XB12R cafe conversion

[nicholas900]

My new engine mounts came in. The front, other than polishing the bolt will do as is. The flat steel surface on the rear mount was bugging me in my mock up. Some careful masking, then I painted it flat black with engine paint. Just want it to disappear.

 

[jstav]

You sir, are one meticulous individual, and I mean that in a good way. I'm guessing you have other bikes to ride while this one goes together?

 

[nicholas900]

^My wife says I have a bit of Howard Hughes in me lol.

Yeah I have other bikes. I have a '13 Ducati Diavel Carbon, and a '14 Harley Softail Slim.

 

[303xb]

How do you like the diavel?

I ride with a buddy who rides the tar out of his softtail slim. He was an avid bmw motorcycle rider for 20 years...the hd slim is by far is favorite bike. I'm not a harley guy, but those are sweet scoots.

Great work on this project[up]

 

[nicholas900]

How do you like the diavel?

I ride with a buddy who rides the tar out of his softtail slim.  He was an avid bmw motorcycle rider for 20 years...the hd slim is by far is favorite bike.  I'm not a harley guy, but those are sweet scoots.

Great work on this project

Thanks.
I like all different kinds of bikes for different reasons.

The Diavel is nuts. No other way to describe it. It's got crazy low end torque and enough HP to really fly. Totally fun bike. Handles amazing. The sound that engine makes with the full Termignoini exhaust is intoxicating. It's sort of like a big sport bike with the engine tuned for low end grunt and a flat power curve up to the limiter. Riding one is the only way to understand it.

The Slim is very comfortable for me. Seems I could sit on that thing for days. Fits me good. The 103B pulls pretty hard for a big bike. It handles much better than most would think probably because of the skinny back tire. I love taking that bike out for a stroll. The old " honey I'll be back in 30 min" is always a lie ha ha.

 

[jstav]

Nice scoots. Check this out, in case you haven't seen it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1HaawJiqKQ

 

[nicholas900]

The polishing is coming along well. I'm not just polishing the parts that can be seen. This is my old rear axle bolt. It was heavily corroded. Rather than just wipe some anti-sieze on it, I'll bring it back to new.... then wipe anti-sieze on it.

I won't bore anyone with every part. Just want to give some insight on the detail on this creation. Just need to swap out buff wheels with canton and jewelers rouge. Gotta say, polished XB wheels look pretty sweet....

The frame and swing arm are still at the powder coaters. Should have it back next weekend. Then the reassembly starts. I couldn't settle on a color for the stuff. Went with the 30% gloss black jack. Gonna be black and polished aluminum. Hard to beat that combo.

 

[Alien]

Pretty cool bike & great work.

You gotta get rid of the amber wheels & go w silver or black. They really distract from the style & theme of the bike IMHO.

Great job.

 

[nicholas900]

I'll have pics of the wheels up soon. They're shiny....

 

[apsolus]

just read the whole thread, nice sir very nice

 

[nicholas900]

I rebuilt my forks today and changed the fork seals. They weren't leaking but figured this as good a time as any. I cleaned them up on the outside as well. They were pretty skuzzy. WD-40 on a red scotch bridge pad cleaned all the gunk off. Then hit them up a bit on the polish wheel. A canton wheel with jewlers rouge works good to shine them up without burning through the coating.

New hoops showed up today. Some nice sticky Dunlop rubber. Made right down the road from me.

 

[Omiotek]

did you take your forks totally apart?

 

[nicholas900]

Yup. There are some really good threads on it here and some videos. It's not really too bad. Just gotta stay organized and take your time.

 

[Omiotek]

Got some links? You tube vid I didn't find to useful as you can't really see what he's doing and he doesn't describe oiling them

 

[nicholas900]

If it's your first attempt I would suggest searching and reading as much as possible. Take different info from different places and compile it into some instructions. Do one at a time so you have an example if you get messed up. Take notes and pictures along the way would be good advise and don't rush.

This is pretty informative. I do it a little different as I have a compressor and seal drivers but here is one guys way

 

[nicholas900]

I have lots of aftermarket anodized parts going on the bike. Here is one example. An EBR fuel cap. It was titanium in color, but looked blue-ish in person. I'm going to polish up most of these parts.

I disassemble the fuel cap.

Then to remove the anodizing coating I soak it in Eastwood Anodize remover. Yes, that's a sandwich container

20 minutes later I pull them out and dip them in a bucket of water. This stops the removal process. They look like this pulled out of the water bucket.

I don't want this mirror smooth. I like the etched EBR logo and tooling marks. So I go easy on metal removal and lightly polish.

I'll be doing a lot of little parts like this. My FS tensioner, belt guard, rear sets and so on.

 

[Omiotek]

looking good. its my first time but I have seal drivers and an air compressor as well as a full line of techs. I work at a performance shop. this is just my first time tackling the bike so any help is always appreciated.

 

[nicholas900]

I picked up all my parts from the powder coater this morning. Lots-o-stuff. It all came out nice. 500 bucks for all of it and I had a few parts for other bikes (not in pic).

 

[303xb]

I love updates on this thread [up]

 

[2004xb12s]

More updates!!! [up]