[hamsammy4u]

Bought this bike March 24th, 2009 and have already started modding it, but better late than never to catalog my progress.

First day out for a test drive I had the front cylinder die after about 3 miles down the road. This gave me an excuse to rip the bike apart for the first time. New spark plugs and fresh gasoline and she was running on two.

Below are pictures of her completely stock and, a little bit abused by the lame dealer I got her from. There was a nasty decal on the front fender, 4 years of parking passes on the fork, buffing compound all over the seats, the throttle control was not secure, and the chain had NEVER been cleaned. I have spent about 6 hours total on the chain alone to get it and the surrounding parts clean.


Dealer Photo

First Night Home

Couldn't wait more than a day before I wanted to change some things. First things to buy were:

-Motrax bar end mirrors
-Motrax tank protector
-eBay smoked blinkers all around

The next week I caved and bought:
-Part to make a FE kit (sheet metal, Motrax tag light, bed liner, nuts, bolts)
-LEDs for the gauge cluster

Blue LEDs in the gauges, Green LEDs in the two green dummy lights. I hadn't reattached the gauges yet, as is obvious.

Nasty mud flap!!

Got a template from a fellow member

Made my own tag and light bracket

Here it is half installed

And here she is after Round One:

Also removed the sissy bar, front reflectors, passenger pegs,

Round Two:
-Seat Cowl
-Modified factory exhaust
-Swing arm spools
-Paint chrome gauge parts and headlight trim black

 

[hamsammy4u]

Last week I installed my seat cowl and swing arm spools. Neither is the exact blue of my bike, but I will live.

Today I chopped off the can to an OEM exhaust system and I also painted many chrome parts black. I used Krylon black on most of it, we'll see how it holds up. I painted the headlight brackets, both gauge shrouds, the piece between the gauge shrouds, and the 'vents' under the seat. I did the ugly radiator guards with some black stove pipe spray.

So, I pretty much did everything I said I was going to in the first post. I also took a video of the exhaust. It is indeed loud, but we'll see how it fares.

I also got a decent shot of the LEDs in my gauges

Pictures!

Chopped exhaust

Blacked out parts

A decent shot of the gauges

 

[hamsammy4u]

Got some decent pictures today before class of the mods I did this weekend.

 

[hamsammy4u]

Well, the canless muffler was fun for a short while, but I couldn't handle how penetrating the sound was in my helmet at any speed. I found a new MIG(out of business) high mount can for $175 online and jumped right on it. No decent pictures yet, but enough to get the idea.

It's basically everything I wanted: High mount, carbon fiber, inexpensive. My only complaint, and this seems hypocritical after complaining about no can, is that it's a bit TOO quiet.

 

[hamsammy4u]

This weekend I added clubman bars (which don't fit as I intended them), a Targa mid-pipe heat guard, and moved my front blinkers to accommodate the new bars. The Targa piece i really love, the rest i'm unsure about just yet...

Bars from the front

Bars from above

Targa Shield

Next i'm chopping the can down for some rumble and getting new rear blinkers because one broke on a ride yesterday

 

[hamsammy4u]

Can and blinkers are completed! Horrible pictures here, but I hope to get nice ones when it's sunny out next. The exhaust is THROATY, and I LOVE IT.

I should be done spending money for a while, but if I do it will be a Buell headlight mod.

 

[hamsammy4u]

a couple new pictures in good lighting.

 

[hamsammy4u]

Had a photo shoot done this past weekend with a pro. These are untouched photos to highlight.

 

[hamsammy4u]

Swapped headlights with Dackler this month and I'm nearly finished with the install.

I decided to upgrade the lighting system so I ran two 10ga power wires up to relays for the high and low beams. Ran a single 10ga ground back to the battery. Tapped the ignition wire from the key for the low beam to keep it on all the time, and used the regular high beam as the signal for the high beam. Also utilized the front running light harness to power the running light in the buell casing. Replaced the 194 bulb with a spare 194 blue LED from my gauge project. Leaving the current H7 bulbs in while I decide what I want to do for the headlights. I have a few ideas, including Silverstar Ultras, HIDS, 80w xenon bulbs, etc.

