R6 Fork Mod Completed

[Hellgate]

Tonight after work I headed over to Fred's house and we started the six hour process of installing the fork, making custom shims, brackets, etc.

Fred has a mini-machine shop in his garage and I couldn't have done the mod without him. Thank you so much for the help Fred! :cheer: I owe you big time.

My camera is in Houston and then on to New Orleans, soooo no photos yet. We took lots of photos on Fred's camera so y'all will have to wait a bit until he posts them.

Once we got the forks on we went for a quick spin around the block and the difference is amazing! I rode over man hole covers, cracks, dips dumps, and the fork simply absorded them with no complaints at all. Them we traded bikes, Fred's fork is bone stock, and we rode over the same path. What a difference. The stock set up bounced, shuttered and pretty much complained the whole time. The stock fork seemed to rebound off the bump and the front end fell loose, as if the wheel wasn't tracking and following the road. When we pulled back up at the house even Fred was impressed and he is a hard sell.

The next thing I have to do is figure out the sag, and damping settings. I've never owned a fork with this much adjustability so I've got some learning to do in order to get the set up correct.

One problem I do need to square away is I've got a small shimmy at decel, at about 45 mph with my hands off the bars. I need to double check that the forks are in the triple tree square and the axle assembly is correct, I may have accidently put a twist in the fork.

Also many thanks for Defy Inertia for the caliper shims, that saved us a ton of time.

But other than that this is a GREAT mod! :thumbup:

 

[CHEMIKER]

Awesome, Pete! Can't wait to see pics!

 

[Fred]

OK, here comes the pictures and my patented Way Too Much Detail description.

As Pete said, this is an impressive modification to the bike. Going from my bike to his you could really tell the difference. In my neighborhood there's a particularly bad manhole cover. This is a cover that's raised about three inches above the surrounding pavement, and has pavement sloping up to it on all sides. So it's not only a slick metal surface in a curve, it's a speedbump.

On my bike, I can hit it and the front end feels a bit unhappy for a moment. There's a noted loss of traction as the wheel hops slightly.

With the R6 fork, the jolt is much less, and there is no loss of traction felt because the wheel does not hop.

Overall the R6 forks feel softer but more planted. This is ideal, in my opinion. If the forks are valved correctly, you don't need a stupidly stiff spring.

On to the pictures.

First we installed the forks, wheel and axle. The R6 forks are closer together, so additional spacers are needed on the axle. Here we shoved the wheel to the left side of the bike so we could measure the total gap.

Because the axle is shorter, a spacer was needed in the right fork. This is optional. If you install the spacer, less of the axle bolt's threads will engage the axle, so you have to be careful about overtorquing and damaging threads. If you leave the spacer out, the axle won't be fully in the left hand fork. Your call as to which you prefer. We decided to use the spacer and be careful about axle torque.

The ideal solution is a spacer and a longer axle bolt to give 100% thread engagement.

(If you use a spacer and after bolting everything together, you find that the existing spacers on the wheel rotate with the wheel, then your newly made spacer is too long. Cut it down)

As another sidenote, the brake calipers will also need shims. Four washers will do the trick if the thickness is right. The calipers will self adjust for a slight misalignment, so you can be off a hundredth of an inch here and still be OK. DefyIntertia sent Pete some extra spacers, so this part was quick and easy for us.

The completed spacers for the front axle.

Spacer in place to the left of the factory FZ6 spacer.

Mounting the fender was the other tricky bit. While I was making spacers, Pete was doing this part. Here's the front mount. The upper bolt goes to the existing upper fender mount on the R6 fork. Pete had to cut holes in his fender for these brackets to poke through. The holes are not visible once the fender is in place. Pete made the aluminum bracket which goes down to the stock mounting point on the fender. This is the one that has the phillips head screw on it.

Here's a shot of the fender in place on the R6 forks. You can see the rear fender bracket here. There's no way to make this one invisible like the front one. The upper hole is tapped with a M6x1.0 tap, so the upper bolt just passes through the bracket and screws into the bracket directly. The lower hole is drilled and there's a nut on the inside of the fender.

It should be mentioned that at this point we'd been at it for five hours, and the first brackets didn't work. We made this second set in less than five minutes and didn't bother smoothing the rough edges or otherwise prettying them up. We also didn't have the right length hardware, so things got a bit ghetto at this point. These will be replaced with black or stainless hardware, and the brackets will be prettied up.

Here's the last shot, showing the rider's point of view. The fork tops are the only obvious sign that something is not stock here.

That's all for now!

Fred

 

[Fred]

One problem I do need to square away is I've got a small shimmy at decel, at about 45 mph with my hands off the bars. I need to double check that the forks are in the triple tree square and the axle assembly is correct, I may have accidently put a twist in the fork.

My bike did that too while on vacation. I haven't tried it again since unloading all the camping gear off of the rear of the bike. It's either due to the extra weight on the back (camping gear for me, old forks for you) or they just do that all the time and we haven't noticed before.

