102, Do you run track days, or is your feedback for street riding ?

 

its not that much bs. and if your background is track and racing you will glad u went the extra effort. the benefit per cost is much higher. especially if you figure in a brake upgrade that comes with it. I can only say most of the skeptics haven't ridden one. I think greg used to be fairly skeptical, but read his after-swap thread riding impressions. my impressions are its worth the effort. for the rc51 front end its all rc parts with just a slight trim of the lower fairing edge to make room for the wider usd fork triples - everything else lines up pretty easily as I recall
bill

 

Yup, the improvement in braking performance alone was worth the swap. I went with 1000RR parts though, which utilize radial calipers and 310mm rotors.

The biggest headache is the clip-ons and getting the adjustability and clearance of the fairings. The rest is pretty easy. Trimming the lower triple stops is dirty and time consuming but not difficult at all.

As mentioned above, take your time collecting parts and be picky about quality like I was and it'll be worth it.

 

I'll chime in with my two cents. I think many of us were skeptics before doing the swap, or at least not expecting the radical, noticeable improvements of the beefier front end, but the after swap consensus is that it's a no brainer; a Race Tech'd stock front end is no match for an upside down conversion. To me the transitional stability and stability under braking are much improved over the stock forks. The added braking power is just very nice icing on the cake.
I got $500 for my old forks with Race Tech springs, and I had about $750-800 in the 954 front end. A major improvement for $300.
Like Greg said, finding a workable solution for bars is the biggest headache. I ended up mounting clamps and a tubular superbike bar to the top 954 triple instead of using clip-ons.

 

Swap.....that is all.

 

Thanks guys for all the input. It verifies my intuitive guess, BUT is the rc51 SUBSTANTIALLY more straght forward of a swap or am I correct in thinking that I should use the non gull wing triples?....?

 

RC51 forks are longer and are made to be used with the flat top triple. 954, 929, 1000RR forks are shorter and need the gull wing triples; if you use the flat top triple with the shorter forks from one of the CBRs the front ride height will be too low. RC parts are generally rarer and more expensive and the RC front wheel doesn't match the VTR rear like the others do. If you use the longer RC forks with the gull wing top triple then you can mount clip-ons above the top triple, making for a simpler, easier bar solution. Clipons or bars are generally more trouble with the gull wing triples because they need to be taller to clear the VTR body work and to get a reasonable bar height, otherwise the swap is the same for either front end. I believe TL1000 helibars have been used successfully with the gull wing triples. Others who have gone the clip-ons route can tell you what they used with success.

 

Killer, Are the triples interchangeable with each other? I thought one was wider, maybe the cbr's.

 

I don't know for certain. The 929 and 954 are identical. The RC51 triples are the same width, but the top one is flat and the bottom one is dropped, which is the opposite of the 929/954. The CBR1000RR triples are like the 929/954, but I'm not sure if they are the same width. I remember Greg saying the 1000RR's are wider, but I don't think it was ever determined definitively. I don't see how they would clear the VTR's fairing if they were any wider.

 

That is true however the 900rr wheel does match the sp1 wheel and the TL Heli's are the best fit so far.

 

The 1000RR forks with the 929/954 triples end up being 2mm narrower than the 1000RR forks with 1000RR triples. The margin of error there is not critical. Stock wheel, spacers, and axle worked perfectly. I just chose to shave 1mm off each spacer for consistency. I have an extra set of spacers so I may not even install them. I'll have to measure the fork stiction with both and I'll go with whichever has less.

Fairing clearance is decent with my current setup. I don't forsee any problems if you were to use 1000RR triples. The only problem with those triples though is that they are ugly...well the upper anyway. It's designed to work with the HESD and thus has tabs and bolt holes on it...hence my reasons for going with the 929/954.

 

Well, with a 2mm difference it's not really a space issue... Does the steering stem/bearings match up as well?

Also since I might get one with the stem (complete front on ebay) What would be needed to make the HESD fit to the bike except for the top triple?

Never mind... it needs input from the speed sensor... That's not going to happen to easily...