Fork that

the ability to remain attached to the floor is a huge advantage when you are traveling at speed and might feel the need to change direction.

With that in mind I have decided to make some radical changed to the VFR in order to improve the front wheels chance of staying attached to the black top.

The gold plated Rolls Royce would be an nice set of these forks you can see on the right.

They are from a Honda VFR750 too and if you were lucky enough to get your hands on the 6x variety of the RC24 you would have had these fitted already. The slightly more accessible bike that these can be found on is the RC30 but as I'm sure you can imagine, that doesn't make then very affordable either.

There is also the small matter of wheels too which would need changing for better tyre choices and aesthetics. Conviniently; this could come as a bit of a package with a fork choice.

Selection process

This left me forum trawling where many options are discussed ranging from slip in fork swaps to full on stem cutting upside down forked superbike donors.

Three strong options stood out to me:

1. VTR Fire storm
2. CBR600 F2
3. CBR600 F3

The VTR option stood out as this machine was entered into the CRMC so everything on that bike had already been accepted by elegibility.

Both of the CBR's are tried and tested roots to success with the forks essentially dropping into the yokes and the wheels are the far more attractive 6 spokes reminiscent of the 6x I was trying to treplicate rather than the more modern 3 spokes of the VTR. The F3 gets the added benefit of cartridge fully adjustable forks, fully floating front discs and a slightly wider rear rim over the F2.

I could have tried mashing together a mix of things but that would just add complication so the CBR600 F3 option was my favoured option. With prices fairly reasonable; I could have got myself a full set of forks, wheels and spacers for around £400-500 fairly comfortably. This would be good, but a whole bike for the same money is better and that [as you probably already know] is what I went and bought.

Over the cause of a week the VFR was wheeled out of the way and the CBR was stripped for spares. Everything I needed was retained and everything else was put back on eBay or given to mates.

Strip down intermission

With that done I could get back to the VFR and the job of fitting new legs and wheels.

Off came the plastics and tank as this makes access loads easier, they were being replaced anyway and they were going to have to come off anyway to get a good look at this thing.

This took me bloody ages! The plastics were not in great condition and, not wanting to make them worse, I was being careful. The shear variety of fasteners used to keep these clothes on must have taken some real effort as no two were alike. many were seized or simply rounded off already but they all came out in the end with slots cut into them for a flat blade (yer that actually works some times) and a bit of anti-seize spray.

What was revealed wasn't terrible.

It wasn't terribly good either mind.

everything had a layer of moldy dust, the helmet lock bracket was more rust than metal and there was some kind of wiring spaghetti coming out of the battery box area.

Whilst I had her kit off I sprayed more bits with anti-seize compound and had a really good poke around to see what might need replacing. 

Little details like taped up HT leads and funky wiring would all need addressing at a later date.

At least the frame looks okay and, oh is that coolant on the floor? *Sigh*

 

Back to removing those forks

With a fresh cup of tea in hand I could press on with getting those forks in.

The bike is on an Abba stand which can be used to lift the front end with an additional arm. I don't own this so stuck a jack with a lump of wood between it and the exhausts holding the front end up. A strop was added for additional support from a roof beam.

I then disconnected the heavily sun bleached switch gear, ignition, throttle and choke cables to enable the clipons to be lifted from the fork tops.

Top top nut was then cracked off and pinch bolts loosened to allow the top yoke to be gently persuaded off (read: 1 pound hide face) allowing me access to the two nuts holding the bottom yoke in. These were removed with a flat blade and hammer (I really need to buy a smaller C spanner) freeing the front end ready for removal.

All I had to do now was raise the front end further so the bottom yoke could drop out along with the forks and wheel followed by the brake lever still attached to the front brake hose.

Now the CBR600 front end could pop on in true Haynes manual fashion: The reversal of the removal process with a number of clauses, confusing pictures and omissions.

The CBR600 front end does indeed just plop straight in but the stem from the CBR bottom yoke is a few centimeters too short necessitating a different bottom yoke. Little did I know though that everyone else doing simple plug in mods with these forks were doing it to a VFR750 FJ/K RC24 not my earlier FG/H. The FJ/K's came with bigger forks that just so happen to be the same diameter of the more advanced pins I was trying to fit from the CBR, I did not have this later machine so was going to need to go shopping again.

A bottom yoke from an FJ soon appeared in the post and was quickly cleaned up and slotted onto the fork legs.

It is worth noting here just how much lighter the VFR yoke was to the CBR, something that would become apparent repeatedly during this build. With an aluminium yoke and pressed stem it was noticeably lighter than the all steel welded yoke from the much later sports bike, truly showing just how hard Honda were trying with the RC24. 

This combination slotted in easily with the old head race bearings (they are the same roller ball bearings on the CBR and VFR) and the stem nuts were tightened down. 

This was not so true for the CBR600's top yoke that I had hoped to use. I much prefer the look of the later sand cast top yokes but this one, although fitting the forks nicely, wouldn't meet the VFR's further back set stem.

This meant another trip to eBay and the purchase of the terribly ugly looking FJ/K top yoke. It was designed to be covered with a plastic fairing and you can see why. Yuk!

Looks put to one side for now I fitted the CBR clipons and checked clearance against the nose cone which I offered up to the bike. I was pleased to see flatter bars would clear so I dressed them with a quick throttle that was meant to be fitted to the CBR400 and levers to try the feel of this setup. 

 Aside from the headstock stops not meeting (why Honda?) I couldn't see any problems and liked the slightly more head down feel of the lower bars.

The front end was popped off again when a set of taper roller bearings arrived so they could be persuaded into the headstock. 

Round up

In the not too distant future this whole setup will be dropped out for cleaning, servicing and general "pretification". However in one clean sweep I now have modern (well in a 90's sense) sports front suspension and a 17" front rim that not only looks the part but also offers for better tyre choices over the stock 16" wheel. On top of this; stopping is now improved with fully floating front discs and slightly better front calipers being fed by braided lines. 

 This is a huge transformation that, with slightly better planning, can be accomplished with relative ease.
As for the back end; progress has been made but that one is for another day.
Oh go on, you can have a peak.