29.
So even though I haven’t really written almost anything about it, I ‘ve done quite a bit of work on the electrics on the bike which I thought I would review for you while waiting for the carbs to return.
“Shido Lithium Ion 36W Battery” as you can tell by its name, is a lithium ion battery which means it is as light as a feather and apparently puts out much more power to turn the bike over. Also has pretty lights 🙂 I also picked up this little gadget that I have fitted into the underside of the subframe which flashes (looks like an alarm flash) so I can see what charge is on the bike (red.. yellow.. green..).
If I’m still not sure, this £3 dial shows the real voltage of the battery. As I couldn’t find a place I was happy to mount it on the front dash (I will come to the details on the changes to the front dash later in this post) I decided to mount it next to the fuse box (logical)(no pictures of it mounted yet).
Again, some of you may have noticed I relocated the fuse box to under the new passenger seat of the R9 subframe as I can quickly access this with a key (whereas the main seat needs an alan key).
Yes this is an amazing speedo and would be great on any bike but in my opinion it does not look right on a street fighter. It’s too big for a bike that is meant to be about minimalizing and looking aggressive.
So the speedo I went for was a Dan Moto - Nano Dash.
Not sure how it will work out as haven’t used the bike yet but it fits nicely in the brace on the handle bars and works well with the look. Still need to add the speed sensor and calibrate it but will do that later when I tackle the front brakes.
Hand controls
The RF900 hand controls looked…in a single word…tired. However, the design was an even bigger issue - very much of a certain era, with those sharp angles and button shape. I felt like it need an update to complement the speedo and Brembo RCS Cylinders next to them.
The left hand controls are from a 06 Bandit 1200 . As always, bought from eBay. Much better looking and was fairly easy to match up the correct wires. Also has a hazard button which could come in handy 🙂
The right hand controls are from a 02 Hayabusa . Originally I bought the right hand controls from another Suzuki (can’t remember which model) as there was no throttle casing on the controls. This was because I was planning to add a quick throttle.
I can still do this in the future but for the moment I am using the standard throttle and cabling which will probably suit my riding better.
I will also be buying a LED bulb & converter as the post on the rfownersclub forum has shown how much better they are.
NO ALARM YET… will be looking to add a Thatcham alarm once I get the bike running.
New Battery
So some of you may have noticed that near the beginning of the project I was using a yellow battery. I bought from eBay which worked fine but recently I purchased this bad boy (also from eBay)
“Shido Lithium Ion 36W Battery” as you can tell by its name, is a lithium ion battery which means it is as light as a feather and apparently puts out much more power to turn the bike over. Also has pretty lights 🙂 I also picked up this little gadget that I have fitted into the underside of the subframe which flashes (looks like an alarm flash) so I can see what charge is on the bike (red.. yellow.. green..).
If I’m still not sure, this £3 dial shows the real voltage of the battery. As I couldn’t find a place I was happy to mount it on the front dash (I will come to the details on the changes to the front dash later in this post) I decided to mount it next to the fuse box (logical)(no pictures of it mounted yet).
Again, some of you may have noticed I relocated the fuse box to under the new passenger seat of the R9 subframe as I can quickly access this with a key (whereas the main seat needs an alan key).
Coils
Working my way forward on the bike we come to the coils. So I have already shown you these in an earlier post“Post 14” . I will just leave some pics of them on the bike. (Pics Coming Soon)Speedo
If you have seen my build before, I made a post a while ago about how I bought this amazing speedo “..” and how this my perfect speedo… bla bla bla …
Yes this is an amazing speedo and would be great on any bike but in my opinion it does not look right on a street fighter. It’s too big for a bike that is meant to be about minimalizing and looking aggressive.
So the speedo I went for was a Dan Moto - Nano Dash.
Not sure how it will work out as haven’t used the bike yet but it fits nicely in the brace on the handle bars and works well with the look. Still need to add the speed sensor and calibrate it but will do that later when I tackle the front brakes.
Hand controls
The RF900 hand controls looked…in a single word…tired. However, the design was an even bigger issue - very much of a certain era, with those sharp angles and button shape. I felt like it need an update to complement the speedo and Brembo RCS Cylinders next to them.
The left hand controls are from a 06 Bandit 1200 . As always, bought from eBay. Much better looking and was fairly easy to match up the correct wires. Also has a hazard button which could come in handy 🙂
The right hand controls are from a 02 Hayabusa . Originally I bought the right hand controls from another Suzuki (can’t remember which model) as there was no throttle casing on the controls. This was because I was planning to add a quick throttle.
I can still do this in the future but for the moment I am using the standard throttle and cabling which will probably suit my riding better.
Headlight
So the head light has been quite obvious since the bike changed direction to become a StreetFighter. Its call a YAMAHA MT03 bought from (?) with a pair of mounting brackets that I had powdercoated to match the rest of the RF.
I will also be buying a LED bulb & converter as the post on the rfownersclub forum has shown how much better they are.
NO ALARM YET… will be looking to add a Thatcham alarm once I get the bike running.