The windscreen turned out to be the biggest problem for me with this project. I refused to get an aftermarket set of gauges, because most are purely digital and I like having analog gauges for tach and speed. Also ran into issues with the paint that was on the screen from the PO, many many coats and a thick primer used up about 20 sheets of sandpaper to get back down to the original. Anyway, on to the pictures.

Front on, also added a radiator guard. Might paint it black...

You can see the windscreen modification here

Factory gauges

Low beam, running light illuminated high beam reflector

High beam

Running light

 

[hamsammy4u]

got my 636 shock in the mail this week. Also ordered some Rizoma look alike grips, and bought some LED strips to replace the junk MOTRAX tag light I had this summer. Still need to order my new front springs and levers. Getting excited for the snow to melt! Pictures to follow.

 

[hamsammy4u]

Been doing a LOT of work to the bike it seems. I wanted to get it all pretty and whatnot for this riding season. Small grocery list of items I bought for it include:

-Sunstar front and rear sprockets, 525, black, stock ratio
-D.I.D. x-ring chain
-636 rear shock
-air filter
-D3 grips(Rizoma look alike)
-black oem style levers
-powdercoated rims
-new rear rubber
-radiator guard(gutter guard)
-LED tail lights
-LED tag light
-R6 throttle tube
-Motion Pro clutch cable
-used passenger peg

I also painted all my brake calipers, radiator guard, exhaust heat shield, and passenger pegs/brackets

Onto pictures!

Before:

After:

I was able to get the battery to fit with the undertray bolted up normally, though cut a little to accommodate the shock reservoir. The batt just clears under the seat, I built a small shelf for it to sit on so it's not on the shock, and then I put the fuses under the shelf next to the shock and covered the whole thing with bedliner since the shelf was just sheet steel. Hard to see it very well here, but it's all there.

 

[hamsammy4u]

Bike is all put back together! Just one hiccup left to work out and I'll be riding.

All the mods are in the last post, last picture is the 'family' of bikes we have right now.

BMW R1150RT, Suzuki SV650K1, KTM 50cc

 

[hamsammy4u]

Not too many updates. Wrapped and sprayed the exhaust, sprayed the rear footpegs. Now she's clean and in AZ.

And with the mini truck

 

[hamsammy4u]

It's been a while since I updated. Not a lot new. I snapped my shifter in the garage, so I went with new(to me) SVS rearsets. I also installed some DDM HIDs in the buell housing. They are super bright, as could be expected.

 

[hamsammy4u]

Not much new, switched to different bars, added rim tape, whoopdie.

 

[hamsammy4u]

Finally an update!


As with all my mods from now on, I have decided I will no doubt keep this bike until it doesn't run or I smash it to a million bits, hopefully the former.

I have always hated the factory gauges... black on white speedo and white on green tach? Lame. My blue LED back lights turned the green blue, but the red black, it looked dumb. I also hate chrome and the tacky CF sticker on the gauges... So!

I found out a friend of mine had access to laser cut acrylic. I wanted a super simple set of gauges, so I decided a single tick at the redline and just a couple on the speedo. Was thinking 50, 100, 150, because they're round numbers, but settled on 40,80,120 because it's more accurate and also the bike doesn't go 150 anyway. This way I have town speed, tick 1, country speed, half way between 1 and 2, and interstate speed, tick 2. I also changed the needles to an alloy silver(not chrome!). I used some white stickers from Motorcycle Superstore (free with an order) to put behind the gauge face so that I could see the tick in the day, and to also give a more even glow at night.

Okay pictures, yay! It's definitely a 5ft paint job, I'm not proud of it, but it's a step in the right direction.

I also added a garage door opener above the starter button (rewired a cadillac HomeLink) and changed the grips to something that will hopefully improve my distance ability.

Next mods-paint the inner brake rotors black, then get some good pictures.

 

[hamsammy4u]

Finished the headlight conversion. Way too many not great pictures, but here's what I got at the end. After a hand wash and a few buckets of cold water it's lookin' nice.

 

[hamsammy4u]

Not too much new on the bike other than a clean chain and some decent pictures for once.

If you voted for SV of the month you already saw these (or photogenic SV), but went out a few weeks ago with a guy who wanted some practice shooting something different.

 

[hamsammy4u]

Final update. I sold the bike. It was a lot of fun and I may regret it someday but I just wasn't getting the thrill anymore.

Last photo before we wheeled it into the truck for the new owner.