Ha! Well... you are in Tampa - a famous (at least in the 90's) "Goth Hotspot". SNL even had a recurring talk show called Goth Talk set at The Castle in Tampa. (it wasn't funny though - because it's SNL)

 

Nice job on your mods.

I also have the Moons tail light. What happened to the wiring for the turn signals?

 

Thanks. I chose the option for the Moons taillight without integrated blinkers. It's just a run/stop light. So, no wiring for blinkers in the taillight. My thought was that I wanted to have more LEDs lighting up when I stopped rather than sacrifice some of them to integrate blinkers, especially since I plan on keeping stock signals (although I do plan to pull them in and make them more low profile).

 

Got around to installing the black forward controls I picked up off of CL for cheap recently. I had been toying with the idea of switching to black controls for quite some time. I considered getting my current set powder coated, but I decided to pull the trigger on a really nice used set and that way I can clean up and sell my old set to offset the cost

Getting to the bolt that connects the brake rod to the rear brake mechanism was a PITA. Had to pull part of the exhaust out and away to fit the right tool in there, but got it done without pulling the exhaust off thankfully.

Also, another PITA was realizing that the shifter peg won't come off without a fight. Apparently red loctite is used at the factory and after 10 years of use, it wasn't budging. So, I said "Eff it, I want to ride NOW" and went to Ace hardware and picked up a 2.5" 5/16 fine thread bolt and a couple spacers and made one until I order a new one. Works great!

I won't bore anyone with the painfully mundane in between pics, so here's a before and after.

Before:







After:

 

I've always liked the look of the buckshot guard over the look of the plain guard or no guard at all. I saw one on CL for a good price so I bit the bullet and snagged it. Just put it on yesterday and I like the look. I also decided to remove the lower guard a while back since I think it looks like crap anyway.

It just so happens that my Road 6 Customs bars have a similar theme with the holes. I'm thinkin of doin a mini theme on the bike that centers around the buckshot look. Probably wouldn't go overboard with the look, but I have looked into some pegs that would match the theme too. We'll see how it goes.

Here's a shot of the guard after install:

 

I like the look of the buckshot guard too. Esp with your bars as you mentioned. I agree the lower guard is ugly, but I can't bring myself to remove it because of it's functionality.

 

I was a bit hesitant to remove it myself, but I figured the chances were very slim of ever gettin anything caught in there from the bottom part of the belt, especially with my pipes covering the side of the belt. Only chances (and slim at that) would be rock bouncing all the way from the front of bike to the rear and getting caught somehow. I left the top one on for when my lady rides so she doesn't have to be nervous or self conscious about hitting it with her foot.

 

After months of dealin with the annoying amount of oil that my bike was spittin through the breather bolts onto the back of my intake (even after doublin up on foam filters), I decided it was time for a new breather system.

I looked through a ton of different systems in my search. Some were bulky, some were ugly, and some were just gonna keep on allowing that freakin oil spray all over my bike. I wanted somethin discreet, effective, and preferably without a catch can and a ton of plumbing. I finally decided on the Kuryakyn bluegrass breather system and got around to installing it this past weekend.

I love it. Clean, minimal, and effective (so far). I dig the design because the breathers run up instead of down. This allows the hot air to go up through the piping and out through the filter I installed while keeping the oil mist in the breather elbows to drain back down (thank you gravity) and be burnt off in the engine eventually.

The included metal washers do not always make the best seal, but nylon washers in conjunction with these washers makes the right seal. I also used teflon tape on the threads for good measure.

A BIG thanks to Kevin at DK Customs for assisting me in my search for which nylon washers to use in conjunction with the supplied washers. If you're lookin for a kit like this, do it the easy way and get everything you need in their kit!

 

Finally swapped out my Willie G air cleaner insert for a Dark Custom insert to match the Dark Custom derby cover, timing cover, and gas cap. Finally, everything is one theme.

 

Well, it's been almost a year since my last post. I almost feel ashamed. Haven't changed a ton on the bike, but I did lose some valuable pictures and updates on the work when my phone crapped out on me last year. Since then, I've done a few substantial mods.

First up is when I changed out the grenade ring in the clutch assembly. The bike had a little over 15k miles at the time of the change. Mine had not blown apart, fortunately. Thank goodness for preventative measures taken before disaster strikes.

As far as parts are concerned, I decided to go with Alto for the single friction disk and two steel disks to replace the grenade ring.. I also opted for an Energy One +15% diaphragm spring since I was in there anyway. I did NOT go with a full clutch rebuild kit since the bike only has 15k on it. All of the other friction disks looked to be in fine order when I openeD her up.

As far as performance, I can definitely tell the difference with the new +15% diaphragm spring and extra friction disk. No more clutch slip when gettin on it - she grabs hard!

I ended up making a diaphragm spring compressor of my own after doing a lot of research on how others have done it. There's a pic below of my tool. Pretty crude, but it got the job done. All I needed was a few nuts and bolts, some PVC, and some random steel bar I had laying around. The only part I would have changed would be the steel bar. I could've gone thicker to prevent the piece from bowing under the nut pressure required to compress the spring plate. As you can see, I had to double up. Anyway, no more boring details! Here are some pics of the process below:

Homemade clutch compression tool:



Grenade ring still intact (whew). Chucked this p.o.s. into the garbage as fast as I could.



New friction plate soaking in gear fluid.



The work area was a bit all over the place...