Rebuild 150

[2nd Life]

I'd call it Restoration 150, but it is not destined to be like the original. The 150 comes from the serial number (VIN). It is one of the earliest U.S. Raiders we know of.

My son exited one divided state highway onto another and immediately came up behind a logging truck. He looked back to check that he could safely merge onto the fast lane. Moved over, and found a pickup truck stopped in the fast lane in front of him. Braked as long as he could. Put bike down. Slid into bumper of truck. Accident inspector (a professional biker cop) said he did everything right. Well, clearly not everything. Concussion. Broken left radius and ulna. Banged up knee. With Covid19, a really bad time to be in ER. Four weeks later, he's doing pretty well. He does not remember the accident. The bike isn't healing as rapidly. We are pretty sure that the highway bars minimized the damage to the bike, and probably to him.

He's done teaching at Maxwell AFB, and will be heading to Quantico for a year's training starting in August. Here's hoping we can get her all spruced up before he has to leave. To complicate that, he wants to make some "upgrades." To save some time, I'm probably going to ask for advice/opinions here.

Current status is that using a T-square we were able to align things up and get all of the twist out of the front fork (after removing many of the damaged parts). Next up we will make sure she runs. Then we'll fix the minimum: replace control lines, shifter, pegs and rebuild the clutch master cylinder. The objective being to take her out on some safe back road to verify that the basics all work before shelling out 2-3K$ in parts. If that fails, parts bike. Following that, replace the triple-tree and do more than a visual check on the struts to make sure they remain straight. If all that works out, the rest should be straightforward.

I'm optimistic. Enough to ask this question. Since the headlight went to the scrap dealer, my son would like to install a more minimalist highlight. Example: https://www.rigidindustries.com/sr-series-pro-sr-series.html  SKU 906693 (driving) with a second SKU 106313 (spot/flood). See no indication that these are DOT approved. $750 for both seems kinda pricey to me.

Know of anything like this that has been done on a Raider (or any other bike)?
- Mounting (pretty sure the bracket I purchased for the other bike for the Victory headlight swap won't work here)?
- Wiring (connectors from the bucket; temperature sensor; etc)?
2X+ more watts than OEM (51 W low; 55 W high) headlight. Problem?

Thanks y'all.

[RoadStarRaider]

[the urban legend]

Hope your son has a complete recovery. And good luck with the build.

And FYI, my 08 is a U.S. Raider S and #000136. Chilly had #000135.

[SLK]

Sorry to here that.  I hope he heals up quickly.  Will keep him in my prayers.  As for the Raider there is lot that can done and it will look good no matter what changes you make. 

[FireNative]

Thoughts and prayers go out to your son and i'll pray for a full fast recovery.

[A.T.]

Glad to hear your son is OK although beat up.  Prayers for quick healing

Your headlight idea and saw this on Facebook:


Here are some brackets you might consider (maybe find some more rugged items):  https://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-Motorcycle-Headlight-Mount-Brackets-Fork-Racer-28mm-34mm-For-Honda-Yamaha/124176336522?hash=item1ce97c868a:g:STwAAOSwvqdesNYs

You could mount the O2 sensor to one of the brackets but still need to solve for the wire harness.  Not surethe harness would be fully stealth but maybe dress them up.

Good luck

[2nd Life]

Hope your son has a complete recovery. And good luck with the build.

And FYI, my 08 is a U.S. Raider S and #000136. Chilly had #000135.

Looks like yours and Chilly's are siblings. Wonder if ours was a younger sister (meaning, part of the same litter). 

[2nd Life]

Thanks guys. He's going quite well. The big question relates to the potential long-term effects of TBI. Praying. Hoping. Again, thanks.

Regarding AT's post:

Your headlight idea and saw this on Facebook:

Here are some brackets you might consider (maybe find some more rugged items):  https://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-Motorcycle-Headlight-Mount-Brackets-Fork-Racer-28mm-34mm-For-Honda-Yamaha/124176336522?hash=item1ce97c868a:g:STwAAOSwvqdesNYs

You could mount the O2 sensor to one of the brackets but still need to solve for the wire harness.  Not sure the harness would be fully stealth but maybe dress them up.

That might be better than the direction I was thinking of going, which was to attach to the triple-trees. Thanks. Might use a capped black pipe or plastic box for the connectors.... TBD.

And SLicK, yeah, it looks better than most bikes as it is.

[Zxdave]

Sorry to hear about the crash, but glad he is doing well and thank him for his service to our country.

[Ares X]

Prayers to your son.  Glad it wasn't worse.

[2nd Life]

Again, thanks.

Today, in advance of doing anything else, Mitchell checked the fluids, swapped the battery and started the girl up. The noise was horrendous. Any guesses (this is for fun, we figured it out)?

[A.T.]

Again, thanks.

Today, in advance of doing anything else, Mitchell checked the fluids, swapped the battery and started the girl up. The noise was horrendous. Any guesses (this is for fun, we figured it out)?

Maybe not enough electrical load...stator growl sounds awful

[2nd Life]

Again, thanks.

Today, in advance of doing anything else, Mitchell checked the fluids, swapped the battery and started the girl up. The noise was horrendous. Any guesses (this is for fun, we figured it out)?

Maybe not enough electrical load...stator growl sounds awful

Yep. Needed a light bulb plugged in. Mitchell hadn't heard about the stator growl. Can't imagine what he was thinking.

[2nd Life]

One of those days. It started out good. Joy and I did our bit to distribute food to those beat down by Covid19. That was sweet.

Then we received a call from Lowe's that the refrigerator that we bought four weeks ago is going to be at least another two weeks late, and they still have no idea where it is. Then the lawyer. Then the architect. Then the power company.

That kind of day.

The kind of day where we finished the repairs on those minimum number of things needed to test the bike out (thanks again A.T. for the clutch hose) and then my son in his enthusiasm poured diesel into the tank. And I thought the bike sounded mad when we forgot the bulb. Oye Vey!

I'm done draining the cocktail out of the system (except for whatever residue might be south of the injectors). Time to put it back together. I know you guys all know this, but really, we can't just replace the fuel filter?

If there is a silver lining in all this, it is finding that one of the fuel lines from the tank to the reservoir was badly cracked and ready to break.

[A.T.]

So here's another headlight option...kinda like how it looks and it's plug and play. I know of a certain "Earth Dawg" Raider for which this would look pretty cool ...

http://www.tcbroschoppers.com/tc-bros-scrambler-led-headlight-kit-for-harley-davidson-dual.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwoaz3BRDnARIsAF1RfLemafcr0MdD1_FwTEn-0fYoe8EqZjlQBANG6E_UmTdFShCefnRAPj0aAuBdEALw_wcB

[dukedomain]

So here's another headlight option...kinda like how it looks and it's plug and play. I know of a certain "Earth Dawg" Raider for which this would look pretty cool ...

http://www.tcbroschoppers.com/tc-bros-scrambler-led-headlight-kit-for-harley-davidson-dual.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwoaz3BRDnARIsAF1RfLemafcr0MdD1_FwTEn-0fYoe8EqZjlQBANG6E_UmTdFShCefnRAPj0aAuBdEALw_wcB

Earthdawg likes those!  And they’re a lot cheaper than the Rigid lights I’m runnin now!