Yes playing with the pipes might come in one day. For now with the rear bags removed I just didn't want to smack my let into them as they stick out in the shed. I have scars from old Whale tail type muffler ends on bikes, never again. I could be more caution walking around the bikes, but feels better. I also didn't like the down dumping of them pipes once the bags were off.
Taking a trip to the National Motorcycle Museum tomorrow, going to bet a good drive. 3 1/2 hrs one way. Have to so as they will be closing it in Sep of 2023. Huge auction coming up.
Sad, but not surprised, to hear they are closing it down. We went last year? Bikes are packed in, like sardines in a tin. Saw a 1969 Honda CB750 K0, but it was not a sandcast engine (owned a 1979 750K, with dual overhead cams -- great bike!). Saw a Vetter side car -- never knew Vetter made a side car!
A lot of the bikes on display, are on loan to the museum. Not sure how many the museum actually owns. Same for the memorabilia. Glad we went, as it is pretty close to us (living in SE MN: 3 hours 14 minutes away, by car, per Google Maps).
Be sure to pick up some stickers showing the museum's name... Nice keepsake, once it is gone.
If interested, you can reach out to Carl Leo, to see if he has Tupperware replacements, and if so, how much.
The saddlebag lid can be repaired, and if you put the time/effort into it, you can make it look quite good. The trunk, and the fairing, not so much. Possible, but it would take an incredible amount of fabrication and sculpting skills and work.
There are aftermarket trunks you might be able to adapt to fit. You might be able to adapt an older Vetter Windjammer fairing, but you would need to fabricate your own mounting bracket for it. Craig Vetter, by the way, used his own CAD system in the 1960's to 1970's: Cardboard Aided Design. Nice guy. Exchanged a couple of e-mails with him, 10+ years ago, when I still owned my Honda (Vindicator fairing) and my 440 (QuickSilver fairing). Cheers!
A little bit more of life got in the way this week, so been neglecting the XII a little. I hope to get back to her tomorrow even though the temps will be a little warm. They are calling for 92 but I don't think it will be so muggy out. If it is....just deal with it.
Have a hard time trying to find a way to put some type of cap or seal on the cut off suspension hose. I will just run some long screws down the ends for now as I want to test ride this gal.
I have a few spare sets of rear shocks from different bikes throughout the years. I also have read that Progressive are good spring for the front forks and then just cap them off.
Fixed up the trunk as much as I could. I like the idea of the big brakes lights on it and is huge area. Might be too big but for a grocery getting might be just the thing.
Had some really corroded wires in the four wire plug, cleaned three of them up but had to replace the brown wire (think it is constant hot for lid light) and all is good with the trunk. I had to do some more soldering iron work for one of the chrome rack foot holding points. It was almost broken out of the truck...no out, pushed in so to speak. A little work with small pointed flat tip and a hammer and it more or less popped back into place. The rest was sealed back up with the soldering iron and some filler PVC.
Removed the cruise control servo, and the servo control unit from the left front side of the bike. All electronics and bike still running fine. I might remove the extra cable going to the throttle linkage in do time.
Turn signal and headlight AUX unit are or were on the left side of the bike as well. Just under the cruise servo control unit. I removed the turn signal cancle unit as I am very good at not leaving my blinking turn signals on. As far as the AUX headlight relay, that has to stay or not head light. After trouble shooting the headlight (blown 15 amp fuse) relocated the AUX unit to behind headlight left just inside the front cage. That will help to keep the front end stream lined for custom plastic work.
Have to drill two of the holes on the back seat to trunk area a little bigger for some LED running and turn lights I have spare. Traced all the wiring out and made sure that was all working fine before and after I started to pull the above mentioned items.
Have a cold one now, after looking for some Elk in my area (Warrens WI) non tonight, but lots of deer out running to all the green crops in the fields. Didn't see any antlers though.
367695819_3402409656677834_2547482668273873933_n by Tim Brown, on Flickr
XII 2 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
XII 3 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
