:-) I laughed out loud when I read this! No I haven't checked it. Regardless of whether it fouls or not I am still an idiot for not considering it! He heh. Like I said, there ought to be laws to stop people like me tinkering. Maybe, for example, in Germany, there are!

But, I'll have the bike off the tray tomorrow so I check it out then. Nice one. Still laughing ...

On that note, I am surprised that on full lock things smack into other things anyways. A friend has drilled and tapped the lugs on the lower triple clamp to insert some small bolts to get less lock-to-lock. I'll be doing that when I get the triple clamp off again. Not too many roundabouts (gyratories for the UK folk) on a race track - except for maybe the A40 ... :-)

Nope, the UK folk have roundabouts too.
Good write up, I'm an FZR man myself but keep it coming.

Mate, the FZRs go like stink too! We're all friends here. :-)

Well, I've not got the bike off the stand today to check if I am an idiot or not re rad vs steering lock, but figuring it won't be too hard to remedy and after spending the afternoon getting the airbox off a 999 to sort an idling issue it is NC30 time again ...

First things first. The next generation of support crew goes into their house for a nap:



And given the single comment from the good lady about the 5.5" VFR rear wheel was "it is not going to be red is it?", I thought I'd at least get it stripped while I figure out exactly what it might look like in the end. So, here we go.

Oh, as a note, the wheel is a 98-01 VFR 800 rear - so I discovered.

For the following procedure I used just 'standard' automotive paint stripper, eye-protection, a wire-brush, a toothbrush, and gin and tonic.



Agreed, it looks like something from a horror film:





And some scrubbing. I've done this a few times before and it normally takes about 4 to 5 applications of the paint stripper with some elbow-grease each application to remove the paint:





And when the remaining paint becomes thin enough, I find scrubbing with a toothbrush with be very effective. It is about the right strength to scrub old paint off and yet still smear the paint stipper around at the same time. I would not recommend brushing one's (or anyone's) teeth with it afterwards:



So, after about 45 mins or so, most of the paint has been scrubbed of one side of the wheel:



And a hose-down later we have the wheel all (mostly) stripped on paint on one side:



Yeah, looks cool from the pic, but it doesn't look that cool from close-up though. Still a fair bit of work to do with bits of paint here and there:



Onto the other side:



And, after the same technique for a while, bingo, all cleaned up:



But .. same as the other side, still a fair bit of cleaning up to do:



I ran out of paint stripper so I stretched it pretty thin during this process. All up, total time was about 2 hours.

There is more work to do here, but that will happen in the coming days.

Crash knobs off so the new top fairing could be tested - the fairing will need to be cut to accommodate the crash knobs, but that is not a task for today. Nor is further work on the rear wheel - maybe later this week. So here it is fitted:



Pretty darn good actually, a better fit that the last one. I could remove some spacers and crap made so the last one would fit. This one fits just fine. Oh, manufacturer unknown I am afraid, I got it secondhand.

I did a steering lock test as per Timons' query and yes, the radiators are fine like they are with my tin snip mounts - no clearance issues.

So then, what is this for then: ?



It is the same diameter as the EOM fairing/mirror brace (12.7mm / half inch):



I have a replacement NC30 brace but to make it fit the NC35 fairings going on the bike I have to ruin them - and I am loathe to violate an intact bit of motorcycling history - so I thought first of all, I'll have a go making something to do the same job.

A mate has copper tube braces on his NC30 race bike and they work. I am guessing in a fall, they bend pretty easily and might help make less of a mess of your fairing in a crash. The OEM braces are very strong.

In prep, the new screen goes on with tape so everything up top there is in place for some experimentation with what-clears-what. The new fairing and screen are not yet drilled to mount the screen, so I needed to be sure that new braces woud not foul with anything fairing/screen related.



A coat hanger is sacrificed:



After a (not shown) really quite crap copper prototype, a second go is a bit better:



And then, after screwing around for ages with trying to make the left one mirror the right one, we're getting near:



Still some more cutting and bending to do, but, at this point, it looks like it might be okay. I like the curvy organic look to them.

The replacement NC30 brace cost me $40. But, the copper pipe was $15 and the 'internal spring' bender thing used to help keep the tubing in shape when bending was $10.

I'll work on these copper tubes a bit more to see how they go, but no promises that I won't fall back to violating the NC30 brace if it all sh*ts me off!

Why not solder a Tee piece either side and fit a cross bar,(Tube) to brace it.

Sorry hunter, I thought I had replied to this. Crapnology in action. I've decided to ditch the copper pipe thing for now and violate an NC30 brace. Easier and time is running out.

But out of curiosity, have you dome something similar to what you are describing? Pics?

To finish out the VFR800 rear wheel paint strip and polish.

Some wet and dry of varying (and increasing grades) to give:



And then some autosol to give:



Not too bad at all. Happy with that. Some dremeling to do to clean up some of the non-polished areas, but not too bad for a few hours work and it is to be for race wets anyways. Happy. :-)

Nice effort! I like that, seems a shame to use it for wets now!

StrayAlien wrote:Sorry hunter, I thought I had replied to this. Crapnology in action. I've decided to ditch the copper pipe thing for now and violate an NC30 brace. Easier and time is running out.

But out of curiosity, have you dome something similar to what you are describing? Pics?

No but it just looked like it was a way of tying them both together to stiffen it up.

By the way,Nice job on the wheel.

Hmmm shiney.