I know some of us like to make our bikes look pretty and I know some of us could care less and think a little rash gives it "character"...

I am a little beyond all that....I LOVE riding my bike so I will preface this by saying she'll never become a trailer queen, but that being said....I have this vision so to speak in my head of what I want her to look like.

I have always enjoyed watching American Chopper and looking at magazines where even the smallest detail has been considered. Although you might not be able to notice it right away, when everything has been considered, the bike has a certain feel or stance to it. So i am working to get my bike to a pure black/red bike with hopefully elimination of ANY visible metal type parts.....

I realized how nuts I am though last night. I bought a set of Speigler SS lines to put on, in red of course with black fittings. Problem...in between the black fitting and the housing, there is, you guessed it, a silver piece....pretty much a casing...this irked me seeing as the lines look BEAUTIFUL on the bike aesthetic-wise other than that....so i broke out the paintbrush and my new favorite paint as of late....external oil enamel (holds up real well to wear and tear and chemicals and goes on gloss smooth without a rattle can)...so I spent 35 minutes handpainting the fittings gloss black and will likely add a second coat tonight.....

now knowing how nuts i am, they did turn out beautiful.....i also have spent the last week handpainting black a spare rear master cylinder i got....then coating that with automotive clear which has also turned out fantastic.....

i guess the point of my story is...am i crazy...i am the only one who is this **** about their bike and wanting it to look a certain way? do you care and not have time?? what are you guy's thoughts...

on a sidenote, i'll post pictures at some point....

 

Ever since I bought my bike, I have always had a long long list of things in my head I wanted to do, I have completed most of them in the last two years, but I still have some other things I may do, but the big thing now is getting my paint done. I don't think you are nuts, when you spend time and effort on something for a specific reason--getting the bike the way you want it--then there is no reason not to go all out and make sure you do it right, the way you want it. It is the little details on any project that make is stand out from others.

 

I'm of 2 minds on this... one one hand I AM this **** and want things to look "just so" on my bike... but on the other hand, I want to enjoy my toy, and I don't want to sit around crying if and when I lay it down or she gets totalled, breaking all my spendy things and destroying all of my hard work, which makes me want to leave her bone stock. I can never make up my mind... so the only thing I can do is get another bike. I'll have one that looks pretty and I ride around when I feel like cruising, and another I take out when I want to hit up the track, do wheelies, and maybe even back and forth to work... I just need to find myself a sexy f4i...

 

The last choice spells out my situation to a "T". I'd love to have a sweet lookin bike that gave me a hard on everytime I looked at it but I'm too broke to put much into it and I am too busy to ride it as much as I'd like. There's nothing wrong with what you'r dooin ffingers. In fact, I think that your doin a great job because your not only makin a great bike better, your also educating others on the way by making the "how-to" thread and all.

I say keep up the good work, I'm still gonna be riding a sick lookin bike for a while and the day that I make it look nice, I know that will the the second day that I go down. I like my toys ruff around the edges, that way I can just laugh it off when I screw up and scratch up my cage.

 

well here's the thing....a lot of the little things i am doing right now are so cheap....it's more the time that is an investment right now....granted....a lot of things on my list....i have a list too rrasco...are purely aesthetic and will cost some dough like the bolt kit i am going to order from tastynuts....(crap bolts are expensive...LOL)

but for example...i had a bunch of stuff powdercoated...that was a little pricey....not horrible, about $200 but made a huge difference.....the rear master cylinder "mod"....cost $25 for the rear master with a spare res tank and the paint cost me all of $5...the auto clearcoat cost another $8...the good thing is that stuff lasts awhile as I am only doing small parts....

the thing i sometimes think i am nuts about is that i get many of the mods we all done, but i feel like i have to take them a step further....i.e. painting the spiegler lines...i mean a bunch of us have SS lines installed, but who paints them even though they are still customized with your fittings...haha....

here's another example of my insanity...i found a spary tint from testors for models...i am going to TRY and tint the res tank for the brake fluid....it should make dark enough to look smoked out from a distance but still clear enough to see the level inside.....i mean...who does that....seriously...i got problems..haha..oh and i am also having the calipers powdercoated honda red....ugh....

as for going down...yeah that scares me a bit....more so because i like to ride...that is why i invested in sliders although i haven't had the time to put them on yet....plus a lot of the little things i am doing wouldn't get messed up unless i totalled the bike so that is comforting..ha....

i guess beyond wanting my bike to look nice...i enjoy doing this stuff...it gives me something to look forward to....plus i don't feel like everyone else is riding my bike....although some may have a red/black f4i...i don't know many people with a tinted res....painted rear master....powdered calipers, etc....it's just my way of making her mine....

i am scared about track days as I will be starting that next year....if and when i do, i'll be investing in some track plastics and praying i don't go down....if i do, i start all over again with my trusty paintbrush....

 

I go between making it a showpiece and keeping rideable without worrying about it. The not worrying has finally won out after10,000 miles and a little rash later. Since bikes depreciate, I only modify things to make it more usable, and never to make it more custom. I figure, what ever I do to my bike, it can't be as sexy as a Ducati 1098 or a MV F4 so why try. But I do maintain it and wash it every oil change or love bug episode, whichever comes first. I am not even gonna fix the plastics, why bother, I'd want to keep it clean if it was perfect.

 

It sounds like you take pride in your whip. That's a good thing, but don't get too attached because it will come back to bite you.


I keep my bike clean. A bath every week and a half keeps most of the grime and dirt off of most places. Follow that up with a wax and I'm content. Granted, my idea of washing takes about an hour or more...

 

you can take as much as you possibly can to keep your bike lookin clean and perfect, but it only takes one ******* in one parking lot one time to back over it and waste all the money and time you've put into it...I say street rides get the wash and wax and show bikes get the kind of detail you're talking about

I literally park my car in back of every parking lot every single time and walk as far as I possibly can just so people won't part next to it... what happens? one time it's really busy at work and the parking lot is full so some jackass parks next to me and puts a nice ding right in the rear passenger door... 8 months without even a splattered bug that made it over night now there's a 200 dollar dent to fix... screw it.

 

I would say I fall in between the the top two. My bike is always clean. I clean the bugs off after immediately after every long ride, and about every 4th wash is a lowers removing, de-greasing, re-lubing,waxing,event that often takes afew hrs. But I enjoy doing it. I find it to be a good way to give the bike an overall inspection.

 

I spend all my free time on the bike, wish i could get off it long enough to mod a few things. It's gotta be pretty dirty with bugs before i even wash it.