Wish i could have the patience and attention to detail in these projects like you. For me I wanna ride so bad I can't wait. Awesome job so far. Taking your time to get everything perfect!
I tried mounting the steering damper both ways (forward and backward) but ended up mounting it as below because it wouldn't clear the guages the other way around. With the modified steering stops it now works within the correct range.
I'm running out of boxes to empty. The "bike in a box" project is in the final phases. Got a few more mechanical items and then the tank and bodywork. Should be fired up and running in the next few weeks. Full frontal assault shots.................
I'd be willing to bet that thing didn't look that nice when it rolled out of the factory on day one.
I hate you, No, not really just jealous it is a beautiful bike and it's still neked,
I just spent the better part of 40 minutes catching up on this thread from first post to last and all i can say is WOW! im really excited to see how this turns out!
Well I have a mate who is giving me one for free so I'll have a go and see if I can make it work. I have the ride height spacers in with the stock shock so that might give some extra clearance for the frame. Modifying the battery box looks like a possibility, but not as much as a '51 shock where the reservoir sticks straight back. The only other thought was the proximity of the reservoir to the exhaust, might heat it up a bit and cause problems. I'll keep you posted.
OK, so I got the shock last night. Initial impressions are good, of course I won't know until I get it all apart. The R6 shock is 1/2" shorter than standard, eye to eye dimensions, which can be corrected for with additional ride height spacers on the top bracket. The width of the "prongs" on the bottom of the shocks are identical. The reason I choose the R6 shock is because the piggy back reservoir is compact on top and on the left side of the shock, AWAY from the exhaust and doesn't stick straight back like most of the rest. I'll need to move the battery back about 3/4" in the battery box which shouldn't be much of a problem. I have some thin sheet aluminum and I'll fabricate the parts of the undertray that I need to remove/modify. Anyway, I'll post some pics later and you can tell me what you think.
Good news, it really looks like it will work. So close in every way but very possible. The '06 R6 shock is 1/2" shorter eye to eye dimensions. Adding 1/2" in shims puts things even with the standard set up. But additional clearance is needed so you WILL have to run the extra 5mm (HRC) ride height. I had 5mm extra rear ride height via shims set up with the standard unit already. It really does fit like a glove, almost perfect, like it was made for the bike. No interference with the exhaust on the right side and the piggy back reservoir sticks out to the left side and does not interfere with anything there either. I only have it set up on the bike with the 1/2" correction via shims and only 4mm extra ride height, not the full 5mm, so imagine everything with an extra mm of clearance. The ONLY problem is the upper shock mount, the standard RVF one does not work, the opening on the prongs/clevis is a little too tight and the bolt is going to be too short with the extra shims. As you can see from the one picture the nut is only catching on 3-4 threads. If I can find another upper shock mount from another bike (the R6 one is way shorter) or have a custom mount fabricated, I think we are in business. AND, no battery box modifications are necessary, it doesn't even touch the battery box. The high speed compression adjuster comes close to the mount on the frame for the undertray attachment, but is still a good 3-4mm away and the upper part of the shock and mount are stable or fixed, it's the bottom of the shock and dog bones that move so no problems there. Here's the pics.................tell me what you think? Impressions? Ideas? Cheers!
Since I am at a standstill and can't do any more mechanical work until I get the upper shock mount back and get the shock re-sprung, I thought I would test fit the bodywork. All the bodywork was off the bike in boxes when I got it, so I needed to check and see what fasteners I had and what I needed to get. The panels are literally hanging off the bike in these pics with minimal attachment points. Everything fits well thanks to Mr. Honda. Just need a few bits here and there. Getting so close now. Just need to finish up the shock, add coolant, charge the battery, fill and bleed the brakes, gas up the tank, and hit the starter button. I am really that close. Then just the graphics on the bodywork, mount, recover the seats, and ride. I told the wife I would take a year to complete this project and it will only be 5-6 months. :mrgreen:
Bits and pieces of the shock R&D............Long post, might be boring, chatting with my mates across the pond in the UK. Short story of a long post, trying to get the R6 shock set up for the RVF. Work in progess.
That's what I was thinking. There is a local metal fabricator that advertises he has a Flow Jet machine. If I can design the correct dimensions of the piece to include the 1/2" difference and the additional 5mm (inches-mm, whatever, same difference, you get the point) on a flat piece of metal that he can cut out, and then just bend it into the U-shape and run a bolt through it. THat would eliminate the need for any of the spacers and then I could also use a shorter bolt through the frame. So that's the current plan, what just kills me is that I won;t be able to get out there until next week and that's sets me behind with the whole project. I'm so close to finishing that I'm getting a little stir crazy looking at the bike sitting in the garage. Argh.
