Topic: The Quest for Brakes and Suspension: GSX-R Treats

[sethdhawkins]

Cal-
18" front and rear. I'll be going to the lowest profile Roadrider (90/90-18), as the clearance on my headers is too close for my comfort. Stinks, because I really like the stance with the taller tire.

Don-
The oil cooler is made by Pro One for the harley crowd. It's pretty trick, and was a breeze to install. Who knows how efficient it'll actually be.

[sethdhawkins]

Rearsets. Need some 6mm bolts to finish up the install.




Oil cooler and thermostat plumbed.


Galfer lines that aren't really doing it for me. May have to see if I can route them down the back side.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I think the lines will look fine, once you route them on the back side of the forks.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Let us know how the Pro One cooler works.  It looks trick.

[sethdhawkins]

Finished up my rearsets yesterday. I used the brackets that are now being produced by cognito moto. They are made of stainless steel and are really quite nice. If anyone is looking at purchasing these as a bolt on piece, realize that they are not, unless you like having your brake lever on the same plane as it was stock. It appears, that the bracket would need to be spaced out about 3/4" to clear the splined brake arm pivot.
I looked at many different ways to activate my rear brake. I tried flipping the rear brake arm and running a rod directly to my rearset, but I didn't like the "feel". In the end, I decided to cut down the splined brake arm pivot and the supplied linkage 3/4" with a chop saw, then re-welded the pinch bolt onto the linkage.

After putting in the work, I like the result. The rearsets are really tucked in close to the frame.

[FunJimmy]

After putting in the work, I like the result. The rearsets are really tucked in close to the frame.

Prove it! 

[jpfrk2001]

Finished up my rearsets yesterday. I used the brackets that are now being produced by cognito moto. . . .. . . . .
I looked at many different ways to activate my rear brake. I tried flipping the rear brake arm and running a rod directly to my rearset, but I didn't like the "feel". In the end, I decided to cut down the splined brake arm pivot and the supplied linkage 3/4" with a chop saw, then re-welded the pinch bolt onto the linkage.

After putting in the work, I like the result. The rearsets are really tucked in close to the frame.

I was talking with him about this as well. He suggest a bracket coming off the rear set, flipping the drum like you said, and attaching the rod to the bracket. He sells it on his site, but I am going to make my own.

But I do like what you got there. Really trick.

[sethdhawkins]

After putting in the work, I like the result. The rearsets are really tucked in close to the frame.

Prove it! 

A few more weeks!

[sethdhawkins]

New rear plate bracket. Welded it to the chain adjuster, so it hugs the rear hub. Looks nice, and really pulls the bike in at the rear.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Seth,

That appears to be a Joker Machine Lucas-style LED tail light.  That should be nice and bright.

[sethdhawkins]

I ran it last year on the other side. It is super bright and I really like how it looks. I just didn't like the plate bracket and how it screwed with the lines of the bike.

[NobleHops]

I'm a little skeptical how well that nifty oil cooler is going to work 4 inches from the exhaust collector. When you're idling (and need it most) I'm afraid it's going to do double-duty as an oil roaster. Any better options for mounting it in the airstream above the front wheel, somewhat more conventionally?

[sethdhawkins]

Nope. It's rather far away from the exhaust actually, right where the stock foot brake was.

[sethdhawkins]

Thanks. We shall see. The downside I see is from maybe not having the airflow that I might have behind the forks. Behind the forks is closer to the exhaust headers, than my cooler is to the collector.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

The great thing about that cooler is that it has a built in temperature gauge.  I think Cal's contingency plans are great suggestions.

[sethdhawkins]

So, on a side note, I detected an almost (almost) negligible amount of play in the headstock. I have stripped the entire frontend and pressed the stem back out of the lower tree. I have ordered another stem from devin, as well as brand new bearings. I'm starting from scratch to rule out anything (as I may have chooched the stem on the last, or first pressing). Lower triple appears to be good. I guess it's only money :-/ In the meantime I'm taking various bits and pieces off to bead blast and powder tomorrow. I despise both jobs, but the powder is soooo much more resilient than paint.

 Also, my buddy had a 90/90-18 avon roadrider around that we tried out, before I tore everything back down.

 It's tiny. I ordered a 100/90-18, and will pray that it clears the header. The 90/90-18 clears by miles, the 110/90-18 does not clear, and I'm hoping the 100/90-18 clears with room to spare. Those whom have a 4-1 header, looking to run an 18" front wheel, and want a gixxer frontend swap...I guess I'm the guinea pig
As long as I can get it all together by the time the good riding really rolls around. No worries

[sethdhawkins]

So, I threw the frontend back together earlier this week and discovered the same clicking noise. Previously, I had assumed that it was a poor stem fitment/bearings in the headstock; it was not. After assembly, and presentation of the same click, I investigated further. What I found was this, the floating discs shift on their buttons when the brakes are applied :-/ I visited the gsxr forums and found that this is normal, as well as some noise from the cartridges. I'm out a chunk of change to rule out the noise, but it has been determined. I spent the time the frontend was apart polishing the forks even more, powdering a few pieces, swapping another tire, and rebuilding my starter clutch. Pictures to follow soon.

[sethdhawkins]

Frontend back together

Exposed innards

Headlight shot

Gauges

Super bright tail light

Exposed electrics

that's a cool little voltmeter
speed sensor on gixxer fork
oil cooler shot
  Shortened and painted exhaust

exhaust tip meant for harley pipes
CB175 that I brought back from Philly. Sold it to a friend that's spent the last two days cleaning, polishing, and waxing. Look great.

