Vulcan 800 Bobber Project

[Social_Misfit]

I'd keep the fork covers, looks good with the wider front tire...I run 10" z bars with short risers...I like it...thought about mini apes, but alotta kats run em, and I wanted to be different...eh..my .02..

[MikeGoodwin]

Yeah, a ton of dudes run mini apes but since they are common I can find them really cheap. I haven't found anything else that I liked enough to pay a lot of money for. Do you have any pics of your bike? I'd like to see what you've done to yours.

Some progress today.

Stripped the ugly metallic lime green paint off.

Repaired fender.

Blacked out lowers.

Blacked out air cleaner cover and dash panel.

Here's what she looks like now.
I removed the adhesive residue from the badges after this pic was taken.

[goddarddr]

fender and seat makes a big change in the look. any plans for the exhaust ?

[Social_Misfit]

I got pics under the show off your ride section...but here's one...
[IMG][/IMG]

[goddarddr]

ya. those have the look

[Social_Misfit]

Thanx brotha...like I said, I dig em...she's low n loud...just my style...hijacking done...sorry Mike...

[mumbles]

Z-bars look great on a bike like Misfits with the 21".
Mini apes or some springer style harley bars would fit the look with the fork covers on the classic, no?
And the cables would pretty much fit execpt for the clutch if you go with the mini's unless you go with a hand shift-foot clutch set up.

[goddarddr]

stock clutch cable with 10" apes worked fine on my 800A. might need a little re-routing

[mumbles]

It's been a while since I tried using the stock clutch cable with 10" mini's but as I remember if the cable was routed behind the tree, it would bind against the gas tank. It was with a stock gas tank also.

[MikeGoodwin]

Yeah Dave, it really makes a big difference. As for the exhaust, I plan on cutting the big mufflers off the end of the stockers and welding the rear section of some sportster drags off of the stock 1 3/4" head pipe. I want to wrap it up to the weld so all that is left showing is the chrome end.
Misfit, your bike looks great. I like those 10" z bars but its just not the look I'm after.
Mumbles, some harley springer bars were exactly what I was looking for when I started planning my project but couldn't find any that weren't for a springer fork. I found some that were similar but they were pretty expensive.

[Alley Rat]

Just a tip for the exhaust. The stock exhaust has an inner pipe so when you cut the muffler off be sure to weld the inner pipe to the outer to make it solid. If not it could break at the head. It won't mess anything up but you will have that inner pipe rattling in the exhaust.

Looks like it is going good so far. Keep up the work.

[MikeGoodwin]

No new progress on the bike yet because my project budget is running low right now but I have been brainstorming some exhaust ideas and hopefully will change them soon. I also found some sweet Vulcan 800 chops on a french website that I thought ya'll might like. The last one is my favorite.

[cike]

I think I like either the second one (except the rear fender) or the 3rd from last the best. IMO.
The last one that you liked has a video on youtube with some pretty cool music if I remember right. that is a nice bike. It has a old school look to it while looking verry bad*ss as the same time. The background looks great for the pics.

[MikeGoodwin]

I haven't had much time to tinker with my bike lately but I did get a chance to get the front tire mounted.

I really like these tires, they're super fat. I spent a good part of my afternoon monster trucking around north houston.
Thanks for the tip on the exhaust alley rat. That should be the next thing I try to tackle. I have never done anything like that before so any tips/warnings are welcomed and appreciated.
I have ridden about 1500 miles since I put the Ultima solo seat on and I just don't like it. I don't know if it is the angle that I have it mounted or if the curve of the seat is just too shallow. At any rate, I have decided to try my hand at making my own seat from the pan up and do the leatherwork myself. I should get started on it sometime before Christmas but I want to do my bars and pipes first.

[cike]

was just wondering today how your bike was comming along. I am so jelous that you got to spend most of the afternoon riding. Man here in ohio we are suppose to have like 1-2" snow 2mro. Might get to sneak in a day here and there but riding season is over pretty much for this year..
I hear ya on the seat. I have the ultima also, mine was mounted where the arch for the back was parralel with the ground. I kept sliding back. I am currently trying different ways to mount it to change the angle.
If you get a chance check out the seat that IMB4U got for his bike from west eagle. (page 13 of his thread) It's a little high priced for a poor boy like me, but I like it. Big arch in the back.
Just did my exhaust. Here are some of the things that I noticed. (I made just straight pipes.)
big loss in bottom end power. i have a 95 so my sproket set-up is different from yours. It might not have been as noticable on your 02. You really need some back pressure to keep from losing this power.
These pipes are loud. My wife has a sporty with 2" straight drag pipes and these are as loud if not louder then her bike. With my sprocket set-up, I have (had) great take off power, but this causes my RPM's to be high at say 60mph. High RPM's with loud pipes makes it really loud. not trying to scare you away, I love the sound at take off's and idle just not at higher speeds.
Ebay and I'm sure other places sell these little 4" baffles that might be worth trying when you do it. I think you can get them for about $7 a set. I wish I had tried putting them in my pipes, held the pipes together and started it up before I welded everthing together to see what they would have sounded like.
I have a harley buddy that takes these and cuts off the smaller dia. part. and uses it just to get some back pressure. (see pic)
Sorry for the long post. Your tire looks good on the bike, and if you do the seat yourself post pics along the way. I'll be watching to see how it goes. maybe I'll be doing it next.

[cike]

If you haven't read my thread yet I was just picking on you because you put on this new avater pic and hadn't posted any new pics with the painted fender and new rear tire....anyway I looked back through your thread to make sure I hadn't missed anything and sure enough there was a big pic with a painted rear fender and a new rear tire...Dang it, i thought I had you on that one.
How does the bike ride and handle with the new tires? whats next?

[MikeGoodwin]

Haha, I guess I forgot to mention that I painted the fender. I was planning on painting the bike a few weeks but I didn't have enough time to do it so I just shot a quick coat of black over the fender so I didn't have to ride it around with that ugly green fender.

I have ridden almost 500 miles since I put the new front tire on. I can't really tell the difference in handling but that may just be because I haven't been riding very long and can't notice subtle differences yet. However, I do know that they look darn cool and that's the main reason that I chose them. My tires were pretty worn out and I needed to replace them any way. I was planning on getting some firestone replica blackwalls from Coker tire like the ones zero has but i chose these thanks to a tip by alley rat on dave's thread. They ended up being about half the cost of the ones from coker(thanks alley rat).

whats next?

Well, my exhaust is the first thing that I want to do. It may be a few weeks before I get to it though because I blew through most of my project budget on the tires. I want to do just straight pipes but raise my rear pipe so that it is even with the bottom of the side cover. I have also been considering doing a set of 2-into-1 with an upswept cocktail shaker on the end but it would be a lot more work. I have pictures of both but they are on my computer at home. I will probably end up using baffles like the ones you posted. I also need to do my bars but they will have to wait.

As for the avatar picture, its just camera angle trickery that makes it look cool.

[cike]

you can have my tips I didn't use if you need them..see the post in my thread

[cike]

supprise...your tips were shipped Saturday. like i said before, if you decide you don't want to use them it won't hurt my feeling. If you use them, that is great too.
i have went back and looked at this bike from previous post several times, and I keep likeing it more and more..you think the front end has baan lowered.

[MikeGoodwin]

72 and sunny yesterday here in Texas. Took my bike for a 180 mile ride without having to wear a jacket and it was really nice.

Just wanted to make you guys up north jealous (although its probably the last time I'll get to do that this year).

Cike, that bike is lowered, if you look close at that pic you can see that the fork tubes extend past the top tree. I don't know if the springs were cut too but the forks are dang low. I like it.