Hi everyone, first time forum poster here. I've been browsing for weeks as I'm a month-long owner of a new 1200 here in Virginia in the states. I recall seeing a post or two from some members who have done a DIY fender/tail mod on the 7th gen as the only kit available is 300+ USD from Germany and it seems like its just a cut stock part anyway. I'm fairly good with my hands but if some1 is willing to give me some advice or a simple walkthrough on how they performed the rear fender elimination process, I will create a step by step (with pics) procedure to perform it that maybe the mods can 'Sticky' . Can anyone provide pics from the rear of the fender, or underside, post-modification? Just looking for a starting point before i go fire up the conpressor and the air cutting wheel. :) Thanks in advance. Oh and if any of you UK/euro guys want to make a couple bucks and secure me a Honda OEM 7th gen motorcycle cover and mail it over, i can shoot a paypal with some $$ your way ;) ... I cant find one stateside to save my life.
I took pics from every step of mine. The problem is the pics at my ex-wife's house on a camera. I have to go by my old house today and will see if she didnt delete them off the camera when I am there. The good news is that I dont think that she is actually smart enough to know how to delete a camera memory card. :rolleyes:
I dont know if it is what you are looking for but the bags still work and it only cost me like .40 cents in hardware to do.
There is a guy on here that was able to get it shorter and I think it looks nicer. He's kind of got some far away pics on here on other posts but I need to PM him to see if I can get a closer look.
I did a tail mod, and have no regrets 10,000 miles later. Got lots of flak on this forum for cutting off the rear bag mounts in the process. My bike will never wear panniers, so not an issue. I live in sunny SoCal, so riding in the rain won't be happening either.
There are a couple of pics under a forum thread titled " plate light extension." Sorry, don't know how to add a link from my not-so-smart phone.
Someone else in here whacked off their fender and moved the plate up.
I didn't whack off the fender just yet, but I did move the plate up after removing the bracket and reflectors. Then I removed the tail light spacer to tighten that up too. Takes the jiggle out of it also.
Then I changed my rear turn signal sockets to 1157s, and wired the running light wire to the license plate.
There's a company in Germany called Thurn Motorsport who sell a plate holder and fixing bracket for about £200 ($320 US) and you have to cut down the plastic to fit it! What a rip off. After buying my bike last month I haven't got a lot of spare cash so I bought a bracket from a DIY shop for £1.68 ($2.50 US) and I'm fairly pleased with the result.
By the way, Thurn Sport do sell an awesome LED rear light which I am saving up for.
The standard legal UK bike plate is 9"x7", the ever so slightly illegal one that you can see on my bike in the picture is 7"x5". Usually the police let you off with a warning if your plate is below the legal size providing the figures are clearly legible. How big are US plates?
Much smaller, about 5"x7" and totally reflective.
California has had white ones since 1981, Older versions being blue with yellow letters and (even older) black with yellow letters. Custom backgrounds (like palm trees or whale tales) or lettering are available at extra cost to your yearly registration, but standard is a Alpha-Numeric combination of seven digits.
States vary slightly on the digit combinations and backgrounds (Georgia has a Peach), but they are all the same format and size.
[image: View Post]MSGTR, on 10 May 2012 - 12:24 PM, said:
Much smaller, about 5"x7" and totally reflective.
California has had white ones since 1981, Older versions being blue with yellow letters and (even older) black with yellow letters. Custom backgrounds (like palm trees or whale tales) or lettering are available at extra cost to your yearly registration, but standard is a Alpha-Numeric combination of seven digits.
States vary slightly on the digit combinations and backgrounds (Georgia has a Peach), but they are all the same format and size.
So doesn't that mean that the 7"x5" on my bike is roughly (!) the same size as the 5"x7" on your bikes.
[image: View Post]Oldcruzer, on 11 May 2012 - 12:32 PM, said:
[image: View Post]MSGTR, on 10 May 2012 - 12:24 PM, said:
Much smaller, about 5"x7" and totally reflective.
California has had white ones since 1981, Older versions being blue with yellow letters and (even older) black with yellow letters. Custom backgrounds (like palm trees or whale tales) or lettering are available at extra cost to your yearly registration, but standard is a Alpha-Numeric combination of seven digits.
States vary slightly on the digit combinations and backgrounds (Georgia has a Peach), but they are all the same format and size.
So doesn't that mean that the 7"x5" on my bike is roughly (!) the same size as the 5"x7" on your bikes.
You have to multiply your 7x5" times the Euro to dollar conversion rate to get the true size of our 5x7" plate. Right now the conversion rate is .7732 so our plates are actually 5.42"x3.87". :happy:
For my snowmobile I can get custom made decals and don't even need a plate. As long as they are 1.25 tall and .5 inch wide letters you can do whatever you want from there
Wish we could do this for bikes as well. How nice would it be if you could do a custom matched decal to all the other decals on your bike and not worry about a plate at all.
End of thread · 14 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 24 May 2012