Can’t afford a Belstaff Jacket?  Me neither.  I picked this one up from urbanrider.co.uk and it’s great both on and off the bike. Made by Tucano Urbano.

My new Spark Mid Pipe came in.  Ordered it from www.motowheels.com

Removed the entire exhaust to make the fitting easier.

The Monster looks so sexy without the double barrel cans.  Wishing I could afford boom tubes to keep the clean look.

Remarkable difference in both weight and looks.

Garbage.

Header will eventually be sprayed with high temp black.

I’ve seen so many cool motorcycles this week.  Snapped this one over at Jorge’s Mexican restaurant off of Burnet here in Austin.

Finally got around to removing the charcoal canister.  It was a big eyesore with superfluous tubing and amounted to nothing more than added weight..  Bye Bye.

Plugged the holes in the in the manifolds with some M5 bolts and a little lock tight.

Triumph Cafe Racer

Seen at Ramsey Park in Central Austin.

Stretched out Ruckus

Ducati Cafe Racer Rat Bike

I first saw this bike parked at a Home Depot in December when I was there shopping for a Christmas tree.  It appealed to me on so many levels.  First, it is the quintessential idea of a cafe racer– stripped down to its bare essentials.  Secondly, it has that rat-bike type of neglect or at least a seemingly perceived neglect that makes it look tough.  I parked right next to this little racer and snapped this pic back in december.  This morning I saw the same bike parked in front of Upper Crust Bakery on Burnet and just happened to see it’s owner throw his leg over it.  Respect.  Every detail of this bike screams awesome, it is so very Austin.

Removing the side plastic side panels also brings out more of the nakedness of the bike. The right hand side reveals the mono-shock which looks amazing. However, there are some wires that the side panel covered that have to be rerouted.

With the right hand side panel gone the tail section begins to look more lean and sleek. The yellow mono-shock pops out and the Monster truly begins to look like a naked machine.

The only unforgiving parts are the leftover tabs on the frame. Some owners have time to disassemble the bike grind the tabs off and repaint their frame. I, unfortunately, do not have that type of time on my hands. Luckily I was able to hide one of the wiring connections behind the tab using a black zip tie. The other smaller wiring connection I rerouted behind and above the rear brake reservoir next to the oil vent tube.

The left hand side panel was hiding much more content and more important devices.

Behind the left-hand side rear set tab is the coil to one of the cylinders. It is mounted right behind the tab. Most people relocate that under the seat but that procedure requires removing the plastic oil breather tank that connects to the air filter. Thought the oil breather tank is certainly an eye sore, removing it is a procedure I will not do. Most owners throw on a slick looking K&N filter on the oil vent, plug the air filter and call it a day. Those same owners claim that no harm is done to the engine or bike. I’ll wait on that mod until I learn more, but I recall on my last bike when I vented any blow back gasses into the atmosphere instead of having the air filter reclaim them it was a smelly mess. I prefer to smell nice when I get to work.

So the only thing I rerouted where the wiring connections that led to the rectifier. The thick insulated cabling actually runs through a deep groove in the plastic oil breather tank. I just pulled the cable up out of view and bent it until it was sitting comfortable under the seat. It no longer runs through the groove in the oil breather tank and the seat doesn’t pinch it in any way. The left-hand side isn’t looking as best as it could. You can still see a little of the colored wires, the thick tube that leads connects to the oil breather tank and the bottom of the oil breather tank. Nevertheless, I am happy with removing the plastic parts. The only two I have on the bike are the seat cowl and front chain guard.