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First, a little history on the bike. A buddy of mine bought the bike from another buddy 4-5 years ago for $1200 in running condition. Over the next few months he put a few hundred miles on it and we decided to do a tune up (air filter, plugs, oil change) on it because we didn't know the history of maintenance. After the tune up it had a misfire and he decided to put it back in the garage and we'd fix it in a few days. A few days turned into a few weeks, weeks into months, and well....months into years. Fast forward to summer 2010. We were in his garage working (and drinking) on his Trans Am and I jokingly say, "I'll give you $200 for the Kraptana" to which he replies, "get that ****ing thing out of my garage!". We both went to the ATM and about 30 minutes later I brought it home!
I really didn't touch the bike other than tinkering with it and seeing what was really there until the fall. I dug into the misfire and found out it was a cracked spark plug causing it. I'm 99% sure I remember dropping a plug a few years earlier when we did the tune up. LOL Drained the fuel, cleaned the carbs, replaced the plugs, put in a new battery, and it fired like 3rd crank! I was in business other than the fact it was November in Michigan.
This spring I started tinkering with the bike again and decided it was going to be a 'fighter. I love full fairing bikes but something about street fighters has always caught my eye. To me, this is the perfect bike for it. 1. I have like $400 wrapped up into the bike including plates and my parts to get it running. 2. The fairings are junk and the square headlight is hideous. Makes the bike look so dated. 3. It can be built fairly cheap and I already have a nice full fairing bike.
The bike looked like this the day my buddy and I picked it up. Funny thing is I drove his bike home because he didn't have his endorsement yet.
Horrid paint, missing mirror, non-working turn signals, bald tires, and running poor...
Ryan put on some mirrors, bar ends, clear turn signals, smoked windscreen and a spray on paint job with stuff he had laying around, and fixed a few electrical issues. Looked like this when I bought it...
Right now the bike looks like this. I tore off the front fairings and bottom cowling. Because the front turn signals wouldn't mount and somehow I lost the mirrors I mounted some stock stuff off a buddies 2005 CBR600RR. Yes, I know it looks worse but I just couldn't stand it collecting dust in the garage tore down.
My plans are to mix a bit of sport bike, a bit of chopper, and a bit of 50's/60's hot rod.
I want to paint the bike semi flat black, gloss black rims with red pinstripe, chop down the front fender, retain the rear seat/pegs, strip off all unneeded brackets/mounts/wiring, and mount up a cruiser style round head light. A long with a bunch of maintenance and small detail parts and custom touches. Was even thinking some hand laid pin striping like you see on t-buckets and such.
I plan on cutting the front fairings up and using just the top section like you see on the yellow bike pictures below. Then I want to cut the rear fairings like my VERY quick 'chop job off the rear fairings.
Updates will come all summer as I'm starting to stockpile parts but progress might be slow for a few months as I drive the bike almost everyday of the week.
I really didn't touch the bike other than tinkering with it and seeing what was really there until the fall. I dug into the misfire and found out it was a cracked spark plug causing it. I'm 99% sure I remember dropping a plug a few years earlier when we did the tune up. LOL Drained the fuel, cleaned the carbs, replaced the plugs, put in a new battery, and it fired like 3rd crank! I was in business other than the fact it was November in Michigan.
This spring I started tinkering with the bike again and decided it was going to be a 'fighter. I love full fairing bikes but something about street fighters has always caught my eye. To me, this is the perfect bike for it. 1. I have like $400 wrapped up into the bike including plates and my parts to get it running. 2. The fairings are junk and the square headlight is hideous. Makes the bike look so dated. 3. It can be built fairly cheap and I already have a nice full fairing bike.
The bike looked like this the day my buddy and I picked it up. Funny thing is I drove his bike home because he didn't have his endorsement yet.
Horrid paint, missing mirror, non-working turn signals, bald tires, and running poor...
Ryan put on some mirrors, bar ends, clear turn signals, smoked windscreen and a spray on paint job with stuff he had laying around, and fixed a few electrical issues. Looked like this when I bought it...
Right now the bike looks like this. I tore off the front fairings and bottom cowling. Because the front turn signals wouldn't mount and somehow I lost the mirrors I mounted some stock stuff off a buddies 2005 CBR600RR. Yes, I know it looks worse but I just couldn't stand it collecting dust in the garage tore down.
My plans are to mix a bit of sport bike, a bit of chopper, and a bit of 50's/60's hot rod.
I want to paint the bike semi flat black, gloss black rims with red pinstripe, chop down the front fender, retain the rear seat/pegs, strip off all unneeded brackets/mounts/wiring, and mount up a cruiser style round head light. A long with a bunch of maintenance and small detail parts and custom touches. Was even thinking some hand laid pin striping like you see on t-buckets and such.
I plan on cutting the front fairings up and using just the top section like you see on the yellow bike pictures below. Then I want to cut the rear fairings like my VERY quick 'chop job off the rear fairings.
Updates will come all summer as I'm starting to stockpile parts but progress might be slow for a few months as I drive the bike almost everyday of the week.
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