Month: May 2006

Well, almost. It IS the maiden voyage for the newly minted changes: wheels, tires, turn signals, headlight wiring, front forks, etc. No problems, looks and sounds great. Photos soon to be forthcoming.

The rear wheel wasn’t too difficult to reinstall, just took some fine adjustments with the bike jack to get the frame and the axle lined up.   The brake caliper took a little work as I didn’t install the caliper on the bracket before installing the rear wheel so I had to come up with another way to get it installed.   Took some head-scratching, but got it done.   Next is the under-tank wiring.

The turn signals were installed and the wiring checked before buttoning up the rear fender wiring. Work fine, look great. The final drive reassembly required some moly paste for the driveshaft splines and it’s a mess. I used some vinyl gloves to keep the mess down and they worked fine. The drive shaft installed easily and the left side shock absorber was all that remained.

I had to work a bit to get the forks to line up just right, but I got the front wheel installed.   I cleaned the brake calipers and pads, and installed them also.   Spinning the wheel shows no excessive drag from the brakes, and the brake lever works the brakes as it should.   Front end work finished.

After some work with a 6mmx1 tap, the front fender is mounted.   The screws in the front end are black oxide coated so they blend in with the black paint on the sliders.   Next is the front wheel itself.

Black Magic Customs painted the sliders and tubes, the paint work is superb. I had replacement seals and slider bushings as well as new 10w fork fluid. We taped up the sliders and tubes with blue tape, and started. The left fork went together fairly easily, but to tighten the special castle nut we fastened the slider to a wooden post. Adding the fluid and final assembly was easy. The right fork was another story. It took Mark, Regina, and I to get the fork compressed enough to slip the washer on the damper rod. But, once that was done the final assembly was easy. Later, Regina helped to insert the forks in the triple trees and then they were tightened to specs.

Dad purchased and drilled 6 bolts for mounting the Headwinds turn signals. He said drilling them wasn’t too bad but that the stainless steel was the most difficult to drill.

The mounting bolts arrived (and were they ever packed well). I had to shorten the two for the rear turn signals to 2.1″ overall length and they worked fine. I need to get some stainless washers for the final assembly as I used some I had lying around to check the fit. I will use blue Locktite during final assembly.

There is a Memorial Day sale at HDL, so I ordered Barnett throttle cables and an HJC CL-MAX flip-up black helmet. I might order a windshield and mounting hardware for the Shadow 1100 later in the week – I have until Monday.

Dad is going to get 4 3/8×16×2″ hex head cap screws and drill them out with an 11/64th drill so that the turn signals can be properly mounted. I think I will insert a fiber washer between the turn signal and the adapter that will have the exposed edge painted red. Should be a nice touch.