VFR Thread, How many of us have 'em?

[slickwill]

Awesome. Still love your paint job. I just showed it to my wife and she also likes it. I'd like some pics of the triples and details on the conversion. I'd been planning to just have JD do the front and rear but after seeing that R1 front end I may go another route. Did you have to swap out wheel bearings? Have custom spacers made?

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[AllBlackPearl]

+1!!
That thing is sweet!!!!
Wonderful job.

I'd also appreciate some detailed info on the R1 front/brakes. I've got a '97 and the brakes really suck compared to what I was used to before. Some real good stoppers would make it an even better ride.

[Joe?]

Originally Posted by AllBlackPearl

+1!!

+2
Congratulations on a 20 year old bike that can likely out handle most stock showroom bikes today. Does anyone know of a similar brake/suspension swap for the 6th gen? Also, has anyone seen a rebuild kit for the calipers?

[NoVa Rider]

[kwb377]

I'm a former VFR owner...can I stilll be part of the club?

[BeeCeeGS]

Originally Posted by slickwill

Awesome. Still love your paint job. I just showed it to my wife and she also likes it. I'd like some pics of the triples and details on the conversion. I'd been planning to just have JD do the front and rear but after seeing that R1 front end I may go another route. Did you have to swap out wheel bearings? Have custom spacers made?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

I'd be interested in this as well. The front suspension on my '93 is very tired--I've thought about new springs and gold valves, rebuilding calipers, etc., but maybe a complete change is in order? Finally did the shock a few years ago, and it helped a great deal.

[hpsVFR]

Originally Posted by AllBlackPearl

+1!!
That thing is sweet!!!!
Wonderful job.

I'd also appreciate some detailed info on the R1 front/brakes. I've got a '97 and the brakes really suck compared to what I was used to before. Some real good stoppers would make it an even better ride.

I too await more information about the R1 swap, but will note that an effective interim solution is to dismount your front brakes and thoroughly clean and lube the slide pins and brake pad retaining pin. I found more change from doing this than I did from going to SS brake lines, but obviously, the lube job doesn't last nearly as long as the replacement lines.

Again, it's clearly not as good as going to 4-pot brakes (and Yamaha's monoblock calipers are damn fine), but it's cheap and relatively easy to do. Just don't forget the thread-locker on the hardware and use proper torque to avoid damage to the Aluminum bits.

[smack doogle]

The Jamie Daugherty shock was $395 shipped to my door, sprung and valved for my weight and riding style. It's basically a CBR954 shock that Jamie resprings and revalves to your specs plus he adds the adapter to bolt up to the VFR. The price is right and Jamie has great customer service. Here's his site with more details.

http://www.daughertymotorsports.com/

The front end is pretty straight forward. I used CBR929/954 triples. They bolt right up to the VFR head. Same bearings and everything so just take off the old and put on the new (get new bearings though, don't reuse old bearings).

I used 2005 (2004-2006 are the same) Yamaha R1 forks, brakes, rotors and wheel which bolt directly into the CBR triples. The only tricky part is that the CBR triples are 4mm wider than the R1 triples so you have to find 2mm spacers to go between the rotors and wheel (I got lucky, found some 2mm washers at ACE that fit perfect) and you'll need 2mm spacers for the front wheel axle. For this, I just bought two extra regular R1 axle spacers and had the local machine shop grind them down to 2mm each. Easy day. Oh, special bolts are needed for the rotors but I guy from one of the VFR forums gave me a link to where he had his made up so I just ordered them from that company.

I also rebuilt the forks before installing them (seals are cheap, I didn't want to find a leaky fork after I had installed everything). Plus, I weigh about 225lbs. Couple that with a heavier bike and I'm sure the stock fork springs would have been overwhelmed so I upped them with 1k RaceTech springs.

Thats about it. I got fully adjustable DANMOTO clipons off ebay and HEL SS brake lines +2" longer to make up for the clipons. They might be 1" lower than the VFR clipons but I also have them located below the top triple, some say convertibars will bring them up higher. I don't have convertibars money.

Anyway, that's the jist of it. Pretty easy, a weekend job if that. Nearly everything can be found on ebay and if you are doing it take your time. I got my forks for $140 shipped and yes they are straight. Calipers I got for $50. There are deals on ebay if your patient.

If anyone wants more info let me know, I'd be happy to help. In the end, it was well worth the money to me. Yeah, I probably spent almost $1500 for front and rear suspension but..........that's a hell of a lot cheaper than a new bike!!!!

[hpsVFR]

BTW, smack doogle, that's some really nice work, and a fantastic bike!

[Ray of Sunshine]

Love the suspension mods on that beautiful VFR. Thanks, Smackdoggle.

