vf400

[bigbiker]

i had never even seen a honda vf400, but a friend had an almost complete one hidden away in boxes. money exchanged hands and suddenly i was the new owner.
apparently theyre quite rare - i duuno but im not going to restore it


all i really want is the frame and engine

so i started to throw parts together like a kid with a jigsaw puzzle


there was no tank included, i tried to track one down, but in the end just went to a local breakers and had a look at a couple tanks and decided the cbr tank would fit nicely


chopped the subframe off and made a new one to tidy it up a little




tz750 seat unit ... thats where im at with it for now, no plan just making this up as i go along

[TerraRoot]

looks the biz, keeping the inboard brakes? use some tasty anodised 50mm upside downers to suspend it.

[bigbiker]

I've been hearing nothing but bad things mainly about the inboard braking system. but a few have said that properley maintained they're fine.
i like them, in a funky retro early 80s kind of way.
undecided yet - i have the front wheel too and some yokes but no forks.

i might ditch the shock and swinging arm, hardtail it, but not in a chopper way - more 2 lengths of steel tube welded to the frame like a swingarm and braced - hard to describe the image in my head

a 70's style half fairing

twin exhausts high mounted either side of the seat unit

[TerraRoot]

3.bp.blogspot.com/-6UTPxvHPl_Y/TsutDsA7OkI/AAAAAAAAAX0/hbVBfOd7wYU/s1600/kz-wheel-kx-forks-01.jpg

love the mix of old and new engineering. hard tailing it would give it a image crisis, but it's your bike, so Do Work and lets see it

[bigbiker]

Interestingly, i read lastnight that somebody had laced one of these wheels, i cant see how and i cant find pics. obviously using a rim for a laced wheel but then i can't see where on the hub, that would be a lot of drilling to put the spokes through.

with regards to the hardtail, it wouldnt be a chopper type hardtail but more like this kind of thing


but im undecided yet

[TerraRoot]

whats the point in a hard tail like that? i can understand the nice lines of a hardtailed 'merican vtwin with a large transmission, a swingarm hanging off the end of that looks all wrong, hence the softail.

if your building from the ground up, a hard is slim unfussy and pretty.

if you are just removing nicely working suspension and only putting in a rigid swingarm? it wont look any different, but the wheel won't go up and down?

[bigbiker]

ive millions of ideas floating around in my head - this is just one - i like how the back end is really tidy, nothing there - no shock linkage etc, but i know another way too mounting the shock under the swingarm
its all just ideas at this stage

[TerraRoot]

how about removing the bellows around the shock and finding a sliding metal cover? that would clean the back and you could make a weird shape exhaust to cover up the lower linkages as well.

[bigbiker]

this is a neat simple trick looking setup.
been looking into the wheels, i really like the inboard system, i know they arent reviewed well but theyre different. i deffinately wantto lace them - worst case scenario i can get two rings lazer cut to bolt onto the existing bolt holes that are holding the rim and lace the rim to that

this is meant to be a very quick cheap run around project, but i just got so much in my head for it lol

[bigbiker]

hub from the wheels. soon to belaced

[TerraRoot]

freaking gonna be awesome, plenty of people run really shite brakes on there 'specials'. bet you can pull a stoppie!
really like that gsx's linkage, do it!

[bigbiker]

ive spoke to a few people that had these inboards back in the day, and theyre the people telling me, as long as you keep on top of maintenance, they work well... a friend had one and said it out braked his gsxr11.
the ones saying theyre s**t seem to be them that heard their mate say it who heard it from their mate whos mate once used them.
still i guess till you try it out for yourself, you dont know. theyll look good with new 17 inch rims though

[jonw]

I've heard a lot of good said about the inboard disc system. I suspect it's not up to modern standards but comparable with all other 80's brakes. I think they look kinda cool as well....

[bigbiker]

yeah - i think as with anything, maintenance will keep them in tip top shape, obviously theyre nevergoing to out perform a modern set of 6 pots, but i think they will be more than upto the job. looking at the construction and what people have said about the overheating issues, upon dissasembling these, i noticed as i opened them up, road grime and brake dust build up, once this starts to clog up the vents then theres little wonder theyre getting hot.

the other thing that i note is, the outer alloy ring holding it all in place, there is a series of ventilation slots,but this part spins with the wheel ... you can see part of one in the above pic where my palm is. note the crfoss sections going overthe tops of them, i imagine as the wheel spins around these are going to act like a fan and blow airaway. i wonder if i cut them off they will allow more air in than they fan off

[TerraRoot]

face the vents backwards? if air can exit faster then it can get in the low air pressure will cool it better then just funnelling more air in.