Thanks Druid, definitely too short. I stopped by The Home Depot at lunch today and picked up a 3/16" x 1 1/4" x 2' piece of steel bar stock. I'll have a go at fabricating a mount myself first and see how that goes. Shouldn't be too hard, measure, bend into U-shape, drill holes, slide bolt through. Might take a few tries to get it perfect, that's why I got a 2' piece. Picked up a couple M10 x 1.25 bolts in various lengths too. I'll let you know how it turns out this weekend. I already know it will be tons better because I took the bike off the makeshift stands and bounced the rear up and down and it felt noticably firmer but the rebound was so much smoother and controlled. The standard unit is like a pogo-stick, boing, boing, boing. Thanks.
Bottom line. It works. It's a thing of wonder. I fabricated a "mock up" upper shock mount and although it is not very pretty, it's the right dimensions. I had to cut a small corner out of the carbon chain guard to clear the reservoir on full bottoming. The only thing this mod needs to work is the custom upper shock mount and chain guard modification. That's all! No battery box mods either. It literally was "made" for this bike. I have video of the shock in motion but am having a hard time getting it loaded on the computer. I am going to have a metal shop make me a nice version of the upper shock mount. Mine is just too crude and ugly. The Graves mount mentioned above, which is too short for this mod, is ridiculously priced, $70 for a mount??? Jeez, I should have a bunch made and I could put my kid through college. And the best thing is I got the shock from a mate for free. They seem to be going for $30-50 on E-bay. I think the '06-'08 R6 shock is the same, the '09 is a little different with a built in ride height adjuster. So, as stated above you just need to add a total of 17.5mm to the upper shock mount length. Get to fabricating!
Don't know the exact data, I will try to find that out. I am a forum member on the R6 board, R6Hooligan of course, haven't been on for awhile, but I'll try to post the question. '04 shock is completely different from the '06. Remember, with this mod, you HAVE to run the 5mm increase in ride height which translates to 30mm (?) increased travel at the rear, so clearance issues shouldn't be a problem. I only weigh 170lbs. so I shouldn't need a heavier spring anyway, but for larger riders they might to check this out as a potential issue.
EDIT. I checked the R6 forum and did a search, no info, although I saw a post where a big bloke of 6'3" 220lbs. was racing a R6 with the stock spring, and another said the stock set up was ideally for someone 185 lbs. ???
Not going to be necessary because you MUST run the increased ride height "permanently" set at 5mm (see above), you can't set it any lower or you'll run the risk of the reservoir hitting the left sub frame mounting point. And I don't think you want to run any higher than that because the bike might be too quick in the steering department and become unstable. And with the standard forks you cant really raise the front either to compensate. An adjustable bolt type set up would work, don't get me wrong, but then you would set it at the correct height and leave it, so kinda a mute point. But I see your idea.
It's really not that big of a deal, and I'm not that clever , you just need to fabricate an upper shock mount that is exactly 17.5mm longer than the standard unit. What this means is that the bolt that goes through the top of the shock and through the mount, the center of that bolt needs to be 17.5mm lower than the bolt on the stock unit. Doesn't matter how you do it, use shims, longer bolts, longer shock mount, find a longer mount, fabricate a mount, etc. That's it. I still haven't gone to the metal fabricator shop yet, maybe today or tomorrow. My plan is to get them to cut out a flat piece of metal on the Flow Jet with all the correct dimensions and holes and then have them bend it into a U shape on a heavy press. As I discovered on my "mock up" mount, 3/16" thick metal is hard to bend straight and get a perfect 90 degree angle at the top, and keep it nice and square. I did a lot of hammering and banging and broke the corner off my bench vise in the process. The stock mount has a bolt that is pressed in and welded and it has a very short round "head" to give the necessary clearance at the top of the standard shock eyelet. The new mount will be much longer so there will be plenty of clearance betwwen the bolt head and top of the shock eyelet. I plan on using a regular bolt here that is not welded in place so that I could always add shims/washers above or below the mount in the event that I have to change/alter the ride height in the future. I don't think this will be necessary, but I'm trying to cover all the bases. The stock mount is 3/16" thick metal and the width of the mount is 1 3/16" wide at the top of the mount and that is also the dimension of the recess in the bottom of the frame spar that the mount fits into. This prevents the upper mount from twisting when it is bolted in place. So that is the dimensions of the mount that I will have fabricated. More info in a day or two.
Oh yeah, I don't really think it would be cost effective for me to have more mounts made and ship them to the UK. It should be rather inexpensive and you should be able to find a shop in the UK, or anywhere else, rather easily that can make one.
You could do that, it would work, and then add 17.5mm of spacers between the mount and frame, that would work also. But if you were a sorry ass American like me, you'd want to keep the standard mount with the standard shock and pack them away safely in a box together as a matched pair. There is maybe a handful of these bikes over here and there are no spares or breakers. If I ever were to return the bike to 100% standard or sell the bike, I would want to have the standard parts. But since you have a "relative" surplus of parts in the UK, go to town on that standard mount, break out the angle grinder!