[LuciferMutt]

Originally Posted by smack doogle

The Jamie Daugherty shock was $395 shipped to my door, sprung and valved for my weight and riding style. It's basically a CBR954 shock that Jamie resprings and revalves to your specs plus he adds the adapter to bolt up to the VFR. The price is right and Jamie has great customer service. Here's his site with more details.

http://www.daughertymotorsports.com/

Is that price including the shock or do you have to send him the shock to be done? That's a fantastic price if it includes the shock!

I might know what my late christmas present to me might be!

EDIT I see the price does not include the shock. Bummer.

[hpsVFR]

Originally Posted by LuciferMutt

Is that price including the shock or do you have to send him the shock to be done? That's a fantastic price if it includes the shock!

I might know what my late christmas present to me might be!

EDIT I see the price does not include the shock. Bummer.

Sending him your stock shock costs almost $200 less, and will (IMO) be perfectly adequate for most street riders. Hell, if you want a nice double-adjustable Wilbers shock, I've got one just sitting here on my VFR, and I would have been perfectly happy with a re-valved stock shock for all the riding that I did.

PM me if you're interested.

Also, you can often get used CBR (or even VFR) shocks for almost nothing if you lurk in the right places and have some patience.

[AllBlackPearl]

Originally Posted by smack doogle

The front end is pretty straight forward. I used CBR929/954 triples. They bolt right up to the VFR head. Same bearings and everything so just take off the old and put on the new (get new bearings though, don't reuse old bearings).

I used 2005 (2004-2006 are the same) Yamaha R1 forks, brakes, rotors and wheel which bolt directly into the CBR triples.
If anyone wants more info let me know, I'd be happy to help.

Hiya!
Thanks a lot for all the info so far (and for making your bike such a beauty )!!
Just a few stupid questions:
Am I getting it right that you now run an R1 front wheel on your VFR, too? It sure looks the VFR wheel. You got me a bit confused.
As you used the CBR triples, why not take the rest (brakes and wheel) from it as well? Are the brakes so much worse? (Mind you, I had a 1st gen FZ1 with R1 brakes and know how good they are!)
Do you know if all this also works for a '97 VFR?
And lastly, Any idea, if the '03 FZ1 forks would fit there as well? Are they identical to the R1 forks? I could look that up, but I thought someone would maybe know by heart.

Thanks again and best wishes from Switzerland!
I've been riding my Quick Mick today again! Unbelievable. Usually you can take the skis to go down instead at that time of the year...

[smack doogle]

I had Jamie supply the donor shock for $40 so my total came out to $395. True, I could have just sent my VFR shock to Jamie but I heard great reviews on his CBR shock and I would have been without a shock for a few weeks. I wanted to be able to ride while waiting. I also could have found a CBR shock on ebay for $20 but I was anxious so I just had Jamie supply one of his.

The wheel on my bike with the Yamaha forks is the Yamaha R1 wheel. Yes, it looks nearly identical to the VFR wheel but the difference is in the weight. Much much much lighter. The Yamaha wheel works perfect with the forks so I just left it plus the rotors are bigger and floating where as the VFR (3rd gen) rotors are smaller and not floating.

I could have used the CBR forks but they are a little shorter and why when you can find newer R1 forks for the same price and you get the pretty monobloc calipers as oppossed to the older style CBR929/954 calipers. Plus, there seemed to be a lot more R1 forks on ebay at any given time compared to CBR929/954 or RC51 forks and brakes.

In regards to the brakes, I know my VFR brakes weren't the best. The R1 brakes are worlds better. Would I be able to tell the difference between the CBR and R1 brakes? Probably not unless I was on the race track. Again, I went with the R1 stuff because it was the same price, looks better (my opinion), and there were more available.

The 1st Gen FZ1 uses the 1st Gen R1 front forks and brakes. No monobloc calipers. I'm sure they are pretty long though but you would first need to figure out the diameter of the forks and then figure out what triples would work with them and the VFR head. Yamaha steering stems tend to be longer that Honda so Yamaha triples aren't an option on our VFR's so we stick with the CBR or RC51 triples. Keep in mind though, bikes like the FZ1 weren't/aren't produced in the same numbers as full on sport bikes especially in the states. That means, it'll be harder to find forks, etc and even harder to find them cheap. Here, a lot of racers upgrade their stuff and put the parts on ebay cheap. Hence, how I got my forks for $140.

I'm sure it would all work on your 4th gen VFR. I got the idea for my bike from seeing a VFR similar to yours with the same front end I now have on mine. In fact, I think he's over in Europe somewhere. I've seen similar mods done to VFR's from '86 to 2009 so it's all possible. Check out VFRDiscussion or VFRWorld. Tons of info. on each site. Good luck if you choose to go forward. Honestly, it's not a hard job and if anyone is deciding to buy a new bike because their VFR has crumby suspension they should look into saving a lot of money and upgrading the suspension.

Thanks for the compliments!

[Scubalong]