Headlight Finished!

[500rider]

clunk ... (jaw hitting table)

Rob

[etam]

Great mod here.. but I am thinking of putting these in.

http://www.rallylights.com/hella/90mm_modules.asp

[esokitty]

Mmmmm.

Hot bike.  Hot biker.

'nuff said.



~e

[Eightmarky]

Yo Anti,  those headlights are sweet.  I like your "after" setup better.  Orange rules!  

[quinnbozz]

hey if you want to get rid of your f-16 screen, seeing as you dont need it anymore , i'd gladly take it off your hands.

looks    WOW i love the headlinghts i want to do that to mine now!!

[Dom]

quinnbozz, it isn't that hard to make those brackets.  You can bend them with just a simple propane torch, or you could probably just heat them up on your barbeque grill.   :mrgreen:  

Here's what you will need:


2' of 1"x1/4" steel
a bench mounted vice
two big crescent wrenches
a drill and drill bits
a bucket of old motor oil
a propane torch
big vice grips or channel locks

Cut two lengths at 8".  It's the perfect length so you won't run into your speedo and tach cables.

Put one piece in the vice , heat it with a propane torch for a couple minutes and twist it 90 degrees with the two crescent wrenches(You will be amazed how easy it is to bend).

Dip them in the motor oil to cool them off and temper the steel(makes it retain it's strength).

Drill one 10mm hole in one end to mount them to the bolts on the triple tree that hold the handlebars down.

Grind the ends nice and round

Do a test fit, and you will notice that you have to angle each bracket about 1/2" inward toward where the new headlight will be.  Just put the pieces back in the vice and heat them back up with the torch and bend carefully.  It may take four or five test fits to get them to hang right.  I used the vice grips to make these bends.

Drill a 1/4" hole for the headlights(which use 1/4"-20 hardware, USA! USA!). I did this last.

Paint em.

[quinnbozz]

 for the windscreen? you mean the twin headlight right?

[Dom]

yeah, those brackets antibody made are for the headlight.

[milo]

Wow, that's got to be one of the purdiest bikes I've seen around here. The orange gauges are hot as hell.

Additionally: I kinda like the look of the naked front wheel in Sean's top picture:



Is there any (safety-based) reason not to remove the cover?

[Dom]

The cover that I think you are talking about is the fork brace that keeps the forks from torquing around during turns.  Look at srinath's thread about the new fork braces.  He is selling a super heavy duty fork brace that will ideally provide better traction from the front wheel.

[Mk1inCali]

Dom-

I think he's talking about the actual fender...not the brace.  In that last picture, you can see the flimsy, super thin steel brace on the bike.

Milo-

Is that right?

[Dom]

The fender causes water from spashing all over your engine headers and frame and, if I recall correctly, your legs as well when you make turns.  Definitely not suggested if you are a witch...very unsafe.

[milo]

Yeah, I meant the fender, not the brace. (Thinking about getting a Srinath brace anyway.)

Hmm, so I guess there is a safety-based reason to keep the fender. Oh well, I suppose it stays for now.

[Dom]

There isn't really a safety based reason...IMHO, the front fender is purely a creature comfort, to protect you and your bike from splashing water and mud..  If you are a fair weather rider then it shouldn't make much of a difference.

[90GS500rehab]

My bike is also sans front fender. Just make sure to:

A.) don't ride in the rain unless you want to be extra wet
B.) always keep your visor down as the arc-tangent of pi^2 r to front wheel causes every sand particle to pierce your eye. some kind-of-magic-JFK-bullet type thing

[Roadstergal]

i emailed the local bmw cycle dealer today... about $600

The cheapest place for beemer parts is http://chicagobmwmotorcycle.com/

But they probably are just pretty dang pricey.  When I have more money than brains - a lot more - I'll get a Rockster or Roadster.

Anti, that bike looks awesome!  I like the orange gauge covers.  Are you going to get a fairing like your old one in the Before pic?  Be a pity to cover those back up again.

[quinnbozz]

how hard do you think it would be to mount the twin lights verticaly in stead of side by side like  8  instead of    00

[octane]

Here are my half ass twin headlights. They looked more jacked up in the photo than they actually are, the pic is a funny angle. Took a quick one this morning. Anyhoo, I threw these together quickly so I could ride when the funky bulbs in my fairing burned out (see my post "Product Warning". These did the trick for a quick fix, I'll probably clean it up later with some nicer lights. I bolted the brackets the lights came with to a piece of flat steel and bolted that to a bracket I had from the shield of an old bench grinder. It all bolts into the gixxer triple clamp where the wire loom retainer screws in. Pretty convenient - A bolt and a 3 prong plug is all I have to undo when I go back to the track and the whole thing cost me $30.

[Dom]

how hard do you think it would be to mount the twin lights verticaly in stead of side by side like  8  instead of    00

Hard...at least if you were planning on using the original Buell mounting points.  You would have to fabricate a bracket and figure out where to mount it from.  I looked at my bike and tried to think about it, but lemme tell you, it's a can of worms, a big can of worms.  If you have a welder, no prob, but paying someone to do it will cost you some triple digit clam.

[quinnbozz]

wow little expensive for me:( , maby i'll keep tossing it around thou.  I think it would look really sweet think if it was a bmw headlight with the diffrent sized lights, have the smaller one on top  
but ya i did the same thing i sat there and looked at my bike and went .................... ok i give, and went inside :lol: