Garage Day - Extended Swingarm

So a few weeks ago I hauled Big Honda out of the hedge where it's been languishing for the last six years and I'm in the process of recommissioning it for use as my daily driver again. However, I want to make a bit of a statement with it too, so it's going to undergo some changes.

Gone is the complicated and heavy Honda linked brake system. Initially I didn't trust this, fearing that I'd lock up the front wheel by using the rear brake at low speed. However, I soon got used to it and eventually came to trust it. And I did like the way it worked at motorway speed, hauling the bike up very controlably with just the rear brake pedal. However, I never felt it was worth all the weight and space it took up.

So, all that stuff has been removed in favour of the front end off my Ducati and its Brembo calipers biting on the original 320mm discs on the Honda front wheel. The rear three-piston Nissin caliper is staying where it was for the moment as I try to get all three pistons to work off the original rear brake master cylinder (The rear master normally operates only two of the rear pistons, the third being operated by a third master cylinder which works by the action of the front forks diving under braking. Look, I told you it was complicated and I don't want to talk about it...).

So fitting the front end off  the Ducati to the CBR involved modifying the Ducati bottom yoke to accept the steering stem off the CBR, and then modifying the top of the stem to fit the top yoke off the Ducati. Not especially difficult, but not for the faint of heart either...

Next up was the fabrication of a pair of swingarm extension inserts. This was interesting and definitely a learning process but went nicely to plan. It did however, take many, many tens of hours to complete. I know that in the future, someone is going to ask me to make them a set of these and Future Me is going to say - "Sure! That'll only take about two hours". Future Me, you're an idiot!

Next up was some lightweight footrest carriers, that locate the pegs about 30mm below the stock location.

So is it a drag racer? Am I going to fit a turbo?

No, it's not a drag racer but if the punk-rock, anything-goes, seat-of-the-pants Drag Race Ireland  events ever resume in Bishopscourt, I'll be first in line.

And a turbo? Almost certainly not. Realistically, it's already a fast bike and it's just a daily driver. It doesn't need a turbo.

So watch this space and see how it develops...

Images - Mercenary Garage

#BigHonda #MatteBlack #RatBike #ExtendedSwingarm #CBR1000F #HondaCBR #HondaCBR1000F #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

Rat CBR1000F

Image - Basty Gartner via Rat Bike Brazil

#CBR1000F #RatBike #SurvivalBike #MatteBlack #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

Fast Sofa

Image - its niner on Instagram

#CBR1000F #HondaCBR1000F #Streetfighter #StreetDrag #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage 

CBR1000F

 

Image via La Zone Noire (Thanks Bubba)

Go pay La Zone Noire a visit - http://lazonenoire.blogspot.com/

#LaZoneNoire #LZN #HondaHurricane #CBR1000F #AirbrushArt #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryMotorcycleWorkshop #MercenaryGarage

Timing Slip

Photo Natalie DaCosta


#DragRaceIreland #BishopscourtDragRaces #HondaCBR1000F #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Road Trip

Image Mercenary Garage


#HondaCBR1000F #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Big Honda

Photo by Flawless Videography

#FlawlessVideography #DragRaceIreland #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

427 Motorsports

I love this shot by 427 Motorsports. Partly because I don't have many pictures of me actually riding a motorcycle.

But mostly I like it 'cos it looks like I'm riding through a post apocalyptic wasteland and I dig that sort of thing.

Photo by 427 Motorsports


#TomoPattison #427Motorsports #CBR1000F #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Drag Racing, Bishopscourt

So. On Friday night while being checked in anticipation of racing on Sunday, the Mercenary Drag Superlight's motor got 'sploded.

So. On Saturday morning Big Honda got pulled out of the hedge where it's been languishing over the winter and had all it's touring accoutrements pulled off.

And on Sunday Big Honda went drag racing in Bishopscourt. Conditions were wet and my head wasn't in the game at all and performance was disappointing. But MERCENARY will prevail!

So. The Mercenary Drag Superlight is going in a dumpster and Big Honda is going on a diet.

Photos and Video by Trev


#DragRaceIreland #BishopscourtDragStrip #HondaCBR1000F #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

IRL

#IRL #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

CBR1000F - Touring Modifications

My CBR1000F daily-driver was in the workshop today for some modifications.

