Honda modification, part I

Since Ive bought my Honda Shadow, its undergone some, uh, changes. All positive, mind you. To start from the beginning:

I bought the bike from craigslist in August of 2007. It seemed like a good deal; about a thousand bucks under blue book because the druggie Oakie I bought it from had to pay rent. It seemed okay, but he had lost the key, plus the key to the gas tank, and chopped the frame (I didnt know this at the time). I load her up in my truck, get it home, and over the course of time, I find out all its wonderful problems--gummed up carbs, disconnected vaccuum hoses, and most importantly, the rear of the fender cleft in twain. Notice in the last picture the plastic fenders and side covers which I no longer use, the cut down exhaust pipes missing mufflers (which caused another set of issues) and what you cant see is the bobbed fender, which Ive included in another picture on here. SO, over the period of several months I rebuilt the carburetor (a first), learned so much about engines and motorcycles it astounds me, ditched the plastic rear fender because it broke in half (cheap plastic #%#%) and started working on other areas of the bike that need attention.

Today, since I have my shiny new (new 30 years ago, anyway, but new to me) townhouse with attached garage (YES! A GARAGE!) I started getting down and dirty with the bike since I now have a secure location to work on it without the fear of the weather, or jerks living in my apartment complex trying to steal it every night (not joking here, thank God for fork locks). I completely gutted the electric components from underneath where the seat usually goes and pulled out the battery box, a platic contraption that takes up way too much space and needlessly consumes most of the area near the chain and swingarm. Since Im kinda winging it here, my plans are as such:

1. Drill out exhaust baffles, because its too quiet (I replaced the cut off pipes with a set of stock 2007 pipes that still fit...the old pipes were rusted over and provided no back pressure whatsoever). Down the road Im going to wrap the pipes in heat wrap and cut off the mufflers and add exhaust tips for aesthetics.


2. Rig up an aluminum or steel plate between the frame rails to mount the battery on and mount the rectifier above the battery on spacers. I saw this on another guys site, so I wont take creative credit for it (VLXS.com, sweet bike).


3. Figure out somewhere else to store the rest of the electrical junk, like the fuse box, in line relays, igntion coil, blinker relays, etc. Its going to be fun! I get to exercise my creative side! I cant tell you how starved Ive been with no creative outlet.


4. Replace the rear monoshock, or at least lower it a few inches so the swingarm and the rear of the frame line up to make it look smoother.

Ive still got a long way to go, including new tires, rebuilding the front forks, cleaning some minor rust off, reconfiguring the air intake (its a dual carb setup, but the air inlets are facing at opposed 45 degree angles UPWARD toward the tank...itll be tricky, but Ive got a plan! No one else has done this I know of, which makes it even better!), and recovering the newly resurfaced seat. Woo! Im stoked! I just need to learn to weld....that comes next.

Pics at the top: First pic is a cardboard box top I used from my moving boxes to catalog where all the wires run. It'll work, I s'pose.

Second pic you can see the chopped frame, and the sloppy edges that he never did ANYTHING with. At least seal the frame tubes off, for crying out loud! You can also see the gap between the frame and the swingarm where the battery was, and where I will be reconfiguring the wiring harness.

Last pic is the bike before I did anything to it, pretty much right after I bought it. Notice the rear plastic fender and side covers, which wont be seeing any ussage.