Hey guys wanted to do a review on some DIY mods I did over the last few years or so. Bike is a 2007 xb12scg, feel free to ask questions or review your mods. ID prefer not to do a write up style posting but I can do some if someone needs it. For the most part though envy erythema here has been done and can be searched on.
Breather rerout - didn't care for this mod, no noticeable improvement with anything. A tps reset did more good resolving idle, hesitation and hiccups that this mod. My understanding is that is helps the xb9 more than the 12s. My tips if you do decide to do this mod is to get two filters if you want to be asymmetrical and have one on each side of your bike (my OCD wouldn't allow for anything less) and take care not to damage your rear breather gasket. I damaged mine and blew oil all over the back of my bike, not the end of the world but since half of this mod is to keep oil out of the intake it seems rather counter productive to get it all of the rest of the bike in the process. Ease 1/5
Lyndal gold+ pads - borderline worth the price. While they do have excellent braking characteristics and truly almost zero dust and at least in my case truly no notable rotor wear micd each time I changed pads just changed to my 3rd set and haven't noticed but a .001 worn off in 3 sets which to my knowledge makes them worth the price hands down. The con to these pads in my opinion is that I don't like the progressive feel, I don't like my brakes to gradually work or at least not as noticably as these do. I prefer my finger to choose how progressive things are getting rather than the pads. I can see moseying down the road and enjoying these but I really wish it was a little less progressive especially during emergency stops, I did purchase this bike for its excellent response to rider input. Also I don't like gold sparkle... I will however continue to use these pads for there extremely light rotor wear and their excellent use in canyon cruising, the progressive feel is nice while braking in corners. Not for braking behind grandma who just slammed on the brakes. 1/5
Airbox delete - great mod, great look. Must must must tune directly after. If you have a flat spot, this will worsen it, you must tune!!!!! But once tuned and happy I was very impressed with the sound, look and performance of this mod. Easy to do with basic tools (hack saw and dremel, drill and some bolts). Can't say how many compliments I get for an intake stack sitting on top the bike. Top end definitely breaths better, low end suffers. It's just the name of the game. Ease 1/5
Airbox base plate heat sheild - simply wrapped the bottom of the air box base tray with high temp foil ducting tape. Really reduce the head on the air box, infrared temp before and after yielded a 19* drop with bike at 160* per ecmyspy. Dunno what that equates to in performance, no noticeable anything. This mod is really just something to do when ur bored I guess. Ease 2/5 (the difficulty of wrapping all the groves and crannys)
Hid and dual light mod - as far as driving goes this was by far hands down the best safety mod for night riding, haven't had a single car pull out in front of me or cut me off since the install (knock on wood). Visibility is superior in every way, image is much crisper. Signs are ledgable at far distance. Really my absolute favorite safety mod. A little interesting to install and find space but well worth it. Ease 1/5
Jardine exhaust - I hate this pipe. I love the sound, I would say I'm in love with the sound, but I had replacking, I don't like their service, I don't like the cost for such a simple product, I don't like the mounting bracket, I have a lot more dont likes that do likes but I am in love with the sound. I'm working on a straight pipe cherry bomb exhaust that will combine sound and give me my low end torque back, but haven't finished it yet. I wouldnt recommend this pipe to anyone, great sound sadly I hate everything else and its torque robbing design. Ease 2/5
Aggressive suspension set up - followed the suspension procedures provided by Steve (I think) and wow definitely made a nimble bike more nimble. Really helped me get the knee down a lot more comfortably and gave me tons more confidence in the canyons. 3/5 time required can be hefty to truly dial in
Ecmspy tuning - obvious best bang for you unopened buck. Love the program and the features and still somewhat simplistic, this and mega tuning really make for a lot of fun.
Ease 5/5 lots to screw up
Led turn signals and stock relay mod - I'm cheap and I like being cheap, so I modded my relay and made LEDs for my stock turn signals and brake lights. Really a great improvement, very happy with how they turned out. Much brighter and much much nicer than incandescent, really compliments the hids. Ease 2/5
Primary gear swap - swapping the xb12 primary gear for the xb9, truthfully this mod may not yield the best "dyno specs" for your buck, but it does yield the best fun factor for your buck in my opinion. I would do this mod over and over again, really this adds some serious pep to this bike and makes the acceleration of these bikes just freakin scream. I have no complaints other than the pain it was to find a heaping 250ft lb torque wrench. Really easy to make the link tool out of 1/4 flat stock, and really easy to get it all back together. Lake shore hd really helped with all the parts too, 20% off list everything came out to 167 including shipping, so it really wasn't bad. I'd probably give this a 4/5 on difficulty if your not familiar with your lady being all undressed and such.
Iron machine tylor spark plug wires - didn't notice any difference, but they are a heck of a lot easier to pull off and put on than stock, for what its worth it's the little things in life that make me happy. 1/5 ease
Iridium spark plugs - kinda settled down the idle? Maybe ? Or possibly just new plugs? I don't really know, they seem to maybe get a little more bang out of them but I have no idea, I just felt like spending $30 on spark plugs I guess. So much for being cheap. 1/5
Last but not least California carb canister removal. But thats not even a mod, that's a necessity. 1/5 ease
Soon to come:
Chain conversion
More and more and more and more tuning
And when she blows up and dies a non fiery death a big bore kit, not sure how I'll tune it but i don't care it's a friggen big bore kit.
