Note the large fender at the rear.
These bikes are pretty sexy except for the dumb stock fender.
I started by removing the stock fender. I wanted to get a good look for what would need to be replaced. I thought maybe I could make my own replacement. Maybe it would even be possible to just remove it and bolt on a piece of metal for the license plate to attach to. Once I got it removed, I could see that I would need a replacement kit unless I wanted to dabble in the art of fiber glass mastery. Out of laziness and the valuation of my time, I decided on a replacement kit.
Time to shop for fenders. I was able to find about 5 or 6 different brands/models but most of the websites selling them didn't have a good picture of the fender. My primary concern was that the kit would require modifying the stock fender by chopping it off with a hack saw. I didn't want to do that. I thought it would look unclean. I like things neat and tidy. I also didn't want to spend a bunch of money on it. I finally decided on the hotbodiesracing.com fender eliminator kit. Merely because they had awesome detail in their pictures and the price was around $50.
Now that's sexy!
This of course lead to a new problem. I loved the way it looked and the way it looked, looked the way it looked because it also doesn't have the big balloon blinkers. Hmmmmm... Time to shop for a replacement tail light with integrated blinkers. All the after-market blinkers I found were LED which is great. LED lasts longer, they weigh less, they have less burn in and out delay, and they're just plain sexier. Most of the tail light kits were between $50 and $200 and they were all on ebay. I couldn't seem to find them anywhere else. No big deal though, I'm accustomed to ebay.com. Here's what I chose:
Ah, it'll work.
The tail light didn't have a brand or model. I didn't really care as long as it worked. Now all I had to do was wait for the parts, install them and off I ride on my newly modded toy. It didn't really end up being that easy. I got the tail light first and thought it could save me some hassle to test it first before installing it. I hooked it up to a 12v lead acid battery and tested the running light, break light, left blinker and right blinker, uh oh, one of the amber leds is dead. Dang it! The place that sold it to me on ebay were great, they gave me a return label, I shipped it and got a replacement about a week later. I'm still waiting on the fender kit at this point. It must be coming from China.
So, time to install the tail light to get all the wiring straight so I'm ready to put everything together for when the fender gets here. I'm so amazed because when I got it hooked up, it didn't work. Amazing... When I hit the blinker switch, the amber light would stay on, it wouldn't blink. I had never replaced a tail light before so this was quite troubling. I hooked up the old one and it worked fine. I checked the wiring, I looked inside the old tail light housing, and it looked very straight-forward. The only difference I could see is that the old one was using an incandescent bulb and the new one is using leds. I had to think... Hmmm... LEDs are diodes, maybe this has something to do with it. Or maybe LEDs have a different resistance...
I asked Google and found out that the relay on the bike is designed to alert the user when a bulb is dead. It must be detecting a different resistance. Sure enough, I found out that people were using resistors to compensate for the bad bulb detection. I also found replacement relays. Resistors are cheaper and easier to find. I happen to have a crud load of resistors but they're all 1/4 watt to 1 watt which didn't work out. Ouch, my fingers! Luckily radioshack down the road had a 10ohm 10watt resistor and their website said it was in stock! Sweet! And it was only $2 for 2.
Google said to use 6.5ohm 25watt. That's probably smart.
I wired it up, tested it out and I like the blink delay the 10ohm resistor provides. Very nice.
I finally got the fender kit and installed it. It was pretty easy to install and now my motorcycle is set. Or, maybe it isn't. Nope, it's not.
After riding for 30 minutes, the bike gets uncomfortable because of the stock seat. I decided to take it apart and reupholster it. What a pain in the ass, don't do this. After a second failed attempt, I had no choice but to purchase a custom Corbin leather seat. The Corbin seat is very nice and I like it but it's still not as comfortable as I would like. Anyway, here's the final product:
That'll do.