[sethdhawkins]

I'm back on the boat, so work is at a standstill on the bike. My buddy doing the paint will be sending updated photos of his work, I'll pass them along. Waiting on my oil tank. Gonna make the seats upon my return (I purchased some dual density stuff, and some memory foam...we shall see. Also, received my CycleX clutch kit; but it only contained the steels. They're shipping the fibers and a gasket.

[NobleHops]

So, I threw the frontend back together earlier this week and discovered the same clicking noise. Previously, I had assumed that it was a poor stem fitment/bearings in the headstock; it was not. After assembly, and presentation of the same click, I investigated further. What I found was this, the floating discs shift on their buttons when the brakes are applied :-/ I visited the gsxr forums and found that this is normal, as well as some noise from the cartridges. I'm out a chunk of change to rule out the noise, but it has been determined. I spent the time the frontend was apart polishing the forks even more, powdering a few pieces, swapping another tire, and rebuilding my starter clutch. Pictures to follow soon.

Thats a tough one. Been there, chased my tail about that hard. The bike looks fantastic, so many thoughtful details.

[bjbuchanan]

One thought about the oiling system and the coolers effectiveness. Back when porsches were aircooled, when compared to other aircooled like corvair and volkswagen other aircooler guys considered them oil cooled. Something like 6 and a half quarts

If you look at porsche oil capacity at the time it was above average, the extra oil helped to aid in cooling, the same way that coolant would (in a sense) perform in the engine. The extra oil just gives somewhere for the heat to go to. I think that that the oil coolers are most effective partly because of that, not really the little radiator on there

[sethdhawkins]

One thought about the oiling system and the coolers effectiveness. Back when porsches were aircooled, when compared to other aircooled like corvair and volkswagen other aircooler guys considered them oil cooled. Something like 6 and a half quarts

If you look at porsche oil capacity at the time it was above average, the extra oil helped to aid in cooling, the same way that coolant would (in a sense) perform in the engine. The extra oil just gives somewhere for the heat to go to. I think that that the oil coolers are most effective partly because of that, not really the little radiator on there

I agree. Any addition to oil capacity is going to be a good thing...especially with the 836. I could tell in the summer when my bike would start to get warm. Here's my buddy's oil tank that he fab'd out of 1/4" aluminum (he's making mine as well). It holds almost five quarts throughout the whole system!
Maybe we should run 3/4" oil lines, run around the bikes like spaghetti! That would certainly add to overall volume

[sethdhawkins]

Did some light reading today on motorcycle suspension (although I had done some before I started this swap). I now know more, but probably understand less. I would liken the experience to that moment, directly after your first roll in the back seat; you've learned a great deal, but the experience has just opened up a whole world of possibilities that you can't begin to fathom! If anyone is interested:

http://www.streetchopperweb.com/rake-and-trail/?image=2
http://www.sportrider.com/art-science-fun-geometry

I also ran some basic trail calculations on this site:
http://207.57.8.251/tools/rake_trail.html

I found that the stock CB750, in it's various trims, with a neck rake of 27 degrees, a 19" tire, 50-60mm offset triples, and stock forks (+\- 1" for the K and F models), has a trail somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.74-4.5".

Modern sportbikes have around 3.75" of trail.

A modern Victory cruiser has 6.7" of trail.

I calculated the new frontend of my bike to have 5.12" of trail using the numbers below (which I either measured myself, or scrounged from the intrawebs):



I realize that this is all very basic in calculation and does not take into account rear suspension height, swing arm angle, etc. Nor do I expect that I will spend my next time in the shop with a tape measure figuring out the actual trail. I just thought all this info was neat. Add anything, or correct anything that I may have missed. I'm not an engineer (even though I can copy and paste from google with the best of them), so please don't fill the thread with information that I can't digest in the length of a beer

My conclusions as the village idiot; bike should be damn stable Ina straight line, handle like a tank (not really a good thing), and may have a tendency to flop/wag in turns. Other than that, I'm not sure how I'm gonna like it.

[Retro Rocket]

Hi Seth, the 750 has around 3.7 inches of trail, most modern sports bikes are closer to 4 inches }GSXR1000 (2005-2006) - rake = 23.45 degrees trail = 96mm(2007-2008) 23.8 degrees 98mm , 100mm + 4 inches so both numbers are in the 3.9?, just a tad under 4 inches The 2012 ZX10 Kawasaki has even more trail 107mm or just over 4 inches}, trail is also relative to rake, 4 inches of trail on a 25 degree rake will feel different and react differently to 4 inches of trail on a 27 or 23 degree rake. Our bikes like a trail of closer to 4 inches giving a little more stability at the front and reducing the chance of having a tank slapper, of course bad bearings and other things can cause a tank slapper but its primarily trail related, ask member Bwaller....

[sethdhawkins]

Hi Seth, the 750 has around 3.7 inches of trail, most modern sports bikes are closer to 4 inches }GSXR1000 (2005-2006) - rake = 23.45 degrees trail = 96mm(2007-2008) 23.8 degrees 98mm , 100mm + 4 inches so both numbers are in the 3.9?, just a tad under 4 inches The 2012 ZX10 Kawasaki has even more trail 107mm or just over 4 inches}, trail is also relative to rake, 4 inches of trail on a 25 degree rake will feel different and react differently to 4 inches of trail on a 27 or 23 degree rake. Our bikes like a trail of closer to 4 inches giving a little more stability at the front and reducing the chance of having a tank slapper, of course bad bearings and other things can cause a tank slapper but its primarily trail related, ask member Bwaller....

I knew you'd jump in and give me some more precise information! Like I said, I was using that simple trail calculator, so there wasn't a ton of accuracy, just a ballpark for me. I like the part in the sportbike article above that stated that an experience road racer can detect the difference in 1mm in trail!