[TPEHAK]

I relocated the horn behind the oil radiator.

The horn is attached to the CNC machined bracket

And the horn with the bracket are mounted on the highway foot peg bracket

And the horn assembly is covered with 3D printed ABS plastic shroud

I decided to make the whole motorcycle in black color. Originally my motorcycle had blue transparent airbox cover. My options were to buy OEM glossy black airbox cover or to buy aftermarket carbon fiber airbox cover. I decided to buy aftermarket carbon fiber airbox cover. I found one on MDI Carbon website with air ducts https://mdicarbonfiber.com/products...ver-carbon-fiber?_pos=34&_sid=63fc6ec12&_ss=r

I choose Twill carbon fiber fabric style and matte finish. External surface finish of this aftermarket airbox cover is 10 out of 10, but fitment is 2 out of 10. It was not properly trimmed, the mounting holes were slightly off, it also was not symmetrical! Well, after a lot of post processing, trimming and sanding the airbox edges and the holes I make it fits OK.


I enlarged and shifted the front mounting holes to be centered properly

I also had to shift the rear mounting holes

I used Sharpie permanent marker to mark the edges for trimming and erased it with alcohol. As soon as I touched the airbox with alcohol I found alcohol erased also the matte finish on the airbox exposing the original glossy finish. So basically they do glossy finish airboxes and just spray it with matte clearcoat. So did I. After I finished trimming and fitting the airbox I stripped whole airbox matte finish with acetone a covered it with fresh matte clearcoat spray

For the enlarged front mounting holes I 3D printed inserts out of PETG plastic and pressed aluminum spacer inside the inserts

The rear mounting screws required additional spacers to maintain proper fit in the rear area of the airbox. So the aftermarket Buell XB airbox cover MDI carbon sells does not fit out of the box, you need to do some work to make it fits.

For the air inlets I designed and 3D printed snap-in grills out of PETG plastic. This aftermarket MDI Carbon airbox cover is so bad that even the inlet holes are not symmetrical! So I designed left and right grills individually.

 

[Auser6guy]

this thing is going to be unreal. Credit to you.

 

[XxGRYMMxX]

bummer that your carbon stuff wasnt up to spec but def looks like you sorted it out!

 

[TPEHAK]

Thanks!

Then I mounted the rear brake fluid reservoir to the new spot on the existing bracket on the frame using the mounting adapters

Then I trimmed the rear brake fluid reservoir tube to shorter lengths to fit the new location of the reservoir and filled the reservoir with brake fluid

The front portion of the seat frame is made of 17-4 PH Stainless Steel mounted on the upper portion of the rear shock absorber

The rear shock absorber remote gas reservoir is sandwiched between the seat frame parts

Then I mounted the Scorpio alarm system components in to the seat frame.

The piezo buzzer inside my Scorpio alarm sistem has been broken after a few years of use due to vibration. So I extracted the broken buzzer from the alarm system and extended the buzzer wires outside the alarm unit to attach new buzzer remotely. I bought new buzzers here https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073FCGCYB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The new buzzer is attached to the 3D printed ABS plastic tray with 3M VHB double sided tape, the tray with buzzer is mounted on the seat frame. I soldered small 2 pins plug to the buzzer and to the extended buzzer wires on the alarm unit to be able to disconnect it in case if I will need to replace it in case it will became bad and if I will need to replace it.

The Scorpio alarm units include ignition disable relay, motion sensor, tilt and shock sensor. I had to trim the alarm system wires and pack them to fit into the tail frame

I also routed the tail light wires to the tail light to seat frame interface pads

Trimmed the wires and soldered them to the pads

Packed all the wires in the tail

 

[TPEHAK]

In this post I will show you how you can combine foldable side bar mirrors with side bar turn signals.

