December 1st of last year, I bought my first motorcycle, Eleanor, from her previous owner with 5,500 miles on her. As of yesterday, May 1st, the ODO hit 7,000 miles and I decided it was time to share her immodest transformation from faired to naked.
That's with quite a bit of downtime through the months for all the mods and repairs that have been done. The PO neglected her badly, and there were many time-consuming hidden problems, but she's all fixed now! Thanks to this forum for that.
Essentially everything that I'd wish to have done has been done. Only thing left to do is to install some '89 clip-ons. The paint on them is peeling, so once they've been powder coated and installed I'll post some pictures of those.
I've bought various parts from members here and they've each asked for pictures, so to oblige them and for the sake of sharing :cheers:
A couple weeks before she came into my care: Faired
(http://i.imgur.com/4gMqytf.jpg)
A few weeks ago we went see Mike the tiger in his habitat at LSU
(http://i.imgur.com/56SJVQp.jpg)
Good view of AZtec8 5.75" dual headlights, compliments to RacinMason85
Suzuki SV650 mirrors as well.
(http://i.imgur.com/FGLrgmD.jpg)
GS500 Stainless chain guard and rear hugger, compliments to Snake2715
(http://i.imgur.com/jvKZHgm.jpg)
Today: Naked
SS70 9" Delkevic slip-on exhaust
(http://i.imgur.com/nuNRVuG.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/BwxeAjV.jpg)
Hope y'all enjoy :thumb:
I can post a list of the mods I've done, too. If there is interest in that.
Looks fantastic! I wouldn't mind reading the mods. I love to hear what people have done to their bikes.
Okay, Rage. You got it. :icon_mrgreen:
Appearance Mods:
- Removed Fairings (obviously :icon_razz:)
- Fenderectomy (performed by PO)
- Suzuki SV650 mirrors (2nd generation)
- LEDs in instrument cluster
- Replaced rear brake bulbs with LED bulbs
- Rear Hugger (custom made by a forum member and sold to me by Snake2715)
- Stainless GS500 chain guard (sold to me by Snake2715 as well)
- AZtec8 5.75" Dual Headlights (sold to me by Racinmason85)
- X-tra fancy yellow and black progrip grips
- Yellow reflective pinstripe on wheel (soon)
Performance Mods:
- Rejetted carbs to 147.5 Mains and 20 Pilots from 124 mains (changed from stock by PO)
- 9" SS70 Delkevic exhaust
- K&N Lunchbox air filter
- .85 Sonic springs with 15w fork oil
- Replaced old brake pads and brake fluid
- Replaced old cracked brake lines with Hel steel brake lines. Front and rear, yellow sheathing.
- '89 Clip-on handlebars (soon)
- Went from Stock, to Katana 600 to R6 shock. Love the R6 shock, sexy yellow color.
- R&G Frame sliders
- 120dB horn (soon)
There are still a short list of things I want to change. Not a fan of the rear blinkers the PO chose. I'd like to install a louder horn, reflective pin-striping on the wheel, those clip-ons. Possible repaint some things, but I'm very much on the fence about spending that sort of money.
None of this is amazing mind-blowing mods like some of the users here can do, it's all pretty simple. I love how it turned out, though!
Are the LED tail lights brighter at all? And do you go clear or white on all LEDs? I've done kind of a sketchy integrated tail light myself a few years ago, but the signals don't show up too well.
The tail light LED's are much, MUCH brighter. I bought two LED bulbs that are direct replacement for standard filament bulbs. They twisted right into the tail sockets and that was that. Got 'em from Superbrightleds.com (http://superbrightleds.com). These are the bulbs: https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/tail-brake-turn/1157-led-bulb--dual-intensity-36-high-power-leds/1689/3950/ (https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/tail-brake-turn/1157-led-bulb--dual-intensity-36-high-power-leds/1689/3950/) "Cool white" color. They're pricey as shaZam!, but I won't have to replace them for the life of the bike, and they're very bright. I don't mind paying for that bump in safety.
As for the instrument panel, I chose the appropriate color for the window, using these: https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/subminiature-bulbs/74-led-bulb-3-smd-led-wide-angle-wedge-base/228/1071/ (https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/subminiature-bulbs/74-led-bulb-3-smd-led-wide-angle-wedge-base/228/1071/) (The one I bought for the blinker indicator bulb didn't work, FYI, something to do with polarity); and these in "amber" to back-light the gauges: https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-wedge-base/194-led-bulb-5-led-wide-angle-wedge-base/199/872/ (https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-wedge-base/194-led-bulb-5-led-wide-angle-wedge-base/199/872/). The latter were a tight fit, but they DO fit. Very nice, in my opinion.
I had to return quite a few sets of bulbs before I found these that fit. It was impossible for me to find information on the proper bulb size and which fit. These definitely do.
I'll look into those once I get Suzi running properly. I'm wondering if LED tail lights will mess with the rate at which they blink, being my tail light also serves as signal lights. I hooked up aftermarket LED turn lights for the front and they used to blink very quickly.
You results may vary, but on my '04 GS-F, the blink rate is totally fine.
EDIT: Oh, the front blinkers. I'm using bulb turn signals there, currently. Will probably replace them with LED bulbs at some point. I have crappy LED turn signals in the rear, and they're hard to see. Don't like them.
Sweet, well Eleanor is looking great!
Great bikte, i like it being nice and clean.
The clip-ons will be awesome on there... very clean bike and I love the color 8)
Looks great! Nice work. :thumb:
Awesome man! Looks fantastic.
Just got the 89' Clip ons back from power coating today. They really needed it, the other set was peeling badly.
I hope to have them installed some time soon. I won't be able to do that until I get some grips, however.
Here are some pics:
(http://i.imgur.com/6B4PscA.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/dDqjjlo.jpg)
Personally love prgrip 719 gel grips. Very. Comfortable too.
Very clean fairings to no fairings conversion. Going to start tackling mine soon. Thanks for the parts list to! :)
Never tried those, before, Snake. I went with the 724 series.
I couldn't resist those sexy matching yellow tones. Plus, I've used them before, they're very comfortable.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0074ZLEZE/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1431436463&sr=8-1&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=Progrip+724BlackYellow+724+Series+Superbike+Grips
How much did you pay for the stainless chain guard, and where can I get one :D It looks great
Thanks!
A forum member here made one batch a while ago, and I think that is all there are in the world. You might be able to find some floating around here on the forum if you keep you're eyes peeled, otherwise, they're very very rare.
If I ever sell Eleanor (unlikely) or if anything ever happens to her and I can't repair the damage, I'll remove it if it's salvageable and sell it back to the forum.
http://www.gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=58237.0
Finally begun installing the clip-ons yesterday, along with some newer hand controls and an unbroken throttle tube...
Unfortunately, it's going to be a very long process, I expect. The connectors for the hand controls don't match the ones on Ele, and I'm terrible with electrical.
Going to be a while before I fumble all the way through this. :technical:
Updates?
Looks great. I've been wanting one of those chain guards for the longest time. I'm always keeping an eye out just in case someone is selling one. Think it was adidasguy who had those made if I'm not mistaken.
Hey where did you get those 89 clip ons?