What's Black and White and Red All Over?

[Chadsquats]

I bought an 800B a couple of weeks ago with the intention of customizing it. I really like the bobber look, so it will definitely show that influence. I'm pretty confident with basic mechanics, but have never attempted anything like this. I've read through a lot of the threads and was inspired to give it a try. If I can figure out how to post pictures to the thread, I'll document the project. If not, I'll just let you know how it turns out when I'm done.

Okay, so I finally figured that out. Here's what the bike looked like when I got it home. I didn't waste much time taking a few of the accessories off, and pretty soon it looked like this:

I liked it a lot better once I got the bags and passenger backrest off, so I left it like that for a couple of weeks. To be honest, I was too nervous to go any farther. I rode it around and had a blast on it. I hate the bars that are on it, but love the Mustang seat. I wanted to put a solo seat on the bike, but was starting to have second thoughts because the seat was so comfortable and (wonder of wonders) my wife even enjoyed riding on the back. Well, this afternoon I finally broke down and started taking the bike apart. I took the front fender off first and thought, "Oh crap, what am I doing?" But after composing myself, I took off the seat and the back fender. By the time I got that stuff off, I was starting to get excited about the project. I had to attend to my family, so that's as far as I got today, but I'm excited to get back at it again. So, here's a picture of what my bike looks like now. The windshield will be the next to go, along with the crash bars. I'm not sure about the driving lights. I like the look of them, but don't know if they'll fit in with the overall look of the bike down the road.

[NCDave]

nice!

[jeffs99vulcan]

AWESOME!!! Welcome to the forum!

I have a REAL soft spot for 800's-turned-bobbers, so I'll be watching CLOSELY! There's no shortage of ideas for these bikes on here, and no shortage of pics to give you ideas... as I'm sure you already know.

And if you DO decide you're done with the light bar, PLEASE let me know!

P.S. Mustang makes that same seat in a two-piece and the solo does look a lot better, with a one-bolt quick release for the passenger pillion... sorry I don't have a bigger picture handy.

[Chadsquats]

You're right, Jeff, the solo Mustang looks a lot better. I'm leaning toward making my own seat, though, or getting a sprung seat. I found some time to get out to the garage and work on the bike. I got the windshield and crash bars off. I was a little hesitant to remove them, but now that they're off, I'm glad I did it. I also removed the chrome accent pieces that were mounted by the foot pegs. Once I took the shield and crash bars off, it became pretty obvious that the light bar is gonna need to come off too (I haven't decided if I'm keeping it or not, Jeff). There's some chrome covers on the forks I want to take off, but I'm not ready to attempt removing the fork tubes yet.

As of right now, here are my plans for the project: 1) Put on a new rear fender attached to the swing arm. My plan right now is to stay with the red/white color scheme. I'd like to work the two-tone paint job onto the fender. 2) Build or buy a simple solo seat. There are plenty of great examples on other projects that have been written up in this forum. 3) Install new turn signals, along with a side mount brake light/ plate holder (thanks, IMB4U).

I also got a set of stock bars from IMB4U that I will use for a while. I hate the hand position on the bars that came on the bike. I figured I'd put the stock ones on until I could get a feel for what I want after the seat is done. I really like the look of red rims and white sidewall tires, but think that would be too much red if I stay with the red paint on the tank, side covers and fender. I'll probably still do white sidewalls, but not red rims. I'm toying with the idea of blacking out the forks. What do you think about blacked out forks and black rims? Hmmm. . .

Anyways, I'm having a blast working on the bike. I'll try to post some pictures once I get the light bar off and it's basically stripped down.

[jeffs99vulcan]

If you're going to go full bobber, then yes, I can see a springer seat being a great accent. Have you seen billymac's bobber yet? He doesn't post on here much you you don't see it very often, but definitely worth taking a look... He's got a version of the rear fender you're talking about.

No prob about the light bar, but if you ever do decide...

billymac's 800 bobber: (the rest are here)

[Chadsquats]

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted. I got sucked into a big project at work, and am just getting back to normal life. I ordered a rear fender a few days ago, so I'm looking forward to that showing up. Once I have that, I'll try to get that in the position I want and then figure out what I want for a seat. I'm planning on buying a seat. I realized that I don't have the skills or guts to try making my own. Maybe in the future. Anyway, hopefully there will be progress soon, with pictures to prove it.

[jeffs99vulcan]

Originally Posted by Chadsquats

Anyway, hopefully there will be progress soon, with pictures to prove it.

Hope so! Glad ot have you back!

[Chadsquats]

Well, it's taking the fender longer to get here than I hoped. Supposedly it shipped yesterday, so maybe I'll have it by the end of the week. I got itchy to do something on the bike, so I went out to the garage and started poking around. Although the seat should cover the electrics pretty well, I started wondering if I could relocate the fuse junction box and IC ignitor in order to have a completely clean area behind the back seat support. After a little looking around I thought it might be possible to move them behind the right side cover. I posted a question on the mechanics page asking if there was any reason I shouldn't relocate to that spot and didn't get any responses telling me not to. I wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort, but since I didn't have a fender to mess with, I decided to unwrap the wiring harness and see how things looked with the wires exposed. Once I got the tape off, I found that a lot of the wires could simply be re-routed while some would have to be spliced and lengthened. What the heck, I figured, even if it's a pointless project, at least I'll be working on the bike. So, I started in. It's been an interesting little project so far. At this point, I've got most of the wires re-routed into the side cover area. I need to move 4 or 5 more wires, then decide how I want to mount the boxes. Unfortunately my camera was misplaced, so I didn't get any before pictures or pictures of the first part of the project. I found the camera today, so I'll be able to document the end of the job. Before I wrap it up, I'll get some pictures of the re-routing and splicing process, and also what the end result looks like. If nothing else, I've learned some stuff about motorcycle wiring and killed some time, so I wasn't going crazy sitting around wondering when my fender was going to show up.

