Thursday, February 2, 2012
Conversion in full swing!
Received all the conversion parts last week and have been waiting to get going on the project until I had a "free" day. Well, today was it. Yesterday I ran the new fender down to Roade Studio in Bristol, CT for painting. Ron said it would be ready in a week. I also took the Today I removed the fender and lights and seat, cut the fender supports off the frame (yikes! no going back!), sealed the frame tubes with silicone, and mounted the seat and taillight. It already looks f-ing sweet!
Next I'll connect all the new rear lighting, and then the fender will get popped on next week and...DONE!!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
To Date Financial Breakdown
SPENT TO DATE
Bike $3699
Shipping 305
DEI wrap 100
Rear fender kit 305
Seat 421
Light kit 154
Plate kit 152
Big Red 130
TOTAL $5266
FUTURE EXPECTED EXPENSES
CRG mirrors $170
Fender painting 150
Reg/Ins 200
ESTIMATED TOTAL OF PROJECT = $5,800
Bike $3699
Shipping 305
DEI wrap 100
Rear fender kit 305
Seat 421
Light kit 154
Plate kit 152
Big Red 130
TOTAL $5266
FUTURE EXPECTED EXPENSES
CRG mirrors $170
Fender painting 150
Reg/Ins 200
ESTIMATED TOTAL OF PROJECT = $5,800
Build-A-Bobber - The Beginning
Build-A-Bobber, documenting the transformation of a nearly-stock 2003 Honda Shadow VT750DC Spirit. The bike was purchased, cash, on 1/17/12 from National Powersports Distributors in Pembroke, NH. They specialize in dealer trade-ins and have a huge inventory. All the bikes are given a very thorough check, tune and test ride before they are shipped to customers. I have never bought a motorcycle over the phone/internet, but it was very simple, and I trust that these guys will deliver a great bike and support any problems. They are too big to mess around with customers like that. The bike was $3699, and shipping right to my door was $305. Total for the bike shipped $4004. The bike has a scuff on the front fender, but besides that is cosmetically good. It has about 6300 miles and was owned by a woman in Massachusetts. Since I am slightly out of their local delivery area, they said shipping could be up to three weeks or a month. But today the delivery guy called me and set up a drop-off for 10-11am tomorrow! Purchased a Big Red lift for the bike, $130.
So here's the plan: take a stock Honda cruiser and transform it into a cool little bobber. The VT750DC is a good stock bike to start with because it's already low, already has pretty cool pipes, and already has drag bars. Mine has a set of Vance & Hines Cruzer pipes and a K&N air filter, but besides that it's stock. Plus the Spirit is Honda's bombproof V-twin. I'm sick of tinkering with old BMW airheads...I want something that will run forever! Not that Beemers won't run forever, of course. I, in fact, ran a Beemer into the ground finally at about 275k miles. But I always seemed to be tinkering.
Anyway, tomorrow the bike arrives! It will go under the knife pretty quickly, and I think the whole project should wrap up way before winter does. By the weekend I should have most of the supplies I need to make the change.
I'll give a brief outline of the project. The bike is now red and chrome with a black two-person drag seat. The pipes look kind of like the stock pipes on this model, but are longer and beefier. I am going to leave the same bars, but flip the risers 180 degrees to pull the bars up and forward a bit. They will then be rotated around a little to give them the "dropped" look. Black seat gone, replaced by a custom dark brown leather solo with a diamond stitch pattern. Stock fender, rear lights and license plate holder gone, replaced by snug, custom bobber fender (1/8" aluminum), chrome bullet signal lights, 1930 Ford chrome left-side-mount taillight, and left-side-mount license plate. The stock mirrors will be replaced by CRG 3" Hindsight LS bar-end mirrors. The rear fender will be matched to the stock paint (Dark Candy Red). The head pipes will be wrapped in DEI titanium exhaust wrap. When I get around to it (money-wise), maybe this Spring, I'm going to set up white-walls, probably the new Shinko 777. They're supposed to have great grip but short life. I'd be willing to give them a try even if they did only last a season.
End result? A cool little metric bobber, chrome, silver, and dark brown. I could probably sell the end result in less than 24 hours...
So here's the plan: take a stock Honda cruiser and transform it into a cool little bobber. The VT750DC is a good stock bike to start with because it's already low, already has pretty cool pipes, and already has drag bars. Mine has a set of Vance & Hines Cruzer pipes and a K&N air filter, but besides that it's stock. Plus the Spirit is Honda's bombproof V-twin. I'm sick of tinkering with old BMW airheads...I want something that will run forever! Not that Beemers won't run forever, of course. I, in fact, ran a Beemer into the ground finally at about 275k miles. But I always seemed to be tinkering.
Anyway, tomorrow the bike arrives! It will go under the knife pretty quickly, and I think the whole project should wrap up way before winter does. By the weekend I should have most of the supplies I need to make the change.
I'll give a brief outline of the project. The bike is now red and chrome with a black two-person drag seat. The pipes look kind of like the stock pipes on this model, but are longer and beefier. I am going to leave the same bars, but flip the risers 180 degrees to pull the bars up and forward a bit. They will then be rotated around a little to give them the "dropped" look. Black seat gone, replaced by a custom dark brown leather solo with a diamond stitch pattern. Stock fender, rear lights and license plate holder gone, replaced by snug, custom bobber fender (1/8" aluminum), chrome bullet signal lights, 1930 Ford chrome left-side-mount taillight, and left-side-mount license plate. The stock mirrors will be replaced by CRG 3" Hindsight LS bar-end mirrors. The rear fender will be matched to the stock paint (Dark Candy Red). The head pipes will be wrapped in DEI titanium exhaust wrap. When I get around to it (money-wise), maybe this Spring, I'm going to set up white-walls, probably the new Shinko 777. They're supposed to have great grip but short life. I'd be willing to give them a try even if they did only last a season.
End result? A cool little metric bobber, chrome, silver, and dark brown. I could probably sell the end result in less than 24 hours...
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