progress #2

[Tarmac Tyrant]

Hi all, finally found the engine mounting bolts that i was stuck for,half this bike is missing,not just bolts but spacers,collars etc. anyway,engine is in main frame.brought swingarm home today from work......wtf???????? the shock linkages are still bolted to it and badly seized,so much so that the clown who was at it before me,beat the bolts so much,trying to open them,that the head of the bolts bent and wqont come out without a fight...

so...ive seen a post or two here about a vfr swingarm being fitted? whats involved with this fiddling? i reckon i could fix the standard swingarm at work if i had to,but a single sider would be cool

also i brought the forks home,they are the 929 blade forks and i stripped them down to nothing to check everything,bushes seem ok,seals are a bit weak so i ll change them,nothing is ever straight forward,the rebound damper adjuster on top of the forks is also seized,and one was actually broken and just falling around in it,im looking at getting a replacement piece form ktech if i can,although it could be expensive? has anyone done anything like this on their forks? or possibly changed this piece that im talking about?

................answers on a postcard...............

[sirch345]

I can't help you with the fork question, but the VFR swingarm conversion is not to difficult (if you're reasonably mechanically minded) to do, the biggest expense after purchasing all the needed parts is the modification of the rear header. With the single sided arm fitted the shock now sits where the header would normally go.

Admittedly it would be easier and a lot cheaper to repair the standard swingarm, even if you have to butcher up the linkage to get it out. It all depends what you want.

Chris.

[Tarmac Tyrant]

cheers man,would a fireblade arm fit do you know?

[tony.mon]

Anything can be made to fit if you work at it enough; they're only engineering problems, after all.

But the cost and effort may be more than the job's worth, so to speak.

VFR arm conversion is straightforward enough, and if you want a single-sider that's the easiest solution, but they add weight.
Storm arms are cheap enough, and you can add the Blade brace to stiffen it up a bit- also looks better, IMHO.

The shock linkages often seize on Storms, due to the proximity of the hot rear downpipe to the bearings- melts all the grease out over time.

[sirch345]

[quote="tony.mon"]
VFR arm conversion is straightforward enough, and if you want a single-sider that's the easiest solution, but they add weight.

[quote]

Also they lengthen the wheelbase which alters they way the bike handles (turns in). Not a problem if you're not to bothered about handling to much. A SSSarm is really more for cosmetics, looks, than anything else for a road bike. They were designed iirc for the racing scene, where somewhere like the 24hr Le Mans meant it was quicker to change wheels when a bike came in for new tyres than on a bike with a conventional double sided swingarm.

As Tony says, anything can be made to fit. Not to sure about a Blade s/arm, but some have fitted an SP s/arm. We have one member (may even be more) on here who's done the SP s/arm conversion.

Chris.