83 VR reconditioning underway

[Grez007]

I purchased an 83 VR in good running/driving order back in the fall and have been picking away at some cosmetic and electrical issues to widdle away the winter. Thus far, with much help from all the folks who are on this forum, I have all the plastics off, the rear wheel and suspension taken out for inspection and cleaning and lubrication,calipers are apart for cleaning and new seal kits, fixed a couple small electrical problems along the way. I found in my dismantling that one of the previous owners along the way had disconnected the brake line from the foot pedal which feeds the left front caliper and plugged the hole with a bolt, just left the line in the bike and still hooked up to the front caliper (kinda hokey imo)but saved me a little work as I wanted to delink anyhow. The bike has a braided stainless line from the hand lever to the front right caliper already so I just need a double banjo bolt and another braided line for the left caliper. I measured and think I need a 46" long line for the left side, does that seem correct for those of you who have done this Mod? Also do I need to change my master cylinder in favor for one with a larger capacity for this modification?

[camos]

calipers are apart for cleaning and new seal kits, fixed a couple small electrical problems along the way. I found in my dismantling that one of the previous owners along the way had disconnected the brake line from the foot pedal which feeds the left front caliper and plugged the hole with a bolt, just left the line in the bike and still hooked up to the front caliper (kinda hokey imo)but saved me a little work as I wanted to delink anyhow.

My VR is a MkII so what I will suggest is only info gleaned from the forums. It appears the OEM calipers on the MkI's are anemic and should be replaced with MkII or better, R1/R6 calipers. To do so you will need to have MkII lowers for the bolt patters to be compatible. I guess the point here is spend money on newer calipers rather than rebuilding the OEM ones. I believe you would also have to get a MkII MC to properly operate the larger calipers.

[bongobobny]

^^^^ What he said...