really it's my lack of knowledge of how to even approach a project like it but I'm getting there. Hopefully I can have it mounted without tape by next weekend. The brackets I had glassed in were not lining up after some slight adjustments I made to the seat position. I think I figured out how to do it now.

 

I was considering closing one side off originally to clean things up, but i think that would hurt performance. I liked your pipes u had and thought you used flex pipe. Was it ridged enough?

My goal is to clean up the sides. I like the naked look. The front fairing is coming off, just have not decided whichheadlight to use. I like the over under projectors for the Madass. But I don't think they are DOT legal.

 

What kind of LED did you use in the reserve tank and how did you hook it up.
Possibly a pic of the bottle top with hookups, if you have time. I just love those tanks.

 

You're in New Mexico, correct? I can see the posts & tweets now of a mysterious alien green mass hovering through the desert night....