New Bueller, first bike, first bike build thread

[rory_a]

After 5 years of wanting and craving, I finally bought a bike a couple weeks ago. Local HD dealer had a '07 XB12Scg as their weekly special - $4k. 5600 miles, Valenica Orange/Amber. They had it listed as $5k off. They have a blue/amber '07 with 2700 miles at $9500, so $5k off sounds about right. Had a new tire with 0 miles, and they installed a new battery and wired it for a battery tender for me.

Stock pic, only have a crappy cell pic of it as it was...

Anyway, PO had:
- installed cheapo carbon-look turn signals front and rear
- carbon-look bar-end mirrors
- black levers
- painted the frame and rear rails satin black
- wrapped the header
- did the cheese grater mod
- and (unfortunately) removed the passenger pegs/brackets
- did a bar swap, but no sure what brand/type, they're lower than stock though - the Renthals?
- removed belt guards

So far, I've:
- removed the factory decals, screwing up the air box with adhesive remover in the process... (see below
- removed fork reflectors
- ebayed passenger peg brackets (searching for a deal on pegs)
- just ordered uly comfort kit right side scoop
- stripped it down this morning - air box, fly screen, fender, lower fairing
- started the process of spraying satin black on plastics
- breather mod coming tonight

I own/operate/one-man-show RenoStickerShop.com, so it's getting a one-off vinyl graphics kit this weekend. For now, paint on the undersides is drying, paint going on the fronts tonight.

Thanks for the forum guys, learning way too much way too quickly

I've been looking at exhausts and whatnot and at this point will probably wait til winter to do anything else - just ride out the summer. I've put over 300 miles on it in less than two weeks, and only got my m-class license yesterday

More to come this weekend or so, with pics!

 

[Pockets]

Congrats on the purchase Rory! Sounds like you're well on your way with DIY's. Can't wait to see pics!

 

[rory_a]

Forgot a couple things... added frame pucks last weekend (before I took the stupid-slow m-class test, just in case), and the PO had blacked out the dash housing.

 

[rory_a]

I need more DIYs! Not at all new to builds, but this one is 40 years newer than what I'm used too, and has half the wheels. I'm an air-cooled VW guy, and this little baby's delaying the start of a body-off Ghia build, so it's gotta be quick n' dirty.

All the crappy carbon-look bits (turns, mirrors) will probably be black after this weekend too...

 

[Stevenc150]

Congrats on the Bike and welcome to the Buell "family". Looking forward to the pics. [up]

 

[dave_xb12r]

Welcome!

One member on here, Matter, cuts custom vinyl decal for us. A lot of us have his Pesasus decals. He's been busy lately, maybe you would be interested in helping him out with his vinyl projects. Of coarse, only if he doesn't mind having someone else relieve his project back ups.

his thread

 

[ArmyMP09]

Welcome to the Buell family.. I've only been a member of the buell for a few months so welcome..

 

[browland]

oh please tell me you are not spraying the Valencia orange transparent plastics... I might cry for weeks

 

[flaya564]

I kinda thought the same thing, I have some yellow ones you could spray if you wanna trade.

 

[rory_a]

Already done. insides are already black. But don't fret - several of the screw holes were spidered. And, water spots and what not on inside and outside were not coming off. They weren't perfect condition, or I would have kept them OE and bought replacements to play with. Either way, I'd have to buy replacements if I wanted it in premo condition.

 

[rory_a]

And thanks for the welcome guys!


I'll look at Matter's thread and see if he needs some stress removal

Mine's getting a bit more than a Pegasus frame kit

 

[Snosnake65]

Welcome rory, hope you get some pics up soon.

 

[rory_a]

took pics as of this morning after finishing most of the paint, and breather re-route. but, had to rush to work, so will probably get them up tomorrow.

graphics coming, going to be cutting them tonight.

did my breather re-route a bit different - one tee under air box, line run along wires at frame rail, out the back by fuel breather, air-cooled VW fuel filter )) to let the juices flow and the air in, hidden behind the left rider peg bracket. seems clean, and I think the fuel filter will do the job to let air in and fluid out. time will tell though, it's clear so I can keep an eye on it.

tried the headlight mod too while my flyscreen was off, but got frustrated trying to get the wires out so gave up on that one for now.

bike's got 15% more hp with flat black paint on it though

 

[rory_a]

Holy hell I let this thread die......

Been tinkering, ordering, painting, and graphic-ing.

Just received my factory Uly right-side scoop set up, haven't had a chance to install

But, bike's painted and graphic'd, with the exception of small pieces like rider pegs/brackets and I still need to buy passenger pegs, found a set of brackets.

Weather's been shitty except for last weekend, when I was out of town. So, no riding

Took pics, but never remember to take them off the camera and resize


So, mods done in the last week or two:

- Breather re-route (changed the standard procedure up a bit
- Dual headlight mod (I swapped the wires on the light-side of the connector cause the harness side was being a PITA)
- Paint on flyscreen, airbox, chin, front fender
- Graphics on flyscreen, airbox, front fender, left-side scoop, frame, tail rails, swingarm (chin and right-side scoop to come)
- Removed the garbage old header wrap, might replace it though (it was garbage, painted white stuff, coming apart) - header wrap discolored/stained the headers, tried sanding them, no success. Also found a little dent/scuff in the rear cylinder pipe.
- Tuned the suspension for my weight, found it was way too soft, then tuned for the next weight up (I'm at top of level 2, bottom of level 3 - 165 lbs.
- Ordered license plates


This thread is useless without pics.

 

[rory_a]

Looking for an R top triple and clip-ons. Anyone?

Don't want to go the route of the Crossroads, want factory for cleaner look.


Other than that, just about there, for now

 

[Pauly]

PICS Rory, where are the pics?

I cant wait to see how the paint is turning out.

 

[rory_a]

So, on with the pics! Pics are not completely up to date, but close enough for now. Taken just before I reinstalled the chin, and before I removed the header wrap.....


Breather re-route was accomplished with a piece of 3/8" tubing, one brass T connector, and a Volskwagen plastic fuel filter (gotta stick to what ya know, right?)

The T went under the airbox in standard fashion, no pics of that, it's boring. Tubing then followed the wiring along the top of the framerail, persueded through the little hole to the area next to the rear shock, then along the path of the fuel tank spill tube, ending with the VW fuel filter hidden behind the left rider peg bracket (you can barely see the little white tube left of the heel guard, which serves as both the outlet/air intake):

Next up was paint - a little sanding with 1500 to scuff it up, four coats of adhesion promoter, three coats of trim/bumper black, three coats of Krylon Satin Black to match the frame - PO painted it, but I have some areas to touch up eventually:

Next up was starting on the graphics..... The bike is the sticker bike - promoting my company RenoStickerShop.com, so naturally I had to go a little overboard in the graphic department All graphics are gloss black vinyl over the satin black paint and....

First was doing something with the factory Amber wheels...

Which received a set of rim strips...

And that was finished off with some RenoStickerShop.com branding (sorry, thought I had better pics of this step):

 

[rory_a]

Oh wait - what's that on the swingarm??????????

 

[rory_a]

Forgot to mention, when I had the flyscreen off for the first time I played with the wires enough that I disabled my high light entirely, but failed to accomplish the task of the both-headlights-on-mod. So, off it came again to resolve the new issue and reinstate the bright, then to do up the dual light mod...

 

[rory_a]

Oh wait, what's that on the flyscreen, tank and frame... and why is the front fender missing??????