OK, just got back from the metal fabricator shop. Helped them design the new upper mount on the CAD machine. The FlowJet cuts the piece out of steel including the rounded edges and holes and then it is bent into shape on a gazillion ton machine press. The FlowJet machine can cut up to 6" steel with 60,000 pounds of force. Cuts only with water and garnet (sp?) mixed in as the abrasive. Pretty impressive stuff, everyone needs one of these! LOL Anyway, here's the shocker, the first one will cost me $110 USD!!! If I have a production run of 20 or more made the cost drops to $55 each. So I guess that Graves Yamaha mount for $70 was not so bad after all. So, let me get mine back and mount and test it on the bike and then if there is enough interest, I can have them make more. I should have it by the weekend and I'll post pics.
OK, always thinking and calculating. I've been bouncing around on the bike in the garage trying to get sag numbers and it seems a tad soft. However, I remember sitting on the bike with the standard shock and it felt the same way. The R6 action definitely feels smoother but still the rear sinks down quite a bit and I'm really not that heavy. Maybe a re-spring is in order, I don't know??? I did manage to find out some numbers on the R6 unit, '06-'07 R6 stock spring rate is 9.8 kg/mm. Anyone know the stock spring rate for the RVF, chime in?! It is stated on the RaceTech website that the ideal rider weight for the stock R6 spring is 190 lbs. or 86 kg. Using the RaceTech website calculator they say the recommended rear spring weight for racing for a 175 lb. individual is 9.65 kg/mm. So if I had a R6 for racing they are telling me to get a softer spring. Can you see my confusion. I'm sure the weights of the two bikes are not that far apart so why the discrepancy in the springs? I don't know, let me go jump around and fiddle with the adjuster some more.......................
Well, this has all just been preliminary since I don't have the bike topped off with fluids, coolant, brake fluid, battery, tank, bodywork, and fuel. That will obviously change the sag numbers and also the working range of spring travel and associated spring rate. Just trying to test fit the shock, and it fits great and I have the upper mount issue all taken care of. It's now just a question of the Stock R6 spring???? So I'll really have to wait to see if this spring is going to work. To get anywhere near proper free and rider sag numbers I had the shock on max preload which is not good because then the shock is topped out. This mod may just require a spring change to work 100%. Now the dilema is finding the proper spring. I measured the stock RVF spring and when mounted on the shock it is 6 3/4" long and the thickness of the spring coil is 12mm. The R6 spring is 6" in length and the thickness of the spring coil is 11.5mm. So I need to find a 6 inch spring with a higher spring rate, preferably something off another production bike that I can easily find and pirate off e-bay or something. More work.................
Edit: I did some research and discovered that the '05 R6 shock spring is 10.8 kg/mm. ??????
OK, then someone please tell me what the spring rate for RVF aftermarket shocks would be. Surely race suppliers will have springs but they will also charge a lot more. I can pick up OEM shocks cheap on e-bay and pirate the springs from them. CBR600F4i 14.2 kg/mm, CBR600F4 14.2 kg/mm, CBR600F3 14.0kg/mm. Anyone know what the standard RVF rate is also? Fourfingers had said earlier in this thread that the standard RVF rate was 800 lbs, by my calculations that would put it at around 14.3 kg/mm. Can anyone confirm this?
Edit: Found an F4 shock on e-bay for $1 plus shipping! Think maybe it's worth a shot? 14.2 kg/mm?
1 Thankfully we weigh about the same....
2 Get my bike out of the rain!
Public Service Announcement: From here on forward I will refer to said bike as "Midwest's Bike".
ps: As stated in the fine print at the bottom of the vehicle purchase agreement, it reads as follows, "restorer has the right to throughly test ride the bike at the track before releasing to the purchaser, so on and so forth, yada yada ya..................."
Public Service Announcement: From here on forward I will refer to said bike as "Midwest's Bike".
ps: As stated in the fine print at the bottom of the vehicle purchase agreement, it reads as follows, "restorer has the right to throughly test ride the bike at the track before releasing to the purchaser, so on and so forth, yada yada ya..................."
You make me laugh.... a lot! Seriously... I chuckled....
The bike is coming along nicely. If you want to give a 00 R6 shock a try I have one laying around. A track day is perfect for suspension and tire break-in
The bike is coming along nicely. If you want to give a 00 R6 shock a try I have one laying around. A track day is perfect for suspension and tire break-in
Thanks for the offer, I just need a new spring, and the '00R6 is same rate as the '06. Got my eye on a few as we speak.
'02 Honda 919 - She's the only one for me!
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