R6 front end done!

[not4us]

After a very tiring weekend I now have the R6 Forks/brakes and braided lines installed!
What a story...
Started working on the bike on Saturday, first removing all the VS02 naked kit to make it easier to replace the forks and route the braided lines, only to come to a halt when trying to remove the front wheel as my "custom made" nut/nut/bolt axle removal tool broke off. So the workd had to wait until Sunday as the hardware shops were closed by then.
Sunday came and after buying new nuts and bolts finally managed to get the wheel off and remove the forks, and as I was removing the fork a thunderstorm came by so I have to pack up, cover the "headless" bike and go inside to wait for the storm to pass (I don't have a garage/shed/undercover space so all my work is done on the street).
After the storm passed I got to put the R6 forks in, put the wheel back (using the custom spacers I got with the forks and calipers from a very nice and friendly Sp0rtbikes.net user), fitted the fender (again using the fabricated shims).
Then it was time to fit the calipers and braided lines.
By this time it was getting dark already so once I finished tightening everything and filling up the MC it was fully dark, so work had to wait until Monday.
Today I woke up really early to try and get the bike ready to ride to work.
At 5:30 am I was up bleeding the brakes (takes forever to fill them up the first time, pumping like there's no tomorrow!) and finished by about 7 am (during that time I also fitted new eBay bar-end mirrors) in time to get to work.
Now I need to do another bleeding of the brakes (they still feel a bit spongy) and take some photos of everything to put them up here for you all to see.

I must say I already noticed the difference in suspension straight away!
I commute to work and Sydney city roads are full of potholes, there is this particular one (corner of Liverpool and Kent) where there are two sewer covers in the middle of the turn that use to throw me out of trajectory all the time, not anymore! The new forks "eat" the irregularities brilliantly (and that's without dialing them!).

Now only a few more things to finish my mods, namely new tires (got a pair of Pirelli Diablos that arrived today) and rear braided line.

Sorry for the long post, thought I had to share this with someone...

 

[Circle]

Rock and/or roll Not4us!:rockon:
Show us some pics when your done!

 

[not4us]

And here are some pics.
Sorry about the quality, these were quickly taken with my phone.
Oh, and the bike needs a cleaning after the rainy days we've been getting lately, hopefully will have some time on the weekend...
After doing the forks, calipers and line I've also added the Pirelli Diablo's and barend mirrors.









And here are some pics of the forks before going in. They were NEW (as in straight from Yamaha) and even came with the R6 triple clamp, can this be used on our FZ6's (is there any point)? If not it will go up for sale along with the rest of the parts removed.

 

[LERecords]

sweet... do mind telling us where you sourced the spacers??

 

[not4us]

I was lucky enough to find a guy in the "other" forum (sp0rtbikes) that was selling these forks with the original Sharkbait's spacer kit (axle and caliper spacers plus fender block mount).
Hi was very friendly and helpful and even threw in the calipers for next to nothing.
All up I payed less than $500 for the lot shipped to Australia, can't complain about that!

 

[boars]

$500? Awesome. I have been wondering how much something like this would cost :thumbup:

 

[not4us]

$500? Awesome. I have been wondering how much something like this would cost :thumbup:

That's how much I paid for it but I've seen them going for more (and less too), I guess it's a question of luck and opportunity.
Here in Australia we have a really good website (findapart.com.au) where you put the parts you need and it send requests to multiple wreckers (dozens of them!) and they reply back to you with what they've got.
When I inquired about R6 forks a got a couple of offers for around $500 + shipping just for the forks (note my $500 included forks, adapter kit AND calipers) so you never know.
This I know, it is a really easy mod and the improvement is very, very noticeable wen riding, and I haven't even changed compression/rebound/damping in them yet!
If you were thinking about doing this mod DO IT!

 

[FinalImpact]

Nice to here it rides well and Thanks for sharing!
Mine should be done some time soon. I have other parts I want painted and installed at the same time, but it won't stop raining so I'm waiting!