Honda VFR 750 XC Makeover

Looking forward to following your progress.

To make it from scratch I dont have any sheetmetal treatment machinery available, so it will be quite angular. Easier to modify some existing tank I think. Also was thinking to shove all the electrics inside the subframe, and use 950 plastics over there. BMW F800 has nice set up for a tank, but that's where my silencers will be.
Your CBR has only 2.16 gallon tank - was wondering will you add something on top of the engine like your FZ1 has?

That was one of the ideas, but hard to get these tanks and they'r expensive + KTM original frame is with straight tubes, mine has an angle so the KTM tanks will be looking outwars like wings.

The cbr is just a toy so no top tank. Thinking about building another tank with 3-4 gals though.

Tanks are tough to get to look right, they are so visible and in many cases, the focal point of the bike. I had to cut the fz1 tank but not that much and it was a lot of work. Plan on lining the tank when you are done I had a few pinholes from welding that were impossible to get with a tig torch.

That gs tank just looks huge. I wonder if there is a smaller main tank that would fit the frame better and maybe a side pipe tank or subframe tank to get you the volume you want?

Supposedly one can fill and cap thinwall pipes with sand to keep them from wrinkling like that.

A split tank may be a better idea. I carry the fuel lower and so fourth, and you dont have to worry quite so much about the width in question.I worry about the bar clearance.

Cutting the Tank into thirds:
Each side and the center span.
Replacing the center span with flat sheet metal, increasing the width, until sides are in acceptable position for the frame.

Thanks for the good advice and ides for all of you. Have been working in Sweden for two weeks, will be back next week to continue with the bike.

About the tank - looks like I'll be cutting it in three sectoins as snowhawk jockey suggested, but I have to take look
at it again when I'm back.

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I love builds like this. Subscribed!

Back in the workshop, but I only had couple of hours for some serious engineering and designing.
Decided not to cut the tank into three pieces, instead I cut the areas off from lower side to make the
tank fit. Probably will cut the whole lower side off and weld VFR tank's lower side to it.



Also cut the VFR tank into half - lot of sludge inside



Lower side of it, which I'm thinking to use



VFR gas cap fits the GS tank opening but to lock it some mods are needed



So the result should be something like below







Area where the additional tank volume will be added

Also KTM SM silencers arrived while I was away. Heavy bastards, thought them to be lighter like everything else
on KTM's. Maybe I'll end up using only one - still thinking

Very cool. Did you take any kind of precautions with regard to gas fumes before cutting the tank? I have been thinking of cutting off the bottom of my bike's tank to attach a larger-capacity top to it since the stock tank has odd dimensions and few tanks I've seen are close, but I worry about accidentally setting off an explosion in my face.

Just flushed the tank with high pressure water couple of times and left the water inside, while using angle gringer.
Can also use the jig saw or recip saw not to create the sparks.

This is the coolest thread I have seen in awhile! Keep it up.

De-cat them, might save some weight there

Thought about it, but as I understand the cat only weights 0,5kg as shown on thread below, so
I wont be touching them until I hear the sound.

http://www.ktm950.info/how/Farkels/adventure/exhaust/ganshert/cutaway_adv_exhaust.html

Madness!!!

I'm so in!

Wow, one of my favorite engines in one of my favorite bikes. Subscribed!

Buy some mandrel bends for your headers and cut and splice. Sand packing can work but might not be worth he time and energy. Try to keep your gas low as was mentioned - your using suspension from the tallest adventure bike so keeping weight low will help.

Great job so far! Looking forward to watching this.

Gregor

Madness?? This is...

Always good to get positive feedback - makes you work harder! Thanks guys!

About the mandrel bends, difficult to find, atleast in Estonia.