Fred

 

[FZ1inNH]

Great write-up guys! Thanks for sharing your innovations with us! :thumbup:

 

[CrazyBiker]

Make sure you raise the fork tubes 10mm in the triple for good turn in and handling. See the SBN thread about this. I am linking my consolidated version of that thread that includes all the useful posts. It is a bit coarse but understandable.
http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~aky/Bikes/Mods/FZ6/R6 Forks/R6 Fork Mod Instructions.docx
Also put in SS lines and HH pads to make your braking better.

As for the suspension setting, set everything at the middle and start adjusting after that.

 

[DefyInertia]

As for the suspension setting, set everything at the middle and start adjusting after that.

Yup...

Sag will be easy, just get a friend to help you measure it.

Rebound and compression....the road/track-side quick test is to push down hard on the bars....the count should be ~1 down and ~2 up. Beyond that you'll need to really know what you're doing or have someone help you. You want to make sure both ends of your bike are doing this together/evenly which may require a friend's help. Most track day orgs offer free basic sag education/setup.

Tons of information on the net....

 

[grumpy1luvs2eat]

As my Canuckian ami's say "Tre chic, Tre bon", which is how the french say "Real kewl, dude!" GRUMPY

 

[Hellgate]

Quick update. The shimmy is gone. I've ridden about 30 miles since the install and I supect the new parts simply needed to settle. I'm going to retorque everything tonight.

As far as slidding them up I'm not doing that as the fork is about 1/2 inch shorter than the stock fork. I had the stock fork up a 1/2 inch already (one of the very first mods I did - to compenstate for less compression with the stiffer Race Tech springs).

I agree for set up begin in the middle. I found the R6 manual on line and need to read up on the various settings and what is what. I'll most likely go back to AF1 Racing for a whole chassis set up to ensure the front and back are matching one another. I still have the Ohlins set up as delivered, which is pretty darn good. A few tweaks and it will be that much better. The days of stacking up quarters inside the fork leg to adjust preload are over!

SS brake lines were about mod number three or so. They work great but Galfers suck due to rust issues. I'll get to them in a week or so. The brake pads are staying on until they are toast, then EBCs or something.

I still can't get over the ride quality. Even for communting this is SO much better than stock. There is no jarring at all, and the front wheel just glides over irregularities.

 

[wrightme43]

Awesome Pete. You have one tricked out FZ now. Hell yeah!

 

[Hellgate]

Awesome Pete. You have one tricked out FZ now. Hell yeah!

Thanks so much! Its really be a fun project.

All I need is a blower now...

Fred was showing me his new Garrett turbo for his BMW K75 bike...it got me thinking...

 

[wrightme43]

Supercharging a Yamaha FZ6 - Motorcycle Thailand

 

[Hellgate]

Supercharging a Yamaha FZ6 - Motorcycle Thailand

How much is 400,000 Baht??? A $1.95?

 

[FZ1inNH]

What's left Pete? The frame and engine? :rof: Maybe replace those with the R6 frame and engine... would it still be an FZ6?

Great stuff and I can see why your checkbook is flat now! Well done!!!

 

[dako81]

How much is 400,000 Baht??? A $1.95?

Via google:

400, 000 Thai baht = 11, 894 U.S. dollars

 

[Hellgate]

What's left Pete? The frame and engine? :rof: Maybe replace those with the R6 frame and engine... would it still be an FZ6?

Great stuff and I can see why your checkbook is flat now! Well done!!!

Well I guess I could have modded an R6 to take an FZ6 saddle and I'd be all set! That and remove the rearsets and raise the bars and put some torque in the midrange of the motor. :rof: The ergos of an R6 would kill me and there is no way my wife would ride on the back. She thinks she going to fall off the back of the FZ as it is!

I only have a couple of more mods, dual headlight and that is about it. Maybe I'll chrome the whole bike??? :ban:

I really wanted a sport/touring bike and I think I've got it! I love the little FZ.

Thanks very much.

 

[Hellgate]

Via google:

400, 000 Thai baht = 11, 894 U.S. dollars

OUCH! Forget that one...

 

[wrightme43]

They had them on ebay for about 6k US. From England.

It would be the ultimate sleeper bike though. 170 hp FZ6.

 

[urbanj]

So don't even bother with the springs and emulators?

You said you swapped back and forth from the bikes with stock forks to the R6S forks. But what about yours with the racetechs and thicker oil?

Was that worth the investment or should I be looking to the R6S forks only?

 

[Hellgate]

So don't even bother with the springs and emulators?

You said you swapped back and forth from the bikes with stock forks to the R6S forks. But what about yours with the racetechs and thicker oil?

Was that worth the investment or should I be looking to the R6S forks only?

I've never ridden on emulators, and as the name implies they are emulating a cartridge fork. I have read that the emulator set up is very nice.

My Race Tech springs and the heavier oil was much better than stock, however the R6 forks are night and day.

When I look at the total cost the R6 fork is a better value when you consider the much better ride and performance you get.

If you were to modify the FZ6 fork with RT springs and emulators you are looking at about $300.

My forks were $189 plus $49 shipping from Canada. So for $238 and 6 hours of work I feel it is a better value. That said, you must have a way to get/make the required shims for the R6 fork. It is impossible to do it without it, so that may be the deciding point for you. On the other hand the R6 fork is fully adjustable, the emulators are not.

Good luck with your decision. Regardless, whichever one you choose is better than stock.