Inconsequential ramblings of an Old Git

[Mr. Dazzle]

Would a Tuono top yoke / bars etc. not fit? You could maybe fit a more extreme set of bars (i.e. not clipons) which don't look so out of place. Doesn't even have to be a Tuono I suppose, my mind just went there 'cause of the Aprilia link but the commonality is between RSV<->Tuono innit.

[mangocrazy]

Triumph Tiger 800, KTM 790 adventure etc

Yebbut...

Those bikes are built from the ground up to be 'that way' - tall, wide bars, long forks etc. Look at a side view of an Adventure bike and the forks are 3 or 4 inches longer than on a sports bike and they can get away with mildly swept back, wide bars and it all looks 'normal'. All the ergos are based around a relaxed riding position - not the case on a sports bike. I'm trying to take a sports bike and give it the Tuono treatment, I guess.

There is also another drawback I have to work around. I live in a terraced house and access to the bike shed is through a passage way. That passage way is no more than 850mm wide at its narrowest point, and modern adventure/naked bikes are just too damn wide to fit down there. I even had to get the dealers to reduce the width of the KTM Duke bars by about 30mm each side so I could get it down there without scraping noises.

So I have the double whammy of needing comparatively narrow bars and wanting a much more relaxed riding position. And my answer to that is what has horrified so many...

[mangocrazy]

I'm in the frustrating state of being no further forward with either the VFR or the Falco and not being in any kind of state to do anything about it.

When I returned from France at the back end of May I contacted the guy who is fixing/painting the Falco top fairing and asked him what progress he'd made and his terse reply was 'mid-repair'. So we've moved from needing repair and paint in February to mid-repair and needing paint in late May. Great.

I retrieved the VFR from 'the man who can' fix my exhaust woes, only to find that he actually hasn't and the problem is precisely the same as before, meaning if there is any fix to be done, it will be me doing it. Wonderful.

And at present I can only just about move myself between bed, toilet and kitchen table with the aid of painkillers folowing a hernia op. I have no idea when I'll be able to start fiddling about with bikes again, let alone ride the damn things.

So if my contributions to the forum are on the grumpy side, you know why.

[Skub]

Take your time,man. No need to bust a gut.....oh....

GWS dude.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Why are motorcycle paint people so fucking hopeless at getting work done?

[mangocrazy]

Why are motorcycle paint people so fucking hopeless at getting work done?

Dunno. Never known a painter that could turn stuff round quickly. This guy prioritises a race team he does work for, and their riders seem to crash their brains out every weekend.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Lots of time spent in small rooms full of fumes maybe...

[Skub]

Lots of time spent in small rooms full of fumes maybe...

I worked alongside a guy who painted aircraft parts. His nickname was 'Fumes'. Billy was as mad as a fish.

[mangocrazy]

It's certainly not a job that I would fancy doing. Dirty, smelly and potentially hazardous.

[Mr. Dazzle]

We had a paint shop at my old place, we could/did do stuff for supercar manufacturers.

It was pretty clean and high tech as you'd expect these days. Lots of white surfaces, air filtration and breathing apparatus etc.

They tell me that back in the day you could tell what colour car someone had been working on from the colour of their snot.

[mangocrazy]

For two-pack 2K car paints you absolutely must use pressure fed air masks as the stuff contains cyanide (or so I believe). Not the stuff to go mixing up in a shed...

[Mr. Dazzle]

I don't think it does any more...I remember the guys moaning about how paint isn't as good as it used to be I'd be well surprised if it does, given the lengths every other part of the industry has gone to to get rid of chemical nasties.

[mangocrazy]

I think you will find that paints containing isocyanates are still commercially available. There is a move to remove isocyanates from 2K paints, but it is not yet mandated, even in Europe (according to my sources).

https://www.hse.gov.uk/mvr/bodyshop/isocyanates.htm

[mangocrazy]

I'm still in recovery mode and getting mighty bored endlessly watching Youtube vids and scouring forums, so I've been looking around for something to do that doesn't involve too much (preferably very little) exertion. And I've found something - buying stuff.

The stuff in question is a set of brake caliper adaptors. all the way from Webike in Japan. It all started when I was browsing a thread on the RDLC nutters forum regarding alternative calipers for LCs. As you may recall, I upgraded the brakes on the VFR earlier in the year, so that left the old calipers surplus to requirements. These are old (mid-1990s) Goldline Brembo 4 pot jobs, as fitted to early 916s. Not shabby, by any means.

