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Trying to sort out an issue with my HRC spec clamps made by Martin Racing. The steering stem hole in the bottom clamp is supposed to accept the OEM stem. But the stem is to loose and spins inside the clamp. Not sure if its a stem issue or if the clamp is out of spec. Pretty sure it's clamp issue. Most likely going to need a custom stem made. Oh well the joys of piecing together a "works" bike!
Overall the build hasn't really progressed as of late. Waiting on some OEM parts still...
HRC billet steering damper. 24mm piston size. Haven’t taken it apart yet to see what the changes are from OEM. Obviously it's designed for easier rebuilding than the OEM.
I love the CNC billet housing on the steering damper.
The CRT CF parts quality is decent and quick to ship parts. CRM is better but almost impossible to reach and get parts unless you are an MXGP team. The actual HRC carbon fiber tanks were made by a big auto design company in the Czech Republic. It was difficult but I tracked them down, and they had an HRC tank on the self, but they made my tank custom to my order as I wanted a standard filler cap to help keep dirt out and they did absolutely beautiful work and they did it in a month.
What I have found is that many of these HRC parts are made by automobile design companies that make special parts for the big auto and motorcycle companies including concept car parts. My HRC seat was from a Japanese design company and these places make the HRC clutch perches, triple clamps, etc. I also thought that these HRC parts were made by magic HRC elves in some secret HRC hideaway, but not so! Aftermarket suppliers and often these high end automobile/ motorcycle parts design companies!
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Installed the swingarm, HRC brake banjo bolt, and titanium bolts for the brackets on the swingarm. In this photo you can see the blue engine vent hose. I sourced the hose from Helix Racing Products and the engine vent kit from JCR Speed Shop. The kit comes with a yellow hose but I wanted to copy the current Factory Honda look. My hose color is a more transparent blue than Factory Honda but its the best I could do. Also moved the hose bracket and used the type of bracket Team Honda uses. The bracket is actually a Suzuki part. I could not find a Honda OEM bracket that matched. Go figure?
Also installed the rear brake pedal with new grease seals. The HRC brake clevis is from vintagehonda.nl it's a beautiful replica and includes a Ti pin.
Finally I did a test fit of the Yoshimura RS9 Titanium/Carbon exhaust system. Rather trouble shoot fit problems while bike is apart and easy to work on. Fortunately for me, the system fit perfect which is no surprise . The Yosh system is stunning.
So I have sorted out my triple clamp issue...I got lucky with getting actual HRC triple clamps with titanium stem and the required races, bearing, etc... As Tokyo_Tiddler thoroughly covered in his build thread, the HRC clamps use a smaller diameter stem and bearings compared to OEM.
Before I fell into such good fortune with the HRC clamps, I went ahead and put my forks on the bike using the replica clamps. The fact the stem spins in the bottom clamp is really no issue with assembling the bike. I just wouldn’t ride it that way!😂
Pictures below are the replica clamps. Once I remove them, I’ll do a comparison between the two. But already I can see some obvious differences...
Pit Row
The notch in the bottom clamp is designed to hold a shim that would allow different diameter forks to be used.
I also installed CV4 radiator hoses using "ear" clamps (the radiators are not mounted to the frame in the pictures). The clamps require a special crimping tool but are much cleaner looking and more secure than the traditional worm screw clamp.
Major item To Do List: Install the electronics, wheels, HRC billet linkage (going to strip old clear anodizing and then polish), and start planning on how to make HRC hydraulic clutch operational (going to require case machining and welding). I plan on during a post/pictures with more details of the HRC clutch.
Will you get an HRC radiator cap for your build?
This is how the linkage looked when I got it...Picture isn’t the best quality. Clear anodized but kind of "milky" and not very uniform. I was told by the person from whom I purchased the linkage that it looked more translucent and actually really nice when new.
I decided to strip the old anodizing and go for the polished look. I used a ano and chrome stripper from Caswell, Inc.
After the stripping was done the aluminum had a black coating from the process. But a little soak in Alumabrite CBX from Aurora Marine cleaned the aluminum up nicely. On to the polish using billet metal polish and a rag. The result where acceptable. I think if I put more time and used a buffing wheel it could look a little "brighter". But I actually like the subtle polished look.
Far as the build process is going, I'm almost done. This is my first time stripping a fuel injected four stroke down to the frame. And my first Honda so I was a little nervous mostly about getting the wiring/fuel harness back on and done correctly. Turned out no worries needed! Actually an easy job. I did learn really the only way to the airboot back on the injector was to take the boot off the airbox. Then attach the boot to injector then airbox to boot.
More updates to come!
My HRC linkage was NOS and when I wiped it with an aluminum cleaning solution, it quickly got a bit too shiny although I didn't really polish it. Too shiny and it is hard to see the cool machine marks in the metal.. I left as is but I try to avoid making the parts too shiny. I find I get the nicest finish on older parts by first hitting with wd40 and a 3m pad, then polishing it real shiny, then dulling it back down again with a 2nd application of the 3M pad. There is a big difference in the quality of the finish with these extra steps.. it makes the metal look freshly machined rather than "cleaned up" and bright enough without being too shiny.
Looks good as you have it right now. You don't want to polish out the machine marks, right?
Correct ...I do not want to polish out the machine marks.
I will look into getting the deoxider/anti-smut solution from Caswell and probably just redo the polishing process as you recommended.
Always good info and much appreciated.
Anyone can polish up a cast OEM linkage to look nice, but they can't recreate the machine marks like a works piece.
Post a reply to: 2016 HRC Team Honda CRF450RW