[goddarddr]

I would like to see how the rerouting turns out. I am wondering how I can clean up the wiring under my solo seat. Dave

[KevyzToy]

My first thoughts were either a newspaper or a sunburned penguin.


Nice ride.

[Chadsquats]

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My first thoughts were either a newspaper or a sunburned penguin

Very good. My personal favorite is two nuns in a chainsaw fight.

Pictures coming soon

[Chadsquats]

OK, so I finished moving the wiring harness today. The bike actually fired up and ran afterwards, so that's a bonus.

Basically what I wanted to do was relocate the fuse junction box and IC ignitor box located at the bottom of this picture. You are looking down on the bike with the seat support being the black piece of metal running across the top of the picture. If I remember correctly, the wiring harness ran around the outside of the seat bracket and behind the two boxes. The goal was to get the boxes moved and any wiring re-routed so it wasn't behind the seat bracket. the loose wires in the middle of the picture will go to the taillight and rear turn signals. Stay tuned for more pictures and details.

[crazydave]

Originally Posted by jeffs99vulcan

If you're going to go full bobber, then yes, I can see a springer seat being a great accent. Have you seen billymac's bobber yet? He doesn't post on here much you you don't see it very often, but definitely worth taking a look... He's got a version of the rear fender you're talking about.

No prob about the light bar, but if you ever do decide...

billymac's 800 bobber: (the rest are here)

Are you saying "BillyMac, when are you coming back?"

Sorry couldn't resist.

[Chadsquats]

The junction box and ignitor each have two multi-pin terminals that plug into them. After I unwrapped the wiring harness, I found that a lot of the wires would be long enough to reach the side compartment. The small connector from the ignitor actually was able to be fed through the hole in the side compartment intact. The other connector was too big, so even the wires that were long enough had to be cut, routed through the hole, and then spliced back together. If a wire was too short, then I would cut it and splice a length of wire between the cuts so it could reach. I did one wire at a time to avoid confusion.

For the splices, I crimped insulated butt splices. Before I crimped the splices, I slid a chunk of heat shrink onto the wire. Since I was using the heat shrink, I probably could have gotten away with non-insulated butt splices. There wer'nt any in stock when I went shopping for parts, so I just grabbed the insulated ones.

Here you can see the heat shrink before and after the application of heat. I matched wire colors as best I could. On the wires that had a colored tracer, I just wrapped colored tape around the wire every few inches.

[Chadsquats]

Neither of the connectors that plug into the fuse junction box were small enough to fit through the hole into the side compartment. I was, however, able to remove the individual terminals from the connector. By doing this, I was able to re-route the wires that were long enough without splicing the wire. There is a little spring tab on the bottom of each terminal that holds it into the connector. By inserting a thin, flat object (I used a small jewelers screwdriver) under the terminal from the front of the connector, I was able to release the tab and pull the terminal out of the connector.

Here is what the terminal looks like after it's been removed from the connector. The terminal on the right was one that I bought to see if it would fit in the connector; that way I would only have to make one splice on the wires that were short. Because of it's different shape, it would not fit into the connector. Anyway, on the wires that were long enough, I would pull the terminal out of the connector, route the wire into the side compartment, and then just plug the terminal back into the correct position on the connector. For the ones that were too short, I did the same splicing and lengthening process as I did on the ignitor wires. Again, I did these wires one at a time to avoid confusion.
Once the wires were all re-routed, I wrapped the harness with non-adhesive wire harness tape. The harness now runs in front of the seat support bracket.


I still have to cut the plastic, but once that's done, there will be nothing sticking out behind the seat support. I think that will make for some nice, clean lines on the back end of the bike. Right now, the boxes are just sitting in the side compartment, but I'm planning on mounting them in there a little cleaner. I'll post details when that happens.

[goddarddr]

Thanks for posting your work. please keep it going . I would like to see the finish result. Dave

[goddarddr]

Hey Chad, I will try to post pic's of my struts soon. I looked in the r. side cover. I had forgotten how much room there is in there. Is that a vent hose in there?

[Chadsquats]

I've been told it's a vent hose, but haven't taken the time to check what it's venting. Looking forward to the strut pics.

[goddarddr]

I am curious about Cutting the plastic? That plastic "C" thing has to go. it sets right on my fender. Maybe it's because my swing arm has a lowering kit installed 3". I guess it is possible it could restrict the swing arms travel?

[Chadsquats]

I got around to cutting the plastic yesterday. I made the cut right behind the battery box where it transitions to the platform that the IC ignitor and fuse junction box are mounted on. Here is what I had leftover:

That plastic "C" thing has to go.

I'm assuming you're talking about the "C" shaped section of plastic behind where the ignitor and junction box are mounted. That will be an easy removal. I made my cut with a metal-cutting sawzall blade. I used a metal blade because of the finer teeth that wouldn't tear up the plastic as much as a wood blade. I cut it by hand because I felt like it gave me better control and the plastic was very easy to cut. I imagine that it would be easy to make the cut with a dremel tool as well. After I made the cut, I clean the burrs off the edge by running a sharp knife along the cut.