Hello all! Been around these parts for a bit off and on and finally have a little progress to show.
I bought this K5 in 2007 or 2008 and the PO was really good about fixing / cleaning things. He had pods on it and there was a nasty flat spot off idle with the stock exhaust. I bought a MAC (argh, I know) 4-2 from a forum member and voila, flats spot gone! This is what it looked like six years ago when I attempted to sell it (thank God I didn't):
I'm now realizing that the clutch cable was too long to begin with!
It then went into storage as I got married, changed jobs twice, and moved. I thought about selling it again and my father in law immediately said that he would buy it if he could keep it in my garage. Obviously, he knew that if I sold it I wouldn't get another one for a long time. One of the many wise things he's taught me.
Finished remodeling our house (and we do all the work) in November and was itching for another project. With the impending birth of our second kid, I mounted a political campaign to the wife and it worked: I could bring the bike out of an off-site garage (which also houses my 1973 Karman Ghia convertable with 43k miles) and into my basement shop. I finally had the room and had most of the tools. The next part was vision.
I wanted something sportier but with an option to return it to stock (I still have the old pipes too). The forum provided me many ideas and it started coming together.
The first step was the handlebars. I liked the look of clubmans but was scared of the awkward riding position and the need to get new cables. How do stock bars flipped look?
Ehhhh not so good. After researching on the forum, I settled on Euro bars from DCC. Those giant turn signals had to go too. (stock bars here still):
Wait, I have to remove the tank to reroute cables?! AHHHHHH ok. Man, that seat has to go.
Got everything on and the throttle was binding... which was what I was afraid of. Thankfully the forum told me that I just need to adjust the cables. No more binding!
Mirrors... I can't use stock mirrors with these bars! I wanted bar ends but I had to get the bike in and out of a 28" door with an 8" step into the "old basement". Enter the Amazon Prime specials:
http://www.amazon.com/UNIVERSAL-MIRRORS-MOTORCYCLE-CRUISER-CHOPPER/dp/B00P1S0Q6O?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00I knew they were crap and the mounting sucked but wanted to see how they would work out. Didn't work. My throttle tube was shortened at some point so that made things even more difficult. Made the throttle side work but clamped the left side directly to the bars, modified the mount and used it as a bar end:
The black ring is a spacer that was supplied with the kit.
Mirrors on! Progress. Wanted to chop the rear fender so bought one off ebay. Couldn't do anything until the new seat (from ebay) arrived though:
Seat with ebay fender mocked up:
Man... that grab bar has to go too:
Ordered the old-style grab bar because I love my center stand.
Tried my hand at sanding / polishing while the covers were on the bike (just don't want to take it out of operation for too long... I only get an hour here and there to ride).
I stopped at rouge (800 grit wet then black compound then rouge with a cordless drill) as I didn't want to get too much time into it and liked the finish:
NOTE: If using the drill mounted buffing wheels, put some duct tape over the screw at the end. I had it gouge the case when I wasn't careful.
Ordered Lucas LED from DCC as the stock light was huge:
NOTE... attach the light where you want it and THEN shorten the fender. I didn't get optimal placement but it worked out.
Also, was torn on where to mount the turn signals. Decided to drill into the tail light and mount them there. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.
Lost the last remaining original side cover and oil cap on a ride. Should have checked it but I was too excited to do that as I had 1.5 hours to myself! Had some cheap sidecovers so sanded / rattle can painted them. Excited to get emblems from FB-Stuff.com as well as new side covers.
Brakes squealed like a mofo so I took the advice on the FAQ. Cut slits in pads (hey, two are better than one!), ground the edges, scuffed the rotor with 150 grit on a random orbital. Used anti-squeal and the ceramic brake grease. Squeal 95% gone.
And finally... the semi-finished pics:
As you can see, the MAC headers ended up turning colors and rusting since the original pics.
I still need to shorten the clutch cable and get another grab bar for the right side (I like these more than I thought I would).
I'm excited to get out and ride it now and do some more during the winter. Thanks to everyone for all of their help!