You will need:

- 2x Rizoma Sguardo Bar End Turn Signal https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/rizoma-sguardo-bar-end-turn-signal
- 1x CRG Lane Splitter Right Bar End Mirror HSLS-200-R https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041C94TG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- 1x CRG Lane Splitter Left Bar End Mirror HSLS-200-L https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041CC3YE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- 2x CRG Internal Bar End Mirror Adapter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000K7JD92/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1


You just will need to mill or turn the base hole in the CRG Internal Bar End Mirror Adapter spool to match the Rizoma Sguardo Bar End Turn Signal post diameter and depth. After this it is just plug and play. I additionally removed the CRG Internal Bar End Mirror Adapter spool flanges to slip the adapter closer to the handle grip, bit this is totally optional, it should work with the flanges, you just need to enlarge the hole pocket.

I used milling machine as lathe for this work. Here is the trick

Here is original CRG Internal Bar End Mirror Adapter spool vs modified

I put rubber washers between the spool and the turn signal for protection from scratches if the parts will rub each other, but this is just me, it is unnecessary option

Then just assemble the turn signal mirror combo with screw fastener from Rizoma kit and attach it to the bar following the standard instructions from Rizoma manual. For tightening the fastener with wires channel I modified the socket

 

[TPEHAK]

The next step was the most boring and time consuming stage and it took me a few months. I had to design and build new wiring harness. Prior and during this stage I drawn a bunch of different wiring layups. Here are some of them to give you an idea:

 

[TPEHAK]

On Buell XB the top portion of the engine is shifted to the right side so the rear cylinder and it is pretty close to the front right portion of the seat. That area gets pretty hot so I had to protect the seat on that side from excessive heat.

I bought Thermo-Tec Adhesive Backed Aluminized Heat Barrier https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00029KC2K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and cut a patch for the right front portion of the seat and attached it inside the seat. This is basically about 1 mm thick fiber glass fabric with adhered aluminum foil on one side and layer of adhesive on another side. So this barrier provides convectional heat insulation from hot air and infrared heat barrier from IR radiation from hot engine and frame parts in that area.

I also protected the bottom face of the airbox base from engine heat. Mostly because of I mount the lithium battery in the airbox and I need to keep that place as cool as possible.

I used same technique to cut the insulation patches as for the seat. I put masking tape on the bottom of the airbox base, marked cutting lines on the tape, removed the tape from the airbox base and put it on the sheet of insulation, then I cut the insulation patches and attached them to the bottom of the airbox.

Then I had to integrate the fuel pressure gauge into the wire harness. The Dino Tune fuel pressure gauge https://www.dynotunenitrous.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=130 goes with a plug with soldered resistors and diodes on the opposite side of the plug. I had to eliminate this stock plug and relocate those components inside the wiring loom

So I detached those components from the plug and soldered them on the prototyping board https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072Z7Y19F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

After wrapping it with heat shrink tube I can put it together with another wires in the main harness

On the fuel pressure cable I attached 4 Way Aptiv [Delphi] Metri-Pack 150.2 Pull-to-Seat Female Connector Kit 12162188 https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...-Seat]+Female+Connector+Kit+12162188&_sacat=0

On the main harness wires for fuel pressure gauge I attached Namz Delphi Female Throttle Position Sensor Connector NMD-410017 Harley Davidson https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...Connector+NMD-410017+Harley+Davidson&_sacat=0

It looks like the Dino Tune fuel pressure sensor cable for some reason does not use appropriate automotive cross-linked polyethylene insulation wires, the wires on the gauge marked as PVC wires up to 80C. So I decided not to take a chance and see if those wires will survive in the engine compartment and bought Bentley Harris Convoshield Wire Loom to protect those original PVC wires from excessive heat https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0023TSWOM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Unfortunately there is not way to replace those wires due to they go in the sensor unit and potted with epoxy. So I just put the sensor cable wires in the heat reflective loom

The fuel pressure display is attached to the special bracket on the top tree clamp with VHB double sided tape

I installed the shorter Buell Firebolt clutch cable because of I use Buell Firebolt top tree bracket and found that the clutch cable goes pretty snug around the top edge of the LSL Urban Headlight. To release that tightness I had 2 options: I need to install slightly longer clutch cable or I need to shift the clutch lever bracket toward the right side of the motorcycle. I decided to shift the clutch bracket. In order to do so I milled some material off of the clutch lever bracket to be able to shift it and to remove the interference with the Motogadget Motoscope cluster.

