Prologue:
My name is Justin, 32 years old, and I live in the Netherlands. I got my motorcycle license at the age of 19 and decided to buy my first bike at the age of 20. A friend of mine knew a guy who owned a driving school. He had just bought a few bikes (both XJ600s Diversions) to start giving motorcycle lessons when his only motorcycle instructor decided to leave the company and start a business on his own. Thus he now had 2 bikes and no instructor. He tried to get a new instructor for over a year but to no avail. So he then decided to sell the bikes again and because they were taking up too much garage space.
I was one of the lucky guys who was able to get one of them for merely ~1400 euros (~1800 US dollars). The bike had only 3000 km on it and was just over a few years old (1998). Unfortunately, at the very beginning, they were used for a few lessons and some fell with it at low speed so it did had some minor damages to the bodywork (engine was not damage due to the engine guards). This was of minor issue to me (just a student with not alot of money) because i knew it was in very good condition engine-wise.
I rode that bike with much joy for the next couple of years (mainly for fun and with good weather, not for going to work). But a last year i come to the point where those minor annoyances were starting to bother me more and more (some sort of rattle at 3000 RPM, the boring sound of the bike, the slightly dull looks). So first i thought i might sell the bike. But then i read on several sites that it was hard to sell this type of bike here in the Netherlands because of the current economical crisis the whole of Europe is going through. Also did i not have the kind of money now to buy a new(er) bike. And my bike was still in very good condition (only 15000 km driven now). So all together, selling my bike and buying something else would probably be a step backwards.
So i decided to go the other way. I decided to start my own conversion project. To make it my own. To get rid of the annoyances. And to make it more unique. I decided to convert it to a sporty naked bike. And all of this while trying to keep the costs lower then buying a new bike...
This is the first time I'm attempting something like this. I have a technical education but thats all theory. I do not have any practical experience, so bare with me... :nervous:
The build:
Okay here we go... So i started with this:
This photo is not my own bike but it looked exactly the same. Problem was that, in all my enthusiasm, i already stripped half the bike before i realised that i forgot to make a 'before picture' of it. :wallbash:
So i stripped it down to get a better look at the bodywork and the lines.
After looking into some parts folders, I decided to get the frame and speedometer off and replace them with:
* a new speedometer
* a new headlight + brackets
* a small sporty windscreen
* new mirrors with integreted LED turn indicators
Then i went on and decided to;
* replace the rear turn indicators for LED ones
* replace the rear light with a LED one
* shorten the rear mudguard
* cover up the front holes (where the ignition coils are) with the same covers as the XJ600n has
Ater this, my exhaust was up for a change. I started with giving the exhaust pipes a good cleaning...
... and to put on a new silencer from Takkoni;
I also replaced the oilfilter, airfilter, engine oil and spark plugs;
It was all taking good shape now. One thing felt missing though. So I decided to go and order a belly pan from Gimbel Engineering (Germany). And this is the result;
Personally I'm already very happy with the result. I love the new look :brow:
The project itself is also very fun to do. I had some challenges, but none so big that i felt it to be out of my league. I rewired all the lighting, installed the speedometer and made it work correctly, installed the exhaust with no big problems and gave the engine a good service check and the ride is now even smoother as ever before. This morning i went on a very nice trip and killed like a couple of thousand bugs. But it was really awesome! :kudos:
The next step:
But i'm not done yet. I've had so much fun with my 'new' bike that i decided to take it one step further. The frame still has the brackets where the old bodywork was attached to. Also the bodywork has some minor scratches and dents on several places. And i don't really like the color that much. So i want to do a paintjob of the bodywork and frame and then, while i'm at it, remove the brackets from the frame and also paint the rims. In order to decide what colors to go for, i played a bit with this free photoshop alternative called GIMP. These are the results;
Original
Origina with black frame
Midnight Black
Burning Orange (inspiration taken from Radare's Seca II, so props to that!)
Abyssal Blue
Toxic Green
Purple Haze
Devil Red
What do you guys/gals think? I personally love the Burning Orange and the Devil Red ones the most. Toxic Green is also very nice (but maybe a bit too much Kawasaki?)...