R6 Rear Wheel Conversion

[Einstein57]

 

Hey guys. I picked up a track prepped 2015 MT-07 with lots of nice upgrades. It already has a R6 front end swap with Ohlins inserts and extender, ohlins rear, woodcraft rear sets, and a slew of other mods. Long story short I want to swap the rear wheel to match the front and google isn't popping up much information. I want to keep the rear factory brake. I purchased the Robem Engineering wheel spacers, a completely loaded 2010 R6 rear wheel, and a spare mt07 caliper bracket. I emailed and tried calling AP Motoarts but his number is no longer in service. I messaged Robem Engineering on facebook about a week ago. And I emailed roaring toys. From what i've gathered I need to swap over the mt07 rear disc and machine .008" off the caliper carrier. Not sure which side. If I machine the inside then it seems like it would be easier to just toss the Robem spacer on the lathe and knock it out real quick and not hassle with setting up the CNC mill. If its machining the outside of the bracket then that would make it for centering the wheel in the swing-arm in which case I don't think i'd notice .008" of misalignment. Can anyone confirm what is actually needed in order to complete the swap and utilize the stock rear caliper?

 

 

 

[Einstein57]

So I mocked up the parts and the rotor mounting circle is a different diameter. I did a little research and found the fz6 used a 245mm rotor and people were swapping r6 wheels in to their fz06s. Ordered one on Amazon for $50. Let’s see how it goes. I also found a company who partnered with EBC to make a r6 245mm rotor to use with their hand brake setup. That will be my backup plan if the fz06 doesn’t mount up. 
 

I mocked up the wheel with the r6 rotor and everything seems to line up fine. Now I’m really confused why AP moto arts machined their brackets unless he was worried about 0.008” of misalignment. 
 

https://thesicshop.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_2099_2101&products_id=1364

 

 

[Einstein57]

Got the FZ6 rotor in and it’s a direct bolt in. I was a little worried it would only work on the earlier generation 04-05 r6 wheel. Everything mounts up easily with no interference. Admittedly my pads are a little worn so only time will tell if I need to machine the 0.008” in order to fit brand new pads. 

[Einstein57]

Full pad engagement now.

[Einstein57]

So I finally got around to prepping the bike to take it on a test ride. Put on street lights, adjust the chain, etc and I finally realized why you would need to machine the caliper carrier. In order to keep the chain and rotor inline with the MT-07 bits, the new spacers increase the overall width of the wheel package. This prevents the thread locking mechanism on the axle nut from engaging or not allowing the through hole to be exposed if you’re running the sv650 king nut. My titanium axle nut allows me to safety wire it in place but I’m going to mill down my spare caliper carrier so I can use my locking pin. 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Einstein57

[Randy]

Nice write up bro…I have had a P34 and the ROBEM mount sitting on the shelf for 6 months now. You just inspired me to go toss it in lol

[shinyribs]

On 9/16/2021 at 12:34 PM, Einstein57 said:

So I finally got around to prepping the bike to take it on a test ride. Put on street lights, adjust the chain, etc and I finally realized why you would need to machine the caliper carrier. In order to keep the chain and rotor inline with the MT-07 bits, the new spacers increase the overall width of the wheel package. This prevents the thread locking mechanism on the axle nut from engaging or not allowing the through hole to be exposed if you’re running the sv650 king nut. My titanium axle nut allows me to safety wire it in place but I’m going to mill down my spare caliper carrier so I can use my locking pin. 

I'm not understanding how a wider wheel/spacer assembly is making your axle shorter, and therefore sticking out of your swingarm less. Your axle spans the width of the swingarm regardless. Unless you've literally had to splay the tips of the swingarm out to force the wheel in, which I'd strongly advise against. 

[sweetscience]

6 hours ago, shinyribs said:

I'm not understanding how a wider wheel/spacer assembly is making your axle shorter, and therefore sticking out of your swingarm less. Your axle spans the width of the swingarm regardless. Unless you've literally had to splay the tips of the swingarm out to force the wheel in, which I'd strongly advise against. 

Probably because the titanium nut is wider than OEM, thus covering the thread locking hole.

I bought the Gilles titanium axle nut and it comes with a thread locking mechanism built in.  It's 12mm wide btw.  Don't have the bike yet so, can't compare to OEM.

