Front End

Mock up chassis

Brakes

What's a front end without a special triple clamp? Honda SP-1 spindle is - amazingly - the same length as the 2nd generation vfr (or close enough). Differences are in the diameters, so all I needed was special bearings (que the All Balls Racing plug). However, the lower dust seal fouled the bearings something awful. Trim with a razor blade and all's good.

I later spent far too much time with 100 grit wet/dry sandpaper making it 'pretty'. The '100 wasn't so bad, but the subsequent 180, 200, 240, 340, and 400 was hell. Buffing wheel wasn't too much fun either. Shops that make a lot of money polishing things have my respect.

Installed	Seal fouling	Seal trimming
Left-overs	Shiny finished	Dirty underside

Since the SP-1 forks are shorter than the VFR units I was lost for handlebars or even proper steering geometry. Setting everything 'proper' left half an inch of air between the top of the fork and the bottom of the top triple clamp. Solution came in the form of a CBR 929 / 954 top triple which has a step-down similar to the stock lower SP-1 unit.

As for bars, there is still no fork length left over on top of the triple, and this is a touring bike (or sorts) so bars under the top triple wasn't really an option and I've got three others like that already. It looks like old HeliBars for a Gixxer 1100 might come up nicely and still clear under the pattern RC30 bodywork. Cross yer fingers.

Note - Two friends have recently found similar dust seal fouling issues when replacing worn-out stock VFR headstock bearings with tapered. If you swap bearings and get weird, awful steering, check the dust seal and the amount of drag that it gives to the lower bearings.