If she doesn't die soon enough I'll probably help her along with a turbo assuming I make it that far.
Let me know what ya all think
-Nathan
Breather rerout - didn't care for this mod, no noticeable improvement with anything. A tps reset did more good resolving idle, hesitation and hiccups that this mod. My understanding is that is helps the xb9 more than the 12s. My tips if you do decide to do this mod is to get two filters if you want to be asymmetrical and have one on each side of your bike (my OCD wouldn't allow for anything less) and take care not to damage your rear breather gasket. I damaged mine and blew oil all over the back of my bike, not the end of the world but since half of this mod is to keep oil out of the intake it seems rather counter productive to get it all of the rest of the bike in the process. Ease 1/5
Lyndal gold+ pads - borderline worth the price. While they do have excellent braking characteristics and truly almost zero dust and at least in my case truly no notable rotor wear micd each time I changed pads just changed to my 3rd set and haven't noticed but a .001 worn off in 3 sets which to my knowledge makes them worth the price hands down. The con to these pads in my opinion is that I don't like the progressive feel, I don't like my brakes to gradually work or at least not as noticably as these do. I prefer my finger to choose how progressive things are getting rather than the pads. I can see moseying down the road and enjoying these but I really wish it was a little less progressive especially during emergency stops, I did purchase this bike for its excellent response to rider input. Also I don't like gold sparkle... I will however continue to use these pads for there extremely light rotor wear and their excellent use in canyon cruising, the progressive feel is nice while braking in corners. Not for braking behind grandma who just slammed on the brakes. 1/5
Airbox delete - great mod, great look. Must must must tune directly after. If you have a flat spot, this will worsen it, you must tune!!!!! But once tuned and happy I was very impressed with the sound, look and performance of this mod. Easy to do with basic tools (hack saw and dremel, drill and some bolts). Can't say how many compliments I get for an intake stack sitting on top the bike. Top end definitely breaths better, low end suffers. It's just the name of the game. Ease 1/5
Airbox base plate heat sheild - simply wrapped the bottom of the air box base tray with high temp foil ducting tape. Really reduce the head on the air box, infrared temp before and after yielded a 19* drop with bike at 160* per ecmyspy. Dunno what that equates to in performance, no noticeable anything. This mod is really just something to do when ur bored I guess. Ease 2/5 (the difficulty of wrapping all the groves and crannys)
Hid and dual light mod - as far as driving goes this was by far hands down the best safety mod for night riding, haven't had a single car pull out in front of me or cut me off since the install (knock on wood). Visibility is superior in every way, image is much crisper. Signs are ledgable at far distance. Really my absolute favorite safety mod. A little interesting to install and find space but well worth it. Ease 1/5
Jardine exhaust - I hate this pipe. I love the sound, I would say I'm in love with the sound, but I had replacking, I don't like their service, I don't like the cost for such a simple product, I don't like the mounting bracket, I have a lot more dont likes that do likes but I am in love with the sound. I'm working on a straight pipe cherry bomb exhaust that will combine sound and give me my low end torque back, but haven't finished it yet. I wouldnt recommend this pipe to anyone, great sound sadly I hate everything else and its torque robbing design. Ease 2/5
Aggressive suspension set up - followed the suspension procedures provided by Steve (I think) and wow definitely made a nimble bike more nimble. Really helped me get the knee down a lot more comfortably and gave me tons more confidence in the canyons. 3/5 time required can be hefty to truly dial in
Ecmspy tuning - obvious best bang for you unopened buck. Love the program and the features and still somewhat simplistic, this and mega tuning really make for a lot of fun.
Ease 5/5 lots to screw up
Led turn signals and stock relay mod - I'm cheap and I like being cheap, so I modded my relay and made LEDs for my stock turn signals and brake lights. Really a great improvement, very happy with how they turned out. Much brighter and much much nicer than incandescent, really compliments the hids. Ease 2/5
Primary gear swap - swapping the xb12 primary gear for the xb9, truthfully this mod may not yield the best "dyno specs" for your buck, but it does yield the best fun factor for your buck in my opinion. I would do this mod over and over again, really this adds some serious pep to this bike and makes the acceleration of these bikes just freakin scream. I have no complaints other than the pain it was to find a heaping 250ft lb torque wrench. Really easy to make the link tool out of 1/4 flat stock, and really easy to get it all back together. Lake shore hd really helped with all the parts too, 20% off list everything came out to 167 including shipping, so it really wasn't bad. I'd probably give this a 4/5 on difficulty if your not familiar with your lady being all undressed and such.
Iron machine tylor spark plug wires - didn't notice any difference, but they are a heck of a lot easier to pull off and put on than stock, for what its worth it's the little things in life that make me happy. 1/5 ease
Iridium spark plugs - kinda settled down the idle? Maybe ? Or possibly just new plugs? I don't really know, they seem to maybe get a little more bang out of them but I have no idea, I just felt like spending $30 on spark plugs I guess. So much for being cheap. 1/5
Last but not least California carb canister removal. But thats not even a mod, that's a necessity. 1/5 ease
Soon to come:
Chain conversion
More and more and more and more tuning
And when she blows up and dies a non fiery death a big bore kit, not sure how I'll tune it but i don't care it's a friggen big bore kit.
If she doesn't die soon enough I'll probably help her along with a turbo assuming I make it that far.
Let me know what ya all think
-Nathan