I asked some questions on the forum and one of the peeps gave me a link to a set of adaptors. They looked absolutely bang on - made to fit 1980-82 350LC (well, OK RZ350 in the blurb) with 42.5 mm mounting centres and 4 pot Brembo Goldlines with 40mm mounting centres and single pad pin. Check. These are the calipers:

Brembo_Goldline.JPG (49.6 KiB) Viewed 427 times

Price including 3 day courier shipping was a very reasonable £83.40 so I hit the buy button and a few days later these little puppies turned up:

DSCF3167.JPG (1.08 MiB) Viewed 427 times

Mmmmm, Shiny, shiny...


I can't actually fit the calipers and brackets to the bike yet, as I decided that I wanted stealth rather than gold bling and sent the dismantled calipers off to Powerhouse in Chesterfield for them to clean, refurbish and repaint in satin black (same as OE). The Brembo name and logo will have the paint removed in similar fashion to OE. Just in case you'd forgotten what an LC caliper looks like, here 'tis:

DSCF3163.JPG (738.64 KiB) Viewed 427 times

They're pretty rubbish by today's standards, being a sliding caliper design, and I always leave more room than usual to the vehicle in front, simply because I don't trust them to pull me up quickly in an emergency stop situation. And having taken a look at that photo, I think I've found something else I can do with my enforced leisure - give the LC a good wash.

Prior to going in for the op I took the precaution of getting the VFR bolted to my Abba Skylift, in preparation for trying to sort the exhaust out. Again. But I think I'll let the healing process continue a bit before starting on that.

[Supermofo]

Unlike the later TZR, who's brakes were great. Although themselves not a patch on my brothers KR1S brakes. They were proper.

[mangocrazy]

Unlike the later TZR, who's brakes were great. Although themselves not a patch on my brothers KR1S brakes. They were proper.

What a diference about 10 years makes... The TZR was lighter, faster, with far better handling and brakes and even had a fairing. A mate of mine had one and he loved it to bits. I actually blagged a go on Superbike mag's KR1S test bike on the Island and did a lap. What a thing that was. Weighed nothing, went like stink and stopped on a sixpence. The black and green ones looked epic.

[Supermofo]

Unlike the later TZR, who's brakes were great. Although themselves not a patch on my brothers KR1S brakes. They were proper.

What a diference about 10 years makes... The TZR was lighter, faster, with far better handling and brakes and even had a fairing. A mate of mine had one and he loved it to bits. I actually blagged a go on Superbike mag's KR1S test bike on the Island and did a lap. What a thing that was. Weighed nothing, went like stink and stopped on a sixpence. The black and green ones looked epic.

Yup the TZR was aces, although mine was a bit challenged in places, bloody epic to ride though and a lot less finicky and flappy than the KR1S but no where near as quick


My brothers KR1S was that colour bought new. He sold it to my mate who had it for 18 months before some arsehole stole it


Thing was mental and would tank slap for fun

[Yorick]

On track my LC350 had eye popping brakes. After the 400 it was ace.
Maybe youthful exuberance helped but we all steamed into hairpins at stupid speed and 'most' of us got round

[mangocrazy]

On track my LC350 had eye popping brakes. After the 400 it was ace.
Maybe youthful exuberance helped but we all steamed into hairpins at stupid speed and 'most' of us got round

It's all relative. Back then we didn't know any better and twin discs were a lot better than old drum brakes. I couldn't believe the difference when I tried an LC with AP Lockheed calipers. Had to have a set after that.

[mangocrazy]

It's taken a while, and a lot of that time has been largely wasted, but the old VFR has its MoT and is back on the road. It was away at 'a man who can' for nearly 3 months and when I got it back it was apparent that nothing had really changed with the exhaust and all the old problems still remained. It's become apparent that when using Motad downpipes you can't mix and match with OE Honda stuff - you need to use Motad's own collector box. So at some point over the winter I'll get a custom collector box made up to my specifications in stainless. I'd use a Motad collector box if I could find one, but they are as rare as rocking horse sh1t.

Anyway, the 'new' calipers on their home-brewed brackets feel really good and strong even on the short run down to and back from the MoT station, so that's a plus. They should realistically be even better after the pads have bedded to the discs. For all my bike MoTs I use a scooter emporium within spitting distance of the Sheffield United footy ground called Armando's. They have some really nice vintage scoots from the 60s and he's very happy to MoT bikes. It's ideal because he has no interest in servicing bikes, so I know that it will be an unbiased, honest result.

Herewith a couple of pics of the old girl.

DSCF3185.JPG (947.5 KiB) Viewed 366 times

DSCF3183.JPG (1.16 MiB) Viewed 366 times