Premier's Winter Project 2007

Day 1.

So today I got finished ripping all the parts of the time. It's looking kinda sad at the moment :'( Link
And another one

I took them off because I'm sending them to be powdercoated. The parts getting powdercoated are:

1. Top yoke
2. Head lights buckets
3. Alternator cover
4. Rad cowls
5. That little gray frame thingie
6. That chain guarg thingie

Check out the pic here.

The alternator cover is getting powdercoated because I dropped the bike on a track day in the summer and it got a little scratched.

The color is a mystery even to my self at the moment. All I can say is that it'll be DARK and cool ;D

There's around the clock security at the garage and all kinds of repair work is prohibited there. The security has driven pass me twice and haven't said a word. Which is strange because I'm braking the rules and it looks like I'm trying to steal the bike. I'm starting to think the place isn't that safe after all ;D

Day 2.


OMFG! Let me tell you. Low skills and bad tools is a bad combination. I spent almost 2 hours today trying to get the damn lock of the top yoke. The lock is riveted to the yoke with extremely hard metal rivets. Or at least that's what I thought. The rivets later proved to be bolts without heads. I didn't know something that Devious could even exist


I spent long time trying to cut the head off and drilling through it. In retrospect the best option would have been to dremel a small cut to the head and just unscrew the damn thing out. Well, live and learn :violent1:

But the good thing here is that I have now a lot more trust to triumph's locking and anti-theft mechanisms ;D At least a dumb ass like me can't steal the bike easily ;D

Here's a pic of the battle field after the battle.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll ship the parts for powdercoating. After that I sit back and :drink:.

I can't really do much mods before the coated parts come back. I can install some sliders and seat cowl etc, but that's really it So there's not too many updates to be expected in a couple of weeks. I know you guys can't wait, but bear with me

Day 3.

So I got my sweet BLACK Zard from the dealer today. And the tail tidy I ordered from Germany finally arrived too. That meant I was finally able to start working with the rear part of the bike!

And those of you who have sometimes wondered if it would be cool to transport bike parts on commuter trains and buses.. it ain't as much fun as you might think! God I hate not having a car.

So when I got home I packed my gym bag full of tools, the tail tidy and the zard , and walked to the garage. I've learned that if you leave some tools behind thinking you won't be needing them, hehehee, oh you're so going to need them.

First thing was to take that fugly stock rear apart. If you plan on doing this yourself, remember this, WASH YOUR BIKE IN ADVANCE! My bike is dirty as **** and I think it'll take about a week to get all that dirt out of my hands now. I would have washed it too, but the bike's in pieces and I can't really move it anywhere now to be washed.

First I removed the stock exhaust. It came off fairly easy. After that I was able to reach the screws under the fender. There's many different kinds of screws and bolts scattered there so make sure you have your tools around when you start! The tricky part was removing the plastic rivets, that hold the undertray to the painted bits, without demolishing them. I managed to do it without braking anything, which is an achievement for me.

Pic of the removed parts. DIRRRTY! ;D
The rear light assy is bolted to the sub frame and the bolts are TIGHT. So make sure you have some good leverage here. And maybe some extender piece so you have more room to work.

Then I started installing the new tail tidy! First I bolted the undertray mounting bracket to the sub frame where the rear light assy used to be.

Pic

The screws on the bracket were on wrong holes which might have been confusing if I didn't look closely to the pics on the instructions. Luckily I noticed it and saved me a lot of time and trouble. The lesson here? Don't expect products to be properly assembled when you get them from the factory

Then I mounted the undertray. The fit seemed to be good, but I had a little problem pushing the plastic rivets back. They're just a bit too soft for the brute force you need to push them in.

Pic of the undertray mounted

After that I proceeded to bolt the new rear light and blinkers on. The rear light is SWEET! Very nice design and seems to be a quality component. I also had Rizoma track01 blinkers to install, and they were equally nice. Wiring on these were tricky though. I ended up calling it a day and just left them there under the seat. I'll need to look into it tomorrow. I'll need to replace some connectors. Don't know which yet. And of course I ran out of tools while mounting the blinkers. So they're just hanging there now.

So here's the result

So when I was done with the tail tidy for today I decided to try the Zard on. I couldn't get it to fit in the collector though. There's some weird copper mesh type of gasket there a bit messed up so I couldn't get the slip on in. I need to figure out how to smooth it out. Any ideas?

But it's starting to look good. The new tail is a BIG improvement. And now that my handle bars are hanging there limp it gives me the idea what the clip ons will look like. And the black Zard and all... It'll be MEAN! LEAN and MEAN!! :twofinger:


And when I say lean, I mean lean. When I packed my stuff and all the parts I took off the bike I noticed how much the stock exhaust actually weights. Holy crap! It's heavy!