Fireblade upgrades/jobs. Help and info please

Fireblade upgrades/jobs. Help and info please

Author
Discussion

Hooli

32,278 posts

199 months

Thursday 11th February 2016
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MotorsportTom said:
Hooli said:
BN said:
Part-ex it for a R1
whistle
rofl

I missed that skimming through a minute ago.

After riding a similar vintage R1 I am aware it's a massively better bike in every way (bar looks for me personally) but the cost and the fact I never want to get rid of this bike means it won't be happening.
bowtie

MotorsportTom

Original Poster:

3,318 posts

160 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
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Prof Prolapse said:
MotorsportTom said:
The engine has been serviced a couple of times since putting the motor in back in August. Also I have C+S on order already, front brakes were overhauled in Aug too and it had new discs on the front not long ago.

I refreshed the fluid and seals in the forks in Aug too.

It's now about making sure everything I haven't already done, is right!
Sounds good!
So on the weekend annoyingly I noticed my LH fork seal has popped irked

Naturally man maths again has made me price up some linear springs for my weight and new seals etc. Only thing, has anybody got a sure fire way of getting rid of pitting on the forks?
I don't want to get them re-chromed or spend the money on new/sh stanchions. Last time I wire wooled them with autosol before giving them a little lick on the machine polisher and ACF'd them.

I expect the lack of cleaning regime and riding in stty conditions is he reason it came back so fast frown

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
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The ONLY sure fire way to get rid of pitting is either re-chroming or new/sh tubes. You can't polish/buff out pitting in the chrome, wire wool and autosol just gets rid of the rust stains. The reason it came back so fast is simply that you have lumps of chrome missing

It's possible to fill larger pits with epoxy and then flat them back level but it doesn't always work that well and if there is a lot of pitting it would take forever. To be honest, that $138 would have been far better spent on getting the forks sorted rather than on rearsets.

The other option is to do what I'm doing, upgrade to a decent set of USD forks.

Steve Bass

10,186 posts

232 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
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MotorsportTom said:
I expect the lack of cleaning regime and riding in stty conditions is he reason it came back so fast frown
More likely either the pitting is getting worse and damaging the seal or you failed to tighten the front in the right order and pulled the forks in which makes them leak like a sieve.


MotorsportTom

Original Poster:

3,318 posts

160 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
quotequote all
Mr2Mike said:
The ONLY sure fire way to get rid of pitting is either re-chroming or new/sh tubes. You can't polish/buff out pitting in the chrome, wire wool and autosol just gets rid of the rust stains. The reason it came back so fast is simply that you have lumps of chrome missing

It's possible to fill larger pits with epoxy and then flat them back level but it doesn't always work that well and if there is a lot of pitting it would take forever. To be honest, that $138 would have been far better spent on getting the forks sorted rather than on rearsets.

The other option is to do what I'm doing, upgrade to a decent set of USD forks.
See that is wise however the money was spent before noticing the leaky seal.

Also I looked into it and the parts alone without new seals/bearings etc you are talking a minimum of £300... plus springs for your weight etc and the cost is easily double if not more!

I am sure I read about using super glue then flatting back to try and get a decent sealing surface again, I just wondered how worthwhile it was attempting it, there are only a few spots (literally 3 or 4)

Steve Bass said:
More likely either the pitting is getting worse and damaging the seal or you failed to tighten the front in the right order and pulled the forks in which makes them leak like a sieve.
They haven't shown any signs of being an issue until the weekend just gone. It can't have been like it for more than a week or two so pretty confident I managed to re-assemble it correctly as it's been fine from Aug-now(ish)

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
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MotorsportTom said:
Also I looked into it and the parts alone without new seals/bearings etc you are talking a minimum of £300... plus springs for your weight etc and the cost is easily double if not more!
You can hardly include the cost of springs; it's optional whether you get uprated springs, and they having nothing to do with the pitted forks.

There is a brand new pair of fork tubes on eBay for £160 which seems pretty reasonable.

MotorsportTom

Original Poster:

3,318 posts

160 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
quotequote all
Mr2Mike said:
MotorsportTom said:
Also I looked into it and the parts alone without new seals/bearings etc you are talking a minimum of £300... plus springs for your weight etc and the cost is easily double if not more!
You can hardly include the cost of springs; it's optional whether you get uprated springs, and they having nothing to do with the pitted forks.

