This last picture is appropriate.  Once I quit for the day, the bike tipped over on its left hand side.  Some nice damage to the tail fairing.  I guess it could have been worse.

Back from Paint

Fairings back from paint.  Chose a Mazda colour, ceramic metallic.  Went to a swap meet a few weeks previous and picked up the vintage Suzuki decals.  Castrol logos purchased off of ebay.  Numberplates cut and sized to fit to go on next.

More Progress

She's coming along nicely...

Bodywork off to get painted...

Bandit Rebuild

Two hours in the garage and some of my best cursing got me to this stage.

 Local welding guru tig welded some threaded bungs to allow proper swingarm spools to be used.  Bolts are temporary.

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duke 690

Spent most of the winter pondering how to set up the Duke for a reverse, or race shift pattern.  After staring at 100s of pictures of Ducati shift and brake parts, I pulled the trigger on what I thought would work.

This was listed as a rear brake lever from an ST3 or similar.  The key thing was I needed the mount for the brake rod to be below the main pivot point.

The length of the shift lever itself is good.  I can adjust the pegs fore or aft if need be.

Bottom view -- I will safety-wire everything when I test it out in the spring.

What I had previously -- a shift lever from a monster -- worked perfectly and cheaper to replace than the beautiful machined one that came with the rearsets.

This was the original aftermarket shift lever that came with the MG Biketec rearsets.

Disassembly

Got into a good groove last weekend and ended up tearing the bike down, including moving the heavy and awkward engine, and finish-welding the frame.

I used both oxy on the joints, to get nicer looking beads, and some mig in a few places -- mainly to fill in some depressions, which I in turn grinded down with the angle grinder.

I also widened the steering stop on the front of the frame.  With leaving the forks stock it was "close" but the bars came in close proximity to the tank or the dashboard as they swung through their travel.  I used the mig welder here again due to the thickness of the metal involved.

The blasting and powder coating will have to get into some nooks and crannies around the steering head.  I sent these same pictures to the coater, in order not to surprise him with what was involved, or to get shocked with an inaccurate price quote.  Here's hoping the price is close to what was stated.
I had a bad experience with an industrial/agricultural coater in the past, hence the bolts that will be "wasted" in order to prevent any powder from getting into the threads.

The finished frame is quite "long" fore to aft, with the stinger on the rear subframe to keep the tail section from vibrating to oblivion.  The oven at the shop is big enough to accommodate, but the frame will have to be sandblasted outside.

The extras -- all the parts that are burgundy will go gloss black (keeping it simple), and the remaining pieces will be a satin black for contrast.  It doesn't make sense to make the frame itself a "speaking point" -- I've seen a few bandits with lurid frame paint, and it's not the look I am going for...

Final Cutting

Based on some suggestions from an online forum, and utilizing some black electrical tape to guess the final configuration, I trimmed the upper fairing back again, after marking it out with a sharpie.  The line follow the angle of the seat pan for a sense of symmetry.

Pretty happy with the end result.  The upper sorta looks like that of a TRX850, but it still has a nice retro vibe, and utilizes the mounting brackets I had fabbed up earlier.

A couple more views.  I went at it with some sandpaper to smooth off the edges, and I was able to trim it up quickly with an angle grinder.  With a fine sharp blade, it made quick work of the fibreglass.

The left side.  The aluminum brackets for the light will be radius-ed to clean them up a bit.

Next step is the turn signals.  After careful measuring, checking, and re-checking, I drilled the mounting holes.  This location makes far more sense than under the tank.  That location had the lights themselves somewhat obscured and looking a bit "off".  This puts them in quite a visible location and all is legal for the DOT man.

I made a cardboard battery box, and have sent it off the Iron Craft to be welded out of aluminum.  I cut and bent the pieces based on the template so it should be good to go shortly for a test-fit and mounting.