My Road to Rod

[Aced It]

Thanks again for the nice comments there guys!

Originally Posted by MB_ED

Haven't seen any updates on this, are you done?? Love the mods

I have a couple ideas that keep haunting me at night , but these will have to wait. Not much happening except enjoying the ride.

[Aced It]

I had thought about doing this back when I first experimented with the thumbscrew idea. The idea behind this is to increase back-pressure in my drag pipes without losing sound, yet deepening the tone a bit or should I say dampening. Yes, it's based on the lollipop design ... however it is also based on another design that is patented and produced by a company selling them for $80! You know me ... screw that.

Yesterday I went to a local muffler shop and asked the guy if he could cut me some 1-3/4" pipe and flare the ends out to a maximum of 1-7/8". The dimensions are based on my Cobra Drags being 2" OD and 1-7/8" ID. After some small talk and shootin' the sh/t he said no problem. Apparently I got on the guy's good side and he didn't charge me anything. Awesome!

Then I headed over to ACE Hardware and after some isle-engineering, I decided on a large ring connector, nut and bolt for the final design aimed at having a no-weld assembly. D^mn I need a welder!

So I got home, modified the ring connector by cutting off half of the crimping end, slipped it through a threaded bolt and drilled a hole in one of the ends of each pipe for the connecting bolt to slip through. Using just a dab of axle grease, I slipped each assembly into the pipes, bolted through the lollipop using Cobra's location for their baffles, and viola!

I started the bike and immediately noticed a deeper, somewhat dampened sound. My son noticed and said it was quieter than the open pipe sound before, but still loud and deeper in tone. The kicker is my wife was inside and came out and said the same thing without being asked. Cool!

So I took her for a spin ... the bike, not the wife ... that was later. My seat-o'duh-pants dynometer tells me the torque increased substantially - that is due to the taper design of the 'baffle'. And the sound immediately opens up on throttle, and the idle sounds nice, deep and clean - this due to the lollipop combo.

The thumbscrew idea I originally had prior to rejetting really did nothing by comparison.

All this for a total of $5.30 ... A bit different from $80 plus shipping, eh?

Anyway, this is what I ended up with. I'll hit it with some high temp paint (BBQ paint probably) and try to capture some sound later:




Based on this:

[vgullotta]

Nice man, I love the phrase "Isle Engineering". That's how I do the majority of my stuff lol

[bworm883]

WOW! Is all I can say. I absolutely hate reading but I just sat here reading for almost 3 hours reading every post from start to finish because I couldn't stop. Got some great ideas and a lot of know how. I wish I had half your imagination and ability but the bike looks amazing. Gonna start on my bike and will definitely be referring to a lot of your information. Thanks for all the info and keep up the good work!

[GilaMinumBeer]

I REALLY don't like you right now.

I've owned my Shadow Aero for 8 years and kept it straight stock all this time but, somewhat like you, I am tinkerer, an "Aisle Engineer", and prefer budget friendly DIY over send it to someone else. And, i get bored easily without something to futz with.

I have been focused mostly on mechanical improvements of my bike and have recently started considering the aesthetics. I've always hated how seemingly overpriced motorcycle accessories are and LOVE what you have done on a budget.

I too plan to pay an homage to your enginuity and borrow from your ideas on airbox, springs, lighting, tires, and maybe even the rims. However, I intend to keep much of the retro styling of the Aero and add my own "rat-bagger-rod" type flair. Still not certain how I am going to pull it off tho'.

Lately, I've only been conceptualizing on paper to decide how deep into the V-Twin I want to get with regard to re-finishing. I am not a fan of chrome at all and prefer a machine that beg to be ridden rather than polished constantly.

I can only hope it turns out half as well as yours and I say this with absolute sincerity, respect, and adoration for your skills but, YOU SUCK!

[Aced It]

^^^LOL!

You guys rock! Thanks!

[Aced It]

Okay, here's the video with sound for the pipe mod. It's so hard to capture true sound, or rather convey it to you because of the variations in other people's audio components. Anyway, I also did a walk around simply because I could. I tried to hurry a bit just to reduce the size of the vid, but it turned out pretty good. I will work on getting an on-road vid, but it's my phone camera and I don't have a way of securing it while riding ... it's in my pocket then. And please pay no attention to that frikken messy garage ... I need a weekend to sort and clean!

Click the picture for the jump; it should play automatically:



So really, what's a guy gotta do at this point to get a sticky around here?

[Aced It]

So Joe (njcjoe) gifted me this nice Willie & Max fork bag and I cannot express my gratuity enough. Thanks Joe, and Merry Christmas!

Being me, I'm not putting this big-^ss thing on my forks. Seriously, it is much bigger than the other one gifted by Steve (the Elf man) ... what can I say; people dig me! ... Anywaaaaayyyy, another reason it's not going on my forks is it blocks my fork wrapped signals. I constructed a couple of simple aluminum L-brackets from some flat I have. Some fitment, stainless rivets and Velcro later, here it is.

I designed it to be able to slip on and off using the slots on the back of the bag. The Velcro helps to keep it secure while I'm ridin'. Fits really nice back here though; I even had my step-son sit on the bike and bounce it a bit to ensure it doesn't hit the side panel or shock under suspension load. Looks good from the rear too as it balances out visually with the exhaust pipes on the other side.

This is probably about as close as you'll see my bike goin' bagger.

[Dauntae]

That looks good Ace, I have a much smaller one and wanted a bigger one but been too broke to get a new one, If you didn't get so dang creative I would of traded you LOL.

Dauntae

[GilaMinumBeer]

Originally Posted by Aced It

The signal switch is "similar" to OEM, however the OEM unit was capable of keeping the running lights on due to the sliding contact assembly (I took the OEM unit apart to verify). Not a big deal; I'll figure something out in the future.

I am in process of working on mine as well and this came to mind since, I too, am having trouble figuring out how to re-mount the OEM switch. Easy way out is to get a toggle, like you. But, what about those running lights?

Any reason you can think of why they, the 5w (OEM)running light filament circuits only, couldn't just be wired into another lighting circuit that is always on? Like, the license plate light, speedo backlight. or tail light running light? And leave the 25w (OEM) filament circuits running through the aftermarket switch.

I still have to look at the circuits and the wire sizes and fuse amperage to be sure but, this is my thought on solving that matter. At least, this is what I plan to do if I cannot sort out how to reuse the OEM switch. It's funky tho, not sure I see that happening.

What do you think?