VR880 Frame Mod

Deckard · Feb 23, 2016

Well, my '71 is down to the frame and I've added the side stand lug and the shock mount brace plates from Old Britts. I think I'll add the cross brace above the front ISO as was done on the Dreer VR880's. I'd have to guess where to put it. It looks to be in the area just below where the cylinder head meets the barrel. Any VR880 owners out there that can measure from the ISO tab upward to where their cross brace is?

dennisgb · Feb 23, 2016

Would rather hear opinions from the source than second hand interpretations. :shock:

Not sure what any of that had to do with the OP question.

dennisgb · Feb 23, 2016

Nope-not Dave! said:
Instead I thought feedback about the differences between a VR880 frame and regular production frame would be relevant. But if that is the consensus of the membership here then PM me, ill remove my posting and slink back into lurk mode. You guys are not known as a friendly bunch. Have a nice day. :roll:

Nothing you said had anything to do with the differences...just that you saw some frames and wished you had taken pictures and measurements. And a comment about how bad Norton's are disquised as a Kenny Dreer comment. You won't make any friends with comments like that.

I also want to put the brace on my frame...maybe someone actually knows the measurements as requested by the OP.

cjandme · Feb 23, 2016

I had thought about doing this mod too Deckard, so I will follow along with interest. Unfortunately I'm not a VR880 owner, so I can't walk out to my bike and get the measurements. I had heard that C&J did do the frame work for Kenny, but I didn't know that the VR frames were complete replacements Nope-not Dave! , so I for one am glad that you posted your info. I seem to remember reading that Kenny had the brace added to stop the down tubes from "walking" when under a load, so it makes sense to tie them together.

dennisgb · Feb 24, 2016

Deckard · Feb 24, 2016

Interesting. Two different 880's in the pictures, 2 different cross brace locations. The lower location seems to be the most common that I've seen in what pictures I have. As said before, these models evolved, so each one seems a little different.

gortnipper · Feb 24, 2016

I pulled some pics off of Kenny's old Vintage Rubuilds website via the Wayback machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20030410104 ... hotos.html

dennisgb · Feb 24, 2016

Deckard said:
Interesting. Two different 880's in the pictures, 2 different cross brace locations. The lower location seems to be the most common that I've seen in what pictures I have. As said before, these models evolved, so each one seems a little different.

I found a bunch of pictures and it seems the brace moved all over the place. Some didn't have braces at all. Hard to tell if all are real Dreer bikes or copies.

I have thought all along that it really doesn't make a lot of difference where you put the brace. It seems like the best location is about half way from the steering stem to the bottom of the frame. It may make sense to put it a little higher, since the front iso is adding strength lower.

One thing I plan to do is put the frame in a frame jig and make sure everything is straight before I add the brace.

edward · Feb 26, 2016

I measured from the outside centre of the iso bolt to approximately the centre of the crossbar measured at the outside of the downtube and get 165 mm, the crossbar is 25mm in diameter. This is one of the early Dreers (the yellow one which was also pictured in the 1999 Cycle World article on the Sprint special.)

grandpaul · Feb 26, 2016

dennisgb said:

"No two alike"?

Deckard · Feb 26, 2016

edward said:
I measured from the outside centre of the iso bolt to approximately the centre of the crossbar measured at the outside of the downtube and get 165 mm, the crossbar is 25mm in diameter. This is one of the early Dreers (the yellow one which was also pictured in the 1999 Cycle World article on the Sprint special.)

Thanks for measuring, Edward. I'll see where that would put it on my frame.

dennisgb · Feb 26, 2016

Deckard said:
edward said:

I measured from the outside centre of the iso bolt to approximately the centre of the crossbar measured at the outside of the downtube and get 165 mm, the crossbar is 25mm in diameter. This is one of the early Dreers (the yellow one which was also pictured in the 1999 Cycle World article on the Sprint special.)

Click to expand...

Thanks for measuring, Edward. I'll see where that would put it on my frame.

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VR880 Frame Mod

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