Hello again…
so lots of slow progress:
FORKS / FRONT END LOWERING
After considering all my options, i ended up electing to have the stock Brembo forks professionally rebuilt / shortened. I used a company called race-tech in soCal and am super happy with the results. They were able to shorten them by 2” which allowed me to get a bit closer to the look i want while still leaving a bit of travel.
Here’s the new / lower stance after put the front end back together...
MARKUP
From here, I used the image above to put together a markup / concept sketch for where i want to take the bike next. Roughly, this is what i’m hoping the bike will look like when i reattach the rear loop. I’ve been tossing around the idea of using a skateboard as a seat pan… overall, i like the new silhouette, but there’s a bit too much negative space between the engine block and the front wheel -- i’ll need to find something to do there… the k100’s look better in this regard as this area is much tighter and looks cooler (in my opinion). anyhow, here’s that…
NEW HANDLE BARS + CONTROLS
Next, i wanted to replace the handle bars. Which was slightly more complicated than i had anticipated. I had an extra set of renthals kicking around from a previous build and figured i’d use those… the stock bars are 22mm and the renthals are ⅞” (22.225mm). i figured the difference of .225 mm wouldn’t mean much in practice but that was definitely not the case. None of the stock controls would fit over the bars!
From here, i either needed to find some 22mm bars that i liked or come up with another solution… After digging around on multiple forums, i decided to sand the renthals down. This was a super scientific process that involved precise machinery and complex tools as you can see below
In any case, it worked! I slipped the controls and moved forward…
BRAKE LINES AND NEW FUEL HOSE
Because of the shorter forks, the front brake lines were a bit too long and bowed out too much. I figured this was as good a time as any to get new lines, so I purchased some (no pics of this at the moment). Soon after, when i went to fire up the engine, I smelled gasoline and saw that the fuel line running from the tank down to the injector rail was leaking slightly… so i replaced this too (super glad i caught this)
So yeah, that’s where i’m at currently. Hoping to weld the rear end on this weekend.