Wrench'n Ride'n

When I took delivery of my Danmoto clips-ons they sent me one clamp that was the wrong size. While the replacement was on its way i played around with this set up.  "DanMoto Clip-ons done different..." Today the replacement clamp arrived. So I fitted them the way they are intended to be done. They feel great. Just a bit lower than the OEM bars. Yet I can adjust them in so many ways to suit.  Took the bike out for a bit of a blat and the mirrors do not blur at all now. Vibes are being soaked up by the forks. Hard revs and I get a tingle through the bars. They are wider than my fake Jota bar setup. I am very surprised with how comfortable they are.  

I had a brain wave. Or brain fart, depends on how you see what I have done. Instead of mounting these clip-ons to the forks I played around with some old Renthal bars by cutting them up and fitting the clip-ons to these. I have made my own set of Jota Bars. Adjustable as anything. I will carry an allen key with me till I get the bars set in just the right position. The way I have them they are way narrower than the OEM bars. Which I really like the feel of so far. The only down side is to have them any higher will need a longer brake line.

I have decided to get clip-ons for the Bandit. As much as I like the Renthal Ultra Low bars I am searching for more comfort. Less vibration through my hands. So after reading some reviews on the DanMoto clip-ons and seeing as they are around $100 I thought I would give them a go. Yes I know they are made in China. Hey come on Kawasaki make some of their 650 Twins in Indonesia and sell them around the world. Yes i know that some of the first batch of these clip-ons had some breaks under heavy braking. That was a few years back now and I have yet to any feedback since then to suggest that they are still crap. So I thought I would give them a go. I ordered them just as Chinese New year was happening. So had to wait for that to finish and then they were sent via EMS. Real quick postage this. I had them within 4 days. Open the packet and find they sent one fork clamp that was way to big for my forks. Quick emails between me and them and they have sent me a replacement c...

The bar end mirrors I bought off eBay have not lasted long. The right hand mirror ended up flapping around on my hand the other day. I was riding along when the mirror decided that it had enough. So I have ditched them and bought some "N" clamps to hold mirrors on stalks (more on this in a another posting later.) I have also made some frame side covers. On the "S" because of the fairing the covers up near the steering head are not supplied. I could have bought some new or second hand off eBay but decided to make my own. As I call my Bandit 'el-Lobo' ,which in Spanish means 'the Wolf' I have engraved a wolf into the side plates. These plates were cut from 2mm aluminium. Shaped, engraved, painted and then mounted. One on each side. They cover up all that wiring etc that stands out like dogs balls with no cover.

The last thing to do for this naked conversion was to get some hens teeth. By this I man the "N" full pod covers. You can't get them from wreckers in Australia as it looks like the 1200 Gen2 "N" was not imported here. So off to eBay I went and bought some from the UK for a 600 Bandit. Same part as the 1200. I knew that they did have some scuffing in the chrome. This was rubbed back. Several layers of matt black paint later. Brackets to hold the instruments had to be altered to fit the covers on and now the bike is done. Until I find something else to fiddle and change on it.

Done and dusted now. Made some small adjustments here and there to the headlamp brackets and the routing of the throttle cables. Had a chance to wash it today too.  

I now have a Low beam that is not on when the Hi beam is used. The "S" Bandit has two headlamps. Which has the low on when the high is used. When you go to a single headlamp you have to bypass the fuse box for the low light. I took the fuse out. Then as Mexi-can't over on the ADV forums suggested I find the white wire that comes from the switch block for the light toggle and break into this wire and connect it to the low headlamp wire. Bingo now the Low is off when the Hi is used. I will have to put a fuse into the "new" low beam wiring.

Where did I get the bits from to do this conversion?? Headlamp brackets ordered from C-J-Accessories eBay store . I have orderded from him before. Top seller if you ask me. 7inch H4 headlamp from my BMW. Bar end mirrors. I got these off eBay. Search  eBay for them. There are heaps. Eastern Beaver  Make this harness for H4 globe. I did have to cut and solder into the headlamp harness of the bike to fit this.

Jan and I went to The Entrance for lunch today. I like that it is about 15 minutes up the road. Also gave me a chance to see what the Bandit is like Naked. I love it.

It is done. Wiring harness from Eastern Beaver could not have been easier to put in. I did have to cut into the bike's headlamp harness. Solder is my friend. The low beam is still on when the high beam is on. That I will fix later. I had to fabricate some blinker brackets. No big drama. Had some flat aluminium stock laying around. Cut shape and drill and they are done. When I took the fairing bracket off I noticed how heavy it is. I have taken the bike for a ride up and down the street and the front end feels so much lighter. Will have to adapt to this when it comes to spirited corning. I did have some trouble getting the bike started after I put the tank back on. I don't know if it the fact that there was no fuel in the carbs or not. Prime setting on the fuel tap seemed to help as it took several goes to get it to fire up. Now that it is warmed up it starts and runs fine. As far as I know I connected everything back up the way i...

Headlamp bracket arrived this arvo. Alloy brackets and the seller also put some stainless hex bolts in to replace the chrome plates ones. Lots of wires to pull back under the tank. Tomorrow will wire in the harness for the headlamp and make brackets for the blinkers. Then the nakeding is done.

It has begun... Bar end mirrors have arrived. This started an avalanche of stripping. Which is good as now I can start to make the instrument mounting bracket and have a good look at the wiring to see how to get the H4 single headlamp hooked into the harness. Took about 3 hours. When the wiring harness gets here from Eastern Beaver and the headlamp brackets from eBay I shall be fully naked.

My Bandit "S" is going naked. Headlamp brackets ordered. 7inch H4 headlamp from my BMW. May respray the bucket satin black. Bar end mirrors order. Will spray the bar end parts satin black. Contacted Eastern Beaver about making me a relay harness to convert from twin globes to one H4 globe. Waiting his reply. Instrument shrouds? Will either use a Buell style fly screen to cover this great naked ugliness up as the "S" does not have any bottom to the pods. Or see if the black BMW pods I have can be cut up and used.