Our Ongoing TW Mod thread

This is my Fathers TW, He bought it last summer and we've been converting it into a little ADV bike for him. He mainly rides street with it and once a year we take a week long trip into the deserts of SE Oregon and it will be used for that also.

After picking it up we decided to dive right in with the mods. First up is comfort! The stock bars are way to low (for us) and leave my arms in a uncomfortable position (plus it makes it hard for me to stand up and ride without bending over). We replaced the stock bars with Pro-Taper High Bend ATV bars. Between the Bars and the Adapters to install the bars onto the stock triple clamp we gained about 2.5" rise over the stock bars. WAY more comfortable! We also added some Factory 909 hand guards/bark busters. Helps keep the wind of your hands and keeps limbs from smacking your hands.

Next up....panniers. It's nice to have a place to carry stuff that you pick up running around town, plus makes it easy for hauling gear for trips. We ordered a Cycle Rack for the back, then ordered a set of Happy Trails Panniers. We fabbed up the mounts for the bags and attached them to the Cycle Rack rack. Came out pretty nice. The bags are easily removable when you don't need them but I'm sure they will remain on most of the time. They are very well built and completely water proof. Not the cheapest option but worth every penny.

We then added a 44 tooth rear sprocket, So far I've found it about pretty good for cruising around town and some trail use, If I'm heading to some real technical stuff then I can always swap back to the 50 tooth rear. I think I'm going to order a 46 and try that out also.



Bars. WAY more comfortable than stock!




Here's the Cyclerack that we modified to fit the metal panniers. (So far its worked good, we have some more bracing to add soon to stiffen it all up).




Bare Happy Trails Aluminum bags installed.




Closeup of the bag mount area.


We decided to powder coat the bags. I really like the look of the bare aluminum but its a real pain to try and keep clean looking. My friend bought a powder coating setup at an auction for $200 and we've done quite a bit of coating with it over the past winter. We coated the bags with Columbia Coatings Mini Tex, its a flat black that has a slight texture to it. It covers very well and is extremely durable.




Shooting Powder. You can see the lid hanging on the wire with the powder on it, the oven is in the background.




Here's a bag coming out of the oven. It bakes at aprox 385 Deg F for 15-20 min, remove from oven and let cool. Done! ready to use.




Black bags on the bike.

More Mods....




We wanted to add a bigger foot print for the kick stand. I hate having a loaded bike sink into soft ground when you are trying to park it. Here we cut out a plate to weld to the bottom of the factory kick stand.




Here the new foot has been welded to the kick stand and the whole assy has been powder coated black.




Here's a shot of the whole stand on the bike. Should keep it nice and stable when its at camp and fully loaded down. (or parked at a local store on hot asphalt).



Time to shorten the turn signals to get them to fit behind the Bags. I looked around at aftermarket ones and didn't see any I really liked...So I just modified the stock ones.



Here I started by taking the stock turn signals apart and cutting down the signal stocks.




Next I went to the local hardware store and bought a couple of these hollow threaded shafts that you use to hang light fixtures in your home, and cut it to size.




Here I installed two layers of heat shrink tubing onto the exposed wires of the turn signals, now that the signal stocks are shorter the wires will be exposed to the ends of the threaded tubes .




Here's the wiring installed back on the bike. The factory rubber boot that keeps water out of the signal will no longer work with the new size nuts that are used on the new threaded piece. Soooo, I used some black RTV to seal the wiring where the shrink tubing comes out of the threaded tube.




Here you can see the difference in the shortened turn signal vs the stock signal. Now just repeat for the other side.



Next up is a extra brake light LED unit. I've installed some kind of supplemental LED brake light unit on all my bikes. I like to be noticed when I'm stopping. This unit is for a BMW motorcycle and is made by BMW. It's not the cheapest unit available but its one of the brightest units that I've seen. It's about 3 times as bright as the stock TW tail light. The unit is on steady all the time just like the stock brake light, then when you press the brake the unit flashes real fast 5 times and then acts as a SUPER BRIGHT brake light. Cars defiantly notice this light!



Here is a shot of the unit on the bike. One set of wires heads up behind the light for the sensing wires (taps into the brake and tail light wiring), the other wires you can see running up along side the tail light assy, they head to the battery for power.




Here's a side shot, you can see how the unit mounts. Very clean and solid.




Hard to tell in this pic but the LED unit is SUPER bright. Plus if your brake or tail light bulb burns out this unit is still going so your still covered.

Time to build the Tool Tube.

We wanted to put something in the large open space between the bike and the bag on the left side, at first we were going to install a extra fuel tank there but decided it wouldn't hold as much as we were looking for. That left a tool tube!

My father started looking around at stores to find something to make it out of and this is what he came up with, a stainless steel Toilet Bowl Cleaner!!!




Here's a shot of the Stainless Toilet Bowl Cleaner.




Here's another shot of the toilet plunger out of its shell. The handle just screws together so the actual plunger assy is easily discarded and your left with a nice light tube.




Here we just finished powder coating the tube. You can see the mounts that we welded onto the tube so the lid can be attached to the tube.




