R6 FRONT END AND CALIPERS ARRIVED:
Wow, this is some neat stuffs. The R6 front end was an amazingly fun adventure when it arrived. It was packed up like treasure or precious jewelry. And the seller actually respected the customer enough to clean the front end (like, really really cleaned it!) before packaging it up. A lesson we'd all do well accepting by the way. It was like X-mas when I was 14 all over again. The packaging, the way the front end literally glistened and sparkled in the sunlight, and the big-eyed wow-faces my wife and I wore as we opened it all up. Haahaa .... like kids.
I'm pretty blown away by this front end. I immediately pulled a fork leg and went directly out to the shop to weigh it. I've been scouring the web for months attempting to locate weight specs on these forks. I mean, it's a 43mm front end, gotta be heavier than the 37mm and 39mm front ends I've used on a number of race bikes over the years, right?
PFFFT! NOT!
The left 2001 R6 fork leg, with oil and spring installed, came in at 7 pounds 15 ounces. Wait, what? That's gotta be wrong. It HAS to be wrong. Let's try it again, make sure to zero-out the digital scale first, ok go. DAYUM! Yup, same reading.
Compared to a 1982 Yamaha XJ650J Maxim 36mm fork stick. Hmm, 9 pounds flat. How's about a 1984 Honda Magna V45 700cc 37mm fork leg with oil and spring. No way, 9 pounds 10 ounces! Ok, one more .... a 1984 Honda Nighthawk S 700cc 39mm fork leg with oil and spring. Hells bells .... 9 pounds 10 ounces.
So then, a 2001 Yamaha R6 43mm fork leg is roughly 2 pounds
LIGHTER than some forks that are as small as 36mm. Ok, that is one bet I would have lost the hell out of!
The front axle is an enormous hunk of a murder weapon itself. The steering stem is an artful piece of gold zinc plated machined jewelry as well. This entire front end is so much overkill for this bike, it's amazing. Sure, I could do a number of uprates to this front end since R6 trick stuff is abundant within the aftermarket, but to be honest it's already so much of that "killing an ant with a sledge hammer" overkill that it really would just be self indulgent to do any trickery to it. But then again these funbikes are nothing but 100% self indulgent to begin with so may as well keep the train rolling, right? Haahaa!
Lastly, fork leg length comes to about 29.750 inches. That's from the axle centerline to the top of the fork leg NOT TO INCLUDE the little blue preload adjuster gadget on the top of the fork cap. Fork slider length (axle centerline to the top of the wiper seal on the fork slider) is 13.750". Triple clamp offset is roughly 38.825mm (+/-) by my own measurements.
CALIPERS: Ok, same
result there. The calipers come in at 2 pounds 3 ounces each (L and R) without the mounting bolts installed. That is about a full pound
LIGHTER than the Honda 2-piston calipers from the 1980s that were used on nearly every Honda built for roughly 12+ years. And these R6 calipers are FOUR PISTON, not just two piston like those old Honda units. So, again with the "Holy Crap!" reaction on my part. They're easy on the eyes as well. Even the mounting bolts for the calipers are typical Yamaha trickness. They're rifle-drilled stainless steel bolts. Lovely. How very ~Yamaha~. They came with some type of brake pads (???), but whatever they are they appear to have some life left within them. At least enough to get the bike around the block a few times until I can rebuild them to functional perfection. The rebuild kits I've located so far are about $75 bucks, which takes care of two calipers and do not include new pistons.
So I can has a modern front end that actually weighs about FIVE POUNDS LESS than an older front end of lesser rigidity and performance.
I'm waiting to hear back from Jerry Cheney about this front end. He's already told me he can build the frame to adopt any front end I wish, so I'm not worried, I just need to iron out a few details such as steering stops and a few other neat niceties I've had him add/change.
For the time being I'll be using the 17 inch stock front R6 wheel/tire until the money machine produces more money to obtain something else in the front wheel department. Or ya never know, they may end up staying on the bike. These things have a tendency of changing over time .........
CHENEY TT HUB AND ADJUSTABLE OFFSET TRIPLE CLAMPS: If I decide to do so, Cheney offers a "TT Hub" that is set up to accept disk adaptors to run dual front disks. They also offer a set of adjustable offset triple clamps. Both the TT hub and the triples can be ordered for use with the 43mm R6 forks (the R6 forks are easily THE most popular fork used in flat track these days, bar none.) So, using his triples and hub I can set up a 19 inch spoked wheel with R6 brakes and 43mm fork legs. What I do NOT know is if Cheney offers a conversion hub that will permit the use of R6 front ends without having to use the Cheney triple clamps. It's just a matter of spacers and an axle. Cheney already offers axles of many types, and they already offer many types of disk spacers. So I'm hoping that they have an R6 fork adaptor setup to allow the use of the entire stock R6 front end with a spoked hub without requiring the trick triple clamps. The triples they have are WAY cool, but they're also $600 bucks. I'd prefer to save that if possible.
So for now I'm using the stock R6 17 inch front wheel assembly. I don't know if the 17 will affect what I see in my mind regarding this bike or not. Who knows, it may end up staying on it. This project has already changed pretty drastically from the original vision, so at this point the sky is the limit (I suppose) when it comes to ~what~ this bike becomes. Budget and time are the limiting factors. My wife is really pressing me to just get it on the road, reminding me that we can make changes after it is road worthy. I have little choice but to agree with her, for no other reason than I agree with her. If left to me, this bike would take five years to complete because I often times do not know how to pick my battles. I end up getting stuck on making something work out that it stalls the project for extended periods. Y'know, like the girder front end was doing to this build. It was going to be this enormous boat anchor dragging the project in a downward spiral into obscurity. So drop it and if I want to pursue the girder ideas I can do so AFTER the bike is road bound. Yup, she knows me well all righty, that wife of mine does!
So here's pics of the front end and calipers.
Axle, disks, and front wheel will show up next week I would imagine. Total cost of the entire front end so far (R6 front end, R6 calipers, R6 wheel, discs, axle, plus shipping of all of that stuff) has come to roughly $600.
Front end = $325 shipped.
Calipers = $27 each shipped (total of $52).
Stock R6 Front wheel with discs, bearings, used tire, and axle = $225 shipped.
I've also located any number of matching rear R6 calipers for around ... get this ... $12 bucks shipped. Yes, I said twelve U.S. Dollar Bucks and that includes shipping it to me. Wow, who'da thunk it? So if I can end up using all R6 running gear in front and rear it will make upkeep over the years to come just that much easier.
Gotta Jet.