Then I just blackened the exposed machined aluminum surfaces with black Sharpie permanent marker

 

[Raiden]

People like you make me not even want to try and build a 'fighter...hahaha.

This is bada$$ work bro! Makes me wish I had the knowledge and time to be this meticulous!

 

[TPEHAK]

Thanks!

I started composing the wire harness from the front of motorcycle.

I also bought second 2009 Buell XB12Scg wiring harness to use wires form two harnesses to build one harness because of many wires required extension and I wanted to match the wires color codes to the original wiring diagram.

For additional wires in the main harness I bought different colors and different gauges thin wall insulation TXL wires here https://4rcustomswire.com

Specific thicker gauges wires with medium wall insulation GXL and thick wall insulation SXL I bought on Ebay.

First of all I routed the turn signals wires, gauge wires and cluster wires through the left and right controls housings so all the wires from left and right side goes together.

To mark the wires I used these stickers https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B8D62VW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

To splice more than 2 wires together I used the followed technique:

Tinned the wires tips, soldered on one wire a copper string. For all my soldering work I used this rosin flux https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ZIV85A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and this 60/40 leaded rosin core 1.6 mm diameter soldering wire https://www.homedepot.com/p/The-Harris-Products-Group-4-oz-Leaded-Rosin-Core-Solder-352837/309077354

Wrapped the copper string around the joint

Soldered the joint

Chopped off sharp corners from the joint with clippers

Preprated 3:1 heat shrink tube with heat glue liner

Cleaned the joint with alcohol and applied some high temperature hot glue to the joint https://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Melt-...ds=Yellow+Hot+Melt+Glue&qid=1580613470&sr=8-1

And applied the heat shrink tube

So wire by wire I traced them the way I wanted. The trick here is trace each turn of the wire individually, not like whole loom. Another trick is to hold the compiled wires with some vinyl tape during the work

Once one section of the wiring harness is compiled you can wrap it with tape before working on next section. I used Tesa 51026 tape for wrapping the wires looms https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016ZMXLEI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The flexing and rubbing portions of the wires looms and cables I additionally wrapped with different sizes of Black Polyethylene Spiral Wrap https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Black+Polyethylene+Spiral+Wire+Wrap&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

 

[TPEHAK]

As you can see the hand control wiring harness does not have any connectors except the headlight. I decided to build the front harness with no connectors to save space under the headlight. and to make it looks clean. Another reason for this is to prevent moisture and water getting to the wires.

But in order to be able to remove the wire harness or to perform troubleshooting if it will be necessary I had to attach connector to the harness to joint front portion of the electrical harness with the rest of the harness. I also would not be able even to build the harness without splitting front and rear portions.

So I bought TE Connectivity/AMP 26 Position connector plug https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetai...aPKRekLZQ8g==&countrycode=US&currencycode=USD and receptacle https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetai...T6%2boOdaYA==&countrycode=US&currencycode=USD

I had to modify the plug to make it slim and to to attach it to the front portion of the harness. So I designed plug shroud to cover the soldered potion of the wires on the plug. The shroud was going to be 3D printed part out of polycarbonate plastic

In order to attach the polycarbonate plastic shroud to the plug I had to machine the plug perimeter to reduce the plug section size. So I designed special fixture for the plug to mount the plug on the rotary table milling machine properly

Then I 3D printed the jig parts out of PLA plastic and machined the plug

Then I 3D printed the plug shroud

Here is how the plug and the receptacle connect together

Then I started trimming and soldering the front harness wires to the plug. The trick here is you have trim each next wire holding the plug in the place where it should be and maintain necessary wire slack and then solder this wire to the plug before trimming and soldering next wire. And of course do not forget to slip the shroud on the harness first.

