well, as one that is never satisfied to any one thing for too long, I decided I was bored with my bike and was ready to make a new.
Options were to sell it and start over, or just tear this one apart and get busy right away. I hate selling shit and dealing with tire kickers so I just went ahead and started over with the current bike.
Might seem like I'm going backwards(more so to some more than others), but I'm just trying to start with a blank canvas and move forward from there.
So far, all I have really *built* are the high mids...
They are moved up 2"s from stock. I was just gonna put them back in the stock spot because the rear sets were tearing up my hip, but my exhaust was gonna hit the brake so they had to go up. Kinda had an urge for high mids anyway, so it got done.
Rode it like this for a day and it was a total beating.
Bars for too low, legs too high.
So I struck a deal with a good friend to swap front ends. He had all clean good stock parts with shiney mags(which I really wanted), and he was down for the inverted front end. I only had 250 bucks in that front end, so I was happy to make the swap.
Day one, this was Sunday, right after we swapped everything.
Fender is from a honda rebel and the seat was just one that had been lying around the garage for a while. I may end up running the seat, but I'm gonna make a new cover for it for sure. Bars were left over from the first version of the bike. The gauges are the same ones that used to be behind the fairing. Super ugly, but it rode great. No more hip pain, which was a huge plus.
Day 3. Got to lower the thing. The front is just cut springs. We set the ride height on the jack, dropped the springs in and cut them so that I would have a little preload. So the bike sits a little higher when I'm not on it. I was finally able to get my head around how the spacers work when you lower a front end, so when I pull the lowers to shave the fender mounts all prolly put some spacers in. Really, though, it rides great as it it. Not sure exactly how much I cut, but I have a pair of un cut stock springs I can put next to them and give you guys the number.
The rears measure 10" from eye to eye. I used some super stiff pit bike mono shock springs on the same Works shocks I always had. Rides like a brick, now, but I still think they have a little give. I have another swing arm that has a dropped(or raised) axle so that I can still run the longer springs but get the stance where I need it. Its a day long project to get that on there so i just haven't gotten done yet. Gonna have to redo the rear brake setup before it can go on.
Day 4. Was time to get the gauges off, and might as well ditch the stock riser while I was at it. Well, the bolts that hold the risers on were completely seized. Luckily I had another top tree, so I just swapped them out. That top tree already had the smaller risers and some drags that I had made a little while back. I'm really planning to run a 6-8" narrow ape on this thing, but man, I am a sucker for drag bars...
Never sold that mini speedo, and I'm glad I didn't...
Don't really care about the speedo, but having an odo is nice for knowing when it's time to fill up. Every time I hit reserve, never fails that i think shit is broken till I check the miles, ha!
So that is where it sits today. I'm not 100% sure where it's gonna end up. Not Brat Style or crazy orange, but it will have some Japanese influence for sure. If you know anything baout the water cooled VW scene, I'm thinking of like and OEM+ kinda deal. Nice stock parts with good details. Might end up doing a frame or a hard tail, just depends on how the dropped swing arm turns out.
Got to keep building. Never satisfied, time marches on, blah blah blah...
Hybrid Mode