The Soviet and I are planning on doing a lot of traveling on the continent this year and I'll be driving it to Germany in a month or so with a view to storing it there, and flying back and forth as opportunity arises. I want to get the bike perfect so I don't have to work on it while it's abroad.

Since I got the bike about two and a half years ago it's been my workhorse and I've been gradually modifying it for greater comfort. It now sports lower foot-pegs, a Corbin seat, much higher bars and a much higher windscreen. The riding position is now perfectly comfortable and I don't feel the need to modify it any further. It feels something similar to a Pan European but maybe just a little more sporty. (Even with the boxes and the heavy Corbin seat, it's still much lighter than a Pan and the weight is carried a lot lower).

Today it was in having a couple of niggling things addressed. Firstly, the windscreen is substantially higher than standard now but it still uses the original mounting bolts. I wanted to add some strength to windscreen to stop it moving around. It's not that it was moving around - it just didn't seem right to me to have a much larger screen mounted this way. I added a couple of stainless steel tubes to connect the windscreen to the fairing lowers.

Secondly, the Givi Wingrack is a funny sort of design! The boxes are pretty good, and the way they mount to the Wingrack is efficient and secure. However, the way the Wingrack mounts to the CBR1000F is flawed. Without getting into too much detail, the entire weight of the system is carried at one point on each side of the mounting adapters. This allows the boxes to vibrate and move a lot which gave rise to fatigue fractures on both sides of the mounting adapters. (The adapter kit was bought brand new, the first crack occurred in less than 10,000 miles and the second a couple of thousand miles later).

I welded up the cracks and braced the mounting adapter with more metal which served to stiffen the structure a lot, but didn't eliminate all the movement. Today's exercise was to tie the rack to the passenger grab-rail with 8mm bar and rose joints. The end result is a much more solid structure which has a noticeable effect on the handling of the bike. It's doesn't wallow any more and it feels much sportier!

There is still an issue with the top box though and I'm not sure it can be resolved. With the top-box fitted, letting go of the handlebars will result in a tank-slapper in short order! I had hoped that fitting the tie-rods to the rack would put a stop to this but it didn't.

The box is just too heavy (about 5.5 kg empty!), too high and located too far behind the rear axle - It's just a shit idea!

Without the top-box there isn't an issue - the bike can be driven no-handed. I'm seriously considering removing the top box as the bike just feels much better without it.

However, the top-box is undeniably handy (it can carry two full-face helmets for example) and The Soviet likes the sense of security provided by the backrest. I need to think on this a bit further but I might remove the box and fit a backrest to the Corbin seat instead.

We'll see...

Note the stainless stiffeners between the screen and the fairing lowers.

I also fitted a left-hand mirror - I don't generally use two mirrors and I might remove the right-hand one once I'm abroad.

The office - A pretty comfortable place to be!

Note the tie-rods between the passenger grab-rail and the bottom of the rack.

#CBR1000F #GiviWingrack #SportsTourer #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Angel Cop

#AngelCop #HondaCBR1000F  #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

CBR1000F - Factory Jet Kit

This just arrived from the 'States in the post. 

Its a NOS Factory jet kit from the mid '90s. The Ebay advertisement said it was for a CBR1000F but the documentation in the kit says its for a CBR1000R.

I was a bit confused by this, but I decided to take a chance and buy it any way. Y'see, to the best of my knowledge, in the mid '90s there wasn't a CBR1000R model. There was a CBR900RR Fireblade that went on to become a CBR1000RR some time around the millennium. And there was the CBR1000F.

So, I'm hoping its for a CBR1000F but I'm not sure. At some point I'm going to have to replace the slowly rotting silencers (I've welded them twice already) and the most likely route will be by replacing them with one or two Yoshimura cans. If that happens, I'll probably need to rejet the carbs and I guess this is a good place to start. 

In the meantime, I just want to smooth out the carburation and smooth out the transition from low revs to mid revs.

Watch this space.

CBR1000F - GPS Bracket

When I first fitted my GPS to the CBR1000F, the bike was fitted with clip-on handlebars. There was no room on the top-yoke (triple tree) so I made up a bracket to adapt the GPS cradle to the fuel-cap bezel.

This worked like a charm until two Fucking Little Scumbags tried to steal the bike. They used two crowbars to force the steering lock* and in the process destroyed the GPS bracket and the fuel-cap bezel.