There is a brand new pair of fork tubes on eBay for £160 which seems pretty reasonable.
Eh? Of course I can, I'm planning to get the bike sorted how I wish so the price of springs is included in both options.

Cheers for the link but I will be shopping around or trying to find another solution because I simply trying to not spunk so much money away right now. Stupid shiny rearsets making me buy them frown

Prof Prolapse

16,160 posts

189 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
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This is all your fault Tom for having an old bike and not the thousands of pounds required to a do a full restoration. biglaugh

Just ignore it. Unless it's pissing out, let the bd leak, don't ride like a bellend, then get it all done properly over the Winter.








MotorsportTom

Original Poster:

3,318 posts

160 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
quotequote all
rofl

I did an awesome endo on Sunday as I arrived at work before shoving a feeler gauge in to clean it... does that count as riding gently? biggrin

I can't wait to get my car test done and save the blade for nice and track, next month seems so far away!

Gunk

3,302 posts

158 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
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Personally I'd avoid the Chinese rear sets, you'd be better stripping the OEM linkage and overhauling it with parts from either your local dealer or David Silver.

With regard to the rear shock NOS shocks do come up on eBay, I missed one recently for my RR-R, again I would stick with OEM, Honda made these bikes really good straight out of the box. Mine's bog standard although I have done the 17" front wheel conversion which IMO improves the front end feel and gives a wider choice of tyres.




Edited by Gunk on Tuesday 16th February 15:40

MotorsportTom

Original Poster:

3,318 posts

160 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
quotequote all
Bit late... already got the rearsets on order!

Also my spare shock is stripped and in the middle of being sorted before being sent to be serviced.

Any ideas where I can get info regarding the differences between 98-99 forks and earlier 95-95 I believe. I think 92-94 didn't have external compression adjustment?

I may have found a decent set of forks online for £170 inc yokes so definitely tempted, they seem free of corrosion/pitting etc.

I can't see it would pose any issues just more thinking worst case I could make a decent pair out of the 2.

Reardy Mister

13,757 posts

221 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
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Blackbird jets, revalve both all the suspension, braided lines and a carbon slip-on can is all I did to mine. The handling and midrange were so good a local racer bought it off me and loved it.

Don't do the 17" front wheel conversion. That's like buying Lucy Pinder and lopping her tits off cause it makes her a bit lighter.


Gunk

3,302 posts

158 months

Tuesday 16th February 2016
quotequote all
MotorsportTom said:
Bit late... already got the rearsets on order!

Also my spare shock is stripped and in the middle of being sorted before being sent to be serviced.

Any ideas where I can get info regarding the differences between 98-99 forks and earlier 95-95 I believe. I think 92-94 didn't have external compression adjustment?

I may have found a decent set of forks online for £170 inc yokes so definitely tempted, they seem free of corrosion/pitting etc.

I can't see it would pose any issues just more thinking worst case I could make a decent pair out of the 2.
£170 is a reasonable price if they are OK I just sold a clean pair of 1994 RRR forks for around that price.

The 1994 model the forks had stepless rebound, compression & preload adjustment, these remained unchanged until 1996 when they received lighter internals and a wider adjustment range, in 1998 the offset was changed, so it is worth sourcing the correct model year forks as there are some detail changes.

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Wednesday 17th February 2016
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Reardy Mister said:
Don't do the 17" front wheel conversion. That's like buying Lucy Pinder and lopping her tits off cause it makes her a bit lighter.
If you want to make a breast analogy, it's more like having breast reduction surgery so you can buy a nice bra off the peg that fits. They handle perfectly well with the 16" front rim, but you have a choice of about two or three decent tyres for it rather than dozens for a 17".

MotorsportTom

Original Poster:

3,318 posts

160 months

Wednesday 17th February 2016
quotequote all
Mr2Mike said:
Reardy Mister said:
Don't do the 17" front wheel conversion. That's like buying Lucy Pinder and lopping her tits off cause it makes her a bit lighter.
If you want to make a breast analogy, it's more like having breast reduction surgery so you can buy a nice bra off the peg that fits. They handle perfectly well with the 16" front rim, but you have a choice of about two or three decent tyres for it rather than dozens for a 17".
I won't be swapping the front wheel, I like it being slightly quirky and it handles absolutely fine to my untrained mitts.

The Bridgestone S20 is all the tyre I'll ever need I think so no massive issues there.

Gunk said:
£170 is a reasonable price if they are OK I just sold a clean pair of 1994 RRR forks for around that price.

