Page 2 of 4
Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2019 9:13 am
by legendlives
Part 2:
The only good bit about the cans that came on the bike was this:
So I thought I'd try and use them, by ramming them up the hole of the Kawasaki cans (!)
And here's the finished article:
Dumpy and shiny. Just like the wife!
They'll look great tucked under the tail of the 'Storm.
Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2019 3:42 am
by legendlives
Side by side before & after:
And I had a rethink on the screen, mainly because this absolutely perfect Yamaha BT07 screen came my way cheap. Well $45NZ cheap (that's around 20 quid!)
Now THAT is the look I wanted

Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 11:30 am
by legendlives
Standard rear subframe. Pretty ugly with lots of stuff I don't need.

After a quick carve up and a bit of Tiggery. Small brackets on the front lower member are the front mounts for the Fireblade tailpiece.

Big brackets on the side are the top/rear tailpiece mounts. Tubes between the two members are exhaust mounts and will take the original rear exhaust mount rubbers.

Little tube across the back to hold everything together. Or apart. Depending on your perspective......

Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:38 pm
by sirch345
You're certainly getting on with the build
Chris.
Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 11:40 pm
by legendlives
sirch345 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:38 pm
You're certainly getting on with the build
Chris.
Yeah, my car build is 'on hold' at the moment as it's waiting to go to a car show and I don't want to do too much to it before then. Oh, and I get itchy fingers!
Onwards and upwards, this is the look!
Well, its
a look.........
Underseat part 1
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 7:00 am
by legendlives
There was no way that the ugly radiators were ever going back on the side of the bike, so a new location for another radiator needed to be found, and I know I'm not the first to spot the under-seat area as a likely location. There will not be a pillion seat going back on, so I looked around for a suitable rad that would fit the space.
I came up with this:
It's an auxiliary radiator from an Audi Turbo, and possibly the most perfect fit I could have found. It's about 1.5 times the surface area of one of the single VTR rads, and about 1.5 times the thickness so should (cross-fingers) be about right cooling-wise.
So carefully taking a grinder to the under-seat panel:
and trying it all for size:
Even the VTR fan (with it's little shroud removed) is about the perfect size.
And to cap it all, it all fits under the tailpiece!
It will have a grille to protect it underneath, but should work great!

Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 10:46 am
by fabiostar
thats a real nice looking job

Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 11:45 am
by sirch345
You've done well in finding that radiator with it being such a good fit, and the increase in volume against one standard rad
Chris.
Re: Underseat part 1
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:53 pm
by freeridenick
legendlives wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2019 7:00 am
There was no way that the ugly radiators were ever going back on the side of the bike...
Mac will hate it anyway.
legendlives wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2019 7:00 am
It will have a grille to protect it underneath, but should work great!
Nice work that. Is the fan sucking or blowing in that position and what are your plans for the hose routing? IIRC someone else who did this had problems with getting the coolant to flow uphill.
Underseat part 2
Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 9:38 am
by legendlives
freeridenick wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:53 pm
Nice work that. Is the fan sucking or blowing in that position and what are your plans for the hose routing? IIRC someone else who did this had problems with getting the coolant to flow uphill.
The fan will probably be blowing, but I'll do a bit of investigation as to which side will be the lowest pressure area.
Hopefully it shouldn't give problems with coolant circulation, but if it does there are plenty of cars now using small 12v aux coolant pumps.
Back to the radiator.
The inlet and outlet tubes are 5mm smaller than the VTR hoses, and one of those would be poking straight up my elbow in their current directions.
So I fired up the grinder and....
Too late to turn back now!
The new tank is shaped for more seat clearance, has a bit more capacity, has the bottom hose pointing in the right direction and a provision for the fan switch.

Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 6:17 pm
by Wicky
Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 4:55 am
by legendlives
Nice conversion. Hopefully mine will keep the temps similar to stock!
Underseat part 3
Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 9:41 am
by legendlives
Applying the same method to the other tank, but this one has the filler neck and another 25mm barb to take (what will be) a 90 degree hose pointing forward.
Just the mounts to make and I can start to make the plumbing!
Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2019 10:21 pm
by legendlives
Made this shroud to cover all of the ugly bits:
It's made from 2mm aluminium and attaches to the screen mount bolts. Weighs very little.
Will be either all body colour or body colour with wide black stripe.
Re: VTRNZ
Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2019 11:02 pm
by Shauned71
This is looking cool... keep up the good work! I will be following with interest because I want to do the same... Gota finish my last project from 2 years ago.. rebuilt my matt black storm, used it once for a 300 mile round trip which was also it's shakedown, wasn't overly happy with it and haven't touched it since. Just cleared up my other jobs so will finish other bike and then I want to make a start on the street fighter.. got most my ideas already and they also include under seat rad so will be keeping an eye on how it works out for you
