Fellow Beullers, I'm Jim Gallant from just west of Seattle, WA (across Puget Sound). Brief intro: 53 yrs old, software guy, home inspector, motorcycle riding since 13 yrs old. Recent rides: 92' Kawasaki Concours, 2002 Honda ST1100, 2002 Aprilia Falco, 1991 Suzuki VX800. I ride only for fun these days, usually on mulit-day trips down to Eastern Oregon. Locally, it rains too much here and I live 2/10 of a mile down a gravel road that gets muddy too much of the year. When I recently bought my 2007 xb9sx I found that I got a spattering of mud up my back on on my flip-face helmet every time I left my house. Grit would grind in my helmet hinge when I lowered the front face part. I read a thread or two on this forum about (the lack of available) fenda extendas, and realized I need something more than the 4" tire hugger on the rear wheel, and abbreviated front wheel fender. I had replaced the airbox cover and flyscreen with carbon fiber replacements from ebay that so many on this forum like to dis for poor quality/fitment, but I actually think the quality of the carbon is pretty decent. I do a bit of fiberglass fabrication for boat building projects of mine, so I decided to make fender extenders (front and rear) out of carbon fiber. After way to much labor I ended up with what you see below. Also installed heated grips, a must for us northwesterners. If you live in a cool climate, the Symtec heated grip pads are cheap and really easy to install, and make a HUGE difference in comfort on a chilly day, morning or evening. Highly recommended (by me at least).
My Lightning before the fender mods were added.
After fender mods.
After fender mods.
Ebay carbon fiber airbox cover and flyscreen.
The front fender extender I made.
Front fender extender shown with front fender.
Front fender extender bolted on to front fender with stainless steel bolts.
And, on the bike.
The rear hugger replacement. Someone in a forum post guessed that to be effective, such a hugger would need to be three feet long. This one's about 31 inches. I laid up three layers of fiberglass, then two to four layers of carbon over that.
It was tricky to make the front part. I laid fiberglass over the stock hugger, and then carbon over that.
Here's the painted underside of the fender extender.
Rear super carbon hugger installed.
And on the bike. My goal was for it to be invisible when viewed from the side. It conforms to the tire at the front, then gets flat. It was a complicate combination of curves to get the way I wanted and required a weird mix of wood form, bag filled with wet sand, thick rubber membrane stretched and laced across the wood form to get the shape I wanted. I actually like the look.
And a view from the back.
Back view.
Another back view.
Wire from the throttle side heated grip. When installing Symtec heated grip pads, you want to make sure your throttle operates smoothly. You don't want the wires to restrict throttle rotation.
Where I installed the heated grip switch. You're given the option of a rocker or toggle switch. I've installed the nice-looking plastic rocker switches before on bikes with full/partial fairings, but the Lightning has no place for such a switch. The all-metal totggle switch option appealed to me given the nature of the Lightning, and given the need to operate the switch with gloves on. Works great so far.
To run such appliances, you really want a relay installed so there's no chance of leaving the heated grips on when the ignition key is off. It's not hard to install, and the relay supplies power to the heated grips only when the ignition key is turned on. You can by these relays at any auto parts store for less than 10 bucks.
The inline fuse )5 watts) downstream from the relay that protects the heated grips.
So, in short, this Lightning is now equipped to deal with chilly, wet, muddy roads too often found here in the Northwest. But make no mistake, there are rides in Washington and Oregon that are world class. Anyone who plans to be up in this corner of the US, feel free to contact me about where to go for curvy, twisty roads.
My Lightning before the fender mods were added.
After fender mods.
After fender mods.
Ebay carbon fiber airbox cover and flyscreen.
The front fender extender I made.
Front fender extender shown with front fender.
Front fender extender bolted on to front fender with stainless steel bolts.
And, on the bike.
The rear hugger replacement. Someone in a forum post guessed that to be effective, such a hugger would need to be three feet long. This one's about 31 inches. I laid up three layers of fiberglass, then two to four layers of carbon over that.
It was tricky to make the front part. I laid fiberglass over the stock hugger, and then carbon over that.
Here's the painted underside of the fender extender.
Rear super carbon hugger installed.
And on the bike. My goal was for it to be invisible when viewed from the side. It conforms to the tire at the front, then gets flat. It was a complicate combination of curves to get the way I wanted and required a weird mix of wood form, bag filled with wet sand, thick rubber membrane stretched and laced across the wood form to get the shape I wanted. I actually like the look.
And a view from the back.
Back view.
Another back view.
Wire from the throttle side heated grip. When installing Symtec heated grip pads, you want to make sure your throttle operates smoothly. You don't want the wires to restrict throttle rotation.
Where I installed the heated grip switch. You're given the option of a rocker or toggle switch. I've installed the nice-looking plastic rocker switches before on bikes with full/partial fairings, but the Lightning has no place for such a switch. The all-metal totggle switch option appealed to me given the nature of the Lightning, and given the need to operate the switch with gloves on. Works great so far.
To run such appliances, you really want a relay installed so there's no chance of leaving the heated grips on when the ignition key is off. It's not hard to install, and the relay supplies power to the heated grips only when the ignition key is turned on. You can by these relays at any auto parts store for less than 10 bucks.
The inline fuse )5 watts) downstream from the relay that protects the heated grips.
So, in short, this Lightning is now equipped to deal with chilly, wet, muddy roads too often found here in the Northwest. But make no mistake, there are rides in Washington and Oregon that are world class. Anyone who plans to be up in this corner of the US, feel free to contact me about where to go for curvy, twisty roads.
