EriqX / Projects / Suzuki

THE CONCEPT

On April 16th, 2007, while celebrating a promotion-in-the-works, I decided I had put off a motorcycle long enough. I had previously taken the motorcycle safety class in anticipation of purchasing a bike one day, and I finally decided to make it the day. Much like my Subaru project, I'm mostly looking to make some subtle and simple modifications that will make the vehicle feel more like mine. In this case that is especially true since the bike was previously owned and altered.

RIDING SEASON 2007

It didn't take long after I bought the bike for the same bug to bite a number of my friends. In fact, within 60 days of my buying the bike, 4 people I know purchased their own. This came in handy for some group rides. Mike was the first to have both purchased his bike and complete his rider course, so I ended up doing a lot of riding with him, and on many occasions, he and myself would take Jessica and Mo out on some extended rides. Mike's bike is the silver/black Yamaha FZ6 pictured. The summer was off to a great start.

Matt also got his hands on a Suzuki SV650. His is the Sport model. It's the blue one pictured. The 3 of us got a little riding in together toward the end of summer, but not a lot. Hopefully future summers will open up some more riding opportunities that we can all take advantage of. We each live in different cities, so coordination is tricky at times.

I BOUGHT A BEATER

There were a number of things I needed to do to the bike, and a number of things I wanted to do. When I first bought the bike, it was used, and it was just slightly beat-up. At the time my logic was that I was a new rider, and it would be stupid to buy a nice new bike, and risk putting it down in my inexperience. Unfortunately for my thought process, and fortunately for me, I got used to riding pretty quickly, and became very comfortable very fast. I never dropped the bike, nor even came close. And I started wishing I had bought a nicer bike to begin with.

NEEDS

At the top of my list of needs, was some replacement plastic for the back end. The previous owner obviously dropped the bike at least one time, cracking the tail end plastic on the left side. I needed to replace this section at least if the bike was going to start looking nice and new again. I also need to fix the turn signals. The previous owner all but eliminated them. I like the slick look of non-bulky signals, but I need to find a safe in-between. Another need was the windshield. It was aftermarket, crappy, and slightly ugly. The real issue is that it lipped just slightly over the headlight, so at night light would actually reflect back at me. This was annoying and slightly unsafe. I needed to replace it with a nicer one.

WANTS

The needs lead into what I want to do. Since I'm replacing the plastic, I may as well paint it. Red is a very common color for bikes, unfortunately it suits me when it comes to vehicles. I'm going to start by painting the fender, tank, and rear plastics red.

I'd like to update the lights while I'm at it. Since they're too small and can be difficult to see in certain driving conditions, I'd like to upgrade every light on the bike to an LED, and I'd like to add more. I don't want it to be all decked-out and gaudy. I would just prefer to have more, smaller, brighter LEDs, over the alternative of going back to factory style gigantic turn signals. I'm going to start with a Clear Alternatives integrated brake light/turn signal. After that, there is a company that will integrate LEDs into the passenger foot pegs out there. I'm going to get in touch with them as well.

I'm considering a dual-headlight mod, but I haven't found any that I really like yet. There are some pictures out there, but nothing connected to a product I can actually order. If I can get this figured out, I'll be able to get a new windshield that actually integrates with whatever headlight setup I end up going with.

Last, I'd like to add a chin spoiler, or belly pan. The trick here is that I'd need it painted to match, and if I don't get one early enough it may be pushed back to a later date.

LET THE PROJECT BEGIN

In early March of 2008, I basically committed to at least the paint job. The bike was being stored in Mike's garage in Madison for the winter. The two of us took a weekend to do some work on our respective rides, and I spent the time taking off all the paintable parts.

CURRENT STATUS

15-MAR-2008
As of this writing, the bike remains in Mike's garage, in pieces. The paintable parts are in a box awaiting arrangements to be confirmed. More to come as things develop.

29-MAR-2008
I've made arrangements with a painter through a mutual friend, and the parts are being prepped and painted now.

I also sent out my passenger pegs to be retrofitted with LEDs for turn signals, through a dealer called DZ Powersports.

And finally, I purchased the needed factory Buell Lightning XB parts to create the dual headlight look I want. I got the parts from Latus Harley-Davidson, which was the cheapest I could find. I took a gamble and ordered the flyscreen in transparent red. If it looks good I'll run with it, if not I can always paint it later.

11-APR-2008
As of this writing, the paintable parts are now painted, returned to me, and the bike is re-assembled.

I also received the finished passenger pegs, complete with new LED retrofit. These have been installed but I still need to secure the wiring properly.

Today I received the tracking number for the Buell headlights, which should arrive by next weekend.

10-MAY-2008
I've re-wired the rear passenger peg LED turn signals, and I've now installed the Buell dual-headlight mod, along with the Buell flyscreen.

I'm very happy with the new look of the bike, and how far it's come in a short time. As of now I'm considering my winter project technically "done", although I'll continue updating here as I make further changes and modifications.