After I soldered all the wires to the plug I cleaned the soldering joints with alcohol and glued the shroud to the plug with 5 min epoxy.

Then I potted the shroud cavity with flexible potting epoxy resin MG Chemicals 832FX https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetai...BEiMx5hTFRA==&countrycode=US&currencycode=USD

Then I had to build the rear portion of the harness. So I took the new good 2009 Buell XB12Scg wiring harness

And teared it completely apart

I started composing the rear harness from the front portion of the rear harness from the receptacle which joints with the front harness plug. The receptacle has seals for the wires, so there is no need for additional sealing. Also this plug has bigger gauge wires holes on the corners, so I used those corner holes for wiring higher amperage units like headlight or key switch

After crimping and connecting all the necessary wires to the receptacle I moved toward the end of the harness composing it the necessary way. And again, the secret of composing snug accurate wiring loom is to route each wire individually up to next turn and work the harness section by section

For the stater wire I used 4 AWG gauge SGX wire https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-AWG-SGX-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

For starter wire and for battery wires I used different sizes terminals https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073Y7STSV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

To cover the crimped portions of the heavy gauge wires I used thick heat shrink tubes https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BZD5T6R/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

To crimp the terminal on the heavy gauge wires I used this crimper https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017S9EINA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The battery portion of the starter wire is crimped together with motorcycle electric power source wires and covered with thick heat shrink tube. The power source wires must be correct gauge wires with thick SXL wire insulation. Those wires go the the fuse block. After the fuse you can use thin wall insulation TXL wires, but between the battery and the fuse you must put thick SXL wire and also wrap it with a lot of tape maybe. Those wires do not have any fuse protection so it is extremely important thing.

 

[TPEHAK]

For the battery main ground wire I used 4AWG Gauge SAE SGX black color wire https://www.ebay.com/itm/Premium-qu...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 I also designed and 3D printed special battery terminal adapter for this ground wire due to specific wire location

For joining the tail section wires and the main harness I used Molex MX150 8 pins connector
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetai...EKbynG9ap8Q==&countrycode=US&currencycode=USD
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetai...hfFBq7DHOug==&countrycode=US&currencycode=USD

The harness kept coming along

The diagnostic plug and the fuel pump plug were mounted on the left side of the frame near the rear shock absorbed with mushroom tape piece https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Mushroom+tape&i=tools&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

After approaching the airbox I started crimping and attaching the wires to the ECM plugs

Once I had finished with the ECM wiring it was time for the final step - the power management block wiring. So I assembled the fuse block and started routing, trimming, crimping and attaching the wires to the fuse block wire by wire

Wrapped everything up with wire harness tape

And the harness was done! Here is the idea, you just grab whole frame with attached electrical components and move it out the way to have access under the airbox

Assembled the airbox

And everything works like supposed to!

 

[MikeGyver]

I appreciate you providing all the links! Very detailed write up. I bet it proves useful to quite a few peeps.

:skully:

 

[TPEHAK]

Then I packed the rims and dropped it in the local powder coat shop to be coated flat black. The cool thing about this black color is it not only looks good but it is also significantly cheaper than the blue color coating the rims were coated before due to this black coating is single stage process.

Attached the tires

Then I cut white stickers for the tires to make the wheels have racing tires style look. I basically highlighted the existing letters on the Pirelli Diablo tires. To transfer the lettering I took pictures of the tires text on my phone camera from long distance with zoom do have minimal text distortion and scaled the text in the Solidworks sketch. Then I drawn the lines around the letters perimeter to make the letters pattern for laser cutting.

