Put your feet up

The Stock VFR footpegs are low and need to go. It's time for some rearsets.

This is no simple task as nobody makes any for the RC24 VFR750. There is a very good reason for this: they are asymmetrical. For reasons only known to Honda.
After a false start where I made a very tidy little bracket for the left side only to notice that this would leave the right side with no ability to move further forward; I made a start on a bracket for the right side first.
I had picked up a set of very cheap Taiwanese rearsets off of eBay which actually look pretty tidy and would save me completely making a set of rearsets which I didn't have time to do a very nice job of.

These rearsets came with pegs, levers and even the rear brake bracket. All of the hinge points were ball bearing too, backed up with brass bushings where needed which should make for a nice action once everything is bolted up.
I had a bit of a faf getting the rear brake master to line up with the rearset bracket but this was easily achieved with a little convincing with my drill and a few spacers.

The right rearset was placed in situ using the upper bolt hole as a hinge point then moved till I found a nice height and the brake line wasn't under too much stress.
This position was then checked to see if it was possible to mirror on the left side. I could see it was possible but the included gear shift rod would be too short so I would need to make another.



The next step was to cut out adapter oplates for the rearsets using some 8mm aluminium plate I had lying  about. Thankfully my chop saw made relatively easy work of this (well compared to a hacksaw), giving me two roughly identical rectangles.
These were then profiled to match the shape of the chassis so they would sit neatly in the casting. Next it was time for them to be drilled to mount to the chassis and accept the rearsets themselves.
This is an area where they vary from either side and is a good point to mention one of the complications of this modification.
The rearsets are designed with M8 allen bolts in mind so are drilled and counter sunk to take these. The bike has M10 bolt holes and threaded blocks on the subframe that this multitasking fastener secures down onto through he chassis.
This required the right rearset to be drilled out at the top as I intended to pull this side as close to the chassis as I could. the bolt hole wasn't too much bother but the counter sunk part does push the rearset to its limits a bit. If nothing else it is certainly the weakest point now.
This was then loose fitted with new fasteners from Lincolnshire fasteners to the bike to pick up the bottom rearselt hole. This could be drilled out to 8mm for a nylock nut and allen bolt to fasten up the bottom mounting point.
The left side, which I had originally fitted in a similar manner before (as shown on the left with a small stepped bracket on the bottom), needed to be fitted further aft so the pegs would be lined up. This meant that I had to fill in the material I had previously removed and, as best I could, profile it back to shape. This actually came out very well so I just needed to drill it back out to 8mm then get picking up the holes in the plate.
 To pick up the holes, I mounted the plates to the chassis then held the rearset so the pegs were roughly in line with one another. I then marked, rechecked the alignment then drilled. This was all loose assembled to assure the pegs were in the right place and were not going to fowl anything, then I took the plates off and profiled them down.
Once the plates were shaped correctly and holes tidied up, I gave the surface of the adapter plates a satin finish with the wire wheel on my bench grinder before bolting the lot up.
Now I went about removing parts like the pegs and lever ends anddrilling them so they could be lock wired.
One changed I needed to make later on was to replace the counter sunk m8 peg bolts that came with the rearsets with longer stainless hex head bolts. This necessitated more weld filling but it allowed me to drill and wirelock the bolts so they wouldn't unwind from inside the peg.
The only other thing that needed doing was to make a replacement shift rod. I used the standard right hand thread rose joints that came on the shift rod provided and these were used in the ends of a piece of steel rod which I drilled and tapped either end. Not the best looking bit but it did the job and looked a little better with some aluminium paint.