[Bad X]

I know we all like customizing our rides, and when we can do the work ourselve's it seems much more rewarding. Here's some of the mods I've made.
Sorry 'bout the pics. being at the end of the thread. I tried to put them between the paragraphs, but after about 2 hrs, gave up.

Stealer wanted too much for the cheesy little rack they offered, so I had some 3/16 plate laying around and made this one. It only cost 30 bucks to get it chromed.

I thought the '59 Caddie tailights would look good with that fender, so I got the lenses and bezels from JC Whitney. I fabbed up some mounts to attach them to the stock housings. I got an idea from Bares vtx page for running/brake light arrays and made them to go inside. I also got some 3watt hi power L.E.D.'S from e-bay and made them work for turn signals, they are real bright too. I also made load equalizers for them, but after about a year ,went to electronic flasher.

After putting on the switchblade, some lowers needed to be made.Saw some in a catalog but didn't want to spend $130 on them.the ones on the bike now are scarred pretty bad and are ugly(couln't find any good pieces of 16ga. stainless steel at the time) but I got ahold of some better pieces to make the new ones out of. The new ones are the 2 on cardboard in pics. Hopefully I will have them sanded and polished soon.

Didn't really like any highway bars I saw, so I made some peg mounts that come up from the bottom of the floor boards.

Fork and Axle bolt caps

Didn't care for the look of the brake away cruise available at the time when I got my bike(or the price), so I adapted a generic vista cruise to it ,and it works fine.

I put cobra long shots on and wanted a deeper tone ,so i copied some thunder monster quiet baffles, although they are not quiet, they sound way better.

Also did goldwing progressive springs and fixed the nose dive problem.

The last one I can think of is a tire balancer i made, cause no stealer around here will touch a tire that is bought off the internet.
Sorry if I bored anyone, but maybe it will give a few ideas to people.:hmm2:

 

[VtxReaper]

Damn rider, you've got talent. If you can make it fly, then I will truely bow down before you.. LOL
Nice work..

REAPS

 

[knightrook]

nice job. especially like the rack and the caps

 

[wanderingbear]

Wish I had the equiptment it takes to do that I have some ideas I'd like to try also. Great job!!

 

[jstar61]

Some nice work there. I may be stealin some ideas...LOL

 

[footprintsinconc]

dang that luggage rack looks nice!! love the other mods too. now how did you make those fork and axle cover?

 

[DuaneS]

You do nice work!
and I'd love to see some bigger pictures (with measurements if possible) for those peg mounts!

 

[Bad X]

Thanks for the comments all. As far as the caps, they started out as a 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 10" billet of aluminum.I turned it to the o.d. of the fork tubes, cut them to length, machined out the inside to the o.d. of the factory fork cap,drilled and tapped a hole in the side for a set screw. Then put them back in the lathe and shaped the dome on top with a tiger paw (flapper disc) on my grinder,and it gave it the brushed look,then I sprayed them with clear and put them on. The axle caps were a little trickier. I had to machine them with a little flange that would go between the fork and axle. Then I cut an o-ring groove in the flange to hold the cap in.(I hope nobody reads this that knows where I park)I'll try to upload pics and get some measurements tomorrow for DuaneS.

 

[footprintsinconc]

......(I hope nobody reads this that knows where I park).....

LOL!! looking forward for those pics. awesome job on those.

 

[Mondorah]

Nice work! The caps are sweet! You should make a few sets and sell em! I'd put my order in.

Now, how'd ya make the baffles? I've been tinkering for a few weeks now trying different things with my Speedster Longs. I butchered the baffles that came with the pipes trying to alter them for a better sound. I then bought 18" resinators at AutoZone and built a washer type insert that goes up inside the pipe...18". It's OK, but not great.