Then I bought White color 1/16" thick sheet of Buna-N rubber https://www.mcmaster.com/86795k2 This rubber has adhesive backing but I had to remove this adhesive layer after cutting the letters. The adhesive layer protected the rubber sheet external surface from charcoal contaminating during laser cutting thought, so it was useful feature actually. Another cool thing about this particular rubber sheet is it has glossy surface under the adhesive layer so it is easier to clean the letters during washing the motorcycle and they have nice bright white appearance.

I roughen one face of the rubber sheet with sandpaper for better adhesion and laser cut the letters

Removed the adhesive layer from the letters and cleaned them with alcohol

Roughen the letters on the tires with sandpaper and wiped them with acetone

Glued the letters to the tires with Weldwood contact cement following the instructions on the contact cement container

Balanced the wheels

I found black color wheel balancing weights on Ebay

Currently I use Free Spirits steel rear wheel sprocket with 50 teeth, but the pictures show aluminum Vortex 827A-49 Buell XB rear wheel sprocket with 49 teeth because of this sprocket looks more entertaining

Prior to this upgrade I used zinc plated steel hex head screws for the rear sprocket. But they look quite ugly. So I bought and installed the new better looking high strength stainless steel Grade 9 12-Point Screws for the rear sprocket https://www.mcmaster.com/96242a746

 

[TPEHAK]

The tank cover foam pads are attached to the tank cover with thin 3M VHB double sided tape

I also designed and ordered new 22 teeth front sprocket with offset. Before this I used modified (shaved down to 520 chain thickness) PBI 23 teeth front sprocket, but 22 teeth sprocket maintains more appropriate chain slack and gear ratio with 50 teeth rear wheel sprocket.

I 3D printed the sprocket out of PLA plastic prior to ordering the real metal part to check the chain slack

Then I created the sprocket drawing with necessary specifications and sent the sprocket CAD model and the drawing to Superior Sprockets http://superiorsprockets.com Those guys can do custom sprockets according your specifications and most interesting it will cost less than stock sprocket (at least front sprockets with offset cost less than similar stock sprockets with offset)! So I highly recommend them, they already did a couple sprockets for me before and the sprockets work great. They do all necessary sprockets hardening and treatment of course.

23 teeth stock PBI sprocket vs 22 teeth custom sprocket

Prior this update I used aluminum spacers to offset the front sprocket cover. But it was PITA to attach the front sprocket cover to the motorcycle because of those spacers tend to fall down during installation. i decided to address this issue and designed permanently attached spacers for the front sprocket cover. I 3D printed the spacers out of polycarbonate plastic

The spacers attached to the front sprocket cover with 3M VHB double sided adhesive

And here you go, the motorcycle is done. I believe I covered most things I've done

 

[Auser6guy]

That’s one of the best threads Ive read on here and thats saying something

:buell::drinks:

I’d love to see more pics of the finished product as well if you have the time.

 

[Mattson]

 

[TPEHAK]

Thanks!

Some of you asked me to share the CAD model. So here it is. I compiled the files together. The CAD model is pretty close to the real motorcycle and should serve mechanical design needs. There is a lot of true parts, but there is also a lot of dummy geometry parts I quickly reverse engendered for rough mock-up or just for visualization. So always check the geometry and sizes of the parts you are working with on the real motorcycle.

The link below is zip archive with files. The main assembly file consists of all the parts and it is Parasolid x_t file. I also attached drawings with CAD files for metal parts and another files I used to build the parts.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ovyT7rxVGLgPF-TQ-7kVnbGso4_-t-fV/view?usp=sharing

 

[Auser6guy]

Man youre being very generous sharing all of your hard work freely. Many others would be trying to monetise it.
For you Buel folk, I suggest you download before he changes his mind

 

[Spyrious]

Work of Art!!!

 

[TPEHAK]

There is another cool Buell XB CAD model shared with Grabcad by another guy recently

https://grabcad.com/library/buell-xb12s-senna-edition-1