Here's the lid. The white plastic cup was in the bottom of the tube for the plunger to sit in. We just slid it back into the tube when we finished the work. It might come in handy if you ever have to disassemble anything out on the trail/road, always nice to have a clean tray to place small parts in. We cut a rubber gasket and glued it to the back of the lid, makes it nice and water proof.




Here we just finished making the mount for the tube. The mount hasn't been fully welded yet, but will be when the rack comes back off for powder coating.




Here the tube is mounted up into the mount. We used stainless steel T-bolt clamps to hold the tube onto the saddle. Nice and solid.




Top Shot.




Underside Shot




Rear Shot.



Up next is a custom fuel tank build that will bolt to the rack. We have the tank fabricated but still need to mount it ect. I'll post up pics as soon as its completed.


Hodakaguy

That is good work on the racks and the powder coating! I haven't done any powder coating since there is a commercial coating place down the road and he hooks me up when I need something done but I had thought about making a setup for small stuff to keep from hassling him.

Wow Hodakaguy,
You have some great fabrication skills. Good job! Gives me some good ideas

I'll add my list:
Handlebars- Curb the vibe and raise them up for more comfortable upright riding. I bought aluminum and filled them with lead shot. They have some spongy grips too.
ATV high rise MSR is what I installed. Someone said that creative routing of the cables and wires is required. They are right.

Foot Pegs- Wider is better. I can see that so I looked on Ebay as suggested and found a set.

Hand Guards- I chose Emgo. Break the wind and protect the levers. Made sense to me.

Shifter- Folding was recommended as being more comfortable as well as not bending as easily.

Fairing- Mine came with a small smoked plexiglass fairing. It appears to be one I have seen chronicled on the "other forum". I like the little extra protection it offers. Maybe more for the GPS than the rider, but I like it.

Battery Tender- This had already been installed on mine. Great idea.

Headlamp- Brighter IS better. the stock one really seems weak.

Rack- Mine came with a large rear rack installed. Room for cargo and a place to grab. That has to be close to the top of the list. With this shorter rear turn lamps that do not extend beyond the rack. This protects them from damage.

Quick Release Seat Bolts- I made mine with ideas from members. Clevis pins drilled and tapped for threaded stock with a roll pin cross. Really nice.

Driving light/Strobe- This one is a 9 LED bar that is steady at night for use as a driving light and strobe for getting noticed in the daylight. It is mounted to the bracket that was used for a high fender.

GPS receiver and mapping- I use a Magellan SporTrak Pro. I modified the cradle from a swivel bracket to mount to the cross brace on the new handlebars. The power is run directly to the battery.

Tube storage- After reading a post on the other forum, I ordered a pair of the operator's manual tubes. They look like they will attach to the bottom of the rack and be really handy for tools and paperwork.

Dune Flag- I am using one of the collapsible flag poles that attach to a male airline quick connector. This mounts to the rear of the rack. This is a really neat way to carry a safety flag. The pole is one of the aluminum 5/16" diameter tent poles with shock cord between the sections. It fits into a compression fitting and is secured by a ferrule. The 1/4" NPT end is screwed into a female airline coupler. A rubber vacuum line cap tops the pole and a rubber o-ring keeps the flag from sliding down. I use the same flag for my 4X4 truck. Very handy and easily taken down for highway travel.

Seat cover- Stearns ATV seat cover from Walmart. Seems like a good idea.

Rear turn signals- Shorter to be protected by the rack.

The bike looks great! Love the unconventional item used to make the tube. I like that kind of thinking out of the box!

Ive seen some really good mods.....YOURS are the best in my book ! Ive got to get on the ball and get to work on mine......! Looks absolutely Great !

Thanks for all the great comments. My father has been a welder for 30+ years and is very good at what he does. He's great at thinking outside the box when it comes to things like the tool tube. Can't wait to get some time to finish the project up and get the extra fuel tank installed. Soon I hope. :D

Hodakaguy

Wow! Nice set up :D

Hodakaguy,

How wide is your setup, outside box to outside box.
On mine with the pantiers on I'm like 42" wide.





Tracy

Can you fit a TW frame in that oven?

Hodaka Guy, I am always much impressed with your designs and level of Craftsmanship. Your set-ups always look as if they were professionally engineered in a hightech prototype shop. Something else I have noted is that I can't recall a picture of the TW with any dirt on it. Do you ride it much or are you busy trying to get it all setup for a big adventure? Gerry

mrgizmow1 wrote:

Hodaka Guy, I am always much impressed with your designs and level of Craftsmanship. Your set-ups always look as if they were professionally engineered in a hightech prototype shop. Something else I have noted is that I can't recall a picture of the TW with any dirt on it. Do you ride it much or are you busy trying to get it all setup for a big adventure? Gerry

Thanks, so far I'm pretty happy with the way the mods have turned out. The TW has seen mostly street miles. My father rides it around town mainly. This summer though it will see dirt We are going to spend a few days in the Alvord Desert in SE Oregon and my father is going to take his TW. It might find its way on a couple overnight trips also.

Bring on Summer!!

Hodakaguy

Wow..awesome work. I love to see quality engineering ! :thumb: