My mild energy sporty rebuild

[dankmelater]

Had to get the corny tough guy holding a motor pic haha. I tore down and pulled the motor on my '02 1250 this week. I've had it for a couple of years now, done tons of work on it (including the 1250 kit) and now I'm looking to overhaul it. Nothing drastic, hardtail really isn't for me. Just looking to make a nice clean and fast bike with modern functionality. I put down like 5k miles a year, mostly commuting so it's gotta be functional and comfy ish. I'll update here as I go, it'll be a slow burn since I work ~60hrs a week and have a kiddo.

The list for the winter:

- Clean/rebuild top end (small head gasket leak, plus sticking valve I believe)
- Tokico caliper conversion. I learned CAD this year, currently prototyping a caliper design to run 2 calipers on the rear rotor
- New tail light/sissy bar setup. Running 2 Prism box lights, they'll be vertical and will also be wired to work as blinkers.
- Electrical overhaul/re-wire. I'll be running a Noco lithium bat, will be re-doing the battery cover, condensing electronics to make the B side cleaner and easier to work on in the future.
- New headlight. Found a set of cool 3.5" vintage Bronco spot lights, I'll be running 1 of them, and need to sort out how to cram a halogen projector in there.
- Fabricate a new exhaust setup
- Make a new air cleaner. I made the one on there, but it can be done way better.
- Time-permitting: make a new seat (I made the current one, just need something more comfy for long hauls), and fabricate a slimmer oil tank with a similar volume.

Here's a pic of how it looks now, and another one of how it looked when I got it:





Cheers ya'll! Gonna be a good winter in the garage.

[dankmelater]

Made a bit of progress since teardown. Finished up woodworking projects for the season so now it's time to build this bike!

Got the small frame stuff knocked out over the weekend. Cut the triple lock tab cut off, never found it useful. I closed up the stock gas tank bungs, ended up cutting some 3/8" bolts to length, then welding and grinding flush the ends. I also cut a little window under the front neck, the plate that covers the front motor mount. I also reinforced the motor mount since the welds on there from the factory were a little stingey.

Got some sanding to do before it's ready for paint. Working on making the new battery/elec tray next!

[dankmelater]

More slow progress, but getting stuff done either way. Last week i chopped up the stock battery tray. My goal was to make a 2-piece thingy to hold my new lithium ion battery, and contain all electronics and controls. I picked up a NOCO lithium ion battery last fall. I installed it and road like 500 miles with it, figured I should test it out before spending a ton of time to fabricate a new tray for it.

I hacked up the stock tray and welded the new panel to it. Ended up being way more work cleaning up and reinforcing the hacked up tray, I should have just made it all from scratch, would have been a lot stronger that way. Ah well, next time.

Here's the pics:









I'm thinking the key panel gets painted black, and the battery cover gets mirror polished. I'm also thinking about cutting some square holes into the upper side of the battery cover, a la the stock style. We'll see. Battery tray isn't at 100% yet, got some refining and fitment issues to clean up. Also need to find someone who can weld the aluminum battery tray for me since I only have a shitty craftsman wire feed welder.

Next up: oil bag modification. No one makes a cool looking oil bag that mounts to stock points, so I'll be making it myself. And if I fuck it up, at least used oil bags are cheap!

[farmall]

Looks good!

What style Tokicos? The cheap SV 650 style (upgrade over old single piston HD shit calipers) or the badass more recent style:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.hdforums.com-vbulletin/540x960/13244813_872852722826949_4168381689685193775_n_d8a051670c94fdbed31057e767c81d052999e1fb.jpg

Given a single disc front end the sportbike upgrade would make performance sense.

You might also CNC a seriously stout fork brace if you like to get on it hard.

[dankmelater]

Looks good!

What style Tokicos? The cheap SV 650 style (upgrade over old single piston HD shit calipers) or the badass more recent style:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.hdforums.com-vbulletin/540x960/13244813_872852722826949_4168381689685193775_n_d8a051670c94fdbed31057e767c81d052999e1fb.jpg

Given a single disc front end the sportbike upgrade would make performance sense.

You might also CNC a seriously stout fork brace if you like to get on it hard.

Thanks! I picked up 2 sets of the older SV650 style Tokicos. Just got them rebuilt over the weekend! My buddy's sportster has the SV650 Tokicos (single rear, dual disc front) and I love the way they feel. Not as good as the recent style you linked but should suit me just fine.

Yeah I'm hoping to sort something better out for the front fork brace. Currently I have the stock fork brace on to stiffen the front end. Would definitely like something more rigid that sits a bit closer to the tire.

[dankmelater]

Slow week, work has been gnarly. Currently trying to finish fabrication on my oil tank but keep getting GD leaks, close to going back to a stock one.

Decided to quickly throw together my new tail light setup. Dual Prism Supply box tail lights. 3/8" block of mild steel has internal routing for the wires, which drop down and go into the fender through a hole behind the sissy bar supports. Stoked with how clean it's looking! Yes I know my welds are trash. No formal training, just teaching myself how to do it. I did another pass after the pics and filled some of those gaps and ground it down, looks a lot better now.

I made cardboard templates to get the lights to be parallel while mounting on the not parallel sissy bar. Cardboard template was perfect for getting the light mounting holes aligned. Not a lot of wiggle room for error there.

https://i.imgur.com/7aELASi.mp4

Best part about the setup: the lights will also function as blinkers! I tested the wiring setup on my bench and it worked like a charm. I'm using a Signal Dynamics turn signal module, and to get the rear lights to work as brake lights + turn signals, I wired in a Signal Dynamics' "Running Light Conversion Module" into the rear signals only. The module basically turns 3 wires (brake+turn+run) into 2 wires (brake/turn+run). When braking, the module gives blinker priority. So if left turn signal is active and I tap the brake the left will continue to flash as normal but the right lamp will still work as brake/run. Same concept as trailer tail lights, which have similar 3-2 wire conversion modules.

Small part of the build but I had fun. And now back to sorting out the mf oil tank so I can get the frame ready for paint...

[dankmelater]

Quick update, I ended up building the caliper adapters to run the Tokyo brakes. I ended up re-making the rear brake bracket out of 3/8" steel, the one in the pictures is 1/4" with reinforcement. I didn't feel confident in how it turned out at 1/4" thick. The 3/8" thick one feels so much better, and I was able to dial in the fitment a bit better. Didn't snag any pics of the 3/8" one but the calipers sit in the same spot. Front bracket is 2 pieces of 3/8", I lucked out that my offset needed to be 3/4" so I didn't need to shave down the piece.







Neither pieces have been cleaned up yet, few spots I need to touch up the welds on as well. I ordered some equipment to try my hand at nickel plating, so I'll be doing some experiments the maybe nickel plating these parts. I minored in chemistry in college, so it should be fun to mess around with some basic chemistry again. If the nickel plating doesn't work out I'll just paint them, they're too shite looking to waste $ on chrome.

Next up I'm making a headlamp bracket to run an old 3" ford spot lamp.

[dankmelater]

Stopped updating, not sure if anyone was interested in the progress. Got it done though! Here's some pics for posterity.



Since posting last:
- Fabricated my oil tank. Holds about 3/4qt less than stock. So far head and oil temps have been identical to how they were with stock tank. I'll keep an eye on it and add an in-line oil cooler if it gets above normal consistently.
-Made a headlight bracket to run the old spotlight bucket (and packed some nice LED components in there)
-Finished cleaning the frame then bondoed/painted it in a paint booth I setup in my tiny garage
-Rewired the whole bike using a wiring diagram I designed. Bike fired up first try, so far it's working exactly as it is supposed to.

Dual caliper setup is great but needs a better master cylinder, working with a company to find one that will work better for my weird design.

Fuel tank is by @skulltits on IG, stainless bars are by @silverbackmoto. Both are fantastic builders and fabricators, other than those 2 pieces everything else was made, painted, and polished by me.

Doesn't sound like much but it has felt like alot. Super glad to be riding and commuting on this thing again. Got a few shakedown issues to sort out, but it's getting there, nothing major. Oh, and I need to make a front fork brace, that's the only part I didn't make yet.

Cheers.

[CycleFreak]

Very nice! I dig the mix of modern and traditional mods. Should be a great rider that turns heads.