| Author | Message | ||
     Gentleman_jon |
Here is a little mod it did to Yellow Peril this winter. I ordered the seat cowl from Al Lighton at American Sport Bike. It took him a couple of months to get the part made just the way it wanted it, but it works fine on my XB9S, with the cheese grater removed. After I received the part from Al, I sanded and primed it. Then gound the front edge to fit the Streetfighter seat with an hand grinder. Then finished the edge by hand. Put a well nut in the underside of the seat pan. Then finish painted the cowl with my Favorite Krylon Safety Yellow #183 which is pretty close to Buell Yellow. And that was pretty much it. The instructions indicate that the mounting hardware on the bike might need to be modified, but it didn't on my bike.  | ||
| Al_lighton |
Lookin good, Jon! Glad to hear you didn't need to modify the seat latch HW. I had to futz with it a bit on the shop XB9S, but it is an early model S and I suspect that Buell has adjusted the latch a little since then. But the instructions cover the necessary mods if required, hopefully your bike is representative of most that will not require it. This cowl project kicked my butt for a while, until I came up with the well nut method for holding it to the seat in a positive way. It is way better than using the strap screws as it used to be done. Anyone with a dremel and a drum sander can make this cowl fit their stock or streetfigher XBS seat perfectly with very little effort. Thanks for posting, Jon! Al | ||
| Brad_buell |
That looks GREAT Jon!  It's exactly what I want to do to my XB9. Any chance that you could post a pic of the whole bike? Interested to see the whole picture. I'm still debating between the Al's seat cowl or a modified seat from Corbin, with yellow in the tail section. -Brad | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Here is the whole bike. I just took her out for a spin, and I was very surprised to find that I felt much more in control than before I installed it. I was worried at first, because I could just feel the cowl on my butt, but once I got into a few twisties, I found that the cowl restrained my fore and aft movement, kept me from sliding around, and made it easier to slide from side to side, ( I had put a little armorall on the seat for appearance reasons too.) Maybe it was just because it LOOKED racier, but I could swear I feel more in control in the corners, ( and the way people drive today, that can't be bad:-) .  | ||
| Brad_buell |
Hey Jon, thanks for the full pic. Your XB looks Great. I sent you an email about the paint. I had a hard time finding Krylon Safety Yellow(#183), in Northern Michigan. -Brad | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Sorry about the paint number. Krylon recently changed the graphics on the can and the part number from 183 to 1813, OSHA Special Safety Paint. It is still available at my local ACE hardware store. In order to get the rattle can paints to harden properly and quickly, I usually bake the part in my home oven at 150º for 6 hours or so. I was worried that it might affect this part as it is fiberglass, but it did not appear to do any harm, and did harden the paint nicely. | ||
| Brucelee |
Nice, very nice job! |
