9 hours in the sun! (picture heavy)

Good lord, I had to choose today to do all my mods. It was 99 degrees out by 11am (humidity at 65%...) but I was determined.

I wanted to take A LOT more pics then I did but I was honestly worried about the humidtiy effecting my camera. Heat aside I accomplished all three of todays goals: New handlebars, round headlight and sexy lil' fairing.

I like to learn anything I can from whatever I do. Here's what I learned today.

1. SPF 60 sunblock might be the greatest invention known to man
2. "univeral" is a very generic term, used much to lightly I think. It should be "It'll fit but we dont give you the proper hardware and be ready to drill, a lot".
3. Nick at Home Depot couldn't find his ass with two hands, much less a 10mm metric bolt with 1.25 threading.
4. The wiring on my XJ isn't as scary as it looks
5. My neighbors, while not a good source for 10mm drill bits, are a good source of cheap beer

Things went ok for the most part. I had to make 2 trips to Home Depot for small hardware parts and do some creative drilling to make the fairing mounts work but it was good.

If anyone else out there is looking to remove the "bull horn" handlebars from thier 750 maxim, the risers I used are from an '84 Virago. Aside from the mounting bolt being a little too long, they fit perfect. AMAZING handling with the lower and slimmer bars. The old ones were only 4" longer but I can sure tell the difference (they're 30" if anyones curious).

Next Sunday...new gauges!

Down the line: new blinkers, custom rear section (fiberglass...yum), teardrop mirriors with a longer stem, a nice paint job and a good polishing.

Here's a few pics with captions:

The ubiqutis "before" pic. Notice the blocky light and non-awesome handlebars.


"before" side shot.


Closeup of the old bars and the goofy way they are mounted.


Said handlebars removed


The wiring cluster. After I was all done I found only one housing that didn't have a place to plug in...I have to assume it didn't have one to begin with.


After pic of the front!


Closer up


The new bars! The horribly blocky gauge cluster doesn't look too bad under the fairing...reguardless it will be gone next week

 

WOW!

Nice work hessenr00ts!

Which light housing did you end up going with?
And you have to cough up some more details about the handlebar swap.

The new bars look great - if you can post some pics without the fairing..?

Good job!

Jim

 

The housing was brand new, purchased on ebay for 40$. I'll take some pics "sans-fairing" in the morning and get em posted right away.

As far as the handlebars go, what are you curious about? It was so straight-forward I almost felt like I was doing it wrong

 

Should have done the guages at the same time. Now you might have to remove the fairing again to swap them over.

Bars look good. My recommendation would be to look for a Seca master cylinder. Would sit on those seca looking handlebars better.


All in all, nice job Hess.

Looks like your slightly workshop challenged though. Damn hard to find a dropped screw on the lawn.

 

Hgoon , i reckon he's out there on purpose in the lawn , a sympathy thing , yaknow the neibours see him out there in the heat and say , poor fella out there in the heat and no shed lets go and give him a beer!

I would like next doors like that too

Planned as hessenr00ts even told us........

Looks ok hessenr00ts....

 

nice... what kinda bars didya go with? are they secas? looks sweet is all i can say...if ya come up with any ideas how youre gonna clean up or cover the area where the badge went id be interested to know... maybe we can swap ideas nice work!

mike

 

hessenr00ts, that's some fine mod-work if I must say so!!!
Hope the gauge change works out as good.
Very nice indeed
Mike

 

Thanks for all the props everyone Overall the project seemed pretty easy, especially with little more then my Haynes manual guiding me. I'm releaved that it all worked out today, Mondays supposed to be even hotter 8O

Your right, GH, a little workshop challenged. I have a garage but due to some severe door damage, the only way in or out is through the side door. I actually did drop one screw in the weeds, dragged a magnet tied to a string to find it


HG - Yeah, I i'll be pulling the fairing off to do the gagues. I just ordered them this past Thursday and the rest of my parts had been sitting for a few days...I guess I was a little over eager The fairing does come off easy enough though. Once I'm sitting on a little extra cash I'll keep my eyes peeled for a Seca Master Cylinder, thanks for the tip.

Hoonz - I did have the one neighbour give me a beer. I went door to door asking for a 10mm drill bit. An older gent said "nope, sure don't have one of those, but I do have a cold beer." Being as I'd already drank 4 litres of water I thought one would be ok

thedude - They're "euro" bars I ordered from Chaparral. Link here: http://www.chaparral-racing.com/Chaparr ... D2A4157A50\
Which area are you talking about covering, specifically? The spot where the plastic cover plate sits beneath the gagues and bars?

Hvnbnd - Thanks! After torturing myself with the weather I'm VERY happy it all worked out. I'm praying the gague swap goes just as smoothly.

 

Yeah, I must say too it's pretty sweet. I was looking into the same front fairing for my Seca. Wasn't too sure what to do with my square headlight light as well as the Auxillary front head light that is square as well. Where did you house all the electrical stuff? I am not sure if it's the same way as a seca, but inside the front headlight housing, all the electrical crap is in there as well as the horns. Where did you end up housing all that again if that was the case.

Again, really nice!

 

The so easy it has to be wrong is where my gut feel was too!

If it really was that simple maybe I'll ditch my horns this winter...

Were there any gotchas in pulling the old bars?

 

talkin bout the spot in between the turn signals on the front end....wasnt sure if you'd taken it off or it came like that :? ... ive kicked around a couple ideas in my head...but...im short on time AND money... which kinda sucks when your bike is a work in progress, it'll suck not to ride but im kinda lookin forward to winter so i can get some work done! :lol:

 

I can't saying anything that hasn't already been said, really cause it all looks great. I typically don't like fairings but that one is a winner. Clean, simple and sexy (as you say).

LOOKS GREAT!

 

Hess, I am glad to see it all coming together. One note, sunscreen should not be relied upon to save your hide. Spring the dough for an umbrella, your skin will thank you. I'm sorry you don't have a garage, I just had to rent someone elses to get room too. Be careful in the sun buddy, melanoma is no picnic.

 

Ahh, yeah. There used to be this ovaly sorta shaped "war of the worlds" looking light in there. I'll look it over today and see if I can come up with any ideas.

 

Woolsac, all the wiring is currently zip-tied in a very organized fashion behind the fairing.


JP - Yeah, I had a few of those gotcha moments with the bars. The way they were set up was pretty straight forward but being as it was my first handlebar transplant I took my time with it. The amount of dust and rust inside those old bar caught me off guard a bit.

Thanks again folks for the kind words

 

hessenr00ts

i'm trying to install the same fairing you have onto my maxim, and i'm wondering if you have any pointers on how to mount the nearly useless v brackets. pictures showing how you mounted yours would also be very helpful.

 

Yo! Where did the pics go on this thread? Would be very helpful to me

 

You dug up an almost decade old thread. Good chance those pics are no longer hosted at that link anymore. OP hasn't posted since 06.

Start a new thread with your pics and what you wanna do. Lots of knowledable members on here.