Although the bracket was badly deformed, the GPS cradle (which is relatively expensive) was unharmed. Which was nice.

I didn't bother making a new bracket. Partly because I was too annoyed and partly because I knew at some point I'd probably be replacing the clip-on bars with handlebars and risers and I had an idea that the bars and the bracket might come into conflict. This turned out to be the case so after fitting the handlebars (You can read about that here - www.mercenary.ie/cbr1000f-handlebar-conversion) I made up the bracket you see here.

I fitted it a while ago and it works great but I only got around to painting it recently. Ergonomically its pretty good. It's just below the clocks so it's easy to read and it's within easy reach - its pretty much in the same position it was before but maybe a little higher.

There is however, one small drawback. Although the bracket doesn't interfere with the operation of the fuel-cap, it does prevent the fuel tank from lifting up. So in order to get to the carbs and coils and all that stuff under the tank, the bracket has to be removed from the handlebars.

This is obviously inconvenient, but its not something I do very often. And when I do lift the tank, I usually do so in the comfort of the workshop so for now I'm happy out. If the tank thing proves to be a problem in the future I'll come up with some other solution...

*This is Fucking Little Scumbag SOP so if you can park your bike with the front wheel wedged in against a corner or a pillar, it really fucks with their heads. Its the first thing they do and if it doesn't work for them, they just might fuck off before doing any more damage.



#CBR1000F #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

CBR1000F - BMW Shock Conversion

About a year ago Evan gave me a brand-new rear shock from a BMW S1000RR. Its a thing of great beauty and its been sitting on my mantlepiece ever since.

I've been planning on fitting it to Big Honda but there hasn't been any great urgency - the shock in the CBR1000F has 50'000 miles on it and its a bit soggy but its not particularly bad. But summer is coming and I want to get bike in shape for some foreign touring, so last week I milled a CBR1000F rising-rate linkage to fit the BMW shock.

And I'm going to make up some adjustable dog-bones to replace the lowering link that I made last year - see the article here www.mercenary.ie/2013/07/cbr-1000f-lowering-link-cont.html

However, I'm not 100% sure that the shock is definitely going to fit. The standard Honda shock has the gas reservoir arranged parallel with the shock whereas the funky new BMW one is arranged horizontally. Hopefully, it'll be okay...

UPDATE - It turned out to be a can of worms and I abandoned the project!

BMW S1000RR shock and modified Honda CBR1000F rising rate linkage.

Rising rate linkage has been narrowed by 10mm to fit the new shock.

Standard Honda dog-bones on the right will be replaced by home-made adjustable ones - Watch this space!

#CBR1000F #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Mercenary is Traveling

Normal service resumes on Monday...





#TheSoviet #YelenaKalashnikova #HondaCB1000F #RingOfKerry #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

CBR1000F Handlebar Conversion (Part 2)

So, welding the risers onto the top-yoke and fitting the handlebars was relatively easy.

Extending the control cables was much more convoluted. Firstly, the windscreen, nose fairing, side-panels and fuel-tank had to be removed. 

Fortunately, I was able to reuse the choke cable by simply re-routing it. However, the throttle cable was already at a stretch when I fitted the VFR750 clip-ons and so I had to make up a new throttle cable, using the hardware off the old one. This is a relatively easy process. See...

http://www.mercenary.ie/2013/12/how-to-make-longer-throttle-cable.html.

The hydraulic clutch and brake lines were also at maximum stretch before the conversion and so I needed to make up new ones. And due to the convoluted nature of the Dual Combined Braking System, I also had to make a third line to connect the left and right front brakes.

Luckily, Honda seemed to have considered the possibility that users might want to make this conversion - the wiring from the handlebar controls had additional length built in. Extending the length of these wire by wire was something I wasn't looking forward to... 

On balance, this isn't a particularly easy or cheap conversion. The cost, including the aluminium welding, the Fat Bars and Clamps and the cost of the brake and clutch lines was in the region of €250 and there was at least a day's labour involved.

Was it worth it? Time will tell, but based on the short journey I made last night, I'd say so. The new riding position can best be described as... Stately.

Part 1 of this article is... Here

New candy-red stainless steel brake-line and My-Little-Pony throttle cable.

New brake and clutch lines.

The clearance between the windscreen at full lock is tight, but with a bit of adjustment, nothing touches.

#CBR1000F #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage