Working on the gps mount. This one is pretty compact. In the interest of time, I just ran the power supply directly to the battery.
Second coat. I'm guessing it will take 5 coats total. This is all for now though. Time to go make MrsDonkeys happy.
Back to work. Second coat on the backsides, fourth on the headlight shroud. Multiple light coats is the trick to avoiding texture.
Fifth and final coats on everything. I'll let it dry overnight and reassemble everything tomorrow. Let's hope the gloss plastics give a good offset to the flat black parts here. If it looks like crap, I'll just be riding an ugly bike for the next two weeks since I'm taking it out of town tomorrow afternoon.
Front fender disassembly is confusing, so pay attention and learn from my mistake. This is a shot of the underside of the front fender. There are 4 sets of screws. Two different torx sizes, and a phillips. The phillips do not go up front, as in the most forward position on the bike. (Top of the photo) They fit there, but the last two quarter turns will send the through the top of the fender. The phillips go in the second position. Luckily I caught it before it punched a hole, but I do have a nice dimple there now. I just made a dimple to match on the other side and touched up my plasti dip. To drop the front fender assembly, you only need to undo the bottom 2 screws in this photo, and the 4 bolts not pictured behind them. The bottom 2 screws go through the rear of the fender, the front fender, and into the headlight assembly. Sent from the voices in my head and transcribed by their drinking buddy...
It is hard to get pictures of a black bike outside, so bear with me. Here is the front, with a pregnant MrsDonkeys putting on the back plastics.
The rear plastics on. You don't need to remove the exhaust heat guards to remove the rear plastics. However, you will want to remove them before reassembling everything. They caused some scratches on my newly dipped parts, which required some touch-up. Moral of the story, just take them off and get them out of the way. These rear plastics were a pain to get back on.
And all done. I think vinyl will be more durable, but the plasti dip is much easier to apply, and you can touch it up.
Thanks! She would probably not be happy if she realized she was in that photo. She said "Are you taking a picture of me?" I replied "No, just the front of the bike." I couldn't quite zoom in with the phone, so I just went with it. I'm a lucky man though. I married a woman that loves motorcycles, and considers working on them "quality time." She even changes her own oil.
This might be a dumb question or observation as I see what I think is two different cable & line routing in you early photos with the "Ashesport" sticker in place vs. pictures without the fork protectors in place. The brake line and ABS cable appear to be on the outboard side of the fork on stock Stradas, but appears to be on the inboard side of stock Terras. I realized this as I was riding to work this morning and suddenly realized that was what that inboard doohickey was on the set of fork protectors I bought recently for the conversion, but didn't use. I think this makes sense as the chances of snagging these lines when in off-road mode is probably much greater than in road-only mode. Which then started me thinking, how does one move over the lines if you choose to? My best guess is that you have to remove the ABS sensor from the mount and unbolt the caliper while you have the wheel off, wind differently around the fork leg, and then remount. Hopefully, one doesn't have to disconnect the brake line and have to bleed it. So, testify my Terra-fied brother donkey rider! Have we found another subtle difference between the two models? Or did I miss a post somewhere this was already discovered and I'm just rehashing a recurring thread?
I just noticed this also as I did my high fender conversion this morning. Here's a terra pic that shows the terra's routing (thanks Leo Fisher!). I think you would be correct about how to move the lines inboard.
Hi I am thinking of buying a Strada. As a matter of interest can you tell me what sort of price the spoked wheels run at from the dealers?
Eurosport Asheville in NC quoted me the best. About $1100 for both IIRC for OEM. I'm into a used Dakar rear 17" with ABS ring about $350 and a front custom Rad & Excel from Woody's about $800.
