blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

Hello folks. I'm new here (2nd post), so please excuse me if I am breaking any rules here. I was unable to upload pics to the forum gallery, so I am posting a webspace link to a zipped file of a few pics of the ol' VTR, as promised.

http://home.comcast.net/~blight1/VTR.zip

Glad to answer any questions you may have!

Cheers,
Brian Light
:idea:

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

Real nice looking bike. I really like the turn signals.

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

Hey Brian,

You're really not new here as your SSS has be highlighted in the knowledge base forum for quite some time! Anyway, I'm also familiar with your cool mods over the years via your posts on the VFR mail list.

Going through your latest photos (drool), I noticed image 2030 appears to be a different front end. What is it and how did installation go?

Have you ever dyno'ed the bike? I'm concerned that a single Jardine may be a bottleneck.

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

Brian,
Love the carbon fibre mirrors. Who makes 'em & where can I get 'em? Do the stick out farther than the stock mirrors (I hope)?
Steve

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

yo blight, is that a bullet hole in your rear seat cover? that must have been one sore loser....

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

Hi ya'll...thanks for the nice comments. Now on to the questions:

Front end: The forks are OEM Hawk 996 parts, but with pvc spacers, and Mobil One 5w-15 synthetic and new seals. I polished the lowers and painted the axle clamp section grey to look like the Showa USD forks a little. Fools a lot of people until they look really close. The fork tubes are raised in the clamps 25mm which speeds up the steering nicely and makes the bike turn-in easier. And no, I've never put the bike through an abusive dyno run just for fun. It runs great with my Dyno-Jet kit and K&N filter. The VFR 750 clip-on bars bolted right on and make the riding position more pleasant for me anyway.

Mirrors: Removed the rubber condoms, painted the stalks gloss black and bought some real CF mirror covers online somewhere...maybe ebay? I forget. Still can't see out of 'em though!

Seat Cover: The hole you see is for the key to unlock and remove the bump pad...Mario's racing seat section is hollow, so you can store gloves or such in there. Very handy.

Cheers,
B. Light

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

Musta been a major bitch to get the turn signals in those vents. Great idea though.

What does wrapping the pipe do? Reduce heat?

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

The turnsignals were some Lockhart parts, kind of triangular shaped and I put them in when I put Mario's fairing upper on the bike. The vents are mostly cosmetic, so I thought it was a cool place to stick 'em without drilling holes in my new fairings.

I made up some simple aluminum brackets, painted the fronts flat black and siliconed them in place from the back side of the fiberglass fairing.

Wrapping the pipes was necessitated by the smell of burning fiberglass at a stoplight. The VTR was never designed to have full lower fairings, and the pipes are perilously close to the fiberglass. Also, in the rear pipe it must snake around the rear shock and exits very close to the rear brake master cylinder. It was merely a heat issue...I wish now I hadn't wasted so much time making the S.S. headers joints seamless and polishing them when I built them. They turned golden after the first ride anyway! You can touch the headers with your fingers and not get burned right after you shut the engine down. There is supposed to be some performance advantage as well, as hot "thin" gasses tend to flow easier than cooler "denser" gasses. Keep the gas hot all the way out by wrapping the pipes, and the gas stays hotter. That's the theory anyway according to the folks that make the stuff.

Cheers,
B. Light

Nice looking bike Brian. I remember seeing pics on greg 's site
Have you noticed any difference in the way the bikes exhales having gone to the 2-1 exhaust set-up?

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

RE Cyder77's question:

First off...all stock VTR1000's come equipped with a 2 into 1 header. Just look under your bike and you'll see the pipes merge into one tube, before splitting into twin pipes and on to the dual mufflers.

This is done (wisely) by Honda to increase midrange punch on an otherwise peaky, short-stroke high-compression engine. It makes the VTR pull seamlessly all the way from the basement to 10000 rpm without any noticeable surge or hit. It's a little deceiving...it never feels like your're being accelerated all that hard (but you are!)

Another reason they split back to two mufflers is for EPA sound regulations...not for more power. Believe me...I can look through my single Jardine can and see daylight through the other end...like looking through a 2" piece of pipe. There is little to no restriction here. The end result is more noise of course, a LOT more. It's hard to muffle a 1000 cc twin to the Fed standards, so Honda goes the twin can route. Look at the Aprilia Mille's ugly single stock muffler to see what it takes for one can.

As fsr as power increase...I made my new header pipes from 1.75" OD stainless steel, and they are somewhat larger than OEM stock header OD. They probably flow a little better than stock pipes. My seat-of-the-pants dyno definitely feels a little extra kick around 8000 rpm, where it pulls reeeeeally hard to redline.

However, I usually ride in the 3-7K rpm range on the street. It's all you need to go fast enough to get into trouble, especially at full throttle!

Cheers,
Brian Light

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

So did you make the entire exhaust from the front cylinder back? Or did you just pick up from the right side exit and back?

I made the entire exhaust system from scratch.
BKL

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

My upper & lower fairings (and seat section) are from Mario Nava in Italy. Yes, I did paint them myself. Gotta buy the upper and lower as a pair...they mate with each other, and the lower will not work with the stock (OEM) upper SuperHawk fairing.

Hard to tell the difference on Mario's upper from stock, but look closely at the 'position' light just above the headlight. The stocker has a surround of plastic, where Marios is just blended in nicely and in a different way. Also, the seam between panels is a straight line, vs. a curving edge shape on the stocker.

Cheers,
Brian Light

Re: blight's VTR Pics Link...as promised!
 

:shock:
hey buddy... where did you get that lower fairing from? like the looks of it. do the painting yourself?

which buddy are you refering to?

i heard you were selling the bike. is it still available???

The link doesn't work anymore. I'd love to see the pictures.

yeah what he said ;)