ATLAS HAS SHRUGGED

Posted: Mar 3, 2012 11:24 PM  (Msg. 1 of 27)

I have wanted to go 4" over on the forks for some time and it lead to other side projects.




This is my bike as I aquired it. Bone stock '99.





Here it is as of 3/3/12




The forks were extended using machined fork extentions from Highway Hawk. While all was apart I did a fork seal and fork oil change which I addressed in another thread http://www.intruderalert.com/cafe/index.cfm?page=topic&topicID=205964


Extending by 4" over with my already lowered rear end yielded a rake of 40 degrees and a trail of 7.75". This is not your sportbike setup, but not an oldschool chopper either. It is what it is. I may have to push the countersteer a bit more in the twisties, but I have raised all the components off the asphalt a good bit too. So Fort Mountain will be in order.


You may notice that my speedometer is no longer dominating the upper profile of the handlebar set up. I have moved it to the left mid-fork.






This the stock housing that must be altered.



Using a Dremel, I cut off the mounting bracket then buffed it out.




The idiot light display is also cut then flipped over to sit on the upper tree mounted by new holes drilled into the tree.








The backside is covered by making a lid from poly-mirror. I got this idea from ROSEBUD and his battery box cover idea.









This puts the function lights up where I can finally see them with my bar and riser set-up. It also gets the speedo down and away from the top of the bars. The speedo location was always one of my pet peeves with the layout of this bike.










The bracket for the speedo was made by laminating some polycarbonate sheet material I had left over from a recent job. If I had some 1/2" aluminum, I probably would have gone with that. This was free. ( so to speak) I found out from the manufacturer of the plastic that RTV type silicone will bond polycarb. So I used UltraCopper Gasket rtv silicone. Mine is 4 layers of 1/4" to give me enough thickness to get a hole drilled through for the cinch bolt. If aluminum is used you could go thinner.



I cut it out with a 3 5/8" hole saw for the housing and a 1 5/8" hole saw for the fork. The pinch bolt was 1/4". I then sanded and eased all edges. This could even be done with a hardwood with the grain showing. MIGHT BE A COOL LOOK.!



I am waiting for my shortened speedo cable to be delivered from MotionPro. $73.00, They are busy folk, but nice to deal with.


Moving the speedo down on the upper left fork presented it's own science project. The cable was too long and pointed in the wrong direction. At first I thought I would just point it straight out the back, but it needs to flex with the fork movement. So I had to make the output from the speedo housing go in a different direction.


I had to change the direction of the cable output by making a bracket from a thin metal sheet. I used a section of a lumber-tie mending plate from Lowes. ( Simpson)
Some of the holes you see were already there and not needed.








After determining the needed position of the output I repositioned the drive gear.










This means I had to drill a new hole out the side of the housing. And as I said, I am currently waiting on MotionPro to get my new cable to me.

This all lent itself to changing up the headlight.
I have thought long and hard about doing a PrinceMo type headlight, but man, all that wire mess and bracket mess. Besides, I never wanted to really change the lamp profile that much.

I really wanted a Tri-Bar lamp. So I ordered one off the net. Amazon sent the wrong one, but quickly made it right with the right one. As soon as I got it out of the box I knew I was in trouble.

  

The stock lamp has the adjuster brackets mounted right to it.




I called Adjure and the spokesman said, " Oh, sorry, they will not fit any Suzuki because of the factory mounting brackets."  I said Oh crap, but no way. Have Dremel, will travel.


This is the stock lamp housing with all the brackets for the adjusters.



This is the new Adjure Tri-Bar lamp.



It has NO mounting points. So, break out the cutting tools. Dremel again for this. I removed the adjuster mounts from the stocker, leaving enough material there to epoxy it to the new housing. I used a heat gun to get the glass to release from the metal. I then scuffed up the metal to accept the epoxy bond.





All epoxied together. You have to pay attention to the orientation of the lamp to the brackets.






All sitting in the new home.



It was an inexpensive alternative to redoing the whole housing. And, in my humble opinion, along with ditching the speedo, it changed the whole complexion of the front end.



Additional pics:





This all lead to recableing of the hydraulic lines and the electrical lines. I cleaned it all up with new hydraulic lines from Spiegler and put all the electrics inside a 5/16" id vinyl tube.

Spiegler was a pleasure to deal with and delivered custom lines in less than a week.

Existing mess:





Now.



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Now...if I can get to fire after being molested so badly  I will go for a ride!!

the Ricker
Edited by The Ricker on Mar 3, 2012 at 11:26 PM
Edited by The Ricker on Mar 3, 2012 at 11:44 PM
Edited by The Ricker on Mar 22, 2012 at 06:44 PM

RIDE AND HIDE

Posted: Mar 4, 2012 12:53 AM  (Msg. 3 of 27)

Sweet!!! hey Ric if the speedo bracket doesn't work out I can get the aluminum for
you.

"I'LL SHOOT ANYTHING FOR MONEY"

Posted: Mar 4, 2012 02:56 PM  (Msg. 5 of 27)

.





VERY NICE!!

Posted: Mar 4, 2012 09:34 PM  (Msg. 7 of 27)

AMAZING       

Posted: Mar 7, 2012 04:58 AM  (Msg. 9 of 27)

Nice work     Rosebud

Posted: Mar 22, 2012 06:21 AM  (Msg. 11 of 27)

I'm wondering if that was the problem I had back a few years ago when i borrowed your spring compressor.  I cut the stock springs down, but just didnt' work out right.  Couldnt get what i needed.  ended up using some shocks off a HD lowrider..

Posted: Mar 22, 2012 09:11 AM  (Msg. 13 of 27)

Posted: Mar 26, 2012 01:46 PM  (Msg. 15 of 27)

So Ricker, I been wondering for a long time.  How did you manage the upside down mirror mounts?   love that look.  And was thinking about bar end mirrors, but man i just put on some sweet Avon grips and hate to mess with the endcaps...  

Posted: Mar 26, 2012 05:03 PM  (Msg. 17 of 27)

  no way..    i hadn't even looked at them that close!  hahaha.  wow.  thats perfect.  

  .. so by the way, i'm really not trying to make a clone of your bike.  and in some ways, ours are different.   i'm pretty sure.. haha.  well done all the same

Posted: Aug 9, 2012 08:38 AM  (Msg. 19 of 27)

very cool ride nice work.wish i had a quarter of the talent.