CBX Conversions

[Tom Neimeyer]

I know there are a lot of you that have done forks/wheels/swingarm conversions. I would like to hear your thoughts about them. Primarily what you didn't like after the swap. The most common is the CB1100F front and back. I have done one of them and know of several others that the owners are pleased with so no need to hash it out again.



Mostly looking for comments about ground clearance/stability or any other relevent observations.



I would like input about VF1000 41mm forks and 16" front, 17" back.



CBR600/1000 Hurricane combinations, 17" front, 17" back.



CBR600 F2/F3 combinations, ????, ????



Any others ???

[Jeff Bennetts]

Hey Tom, I spent some time on the phone yesterday with Max from Traxxion Dynamics discussing the use of their new cartridge system for the CBX, heres a link to the cartridge.



http://www.traxxion.com/Axxion%20Cartri ... ridges.htm



heres a link to Traxxion's home page http://www.traxxion.com/



Anyway I'm sending Traxxion a set of CB1100f and a set of 81/82 CBX forks and see if he can fit the new cartridge system, if not he thinks the lesser upgrade to RaceTech like springs and gold valves with some custom work will still be a great improvement over stock, he'll do both upgrades on the two different forks.



If all works well the Club will have two sets of fork upgrades by Traxxion to do a comparison on and publish the results in the CBXpress and hopefully create a new option for the CBX front end improvement.







jeff

[jt]

I know there are a lot of you that have done forks/wheels/swingarm conversions. I would like to hear your thoughts about them. Primarily what you didn't like after the swap. The most common is the CB1100F front and back. I have done one of them and know of several others that the owners are pleased with so no need to hash it out again.



Mostly looking for comments about ground clearance/stability or any other relevent observations.



I would like input about VF1000 41mm forks and 16" front, 17" back.



CBR600/1000 Hurricane combinations, 17" front, 17" back.



CBR600 F2/F3 combinations, ????, ????



Any others ???

Tom,

Those are some really good questions, I am interested in hearing answers and thoughts posted. I've mention to you that I to am going to install a different front end and 17" wheels. So it will be interesting to hear other folks thoughts.

[cbxtacy]

Tom, I've been concerned about ground clearance more than anything else. Road racing bikes since the 60's and never owning a modern sport bike until recently, I'm used to wobbles and other behavior I always considered normal. Most of the modern conversions I've seen on CBX's and other older bikes look great and handle great until you run out of ground clearance. When you put a 17" on the front it quickens the steering a bit but you lose lotsa ground. If you look at the bike I road race that I put in the tree at Deals Gap, I put a F3 wheel on it. I also put clip-ons under the fork clamp and dropped the fork tubes down. I just had to replace the wheel bearings and make a spacer because the axle was a different dia. Used the stock CBX calipers. On my turbo bike I used the F3 wheel, acquired forks from Franks that were 1 1/2" longer to compensate for lost ground and put stock bars on it. I also made brackets for CBR900 calipers which there are much more better choices for pads. On the rear I mounted a F3 wheel. I trimmed off the inside of the linkage and it works great. I still lost some ground but when I lean over the extra width more then makes up. The first linkage I cut up started bending so I chopped up another and braced it. If you want close-up pictures E-mail me at cbxtacy@yahoo.com and I'll send you some. The biggest problem I've run across is aesthetics. When I put a CBR900 tail section on a CBX, the tail is shorter then the CBX tail and the bike givs the appearance of an extended swing arm being mounted on it. I want to mount a stock seat, sides, and cowl on my CBX's with the 900 tails. Sounds funny but I believe it's do-able, I'll save lots of weight, and it's much easier to work on.

George

[jt]

George,

Was this done to a twin shock or prolink X? When you added 1 1/2" to the fork tubes did you have to do anything to raise the rear end? It would seem to raise the front that much it would make the rear end alot lower than the front.

<Edit> Beside the obvious and grounding a eng case what would be next not counting the CENTER stand. Looking at my project, To me I worry about the side stand mount.

Thanks

[Jeff Bennetts]

Tom, I have a 41 mm front end off a Vf1000f and the 16 inch frt wheel would NOT be the way to go. Looks like crap(too small) and would steer way to fast, I was going to use an 1100F 18 frt wheel.



But the Vf1000f still has all the worthless anti dive junk on it like the CB1100f. I think if Traxxion can fit his new cartridge system to the late modle 39mm CBX front end it may be the way to go, good dual brakes, no clearance problems, full adjustability, no fuse box and bar conversions needed and no extra weight of the anti dive crap.



It shouldn't be more than 3 or 4 weeks before I have something back from Traxxion.



I've also owned my 99 ZRX since new and I can see how the frt and back both could be fitted to the CBX with a little work, one thing about the ZRX, its twin shock and the frt is not inverted but its fully adjustable.







jb

[fasterspider]

Do you guys know that Forking by Frank has 41mm tubes?

This opens up a bunch of choices on frontends for the CBX. I did not find out about this until after I bought my 2" over 39mm tubes for some CB900F forks I have for my CBX wheel & suspension mods.

[Tom Neimeyer]

fasterspider,

I assume you mean we can get longer fork tubes and use CBR600 or other 41mm lowers? I think the 600/1000 Hurricanes and the CBR600 F2/F3 all use 41mm forks. I think the VTR1000 also used 41 mm forks.



Which other Honda forks are 41mm?



Still the problem with the instruments, no easy way to mount them.

[fasterspider]

fasterspider,

I assume you mean we can get longer fork tubes and use CBR600 or other 41mm lowers? I think the 600/1000 Hurricanes and the CBR600 F2/F3 all use 41mm forks. I think the VTR1000 also used 41 mm forks.



Which other Honda forks are 41mm?



Still the problem with the instruments, no easy way to mount them.

The CBR 1000F has the 41s.



This shot is of a VFR/CB Super F and the CBR forks.

He has since taken the 1100 pin from the triple tree and and pressed it into a CBR clamp.

I will be ripping my X apart soon and will be playing with a couple of ideas before I go for sure all the way with one of them.



They are still the short tubes, but he has the new 2" or 3" over 41mm tubes.

I will find out about a better way to mount the cluster but I know of a CB1100 in Australia with an FZ 1000 cluster on it and it looks cool.

[cbxtacy]

Last time I talked to Forks by Frank he didn't do 41mm because they were thin wall and he didn't do any thin wall. That's one of the ways the manufactures made bikes lighter. The 39's are plenty stiff but just heavy. Adding the 1.5" compensated for the 17" wheel. On one bike I didn't have to add it because I mounted clip-ons below the fork clamps. I just mounted a '01 GSXR1000 front on a Kaw GPZ750Turbo and faced the same problem as with my X's. Ground clearance. To make it handle I had a billet upper fork clamp machined that dropped the forks 1.5". I also machined tubular handle-bar clamps into it because of lack of belly clearance in the fuel tank. I like tubular handle-bars better, also. I'm in Utah, right now, when I get home I'll take pictures and post them. I'll take pictures of the guages, also. You can get electric speedo's from Summit and there's a company in CA that makes real neat and small sending units that works real good. I havn't used one yet but I'm gonna this spring. I've used quite a few bicycle speedo's and have had mixed results. The biggest problems are battery's go dead and no light. The one's with lights you have to push a button to activate it and when you let the button up, it goes off. The plus side is if you have a friend who's a serious bicyclist, get the same speedo as him, don't tell him, and trade speedo's with him so the next time he rides, he thinks his bike averaged over 70mph for 100 miles.

George

[Mike Barone #123]

For those concerned, the USA 1100f forks will end up being too short and can cause ground clearance soooo there is justification for this concern.



If you install 1100f USA forks on the CBX with clip ons you lose front end height two diff ways



1. the 1100f front tire is 18" vs 19" for CBX. Add to this a lower profile tire on the 1100f rim will have most of the time vs CBX stock front rims and this will result in a min 1/2" effective drop in the front due to 18" vs 19" tire plus probably 1/4" due to the diff tire aspect ratios of the 19" vs 18"



2. Since the 1100f USA forks came with handlebars and are about the same length as the stock CBX forks....if you mount the 1100f USA forks on your CBX with clip ons you will lower the fork tube the distance necessary to secure the clipons on the 1100f tubes....basically 1.5" or so



There is a work around on this in that the Canadian 1100f forks came with clip ons and as such are longer and if used will not drop the front of the CBX at all with clipons.





Tom can post a link to more details on this coversion ......





Later now







Mike

[Dave Hansen]

I put a VFR front end on mine with the tubes pushed all the way down for ground clearance. I use tubular handlebars. I used an F3 swingarm and wheel in the back. I stayed with a twin shock setup so had to fab and weld on shock mounts. Works performance supplied custom made shocks, resonable too. I gained some of the ground clearance back by raising the back up a bit, but didn't get crazy with it. I am very happy with the setup to date, I have never encountered any handling problems so far. I realllly like having radial tires on it. I think they make a huge difference. I feel they are so much more stabile. The bike still isn't going to scare a 600 sportbike, but now it doesn't scare me when I get into a good twisty road.

[fasterspider]

Last time I talked to Forks by Frank he didn't do 41mm because they were thin wall and he didn't do any thin wall.

When was the last time you spoke to them?

The new 41mm tubes just got to my buddies garage about a week ago.

I will be buying some just to keep them around for a future project.

[cbxtacy]

fasterspider,

It's been a coupla years-george

[fasterspider]

fasterspider,

It's been a coupla years-george

OK, that explains it.

I have personally bought and paid for two pair of forks, one for my red CB1100F and another pair of 2" over 39mm tubes for my CB900F forks going on the CBX in the past 12 months from Frank and Tony just got the 41s so I am about to do the same thing.

The prices are good for me too.

Frank is an old man and I think he is the last of a dieing breed, an honest hard working Joe.

Any ways it has been explained to me that the mom & pop business Frank has is soon going to be no more and there is no-one else that I know of producing the tubes for the metric bikes.

I will not be missing out on this like I have let other things slip away in the past, buy it now for later.