yeah, kinda sucks that way. Well i have one of two options. Suck it up, and get a VFR stock rim, strip the paint, and make it into something I can work with.

Or two, stick with the 7" if it's already been shipped. I will run the wheel as an offset, see how it rides. Im not looking to rip up the road, did that already. This is a prototype bike to prove that I can do it. If i can do this to my poor little f3, I can do just about anything. Specially since i have 0 mechanical background what so ever!

tomorrow I'll post some picks of progress, and then monday I'll know where i stand with the rim.

I can do the 7" rim, just have to find a 200 tire with less overhang.

 

its been a while since i last updated my progress. Things have been slow, my wife is pregnant with #2, and is ready to go at any time. The kid know that daddy doesn't have a bike to boot around on, and is hanging in there a bit.

Anyhow, so last I left off, i was tinkering around with the electrical, running it up and around the gas tank. What a bitch to do, the cable is so friken thick, its hard to bend. I opted to strip off much of the shielding so i can see what was making the cable so thick. what a mess of wires. Honda sure knows how to make a nest of things.

I ran the cables up around the tank, and then under the air intake, then up the center between the two intake pipes. This makes the large cable come out beside the top of the tank where the throttle cables go in. Much cleaner.





I also got a new wire harness. This one has 18 holes to plug wires into. Much like a PC adapter. The previous wire harness i bought would require me to solder the existing wires to the harness. Just not practical.



So, after an hour doing that, i pushed all the pins into the harness, connected it back up, and "tada" everything worked just fine.





I have a lot of exposed wires that I now have to manage, but I thought of something today. Back in the day when i raced R/C cars, we used to put the actuators inside black balloons to keep them dry and dust free. I think i will adopt the same pricipal with the wires that are left exposed. it will clean things up and will make it easier to tuck away.

Also, i have since cancelled the car wheel portion of this project. I have opted to run a stock VFR rim. The issue came about with how long it was going to take to get the rim i ordered in. after almost 4 weeks of waiting, the shop called me to tell me they werent even in transit. So, i just dropped the project.

I was apprehensive there for a bit about running a positive offset. But after talking to CBRRRT on the streetfighter forums, he told me many of his buddies run offsets up to 20mm+. Had it not been for the wait time on the rim, i would still be going through with it. I will however attempt the conversion this coming winter, as it will much easier to manage. I cant do the rest of this project with the bike on the jack stands.

This leads me to today. I needed to take apart the hub assembly for the SSSA. There is a massive nut that needs to be taken off, and I didnt have the proper tools to do it. After a quick trip to the hardware store, i picked up a pipe wrench and had at it.

One of the problems with not having a wheel to hold the hub in place, is that it freely spins as i tried to hammer this nut off. Being ingenious and all, i grabbed the pipe i bought to make my spacer, and jammed that between the studs on the end of the swingarm, and made it so that when i applied pressure on the nut, the pipe would jam harder into the ground.

Did that for 10 minutes without much success. Then i realized, there was an indent on the nut, and that was pinched into a recess... this essentially prevents the nut from coming loose and coming off accidentally (i assume)

Grabbed a screw driver, and popped it a couple times to get this tab to straighten out, and had at it again. This time with success.





There are a couple washers that need to be removed as well, i just took two screw drivers and walked the washer off. No biggie. After that, the hub end came off, and left what you see above.

Then, i took the other end of the assembly, and it smoothly came out. PHEW!





I chose to clean as much as i could. The bolts were calcified and or rusted, so i dumped them into a bath of CLR overnight, and they look brand new now.

The rest i used my chain degreaser. Sprayed liberally over the swing arm, hub assembly, and then scrubbed to get the dirt and grime off. Spend about an hour doing that.

The point of this was to get a reading if the inner parts of the swing arm needed to be replaced. Everything spun freely, and there wasn't any dirt or containments in it. I greased everything back up, and will assemble it back together again tomorrow.

Also, i have the swing arm back (obviously) from the welder. Here are some shots of the shock mount.









what i need to do now is drill some pilot holes to get the new bolt through the billet aluminum. Since they used half inch on both sides, i have to get a new bolt. I went to home depot and they had something in the length i wanted, but not the diameter. It's close, but allows too much movement. I will go to brafasco and get one there.

All in all, a productive night. I still need to source out a VFR rim. I want the 8 spoke version. It's a closer match to what i wanted from the car rim, but will require no work other then some painting. At least this way i can get the bike on the road and see if it still works.

As a thought, can anyone recommend a place to get a new sprocket made? I need to get one to replace the stock VFR one. its a 43, but set to 530 so it doesnt fit the chain.

 

Can you not find an aftermarket VFR sprocket?

 

Truthfully, i was just looking at custom spocket guys. Didnt even think of conversions. Found a DID 520 conversion sprocket for 30 USD. They have hardened black sprockets, and gold 520 chains.

I was hoping to keep my stock 520 chain, but something tells me it wont fit.

Want gold or silver accents as the bike will be white and black. I wont be powder coating the frame till much later, so maybe silver is the way to go.

 

How many links are there for the stock F3 520 chain?

 

**** man, i wanna see that rear wheel on

 

It should be a 525 not 520 stock is 108 links but if u lengthened the stock wheel base at all it would be a good idea to get a longer chain and cut the extra links.

 

Well, i had to suffer with getting a stock VFR rim. I just got a guy off ebay who is local sell me one. Will polish and paint it to match the bike. I was sad when he said he had an 8 spoke that he just sold. Just my luck. twice in a week i've missed out on that.

The car rim will be this winters project, I need to order a rim i like, that's the big issue. I will have to run an offset on the tire. But for this season, i just want to have a little fun. Just too many small projects are eating up my time.

As mentioned, I have a VFR rim i just ordered, and a 520 conversion set. The reason why i went with the 520, is because the VFR rear sprocket is hard to come by in a 525. IN FACT, you cant get them. Its either a 530 or 520.

I ordered a 15t sprocket off ebay for the front, and a 42t Vortex in the rear with a 112 link chain. I don't know how many links i'll need because of the mod, so i can shorten if needed.

The chain is gold, I will paint my calliper to match. get some accenting happening. the tire I will order next week. I want to do a test fit on the bike before i order a tire. I can put up to a 180 on this rim, but I dont know if I will have the space for it. I can go as low as 170. It's all about if the rim will need a spacer to be OC.

I need to get the shock mount drilled, and then install the f4i shock. I have the two r1 exhaust's coming in tomorrow, so i can do a test fit to see if i need to change the geometry of the rear to accommodate them.

UGH, so much to do still.

 

Just wanted to chime in and say this is coming along nicely. Keep up the good work

 

picked up the VFR rim, came with a worn in 180 on it. and low and behold, i have to run with a slight offset. the frame would need further modification to get the tire to be OC. oh well, will worry about it another day.