Great job/s! :cheers:

 

[DuaneS]

Thanks for the comments all. As far as the caps, they started out as a 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 10" billet of aluminum.I turned it to the o.d. of the fork tubes, cut them to length, machined out the inside to the o.d. of the factory fork cap,drilled and tapped a hole in the side for a set screw. Then put them back in the lathe and shaped the dome on top with a tiger paw (flapper disc) on my grinder,and it gave it the brushed look,then I sprayed them with clear and put them on. The axle caps were a little trickier. I had to machine them with a little flange that would go between the fork and axle. Then I cut an o-ring groove in the flange to hold the cap in.(I hope nobody reads this that knows where I park)I'll try to upload pics and get some measurements tomorrow for DuaneS.

NICE! and Thank You!

 

[Bassdude404]

Cool stuff!!..Almost went with the same '59 Caddy replica tailllights for my saddlebags, but decided on some '39 Ford style instead...

 

[wanderingbear]

There's a HD rider up here that has those but says it's hard to see in the daylight becuase of the thickness and the length of the lensa. I offer to let him try a 63 Red LRD bulb in it but he saidit was a biotch to get the lenses on and off. Do you have the same problems?

 

[doug48317]

Nice work! The caps are sweet! You should make a few sets and sell em! I'd put my order in.

+1 those look great, put me in at #2 in line for a set
I also like the highway pegs, I might have to try my hand at a pair for mine.

 

[Bad X]

Peg mounts

So for the peg mounts, they were cut out of some 1/2" plate. The holes are about 7" from the radiator shroud,6 3/4" above the floorboard, and 6" from the forward most part of the floor board. I'm 6' tall and they are comfortable for me. I would suggest cutting some cardboard templates and have a friend help you find what would be most comfortable. The pegs I got from JC Whitney, if you'll notice in the pic. there is a socket head cap screw screwed into the base of the peg. I did that to get the angle, otherwise my feet wanted to slide off the end. You could probably heat and twist the end of the mount to achieve the same thing.

As for the tailights the piece that connects the housing to the lens is basicly like a nipple with an o-ring groove. The lens bezel attaches to the nipple with 2 screws and the o-ring keeps the water out. The lens comes off very easy. The L.E.D.S I got off e-bay, they are 3watt hi power ,red. I tried some 1watt ones but they weren't as bright, I have 2, 1 watts in each of my front housings and they are o.k. The yellow ones seem to be brighter. You can find L.E.D. calculators on the internet and you just punch in the specs. from your led, and it will tell you what resistors you need to make it work. You can also cannibalize a couple of 1156 bulbs for the bayonet mounts. Then get some plastic or pvc pipe that fits in the bayonet to mount all the pieces. You can get S6000 glue at Michaels or Joanns or maybe some other craft store,it works really well for this. Well good luck everyone, it's time to ride.

Almost forgot the baffles. Get 2 pieces of 1 3/4" exhaust tubing 5 " long. Have a muffler shop size the ends to 2 1/16" O.D. (Confirm the I.D. of your pipes are 2 1/8)Get about 7' of 3/16" or 1/4" round stock. Weld a 3/8" flat washer to the end of the round stock, and cut it so that the washer will be centered in the baffle. Then drill a 5/16" hole in the baffle about 1/2" from the end with the washer. Weld a 1/4" nut to the inside of the baffle centered on the 5/16" hole. Then cut 3, 1' pieces of round stock and weld them in the other end at 3 equal spaces, then weld the other ends of the stock together. Get some fine stainless steel screen and lay it out to make your cones. You can wrap then around the baffle and tape them just to hold them in place.Now the tricky part. if you have a tig welder, or a friend with one start tacking the screen down and around the baffle. If welding the screen is not an option some stainless steel wire might work. The baffles would work fine without the screen assembly but I don't know how loud it would be. Hope it work good for you. Now it's time to ride

 

[kenko]

Great job on all this stuff. :cheers:

 

[DuaneS]

Very Cool! Thank for posting all of this info!!!

 

[Amos Moses]

Me likes the luggage rack:mosh: