09 1125CR with a few mods

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FUELL1125CR

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I just posted my previous bike- a liquid cooled XB12R in the XB12 section, so I figured I'd post my current bike. I picked it up in June and have done a few things to it. Bike came to me in Florida from Chicago, 9100 miles and had a Barker pipe (which I sold right away) and a race ECU. I will post more pictures once I give it a proper wash, just got it back on the road after doing some work to it.

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Uh, probably more importantly, what did you do to the radiators? Did you mount them under the tail like the kids do with their SuperHawk streetfighter conversions?

What did you do to modify the muffler? Dean used to do this mod, and I personally wanted it on my 1125, but he never seemed too interested in doing it for me.

Nice conversion, though. I had to do a couple of double takes to figure out what was going on there.

First. "clean 1125CR"
Then "Oh, its a XB with a CR headlight"
Then "Oh wait, its a CR, with XB scoops"
Then "What? Where are the radiators? Oh I see the vents in the tail"
 
stevieboy said:
What was the reason for getting rid of the Barker?
Click to expand...

Both looks and sound. It made the bike look like a grasshopper and was too loud for the quiet neighborhood I live in. It made the bike run poorly, even though I have the proper race ecu for the Barker exhaust (Y0172.10AZ).
 
34nineteen said:
Uh, probably more importantly, what did you do to the radiators? Did you mount them under the tail like the kids do with their SuperHawk streetfighter conversions?

What did you do to modify the muffler? Dean used to do this mod, and I personally wanted it on my 1125, but he never seemed too interested in doing it for me.

Nice conversion, though. I had to do a couple of double takes to figure out what was going on there.

First. "clean 1125CR"
Then "Oh, its a XB with a CR headlight"
Then "Oh wait, its a CR, with XB scoops"
Then "What? Where are the radiators? Oh I see the vents in the tail"
Click to expand...

I had a feeling it may look a bit confusing at first :D
I will post pictures of the full build tomorrow. Big single radiator with dual fans under the seat. Battery in the swingarm, full rewire etc. Similar to the liquid-cooled XB12R I posted in the XB section, but on steroids.
 
These are the first pictures I took of the bike when it got delivered to me. I addressed the charging system with a nice voltage regulator hidden behind the XB oil cooler scoop, swapped out the handlebars, LED blinkers, flat black paint and I thought I was gonna be happy with it. Not the case. I went on one 2hr trip while the weather was still hot and experienced the most miserable ride in my life so far. It was like riding on a wood stove. I had to sit on the passenger seat to let my ass cool off once in a while. Frame was cooking, my right leg was getting scorched by the exhaust heat, seat was burning hot. As soon as I got home I started taking it apart. I was done with it as it was.
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Since quite a bit of the heat was coming from the headers, I addressed them first. Spot welded this thermal shield with 1/2" glass mat onto them. That mod completely eliminated the heat coming out of the headers, even when riding in shorts and flip flops around the neighborhood on the first shake down runs of the new cooling system. The muffler tips are simply two 90 degree 316L elbows I got on eBay, I was tired of the exhaust sud all over the rear wheel and brake system.
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Next I found a suitable radiator on eBay, cut out all kind of brackets out of the tail frame, looked like it would fit so I trimmed all radiator brackets, installed a baffle on one side and converted it to dual pass from single pass, since it would be impossible to run a 1" hose to the back end of the tail. Had to also make a custom radiator cap manifold, with a steam port, temperature sensor. The temperature sensor adds a secondary fan switching point, since the ECU only has 1 switch point. I needed low/high setup. Ended up running the fans in series for low speed and parallel for high speed, via an adjustable fan controller, using the sensor on the radiator manifold. My settings are on low 173F, off low 169F, on high 185F, off high 180F. The bike switches between low and high about 50/50 during normal riding.

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I got two SPAL puller fans, made a shroud with rivnuts for easy fan installation and tack welded the shroud onto the radiator. The entire assembly is bolted onto the tail frame with 4x 6mm bolts. I integrated a license plate mount into the fan shroud to make it simple. Using an Firebolt undertail, since it's all flat unlike the 1125R/CR one. It worked to my benefit, since it has turn signal holes integrated.

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Next up was the wiring, the most tedious part of the conversion. Everything had to be relocated, since the tail could not be used to house anything anymore. I had to shorten almost every single wire in the wiring harness. The relay and fuse boxes now live inside the airbox, one on each side. I cleaned up the factory wiring quite a bit since there was ample amount of wiring for everything just running everywhere. The ECU now lives inside the left XB scoop and gets cooled properly.

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The radiator hoses turned out to be a fairly easy setup, once I figured out how to route them. I ended up using about 4ft of stainless spring inside all hoses, to prevent possible future kinks since the blue silicone hose is easy to kink. Insulated the inside of the frame with 7mm neoprene with aluminum shielding. Best part of the cooling system- the larger black hose on the RH side of the engine, first picture. This hose actually came off the bike and was used somewhere else entirely- on the stock front radiators setup. It fit absolutely perfect in this location, like it was made to be there. I even found the factory replacement heat shrink hose clamp on eBay and made it look like it is a stock setup. It's nice to win something once in a while :D

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Since I definitely had no space for the battery anywhere on the bike, I had to get creative. Bought a used damaged swingarm, cut it in half just to see what I'm working with and installed the battery inside my swingarm. The thicker of the two plates on the battery tray serves as a structural part of the swingarm, I made it fit the hole super tight. The larger/thinner plate is there just to seal the swingarm. I left 1ft of wire inside the swingarm, to made a battery replacement a breeze. Hopefully this brand new Shorai will be in there for a long time worry-free. I do have a trickle charger plug under the passenger seat in case I need to put extra juice in the battery, so far have not used it- charging system sees 14.3V while riding with the huge voltage regulator.

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Battery access cover painted and coolant overflow tank (hand sanitizer container) installed. These are the last pictures I have taken. Will post more once I have some spare time.

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