The 1994 model the forks had stepless rebound, compression & preload adjustment, these remained unchanged until 1996 when they received lighter internals and a wider adjustment range, in 1998 the offset was changed, so it is worth sourcing the correct model year forks as there are some detail changes.
Hmmm do you know anywhere I can get definitive info on the offset changes?

I can't imagine it will be any issue with swapping yokes too unless you can shed light on it otherwise? Worst case I could just swap the stanchions over I suppose.

Biker's Nemesis

38,534 posts

207 months

Wednesday 17th February 2016
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This breast analagy thingy.. I can't get to grips with what you mean. Can you post pictures so little old me can understand

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Wednesday 17th February 2016
quotequote all
Biker's Nemesis said:
This breast analagy thingy.. I can't get to grips with what you mean. Can you post pictures so little old me can understand
I can't post pics, it'll make me feel a right tit.

MotorsportTom

Original Poster:

3,318 posts

160 months

Thursday 18th February 2016
quotequote all
MotorsportTom said:
Mr2Mike said:
Reardy Mister said:
Don't do the 17" front wheel conversion. That's like buying Lucy Pinder and lopping her tits off cause it makes her a bit lighter.
If you want to make a breast analogy, it's more like having breast reduction surgery so you can buy a nice bra off the peg that fits. They handle perfectly well with the 16" front rim, but you have a choice of about two or three decent tyres for it rather than dozens for a 17".
I won't be swapping the front wheel, I like it being slightly quirky and it handles absolutely fine to my untrained mitts.

The Bridgestone S20 is all the tyre I'll ever need I think so no massive issues there.

Gunk said:
£170 is a reasonable price if they are OK I just sold a clean pair of 1994 RRR forks for around that price.

The 1994 model the forks had stepless rebound, compression & preload adjustment, these remained unchanged until 1996 when they received lighter internals and a wider adjustment range, in 1998 the offset was changed, so it is worth sourcing the correct model year forks as there are some detail changes.
Hmmm do you know anywhere I can get definitive info on the offset changes?

I can't imagine it will be any issue with swapping yokes too unless you can shed light on it otherwise? Worst case I could just swap the stanchions over I suppose.
Found out (in case anyone wants to know) The offset of the yokes is 5mm less to increase trail slightly. I'll check over the condition of the forks/yokes and see what I want to do when they arrive.

Coming from Greece so may take a couple of weeks frown

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Thursday 18th February 2016
quotequote all
MotorsportTom said:
Bit late... already got the rearsets on order!

Also my spare shock is stripped and in the middle of being sorted before being sent to be serviced.

Any ideas where I can get info regarding the differences between 98-99 forks and earlier 95-95 I believe. I think 92-94 didn't have external compression adjustment?
There's quite a few differences:

Offset reduced by 5mm
Fork centres increased from 204mm to 214mm
Caliper mounts changed to accommodate 310mm front discs instead of 298mm discs.
The 98 calipers are different as well, but I think the mounting centres are the same.

I'd be tempted to see if you can combine the 98 fork tubes/cartridges with the earlier fork lowers to minimise costs. Otherwise you are going to need new discs and wheel spacers at least, and your mudguard may not fit the 10mm wider forks very well either.

MotorsportTom

Original Poster:

3,318 posts

160 months

Thursday 18th February 2016
quotequote all
Mr2Mike said:
MotorsportTom said:
Bit late... already got the rearsets on order!

Also my spare shock is stripped and in the middle of being sorted before being sent to be serviced.

Any ideas where I can get info regarding the differences between 98-99 forks and earlier 95-95 I believe. I think 92-94 didn't have external compression adjustment?
There's quite a few differences:

Offset reduced by 5mm
Fork centres increased from 204mm to 214mm
Caliper mounts changed to accommodate 310mm front discs instead of 298mm discs.
The 98 calipers are different as well, but I think the mounting centres are the same.

I'd be tempted to see if you can combine the 98 fork tubes/cartridges with the earlier fork lowers to minimise costs. Otherwise you are going to need new discs and wheel spacers at least, and your mudguard may not fit the 10mm wider forks very well either.
My plan was see what they are like when they come in and worst case make a bastardised set of the two as I put brand new bushes in my set of forks last year too! Worst case I'll use only the stanchions and build up what I have and flog those back on ebay to recoup some cost, I should still be spending less than buying a set of stanchions or getting them re-chromed.