headlight options.

i've been fiddling around with headlight/fairing combo's.
i had three options so i'd tried all three.
first off the Acerbis that came with the front end.

 second up i have an "alien" type:

and third option is the headlight from a '06 GSXR1000

 allright here's the verdict.. the first (orange) one is just to plain, you can see this kind on many bikes.. so not an option.
the second.. well... it's actually growing on me, although the lights themselves do suck a little, the are not directional.
the third.. i love, really love the way it looks! but not on the bike though.. it's just to wide and bulkey.

so i think unless i find a cheap MT01 headlight (which looks almost the same as the GSXR light but without the wings and a little smaller) i just go with a big round headlight..

so, i havn't made up my mind yet...

heaven...

should look like this:

yes, a fine stable of KR's..

add some more and put in a few XL's and XR's

damn... wet dreams!

i didn't find heaven though... just found the pics omline and stole them..

new projects.

i've picked up some new projects.
two Yamaha XS's and with 3 boxes of parts. they were that cheap that i just had have these two bikes.
one is a '79 XS400 the other an '80 XS400SE, these two XS brothers were an abandoned project.
for now they will be put in storage, as i'm still busy with the (re)build of Toxic and the project from Thijs; Animal.
so for now they are in the storage, and once the current projects are done, i'll start with the XS Bro's!

secret tail light project!!

JohhnyRtn over at the QCB forum has a top secret project going on..

he asked us all to keep it top secret....

but i am sure you all will keep it secret to!

first the raw materials:

the top secret work in process:

now ssssttt.. don't tell anyone!
the mock up pics:

and here it is! the JohnnyRtn eco friendly light!

nah.. it's just for fun and shit giggles!

quadcam hybrid..old and very old collide!

yes! a WL bottom with XL topend!
nice! i'll stash this idea in my head... you'll just never know when i might pop out again!

maniolds.

the manifolds are almost done, i need some flanges to mount the manifolds to the heads and they need to be powder coated.
the correct bends came in so i started measuring, thinking cutting and welding.

once satisfied i welded it all and finished i off  .

and for a little test fitting.

the carbs will be mounted with rubber grommets and i have to make a good support for them, i will do that as soon as i have the flanges welded (once i have them) and the second carb comes in from the US. (fucking unbelievable: i payed less for the second hand carb incl shipping and a good roll of exhaust wrap, than it was to buy a second hand crappy CV in my own country.!(thanks again SCB Randy !) )

now that i'm sure about the dual front head setup, i can go on with the other idea i had.

yups, i will make the exhausts come out of the seat / tail section.
damnit... me and my fucked up ideas.. this adds more time to the build. will it be ready before the weather get fine again?

XLCR replica stage 1.

Ben van Helden has been on a divine mission to make a XLCR replica.
his approach to the build was in an angle not much used. when most people who build replica's would settle for replica parts, Ben's idea was to use as many original parts as possible (and affordable) for the replica.
the best canvas to start an XLCR replica is offcourse a '79 IronHead. this is basically the same frame and engine as the XLCR. (for those who don't believe me, i still have my '79 frame hanging on the wall and the part number  for the frame is the same as an XLCR frame but with one character more)

here's what he started with:

a butt ugly '79 XLCH with good frame and engine.


here's the finished product with all the trademark parts like seat, exhaust headers, headlight mount and fairing and lots of more parts being real (not replica!!) XLCR parts.

now why is it called "Stage one" you might ask? "it looks like the real deal right?
well.. ben is somewhat of a purist, but sometimes in a little rush to get a bike on the road.
the bike is now fully functional, but lacks a few details which he will attend to do to get to "Stage 2" like making the engine wrinckle black, put on the rear controls (which he already found! very very rare part) 18" rear wheel and some more little things..

but the 79 engine has a "normal" 1 down, the rest up shift pattern, and a XLCR has it backwards (1 up, the rest down) because of the rear controls. these shifter cams are rare and expensive, so it was out of the option.
but after some brainstorming sessions on the SON Forum, the answer was found, since it is a Harley, parts should be recyclable and reusable in a simple way.

an XLCR shifter cam:

and a stock IronHead shifter cam:

if you would look closely you see some differences and if you look a lot better you see that the differences are actually similarities!
so Ben took the stock ironhead shifter cam and removed the cam axle and turned the cam and re-lined the axle.

(XLCH stock) axle and cam apart:

cam and axle in new position:

and there you go! one reversed XLCR type shifter cam!

if you want to see more (and i know you want to see more!!) about this sweet build and more bike goodness by Ben check out these links:

the XLCR replica build.

Bens Bikes.

Both links are in Dutch though, but if you can't read Dutch there are still plenty of nice pictures to drool over.

HD paves the ground for competition? and crumples their P&A sales in one blow to?

as some may know, HD is issuing their dealers to stop part sales overseas, to home builders like you and me outside the US, and independent bike shops inside the US and abroad.
and the MoCo will not sell directly to the indy shops inside the US and abroad .

home builders outside the US (like me) have to pay the 4 times higher price for parts, because they have to buy it at the overpriced dealerships. the small home builders (or at least i...) just don't have the dough to pay 4 times the price of the US price including shipping and local taxes, and still build nice bikes.


but the problem for the indy shops is that they can't stock original HD or SE parts any more.
on a parts sales standpoint of view the indy shops are going to miss a lot of income, because their loyal customers have to go to the dealer to buy some parts. but remember! the dealer sales the parts to the indy!
if the indy gets his parts from another manufacturer the dealer will loose income, the other parts manufacturer (like S&S to name one) will have more sales in little parts, and HD dealers and thus the MoCo will have less parts sales..

also, the Screaming Eagle (SE) parts can't be sold by any other than the HD dealer to the end user. for the bling bling shit, that isn't a big loss.. but stuff like heads and cylinders are a big loss. more than halve of the SE performance parts like heads, cylinders, cams and A/C's are put on bikes by indy shops.
performance shops use SE parts to make entry level performance kits. these kits can be bought for reasonable prices, and be put on your bike for normal hourly wages.
after market performance companies will jump in this void and can produce and sell more performance parts for lower prices. (hopefully)


when this happens the sales of parts and performance parts from HD and SE will plummet and giving the MoCo even more problems.



now this is just another fine example of the sick and twisted ways to kill HD from Mr Wandell.

yes.. the same idiot who pulled the plug on Buell in an effort to save some bucks. killing Buell did not save the MoCo money... it made an income loss of almost $100 Million!

so now the second step is to kill a big part of P&A sales, giving the competition more room, and killing the P&A sales done by dealers to indies?!
(bear in mind: some indies do order in excess of $40.000 worth of parts at their local dealers annual!!!)

and on another fine side note.. Wendell gets over one million dollars a year for his "services"!!(salary and bonuses)  if the MoCo hase to save some bucks the best million dollar save is to kick Wendell out and start selling to indies again!

those fuckers!