| Author | Message | ||
     Scary_mc |
I'd like to remove the stock Uly's 'beak' and front fender and replace them w/ a Thunderbolt front fender. Does anyone have a pic or idea for the headlight adjustment bracket that will need to be put in place of the beak? Thanks~ Scary | ||
| Asdf |
Howdy! I have not done it, but I have looked at it. Here are a couple of ideas: 1: Simply cut off the fender in front of where the headlight adjusting bolt is attached to the fender. The downside of this is that your fender is now trashed, should you ever wish to go back to stock. 2: Use two 1/8" thick by 1" wide aluminum straps. One each strap coming from each of the two current fender mounting bolts. Bend the straps into a long "L" with an appropriate offset in the bend to let the two straps come together under the headlight adjustment screw. Slot the ends of the straps that come together under the headlight. The slots must of course line up with each other and the slots must go forward-backward. The slots cannot be centered and parallel to their respective strap. 3: Use a piece of angle aluminum (Or Lorazepam's Auxiliary Light Bracket) to bridge between the two current fender mounting screws. One leg of the angle aluminum will be flush against the bottom Triple Clamp and will be drilled to mount to the Triple Clamp with the current fender mounting screws. The other leg of the angle aluminum will be pointed forward and will be up above the mounting screws. Then use a single aluminum strap to go forward to the headlight adjusting screw. The strap will be bolted to the center top of the forward pointing leg of aluminum angle. The other end will be slotted for the headlight adjusting screw. Grub ‘fer ponder’n! | ||
| Bigdaddy |
Very easy change to make. I've got the parts list somewhere, but I don't know where. XB12Ss headlight bracket, brake line retainer, and you're done. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/cgibin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=37&post=757998#POST75 7998 G2 | ||
| Crusty |
Greg, if you could find the list, I'd appreciate it. One of the projects I've got lined up for the winter is converting my front fender. | ||
| Asdf |
That sure beats my ideas!  | ||
| Teeps |
De-beaking the Uly is a lot like buying a Bloodhound then having him de-barked. But, it's your bike... | ||
| Crusty |
If Buell would make a Sport Tourer, then I wouldn't have to convert an "Adventure-Tourer" into one. I've put Avon Azaro tires on my Uly, and I don't plan to ride it anyplace the lower front fender would be a liability. As soon as Buell builds a real Sport Tourer, I'll return my Uly to stock and trade it in on one. Until then, I'll do my best to make it into the bike it could be. | ||
| Bigdaddy |
John, Fender: M1662.02A8MW Wireform front brake bracket: H0418.02A8A Headlight bracket: M0619.1AD Bolts for headlight bracket (2) AA0404.11CVB Just a reminder that the headlight bracket takes a little creativity to make it work. The Buell assembly crew loves some Loctite  Teeps, I didn't realize that you were the approving authority on modifications -- now I know. EDIT: FTD did this first, or so I believe, and he was kind enough to send me the parts list -- in fact the above is a cut and paste from his email to me. Thank you FTD. G2 (Message edited by bigdaddy on October 14, 2006) | ||
| Crusty |
Thanks, Greg. The transformation is about to begin. By Spring, my Uly should be unique. (Not to mention very attractive) | ||
| Bigdaddy |
I've got a few more changes to make myself. Hopefully when we catch up in Daytona it'll be a fully-faired ST G2 | ||
| Ftd |
Actually Brotherbuell did the conversion first. I officially transfer the props to him! Frank    | ||
| Brucelee |
I saw this bike the other day at my HD dealer or one that is JUST LIKE IT. Same color, bags, etc. It looks really cool in reality. I had to check it out several times. I never liked the Uly looks until I saw this one. Great job. | ||
| Bigdaddy |
Hey Frank, Crust, et al, If you look at those Queens Ryche bikes they've jumped on the de-beak bandwagon So, BrotherBuell started something and I like it. XBRR fairing is in the works. G2 | ||
| Roadrailer |
If Buell would make a Sport Tourer, then I wouldn't have to convert an "Adventure-Tourer" into one. I've put Avon Azaro tires on my Uly, and I don't plan to ride it anyplace the lower front fender would be a liability. As soon as Buell builds a real Sport Tourer, I'll return my Uly to stock and trade it in on one. Until then, I'll do my best to make it into the bike it could be. How does changing the fender make the Uly more of a sport tourer?  | ||
| Paochow |
Looks too much like an old Yamaha TDM with the beak removed. http://www2.yamaha-motor.fr/actu/IMG/jpg/ym50_img-28_1991-yamaha-TDM850.jpg Too much of a google eyed freak for my liking. I'll stick with the funky big bird look. | ||
| Ulendo |
crusty - sent you a PM | ||
| Warbaby |
I like it (it fits right in with my lowered, sport/touring-modded Uly) and I'll probably do it soon also.  | ||
| Brotherbuell |
Here's my bike with the Lightning front fender  | ||
| Brotherbuell |
You asked about the headlight bracket. Here is a picture of the install. You have to bend it a bit to make it work. The part number in Bigdaddy's post is the one that I used.  | ||
| Brad1445 |
I love my Beak! | ||
| Xbimmer |
I'd like an extension to the lower fender myself. The other day I was riding through rainwatered streets (no rain falling) and in my headlight beam I could see water drops flying up from the front tire, past the beak, and back at me... I understand that the current arrangement (probably) is intended to keep mud from collecting under a fuller lower fender, but I'd rather see my lower fender extended to about 1300 at the top and 1900 at the bottom. Oh yeah, and fork gaiters. I'm into fork gaiters, and somehow my Uly will have them. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Could be worse:  | ||
| Scary_mc |
Thanks for all of the great info. guys. It's exactly what I wanted. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Or:  | ||
| Scary_mc |
 | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I like this one better:  | ||
| Scary_mc |
Those are the ugliest bikes ever, they almostlook like cartoons... | ||
| Treadmarks |
I like the beak. I would love to have one a little longer, in carbon fiber.  It looks like the fender pictured above, leaves a little of the fork tube unprotected. I think unprotected forking is bad. | ||
| Bigdaddy |
Most of this is personal preference -- that's all that's it. The standard XB front fender doesn't decrease the protection of the forking (unless I have no clue what you're talking about?) In fact you get a bit more frontal area coverage than with the stock setup. Not that it really matters to me because, like my friend Crusty, I bought the Uly to plow the miles on the best paved twisties that I can find. If I wanted to go banging through the woods, running up fire roads, I'd of bought and old KLR or something similar for the task. Anyway, for all of you that are making changes to the Uly please do feel free to post up some pics so all of us can see where you're going -- we may want to follow As for me,,,,well,,,,I hope to have a RR FF on mine by Daytona,,,,why? Dunno, but I want it. G2 | ||
| Roadrailer |
The standard XB front fender doesn't decrease the protection of the forking (unless I have no clue what you're talking about?) In fact you get a bit more frontal area coverage than with the stock setup. If you look at the picture posted by warbaby, it appears that the XB fender leaves a section of the lower fork legs exposed to rocks kicked up by other cars, bugs, sand and dirt, etc. It may not be a huge deal, but if that area started getting nicked up it could potentially cause the fork to leak. FWIW, I've ridden hundreds of miles in the rain with the standard fender and never noticed any water being thrown up on me by the front wheel. Can someone take a head-on picture of a Uly with the XB fender? Please? |
