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VFR bar install


blackhawkxx

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The actual install is easy (getting the bar weights out was a little bit of a pain) but the details of getting everything just how you want is another thing.  My bike is lowered a inch so that made some things harder.  The clutch hose is at max stretch, I will see how it goes but I may be able to gain a little more reach or replace with braided. Where the terminals for the brake light go on the master is really tight but should work. My brake hoses is OK because they are braided and the bike being lowered helps reach. 

The weather went from super nice Tuesday to crap into the near future so don't look for a ride report until next year.

Blackbird bars, just started to remove:

IMG_20191030_175531499.thumb.jpg.284ad2fa0db3d4c975ea24c8aea0a842.jpg

One of each:

IMG_20191030_190543516.thumb.jpg.3928abb267a6d0343891a91754edddad.jpg

Almost done:

IMG_20191031_182755318.thumb.jpg.320e0d5e9f9aae11d58411c9ed13d7b9.jpg

 

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17 minutes ago, superhawk996 said:

The bike being lowered doesn't reduce the reach of wires/hoses, installing the bars away from the top clamp did that.

On a stock Bird, are the bars near the top of the fork tubes?  So the bars stayed in the same place but the bike moved away from them while lowering.  I was obviously trying to keep the bars as high as possible.

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I totally understand wanting to get them high.  Also, know that I wasn't criticizing you for saying that lowering the bike is what caused the reach problem, just correcting it.  It's not a big deal, but someone reading it might think that just lowering causes a problem with the wires/hoses reaching.

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  • 8 months later...

I never did a follow up on my VFR bar install.   I didn't think that they would really make that much of a difference and going just by feel, it is hard to tell.  But they really did make a great difference in comfort as far as my neck not hurting me.  Now I can ride longer and don't have a headache when I get home.  Any of the old timers that need to sit more upright should give them a shot or one of the other options. 

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1 hour ago, redxxrdr said:

Something I still need to do.

Would you add the model / year of VTR clipons to this post for us old forgetful farts?

I forgot also but I do have the part numbers and they are still available from Honda.  If you search the part numbers, they come up.

53150-MCW-D00

53100-MCW-D00

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1 hour ago, RXX said:

How did you lower your bike? I am interested.

Philip

I haven't done it, but I did read a lot when I first got my bike.

The front could be done by shortening the spacer in the fork tube. Easy to do, but shortens the suspension travel.  Or drop the forks in the triples.  Sort of looks funny, but it keeps the compression / rebound pretty much stock.  It also gives you a higher, mount relative to the tripple, for the clipon.  No vfr clipon needed.

This does change rake.  Not always a good thing.

 

The rear just requires a lowering link.

EBay today shows many for the XX in the $150.00 range.  Some use a threaded rod with lock nuts to set variable height.

 

The issues that I see are getting to low and dragging fairings.

And rake.  OEM is 25 degrees.

I don't have a perfectly level place to put the bike and measure rake.

I would pick the most level place that I had, Mark it so that I could put the bike in the same place every time, and subtract 25 degrees from the rake you measure now.

Lower and measure the rake on the forks, keeping the normalized rake close to the OEM 25 degrees. 

We don't want tank slap.

 

I should have a inclinometer accurate to minutes, if you want to try it.

 

 

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39 minutes ago, rockmeupto125 said:

Lower the rear by rotating the shock link triangle forward.

 

Seriously?  That easy?  How did I never learn this before (or forget something so important)?  Do you basically just take the weight off the back, pull the three bolts, and replace it on the bike?

 

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5 hours ago, RXX said:

How did you lower your bike? I am interested.

I lowered it when I was drag racing it and never raised it back up.  I slid the forks in the triple tree 1".  I got a lowering link, 1" drop (a CBR F4-I link is the same thing) but it had bushing instead of bearing.  So I took it to a machine shop and had them put the factory bearings in the link.

I did this years ago and I have never had head shake or any other handling problems at all.  

2 hours ago, rockmeupto125 said:

Lower the rear by rotating the shock link triangle forward.

I have heard of that years ago but don't remember the amount of drop, do you?

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On 7/24/2020 at 8:03 AM, redxxrdr said:

And rake.  OEM is 25 degrees.

I don't have a perfectly level place to put the bike and measure rake.

I would pick the most level place that I had, Mark it so that I could put the bike in the same place every time, and subtract 25 degrees from the rake you measure now.

Lower and measure the rake on the forks, keeping the normalized rake close to the OEM 25 degrees. 

We don't want tank slap.

Lowering the front or raising the rear will change the rake, but very unlikely to the extent of creating a tank slapper IMO

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On 7/24/2020 at 12:10 PM, SwampNut said:

 

Seriously?  That easy?  How did I never learn this before (or forget something so important)?  Do you basically just take the weight off the back, pull the three bolts, and replace it on the bike?

 

Yes, it's that easy, but the drop is not very much.  After all, it's free.  It's fairly easy to make new triangle plates, which I did a long time ago for drag-racing.  However, this changed the linkage travel ratio to make the shock slightly "stiffer".  Not a good thing for traction on a street tire.

I think a "dog-bone" is the better way to go, especially for street-going daily rider.

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3 minutes ago, rockmeupto125 said:

 

 

More than an inch.  It's certainly noticeable.

In the front, lowering one inch is about max by sliding the fork tubes without hitting the fender.  So if you went more than a inch in the rear......

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1 hour ago, jon haney said:

Yes, it's that easy, but the drop is not very much.

 

13 minutes ago, rockmeupto125 said:

More than an inch.

 

I'm confused.  Which one of you thinks you have an 8" cock?

 

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23 hours ago, SwampNut said:

 

 

I'm confused.  Which one of you thinks you have an 8" cock?

 

LOL.  Not me.😔

I didn't actually measure (the drop of the bike) when I tried it, so go with what Joe says.  When I made a new set of triangular plates, I reduced the dimension between the shock and the dog-bone bolts about 1" from stock.  This yielded about a 3 to 3.5" drop at the rear axle.  Side stand was still short enough with stock front height (barely).

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