[gram]

Hi, I'm graham. I like bikes. I like different, unique bikes. I like older stuff, but I don't mind newer bikes as long as they're not covered in plastic. I like to be able to see the metal. I have two bikes right now, and like all my bikes, they're named after strippers (cause they take lots of my money for a little bit of fun).

First up is Vixen, my 1966 Triumph bobber.

That's her how I brought her home. Since then I've cleaned and coated the gas tank, rewired her, and swapped a few parts. She has a 1930s aftermarket taillight that I rewired for a double intensity bulb, new bars, kicker pedal and a few other small things. I have a set of 2" under fork tubes waiting to go in, and I'm still trying to decide on paint and a new seat.

Next up is Sindi, my 1986 Yamaha SRX-6.

She's ugly, but she's a great rider right now. I've been riding her hard for two or three years, never done anything but fluids, chain and sprocket. Now it's her time to shine. I want to upgrade her to modern technology. She's a 600cc single, 330 lbs, thin and lithe and extremely fun to ride, but she looks like a pile. First things first I'll need to find a new tank, paint it, recover the seat and figure out something to do with the rear fender. Here's where I need suggestions on you guys:

Levers. I want adjustable, nice levers but they don't make them for 20 year old, one-thousand produced bikes. What newer bikes have good looking master cylinders and levers that I could swap over to this? Do any of them come with cable clutches for the other side, or will I need to mix the bases, then get matching aftermarket levers?

Forks. Swap or upgrade existing? I'd like new wheels, so I'm leaning towards the swap. This bike won't look remotely modern with these wheels, they scream 80s. What might be a good donor for a front end? What things do I need to research?

Rear wheel. To match the front. Up to 5" wide will fit in the stock swingarm.

Mirrors. Bar end. Any suggestions?

Turn signals. Something much smaller and less intrusive then stock.

Rear tail light. Scrap the whole existing one. Scrap the big plastic fender/plate mount. Something small. Anybody see any good standalone taillights that aren't for choppers or the like. I don't need a grinning winged skull and crossbones eating a baby that lights up the H-D logo, I need some nice round or straight line LED tails.

Rear fender. What could I do with this?

I dunno how much of a streetfighter this will be, but theres not a lot of forums on the net for upgrading vintage nakeds to make them look more modern, and most every streetbike forum excludes anything older, anything thats not a race replica, anything different. I thought maybe you guys could help me.

 

[929_adam]

I dunno how much of a streetfighter this will be, but theres not a lot of forums on the net for upgrading vintage nakeds to make them look more modern, and most every streetbike forum excludes anything older, anything thats not a race replica, anything different. I thought maybe you guys could help me.

Graham, welcome to the site. glad you found us. Of course we arent gonna exclude you from all our fighter games. If its a machine (preferably 2 wheeled...not mandatory) and its not covered in plastic, and you want to modify it...We're into it.


I like your ideas to update the bike. I would start with the more major mods first, as they will change the look of the bike.

Front end swap...I would start by dropping your front end and taking some measurements. steering stem and neck of the frame will be important. Check the length of your forks so you dont end up with something way too big. steering stems can be modified...meaning pull the stem off your stock one and weld it to a new one...
Most current sportbikes are running around 50mm USD forks. Youd be best off to find a complete front end, so you arent trying to make your current bike or some other bikes parts work on there.

Since youre planning a front end swap and want matching rims....im gonna say that you'll also need to do a swingarm swap b/c i think most current bikes run a 6" wide rear rim. which you said wont fit in your swingarm.

you could avoid some of this by going with not so current technologies...early to mid 90s bikes, but it wont look as up to date.

i think i would tackle those two things first, then look at the tail section, then worry about lites and stuff. But swapping your rims and suspension systems is gonna really give your bike a new look so if you change your tail now...it might not work with the bike when your done.

:twocents:

im sure someone will have a dif. viewpoint or some other ideas for ya.

WELCOME TO THE SITE!

