VFR800 10 Year Refresh Part Déux

Phase 2 + Phase 3, sorry I got carried away

The story so far, a quick recap, take a 10 year old VFR800 5th Gen & update it as follows;-

1. K&N Air Filter, airbox mods & custom Ramair inlet duct.
2. Complete PAIR system & associated vacuum tubing, removal.
3. Added Lightweight silencer + PC3 & custom fuel map.
4. Traxxion Dynamics AK-20 Front Fork Cartridges (Preload+compression+rebound damping).
5. Nitron Race fully adjustable rear shock (Preload+High/Low Compression+rebound damping).
6. BST Carbon RC45 Front wheel, with Michelin Pilot Pure Tyre.
7. Goodridge Full Brake Line kit, front & rear.
8. Renthal 16 Tooth Front Sprocket + Alloy Rear Sprocket.
9. Healtech Speedo Healer.
10. Removal of all surplus brackets for weight saving where possible.
11. Removed front indicators, replaced with blanking plates & added GSXR Mirror/Indicators.
12. Add alloy engine bolt kit + Titanium fasteners where practical.

You can View phase 1 & 2 here;- http://vfrworld.com/forums/5th-generation-1998-2001/33383-vfr800-5th-gen-10-year-update-project.html

So move on one year & then do the following;-

Phase-2

13. Remove CBS components & brake lines.
14. Modify front calipers to use front master cylinder ONLY.
15. Replace front master cylinder with CBR600F4 item to restore brake ratio.
16. Add new S/S braided front brake lines, 680 & 740mm long with twin banjo at M/C.
17. Install modified VFR400 rear axle & brake system.
18. Fit BST Carbon RC45 Rear Wheel, with Michelin Pilot Pure Tyre.
19. Add Coil on Plug coils from CBR1000.
20. Make & fit shock heat shield & shock spray protector.
Phase-3

21. Remove mechanical water pump & Blank off hole.
22. Add Electric Water Pump, with lower temp fan control switch.
23. Add custom alloy T piece to front hose to allow recirculation of coolant from thermostat.
24. Specify & have made New Camshafts (base ground spare VFR Cams).
25. Fit new Cams & adjust valve clearances with new shims.
26. Custom Fuel Map & Dyno Setup.
27. Last but not least I made & fitted a LiFe 10A/hr battery which saved 3.2Kg !

Details to of all modification stages are listed below.

13-16. The front calipers need to be stripped & then drilled as per this diagram.



Then you need a bolt to seal the central pistons brake banjo hole. That leaves the upper brake banjo to connect to the new M/C with the new brake lines. Use a 5/8th master cylinder to get a proper brake pressure ratio. I used a CBR600F4 M/C as it matches the VFR’s original one. Note the new hoses are 680mm for the right side & 740mm for the left side & you need a double banjo bolt to attach both to the new M/C.
As I had removed the secondary master cylinder, I cut & drilled the left mounting bracket to remove all secondary master cylinder components & as much surplus metal as possible to reduce weight.





17. The VFR400 axle needs 2mm turned off the face as marked in this picture. Then the brake hanger also needs 2mm shaved off the inner face to get it to fit behind the 800’s brake mount circlip. Then it’s just a matter of bolting on the 400 parts in place of the 800 ones. You need to use the 400’s Brake master cylinder as well to get the correct brake ratio.










18. Bolt in BST RC45 rear wheel with Michelin Pilot Pure Tyre. You will need an RC30 or RC45 wheels spacer for the right hand side wheel bolt. These have a cone shaped inner face to correctly seat the wheel. The 400 spacer has a flat face & will not work with the RC45 Wheel.







19. Fitting the coils is fairly simple, just buy a set of 2 pin coils which most newer bike have & a connector harness from your donor bike. Remove the existing coils & either add spade connectors to the new harness ends to use the existing cables. Or cut the ends off the existing cables & either solder the new connector on or use bullet connectors to join them. Job done.





20. I decided that the rear shock gets too much heat from the close proximity of the rear exhaust headers to the shock. So with some thought I made a alloy bracket that fits to the frame in front & to the right of the battery box. Then cut & folded some beer cans to make a twin walled heat shield. I used some sealant between the inner & outer so that when it was shaped & set it would hold its shape. I then used some neoprene sheet to make a close fitting flap to protect the shock from spray off the back wheel as a fair amount seems to get past the hugger.




21. The original water pump is driven by a slotted shaft from the left side if the oil pump & passes out of the left side of the engine casing in front of the gear lever. When unbolted, it leaves a nice round hole just above the maximum oil level, this is sealed by the water pump body with an O-ring trapped in the inner corner of the hole. The picture shows the alloy plug I had made before it was finished by a friend. We turned two grooves in it & added O-rings, as per the second picture, to seal the inner & outer faces of the water pump hole.