[Randy]

RoaringToyz makes these captive axle kits….well worth the money ! Way easier on tire swaps and  it gets rid of that bulky OEM hardware.

[Einstein57]

On 4/2/2022 at 5:29 AM, shinyribs said:

I'm not understanding how a wider wheel/spacer assembly is making your axle shorter, and therefore sticking out of your swingarm less. Your axle spans the width of the swingarm regardless. Unless you've literally had to splay the tips of the swingarm out to force the wheel in, which I'd strongly advise against. 

I didn't have to pry it apart. It pretty much went straight in. We're talking maybe an 1/8 of an inch different from stock.

[Einstein57]

On 4/2/2022 at 8:22 PM, sweetscience said:

Probably because the titanium nut is wider than OEM, thus covering the thread locking hole.

I bought the Gilles titanium axle nut and it comes with a thread locking mechanism built in.  It's 12mm wide btw.  Don't have the bike yet so, can't compare to OEM.

 

It's about the same as stock. Fit ok with the stock wheel.

[Einstein57]

23 hours ago, Randy said:

RoaringToyz makes these captive axle kits….well worth the money ! Way easier on tire swaps and  it gets rid of that bulky OEM hardware.

The Robem Engineering ones are captive as well. I just wish they were also fillet cut so they could slide in easier.

[shinyribs]

1 hour ago, Einstein57 said:

I didn't have to pry it apart. It pretty much went straight in. We're talking maybe an 1/8 of an inch different from stock.

What is 1/8" different than stock? How much wider the swingarm had to open? 

[jb.junior]

Most people I've seen who haven't done the underslung caliper swap, and run the stock FZ-07 caliper, just run an R6 rotor.  It's not perfect, but they don't seem to mind.  I'd probably do what you've done.

Did you happen to weight that FZ6 rear rotor?

[Einstein57]

On 4/7/2022 at 2:26 PM, jb.junior said:

Most people I've seen who haven't done the underslung caliper swap, and run the stock FZ-07 caliper, just run an R6 rotor.  It's not perfect, but they don't seem to mind.  I'd probably do what you've done.

Did you happen to weight that FZ6 rear rotor?

The r6 rear rotor is much smaller than the  mt-07 rotor as shown in my photo above. I'm sure the fz6 rotor weighs more that the r6 rotor because of the larger diameter but its probably comparable to the stock mt-07. I can't find a light weight race rotor for the fz6. I used to do R&D at oshmo. Maybe i'll design a new caliper carrier to use the r6 rotor and the mt-07 caliper.

Edited April 11, 2022 by Einstein57

[Einstein57]

On 4/4/2022 at 1:32 PM, shinyribs said:

What is 1/8" different than stock? How much wider the swingarm had to open? 

The wheel spacers. So the swing arm is probably open 1/8" of an inch. Didn't any noticeable effort to install compared to installing a rear wheel on any of the dozen sport bikes I've owned.

[jb.junior]

13 hours ago, Einstein57 said:

The r6 rear rotor is much smaller than the  mt-07 rotor as shown in my photo above. I'm sure the fz6 rotor weighs more that the r6 rotor because of the larger diameter but its probably comparable to the stock mt-07. I can't find a light weight race rotor for the fz6. I used to do R&D at oshmo. Maybe i'll design a new caliper carrier to use the r6 rotor and the mt-07 caliper.

Thanks for that.  I'm about to put an R6 wheel on as well.  And I have an FZ wheel.  Both nice, LW ones.  There's such a scarcity right now that I couldn't get two of either one; so it is what it is.  So I'll be running two sets of sprockets, spacers and rotors.  

Does the FZ caliper still grab the R6 rotor enough to slow it down [at least some]?  It's a race bike, and I don't use my rear brake much, but I do want it it work in an emergency or such, like if I go in the grass.  I'd prefer to have a LW rear rotor and not convert to the FZ6.  I've heard people say it's fine but am just wondering your take on it.  

[Einstein57]

I never tried it with the r6 rotor since i didn't want to potentially damage the pins that the pads slide on or have the piston bind from the pads deflecting. I figure the lighter r6 wheel and the aluminum sprocket and sprocket nuts should still give me a net reduction in rotating mass.

[jb.junior]

The spacer kit doesn't seem to fit for an OZ GASS rear wheel.  The sprocket side does, but the brake side does not.  It seems that it needs a slightly larger OD.  Any idea how to make this work, or where to get a specialty kit for that?