 

[Scrapyard]

Welcome Gram. Love the Bonnie. Are you on the JJ by chance? Thought I saw a post similar to this on there. Adam has the right idea. Take lots of measurments. I would almost sugest looking for r6 or YZF600R parts for your suspension upgrade. Particularly the rear. The R6 rear wheel is 5.5" wide the YZF is 5.0". So you'll have a good choice of modern rubber with either plus more updated looks. The swingarms would be the most difficult as both are mono shocks. The YZF uses a standard steel swingarm, so adding tabs to keep your current shocks would be simple. The front ends of these bikes are still conventional forks, but much better valving and adjustability, also braking.

As for updating the levers. Look for any modern GSXR master cylinder form roughly 96 on. The majority of them used the same lever and you can get the nice aftermarket blinged out lever to fit. The easiest way to go about the clutch perch is find a match to the master cylinder.

 

[dogbreath]

Nice bobber, welcome to the site.

 

[gram]

I am on the JJ, and you did see the Trump on there. It's a work in progress, I wish I had more time to play with it. I worked 130 hours last week, and I'm leaving town for 10 weeks next month. Stupid job.

As to the suspension swaps, I want to avoid swapping the rear swingarm. I like the Ohlins, and they're not too common, so I'd like to stay with them, even though the dual shock is far inferior to the mono. That said, I could go over to the FZ6 5" rear wheel with the stock swingarm. I'm also looking at some Duc and Buell wheel sets, looking for something interesting that will fit style wise.

Forks I need to research more. Anybody know of any reading material on fork swaps, fork design etc? I don't know much about modern ones.

 

[929_adam]

use the search function and try: forks, front end, swaps etc. stuff like that.

i had noticed the ohlins and figured you wouldnt want to get rid of it...but if you change your mind im sure you could get some good dough for it.

man sounds like your gettin worked to the bone!! :skull: what do you do for work?? (if you dont mind me asking)

 

[fslflint]

hello, good ideas thus far.

lol. I thought I was the only one with those wheels on this site, guess I'll just have to share the honor now.


I'm fightering an 87 fz-700. one of the other yamy sport bikes with no aftermarket support. so I'll just share my ideas and solutions

I am addressing the front suspension with a fork swap from an 02 gixxer 750, custom tripples snd wheels and brakes from a gixxer. I, on the other hand, plan on keeping my reseviours. I like the solid metal ones. I think the newer plastic reseviours look like urine sample cups.

for the tail. some people go with a tail chop or they swap out a new tail. I'm kinda just going minimalistic.

you could always just chop off the rear fender and go with a small strip of LEDs for lighting. its easy and cheap. and it'll make a huge improvment on the looks

 

[enrico vespa]

I love that bobber

 

[katana john]

WELCOME TO THE MADNESS

 

[KANE]

Welcome to the site. You ahve some unique and kick ass bikes there.

 

[gram]

Thanks for all the kudos guys. As for work, I'm a field engineer for an oilfield services company. This is a life where 80 hour weeks are standard, and two weeks away from home is a short trip. I may have to start paying people to work on my bikes, just so I can have some time to ride.

Because of the rareness of the SRX, I don't want to modify the frame at all, and I want to remove the stock parts completely so I can swap back to them if I sell the bike. That's why I want to keep the stock swing-arm, any swapping or modifying the swing-arm will likely not be reversable.

How is doubling the wheel width going to affect the handling of the bike? Going from 2.15/2.75 widths to 3.5/4.5 or 3.5/5 is going to seriously change things, I think. I'd like to use the Aprilia RS50 rims, they're like 2.5/3, but the front only has a single rotor.

The YZF600R is looking like the best donor right now, I guess. I could go Ducati and use the monster 3.5/4.5, and get Ohlins up front too, but I need to figure out something for the rear axle, as the Ducs use some funky axle size, right?

 

[Scrapyard]

The handeling will most likley improve. You'll have more traction on lean in and probably more flickability from side to side. Also, the wheels may end up being a bit lighter wich leads to less rolling mas and better acceleration. This may be marginale but more then likly noticable.