A Pictorial history of the evolution and mutilation of a motorcycle.
I bought her bone stock in 2006. 1983 Yamaha Venture XVZ1200
After a few mods- 2007. Chopped windshield, exhaust and tupperware.
More mods and hacking 2008
(December 2008) The Mid Life Crises begins! or continues- whatever
Shortened and lowered rear frame assembly
Have welder need practice
Harley rear fender mock up. I am an ebay junkie
Bought a set of Honda 550 rear shocks, hacked em up and made these cool looking fork springs
Another side view, forward controlls still need linkage
I utilized more of the 550 shocks and a couple of #8 bolts to fab these risers
Here is a mock up of the brake linkage
Clutch master cylinder relocated from handle bars
Jocky shift mock up
Engine stripped of black paint, I think it will be easier for an old guy to see what he's working on now. :)
Rear Fender bolted in. The rear holes lined up perfectly but I had to drill the front holes in the frame and then weld little tubes in the holes
for the bolts to go through. I wanted to keep the frame sealed up so water and crud don't get inside the tubes etc.
Well, got the headlights mounted after a lot of fussing and time wasting. I had to come up with some wedges to place under
the brackets so the headlights were not aiming up.
Here is the air intake that I made out of pvc pipe fittings to replace the massive jack in the box deal that was on the carbs before.
It looks like it will fit under the tank just fine, but I won't know about performance for a while yet.
Also, notice that I swapped the handlebar "uprights" from left to right. Good thing I have long ape like arms :)
I don't know about this tank, this is the second tank that I've bought. The other one was a beautiful tank off of a M109 Boulevard but it was way too BIG.
Fortunately I got a good deal on both tanks so I'm able to resell and come out ok. Anyway, I will have to chew on this one for a day or so. Any thoughts?
After reshaping the V Star seat down to size and fitting it to the bike, I have decided to stay with the Intruder gas tank. I was considering cutting the double backbone out and welding
in a single section but with the carbs and air intake on top of the engine there would still be issues getting a conventional tank to fit like I want. So it is what it is. Anyway, here is a pic of the "cross" that I
fabricated so to accomodate the mounting of seat and tank.
Here is the ride with tank and seat in place.
Battery box made out of an old ammo can. I am using an absorbed glass mat sport bike battery- compact and light weight.
More chopping on the front fender. Also replaced the garage door chain with chain gang type on ther rear brake pedal.
The Freebie Sissy Bar. I made this from some donated steel, here we have the mock up and measure stage.
I ran out of wire for the mig so one side is mig and the other stick. My welds are not the most beautiful and I do better with a stick welder for some reason.
Sissy Bar installed, now I won't have to worry about Wifie flying off the back when I open up them four Mikuni's.
"Pipe Dreams" Well my plans were to use the stock exhaust system with some shorty mufflers but when I was removing the head pipes to wrap them in exhaust wrap,
I broke the collector chamber. So after much thought, trial and error I have come up with this four into four set up. These pipes will get wrapped and secured with brackets next.
Exhaust completed, well at least until I get the engine running.
Painting on tank and fenders. The front fender is plastic and I think it obsorbed the prep solvent because the primer bulbled and cracked so we'll have to do it over, but
the tank and rear fender came out pretty good.
You cannot tell by the pic but the coils, module, regulator and solenoid are mounted. Lots of bracket fabrication going on. Also,
the brakes and clutch are all bled out and working and as you can see the painted tank and fenders are in place.
My favorite part- DC Electrical! Out of all the labor I have put into this rat, this is the fun stuff. Time consuming too.
Fired up the engine on Tuesday March 10th for the first time since I began the chopping in late December. WOW! The 4 into 4 pipes sound mean and nasty! I hope to put up a video when the bike is complete.
Here is a pic of the fake nitrous bottle made from a fire extinguisher which is actually my coolant reservoir. I also had to make an overflow bottle (cause I like to overfill everything) from
a fuel treatment container because while on a test ride I got a face full of antifreez/water solution once I got the bike up to temperature and highway speeds. Yuk!
Here are a few more pics of the mostly finished ride that I have named the "Flying Rat Trap". I must be getting impatiant or just becoming an old codger because I have
really managed to beat the crap out of my paint job while putting this thing together. Oh well it is a bit of a rat so it is what it is.
Well I have abandoned the jockey shift and the the chain linkage on the brake even though they looked cool. Also, added the windshield and made the dice shift knob into my gas cap.
Well, I have exhausted all the money and time that I can on this project. Thanks for all the comments!
Tim
