Back in Black

[LocuL]

Besides crazy envyness i see problems with mounting my Tourtwat tankbag. I´ll be needing the 2 fairingscrews. Maybe just some zipties around the tank and done.

Looks damn great. Which springs are you running in the front? I´m shifting to the 0.64. SPS did mine and back then i got 0.54.

Mikael

[adiablolex]

looks awesome Geek

love the way the tank has the "murdered" look to it

[xdbx]

Yo Ed,

Next time, just unscrew the lense off the reflector of the turn signal and pull the blades through the other way.

[Geek]

Originally Posted by Deadly99

Looks good Geek. Flatten the black on the rear panels and front fender and it'll be a sweet looking ride

No more shiny bike photo's though ......

both of which are magically going to turn into carbon fiber

[Geek]

Originally Posted by Locul@hotmail.com

Besides crazy envyness i see problems with mounting my Tourtwat tankbag. I´ll be needing the 2 fairingscrews. Maybe just some zipties around the tank and done.

Looks damn great. Which springs are you running in the front? I´m shifting to the 0.64. SPS did mine and back then i got 0.54.

Mikael

I use the Wolfman tank bag - you can see the rear straps coming out from under the front of the seat - the front strap wraps through the steering head. Works well

iirc I've got .59s in mine right now? My mind is drawing a blank at the moment.. I have the paperwork in a folder.

[Geek]

Originally Posted by xdbx

Yo Ed,

Next time, just unscrew the lense off the reflector of the turn signal and pull the blades through the other way.

I think poping the blades out with a dental pick took me a total of 5 seconds.



Do you have a recent photo of your bike Daniel?
You went with the Safari's too eh?

[FINNDIAN]

I'm gonna have to get some heavier front springs too. Only .52's now


A pic of Daniel's trailer queen last summer. when it was still a non-S

[CamelBill]

Originally Posted by Geek

I still haven't figured out where I'm going to mount my digital volt meter now that I don't have an upper left fairing where it was installed

Been looking for a digital volt meter for the nine-fiddy. Do you mind sharing what you use, and a source if possible.

Great thread BTW, subscribed.

[Geek]

The digital voltmeter I used is a Datel.

I think iirc I got it from here: http://www.bikemeters.com/cgi-bin/we...nfig=ent-datel mainly because he had the little bezel & stuff that made it easy.

Here it is as it came out of the package:


In the photo you can see the metal bracket that goes on the back side to hold it, the rubber gasket that seals the face to the fairing, and the faceplate and volt meter

I mounted mine in my upper left fairing as you can see in the photo below, and I used a waterproof push-button switch I got from highwaydirtbikes.com to toggle it off and on.


Here is a photo of me testing it before final install:




I connected it with quick connectors and ran the wires in parallel (zip tied to) the turn signal connector. That way when I install the left fairing I remember to plug in all three wires s

I have not yet figured out where I'm going to move it to now that I don't have an upper fairing with the Safari tanks. I definitely like having it onboard as it lets me keep track of my battery; especially on rides like tomorrow where I'm going to have heated grips, heated jacket, heated pants and my high-beam on... I need to know when to turn things down

Hope this helps

p.s. for me, I usually see the meter run 13.8 to 14.1 volts (higher at idle). I noticed that dropping for about a week (to where it read 13.2-13.4 on average) before my battery finally up and died. Food for thought if you see your voltage starts dropping.

[Geek]

Woot! Brown truck dropped by my office.
Now I can get the bike finished late tonight or tomorrow morning

[gldfamily]

Geek, you have totally done what I hope my black will grow up to be one day! GREAT JOB!!!!!

[Geek]

I've had a couple of messages about the high fender.

Converting the bike to high fender (the way I did it) is not trivial but it is not too difficult. It does require you to solve a few problems because it is not a "kit" so you have to make a few things up.

Riding wise, it was a must do for me. The old 950s front fender sits pretty much right on the tire unlike the new 990s.

My first ride out to the pawnee grasslands saw me having a full front tire lockup at about 30mph. I left a huge skid mark (in my undies too) but managed to not fall down. It was without warning just like I had pulled 100% full front brake - locked up instantly.





Personally I prefer the look of the low fender.. but considering the amount of time I spend offroad it had to go.


I ordered all of the parts mentioned by PFB in his post regarding the high fender but I didn't end up using them all.

Einstein the cat wasn't included but you can have him if you want him






The stock brake line has a second line that goes over the fender to the other caliper. Obviously without the fender this line needs to be replaced with a full length line. I used another of the stock, full length line.



Removing the existing brake lines, I swapped the double banjo bolt from the left caliper up to the handelbards, and the banjo bolt from the handlebars down to the left. Now I could run dual parallel brake lines - no new banjo bolts needed.




Basically I took the brake line "holder" and cut/re-bent it to make a mirror image for the other side:


Then the line has to be secured to the right fork guard. I drilled holes and bolted on one of the SX85's cable guides. The back of the block was flat so I took a dremel on low speed with a sanding wheel and carved away a curve in the back that matched the curve of the fork guard.



Where the brake line arrives at the triples I wanted to have a guide for it. I cut down the "stock guide" and flipped it


...and mounted it here (there is a threaded hole under there already):


...which put everything in a nice line (pun!)


On the left side I built a "double stack" line guide to hold the two lines


The last part of the puzzle is during installation - because my second brake line was too long (it goes straight down so it doesn't need to be as long as the stock line which goes across and down) - rather then getting a custom length line, I installed a loop in the line. You can see it in this photo.. as the forks compress the loop just gets bigger. At first I had some concern and considered redoing things with a shorter line but it has worked out well and been problem free for the past 20K miles.

[Geek]

Originally Posted by DeeGee

Great write up Ed

What's the story with the Euro headlight though? Why switch from the one you've got?

Since I was asked this 3 times this week I figured I'd put it together in the simplest way I could think of

[kamanya]

Originally Posted by Dirty950

Where did you get hold of the T? Since its a larger hose going to the pump then between the tanks, or did you just use a larger T? And forced the too small hose onto it?

/Johan

Yup.

[CamelBill]

It is literally like night and day. I'd highly recommend the Euro switch as well (like Geek did it), then you can turn it off while starting. One pointer is if you are running aux lights only (ie: no headlight), make sure you keep the switch in the first position (little parking light only), or else you will not have a tail light burning. Would hate to get pulled over for that on the way home from the bar

Geek, thanks for the awesome write-up. I ordered the Datel voltmeter this afternoon. Having trouble when trying to run too much as well, like Pias, heated grips, heated vest, Euro light. Will make it much easier to keep it within the limits. Enjoy the weekend, stay warm!