22. I choose a Davies Craig EBP for the water pump, other people have fitted these to 1000cc bikes with no issues, so I considered it would have sufficient flow. When I got the engine running I purged the coolant system of air by running the pump from an external battery with the engine off. When all the air was out, I started the engine & let it warm up, it took over 15 minutes to reach 100c on the bikes temperature gauge.





I had a tiny leak from the hose connected to the head coolant input stub since I added the silicone hoses last year, but could not get it to seal. On closer inspection this time I discovered that it’s a strange size & not 25mm O/D like the rest. So I added a couple of layers of heat shrink to bring it up to 25mm. Likewise the EBP only has 19mm (¾”) unions, so I ordered a length of extruded silicone with id 19mm & OD 25mm, then cut a couple of short lengths to slip onto the EBP unions so I could attach the 25mm silicone hoses. The pictures show the test fit & final mounting of the EBP.


23. Originally I had intended to run the cooling system with no thermostat, relying on the Davies Craig Digital Pump controller. Unfortunately whilst it is advertised as compatible on their website it is NOT. They refunded the cost as I only discovered this when the system failed to work on the bike !
So I had to run the pump continuously & thus add the thermostat back in, but this then left me with an issue as to how to get hot coolant to the thermostat to make it open. The standard system has a bypass hose that runs back to the pump from the thermostat housing. So I had an alloy T-piece fabricated & bought another piece of 19mm ID Silicone hose & fitted the T-piece in the bottom coolant return hose from the right radiator. This works rather well.
Sorry forgot to take pics of this bit.


24-26. Cams. Comparing theVFR800 cams with the standard RC45 & HRC RC45 specs showed that the VFR cams are tuned for low & midrange torque. Mr RC45 Larry, revealed that although the RC45 throttle bodies are 45mm, the intake trumpets are restricted to 40mm on the standard RC45. The VFR800 has 36mm throttle bodies but the intake trumpets are also 40mm, so they should be able to flow as much air as the standard RC45 & thus achieve approximately 120rwhp. For comparison the CB1300 & Bandit 1200 both use 36mm throttle bodies & flow 50% more air than the VFR at peak rpm. The Belgium made Bio-Blade uses standard throttle bodies plus airbox & puts out 124rwhp with a new set of cams & a little headwork.
So I used all this to come up with my own new cam duration figures & had a spare set of cams reprofiled by Piper Cams. The end result can be seen in the dyno charts below, which can be compared with the original custom fuel map dyno results. Old figures were 102rwhp@10,500rpm & 54ft/lbs@8500rpm. New cams give 107rwhp@10500rpm & 57ft/lbs@8500rpm.



There are very little losses at the lower rpm & plus 10hp at 10Krpm, over all it’s a 10% increase in hp & torque from my first modified run & about 12% more than a bog standard VFR.
Overall the updates make the bike feel alive, it pulls like a train now & accelerates so much faster its amazing. The Carbon wheels & brake mods have shaved 3Kg off the front wheel/lower forks & 7Kg off the end of the swingarm. Overall I have saved 25Kg off the dry weight of the bike. On my scales it shows 104Kg at each end wet for a 50/50 balance & a total weight of 208Kg.
The bike handles brilliantly now, you only have to think about changing direction & it happens, I’d say it handles better than the CBR600F4 I used to have & at least equal to the CBR600RR’s I have used at the Ron Haslam Race School this year (2012).


27. LiFe battery.



And Finally a couple of pics of the finished article (well until phase-4 gets started !)



Hope you all enjoy it, I am

 

Wow. Would you do the electric water pump again if you had it to do over?

 

I'm not sure I would. There are advantages, the bike runs cooler now & if it does get hot enough for the fan to switch on then you can leve the ignition on when you stop for a minute to take the heat out. Only thing I have to work out is a means to monitor that its working. You can hear it with the ignition on engie off, but the rest of the time its blind faith at the moment, where as with the mechanical pump if the engines running then the pump must be pumping bar a major failure.

The original conroller I was going to use had a warning light to add to the dash that activated if it lost power signal to the pump, so i won't to rig up something similar.

 

Great write up thanks for sharing

 

Any idea how much total weight you shaved off? Or what your wet curb weight is now? Just curious...

 

Well by weight by individual item is 28Kg, the wet weight as measured on my scales with 3/4tank of fuel was 208Kg, 104 at either end, so 50/50 weight distribution.
The Honda figures for a 2000 model with cat exhaust are 210Kg dry & 236Kg wet, but they normally unly include 10L fuel for that measurement. so with a full tank (22Lx0.72=) so full it would be 244Kg fully wet.

So my wet weight is less than Honda's claimed dry weight figure. I didn't weigh it in standard trim before I started, so if anyone has a bog standard one with no extras they could weigh that would be useful info for comparison ! I'm still looking at ideas to shave weight, but most of the easy wins are now done. I'll add another kilo when I put the custom cush drive on & shave about half a kilo off the front brakes with the new lighter 4 pot calipers.

 

this is by far sickest modified VFR I've come across!:vtr2:
Great job.Just my 2c the beer shield totally out of place considering all the fine work you've done.It gives the bike getto look at least underneath.
You can make the same shield from thin aluminum sheet which would look pro.
overall I am impressed!

 

Well it's supposed to be a bit of a street sleeper & whilst I like to get the finish to a reasonable level, it nice to have a something quirky on it Glad you like the rest of it, appreciate the comments.

 

I'm not sure I caught it but how much diameter (if any) did you lose going to the RC45 carbon fiber wheels? Did you have to get a custom size tire for each?

 

There is no loss the RC45 wheels are 17" front & rear. The front is a 3.5" & the rear comes in a choice of either 5.75 or 6". Either will fit in the VFR arm. I chose the 5.75" which with a 180 tyre leaves 13mm clearance from the arm & chain. A 6" with a 190 tyre would reduce that clearance to 6mm which is enough.

Regards

 

Update on Custom Cush Drive http://vfrworld.com/forums/5th-generation-1998-2001/40289-custom-cush-drive-vfr800-vfr400-axle.html

And a few Ti Parts Blog | Titanium motorcycle parts | Ti64

 

:hss: Did you hand machine all that bolts and nuts....?:scared::hail:

 

Very nice. Could be the best vfr of all. I will do exactly as you have done to my vfr right after I win the lottery.

 

Unfortunately NO, I have the basic skills for it but not the equipment, so had to get Pete at Titanium motorcycle parts | Ti64 to make them. He does this stuff for many of the BSB race teams in the UK, so has plenty of experience. And now I have the parts back they are truly works of art.

 

That is a tonne of work
Thanks for sharing. We sometimes get accused of being light on the technical side here, you have proven otherwise.

 

Hi Mohawk- When you were talking about your cam work, you mentioned the amount of flow through a 36mm throttle body of a CB1300 & 1200 Bandit... "For comparison the CB1300 & Bandit 1200 both use 36mm throttle bodies & flow 50% more air than the VFR at peak rpm." I'm not sure what you are getting at here as you would expect and engine that has 50% more swept volume to have close to 50% more air flow (unless it was really restricted). Can you explain more? Thanks,

 

Mogman, no mistery here, the CB1300 & Bandit 1200 both use 36mm throttle bodies (TB's) & make acceptible power & will accept tuning without changing the TB's thus they flow 50% more air through the same sized TB';s that the VFR has, so unless someone was planning a full race engine then you don't need bigger TB's !
Hope that explains it.

 

Not me, Pete at Ti64 did. All fitted perfectly, all done now.

 

I'm trying to put together some Electric water pump kits for the VFR faithful.
But I'm a bit leery of telling people to stretch their 10+ year old hoses over some silicone bushings to fit the 19mm unions on the bosch pumps I'm using.
was there any reason you just did not use reducing sections and reducing elbows going from 25mm down to 19 to fit the pump?

Since my kit is not going to replace the thermostat, but keep it for fast warmups and the automatic enrichment on the later 5th gens.
So I'm going to need a T fitting like you made.
My question to you on this one is, what did you start with, two metal unions and have them welded up, or tubing and then have to add having it beaded...

 

Hi Jes, No room for reducing unions, so the silicone step was simple & only requires one hose clamp.
The T-pie e stared life as a 100mm long preformed 25mm alloy hose joiner & an 11mm (iirc) alloy hose connector. I cut the 11mm piece at 35mm then filed the cut end to profile match the 25mm piece, one of my half round files had the exact radius for this Then took it to local engineerig shop to have it welded up & they drilled through the T for me too. Viola 25mm T with 11mm feed. I cut 20mm ougt of the middle of the hose from the bottom of the right rad & inserted the T as close to the existing Y connector as possible.

The 11mm hose from the thermostat, follows the same path to the rear of the genny cover, then forward under the genny cover to the T piece.

I have since added two custom lengths of alloy 25mm preformed joiners to replace the top hose between the rads & the thermostat to filler hose above the right rad. This was just to increase the cooling area, as the silicone & rubber hose for that matter are quite heat retentive.

Somewhere in one of my posts is a complete list of the requirements to fit a 5th gen with Silicone hoses, the only new hose I needed for the EWP setup was the 11mm one, as the new one is longer than the original.

Good luck with the kit.