Project Varatrackerstorm or Firetrackerdero.

[sirch345]

You have been a busy boy again, you're making good progress

I have only just noticed an adjuster near the bottom of the fork legs, does that mean Varadero forks have compression damping adjustment as standard oem

Chris.

[fabiostar]

Now thats looking proper sitting nice and flat.

[Varastorm]

Cheers guys thanks for the thumbs up

You have been a busy boy again, you're making good progress

I have only just noticed an adjuster near the bottom of the fork legs, does that mean Varadero forks have compression damping adjustment as standard oem

Chris.

Cheers Chris, the forks are CBR600F4's fully adjustable 43mm's, last of the right way around jobbies.

As I've mentioned in the latest post, I'm in the process of setting up the ride height & then I'll sort the suspension sag/rebound etc.. Propper faff, but now it feels as if I'm tuning a bike, not building one & it feels a lot better

[sirch345]

Cheers guys thanks for the thumbs up

You have been a busy boy again, you're making good progress

I have only just noticed an adjuster near the bottom of the fork legs, does that mean Varadero forks have compression damping adjustment as standard oem

Chris.

Cheers Chris, the forks are CBR600F4's fully adjustable 43mm's, last of the right way around jobbies.

As I've mentioned in the latest post, I'm in the process of setting up the ride height & then I'll sort the suspension sag/rebound etc.. Propper faff, but now it feels as if I'm tuning a bike, not building one & it feels a lot better

Ah yeah silly me, I remember now you say,

Chris.

[Varastorm]

Right then, bits have been sorted but not much really.

The modified rear tri plate linkage that I knocked up has been copied & I've made three of them. Well, two & a half to be honest. Two completed mild steel & one half built stainless one.

The reason for three is that the mild steel ones are slightly different, there's an inch difference in ride height. Once I'm happy with the handling & a safe ride height has been established (No sump bashing) I'll then complete the stainless one.

[Varastorm]

Another thing I've also managed to include into the linkage was to move the shock closer to the gearbox so I can use an unmodified swing arm with the Cbr929 shocker. I feel that the modded swinger would hold up but a standard one would be better/safer. So, with the rear suspension getting there, I've also been focusing on the front end.

The forks are Cbr600 f4's & the 43mm forks have 36mm springs & these like the Cbr600fy I own also need upgrading.

Originally I was just going to increase the preload by increasing the length of the oem spacer, which is 100mm long to say 125mm but ideally new springs are needed. I've seen upgraded second hand springs go for around £50 on ebay which isn't too bad.

Now to work out what's needed I have these things to factor in.

A. I'm a big guy & when I work out what springs I need to support a 20 stone fatty they advise 11KG'ish springs..
B. When there's no springs fitted & the front's compressed the tyre hit's the radiator. Not by much but enough to not want to think about the consequences. So I need to reduce the fork travel & the possibility of full compression.

So the plan is to fit shorter firmer springs along with longer spacers to compensate for the shorter springs.

Now I do feel I am following the basic suspension rules, but because it's a built it & see what's what there's a risk it isn't going to work at all well or it might but needs a bit of tuning. So I feel reluctant to buy a set of £50 springs that might not work.

Then I came across these.





The advert stated.

Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade 2008 -16 K-Tech Superstock fork springs

Box of 28 - different weights as marked.

As pictured.

Approx sizes / weights.

Mainly 9-10 kgs, some 8 and 11 also.

Lengths from 23mm - 27mm.

ID = 25mm

OD 35mm.

Now ordinary CBR1000RR Fireblade 2008 -16 forks have 38mm od springs so after doing some frantic searching (because I felt these were a bargain & would be taken quickly) I learnt that these were not off an ordinary fireblade they were off a SP model & they run 36mm fork springs.

Bingo. 14 pairs for £120.

[Varastorm]

Now with an abundance of fork springs to choose from I finally settled for a pair of the strongest springs in the box 11kg items. I can always go softer.

The standard springs are 285mm long with 100mm spacers = 385mm altogether. I think the standard strength are 7.5kg but could be wrong.

I've fitted 225mm long springs with 170mm spacers = 395mm the reason is to slightly increase the preload by 10mm.

Heavy 30wt Putoline fork oil has been used, the same as in my Varadero & I feel it works well for my size & riding style.

The static sag rates seem ok if a bit stiff, but riding it will answer a lot more questions. So up until then I'm leaving it as is.

[Varastorm]

This is where I am at the moment, I'm looking into a fan or fans to take care of the cooling when things get too hot.

I've tried to fit a standard item even a cut down version but it's just too big so I walked away till I thought of something & that something came to me about two weeks ago.

Don't laugh but I'm looking at pc fans.. 80mm x 80mm x 20mm to be precise 4 of them side by side. I'm not sure if they're water proof bit I've seen a clip on youtube with them running in a bowl of water so I'm running with it.

The pictures are of the thin stainless chassis I'm playing with & some ramdom fans I've dug out from the computer pile.





The fans shown are not powerful, I've only used them to set it up. I've connected one up & it's similar to a kid blowing a candle out, not bad, but could be better so I've ordered some of these.



SUNON PMD1208PMB1-A 80x80x38mm Cooler Cooling Fan DC 12V 9.1W 4Pin.

They are thicker by 18mm which is a lot for the space I've got, but we'll see what's what when they arrive. Even if I can get away with two or three of them I think they'll be better than four of the 20mm jobbies.

[tony.mon]

Have a look on the SP forum, they often mod the LH rad with a fan which would suit this application.
SPAL, I think, but don't know what model.

[fabiostar]

brilliant computer fans? i love this thinking outa the box stuff. now get away back into the shed and get some more work done

[sirch345]

brilliant computer fans? i love this thinking outa the box stuff. now get away back into the shed and get some more work done

what he said

Good to hear from you, nice that more progress is being made

I like the way you ended up with 14 pairs of fork springs You did well there

Chris.

[mik_str]

Have a look on the SP forum, they often mod the LH rad with a fan which would suit this application.
SPAL, I think, but don't know what model.

I am running a SPAL "pusher" 5.2" and it works very well (same as what the SP guys are running IIRC)

[Varastorm]

Hi guys, thanks for the tips.

Right then, regarding the "SPAL "pusher" 5.2" it looks as if it might just squeeze in but honestly there's minimal room behind the rad.

There's three problems, the forks lock to lock, the wheel travel & the rocker cover breather casting. If there's a way out it'll be modifying the rocker cover breather.

Here's a quick calculation, the Spal pusher 5.2 moves 313 CFM & the SUNON PMD1208PMB1 moves 143m3/h.

So, 143 m3/h = 5050 CFH so I divide 5050 CFH by 60 minutes to get 84.1 CFM.

Then x4 because there will be four of the buggers & I get 336.6 CFM.

I hope I'm right as they're on their way from China.

Any errors chime if & take the piss

[fabiostar]

you lost me after spal lol

[alanfjones1411]

you lost me after spal lol

Gone over my head too.