I love the style of this bike. I wanted to make some changes to lose the production line look but didn't want to change the lines of the bike too much in case I lost whatever it is I love about it.
I wanted to emphasise the beefy look and lose the bland stock paint. I wanted a practical holiday cruiser but something to cruise around town on.
After my brief this is what Steve at V-Twin came up with.
The bars are custom made 18'' Apes from 2'' 3mm wall stainless steel tube. There are only three of these bars made so far, only two on the road this being one of them. Steve spent a lot of time and money developing the converters that attach the controls to give the continuous bar look, and a custom former had to be made to bend the tube to get the bottom radiuses so close together. Not as easy as you might think. The clutch has been converted to hydraulic and all the pipes, wires and throttle cables run internally. The brake and clutch masters are near identical to give a balanced look.
The paint is metal flake blue with a black base coat. I didn't want the usual flames and skulls, something sparkly to please the wife and a bit of movement in it. They got the balance of flake just right so in the light it sparkles blue but is black in the shadows giving the movement I was looking for.
There is not much choice of aftermarket parts for Jap cruisers, at least not quality parts. Harley's on the other hand have a massive selection. Steve used a Harley back rest and Harley mounting plates which involved extending the rear sub frame a little. The luggage rack is also Harley made from the same gauge as the back rest. The really ugly stock light unit was replaced with a nice LED unit. The whole thing is mounted on a click on system so the rear seat, rack and backrest can easily be removed and replaced with a small chrome rack that wraps around the fender for a quick single seat conversion. The click system will also take a hard tour pack if needed
The engine is basically stock. It has Road Burner 3'' drag pipes that can set a car alarm off at 10 feet. I like the stock air cleaner it looks like it belongs unlike some aftermarket parts I have seen, so they modified it to breath more air and fitted a high flow K&N filter. The carb was re-jetted and it now goes like a scalded cat. The oil pump drive has been replaced with one from a warrior. The Wildstar drives are turned down at the end not sure why, maybe weight reduction :-). They are well known for sheering off, usually not long after the recall for some strange reason. When they do its big bucks to fix so this mod was essential for my peace of mind.
I decided to keep the Wildstar and Yamaha badges as I wouldn't want Harley getting the credit for this fantastic Jap cruiser, if you have one of these bikes you know what mean.
Next step will be some stainless spoked wheels with a slightly bigger gauge spoke. Beyond that I'm not sure, I think I like it just the way it is.
