XB12R cafe conversion

[nikfleisch]

[up]

(drooling)

 

[DrogeN Omen]

[up]

awesome skills man.

cant wait to see the finished product.

 

[netty2424]

I usually cringe when I see Buells torn down for projects like this and have to admit still don't know exactly how I feel about this one. Having said that, this is hands down the best one I've seen so far and also have to admit that I'm intrigued to see the final product.

Digging the creativity! [up]

 

[nicholas900]

Finished fiberglass seat. Then I mocked up the tail with some scrap steel bolted to the back of the hub bolts and tacked to the tail. This will hold it nice and steady to measure cut and notch my frame tubing. Gonna look at it for a few days and make sure I like the height and angle. Then out comes the protractor and math. Grrrrr.

 

[nicholas900]

If anyone is interested in how to make fiberglass parts. These videos are very informative. I have no connection to dime city. But they are cool dudes. I use a bit different technique. But basically the same.

part one mold



part two fiberglass

 

[08herobolt]

I'm in awe of the bike and the talent. Looks amazing. Great vision. Now finish the damn thing so we can see the end product.

 

[nicholas900]

Lol. Thanks man. I wheeled it out of the garage today to clean up and blow out all the fiberglass dust. It's the first time I looked at it from any distance. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Lots to do yet. Hoping to be 100% by March.

Right now I'm just having beers thinking about colors.

 

[StreetRod]

Very nice work. BTW I have red plastics and would love Black ones, seeing how you are looking at painting let me know if you would like to work out a deal on plastics.

 

[nicholas900]

Finished the tail support....

 

[XLXB]

That's a beautiful thing... It's looking great. [up][up][up]

 

[jlightning]

[up]

 

[nicholas900]

Thanks fellers.

If anyone is interested in making tube frames.... you will need a decent notcher. I have a JD Squared "notch master". Its a nicely made american made tool at a reasonable price. As you can see in the picture you just need a drill to cut accurate notches.

 

[snrusnak]

Hey just want to say a couple things:

First of all, very impressive work, looks really great

Second, thanks for sharing your information, your techniques, tools used, etc. Most people try to hide that stuff for themselves and keep it as a secret. It's really cool of you to share with others to help them out. [up]

I've definitely picked up a few things just seeing these pictures.

 

[pur pony]

looks great! Love the cafe look

 

[djs2k2]

impressive [up]

 

[nicholas900]

Now I need to plan out the location of the components to mount in the new tail section. I decided to start with the tail/brake light. The best idea I could come up with was to french it in the seat loop.

I am using a custom dynamics 12 led tail light. It has super bright LEDs and is pretty small and discrete. It seems to be very bright. Then I came up with a plan built around the light.

First I made a box to house the light. A trick I've learned along the way is to make a foldable box, rather than try to weld together what would be lots of very small things. So I cut out the shape, but only go half way where I'll fold it. I used 16 gauge plate steel and just use a grinded to cut it out.

Then I fold it up and square it up with a few hammer taps.

Then to keep the inside of the pocket clean I weld up my box from the outside. This will keep an even surface to mount the light. I measured and cut out the recess in the tail then clamped in my oversize box. Then I ground it flush around the hoop and welded it in.

After a little clean up....

There you have it. A frenched in brake light.....

 

[BenAlpha]

Amazing work!

Thank you for sharing the process and all the great into. [up]

 

[nicholas900]

^thanks dude. Yeah... it's crazy bright...

 

[twoguns]

this is a great looking project.

you started with a firebolt by the looks? so was the wiring hard to re route. was it a lot of cutting and joining or just fiddly moving?

 

[nicholas900]

It was a Firebolt12R. The wiring was fairly involved. Everything had to be either lengthened or shortened. I soldered all the splices and shrink wraped them. That honestly was the most difficult part so far.