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Slowly but surely, the build of "Penny Lane"

6K views 34 replies 14 participants last post by  tailwind 
#1 ·
Alright, time to start digging into the scram. Lots of things planned, but time and life will dictate my pace.

First thing I did was pull off the stock bars and throw on some lower moto style black bars. Noticibly narrower, may need to weight the bar ends.

When I bought the bike it came with a TOR exhaust. Love the sound but couldn't get over the weight of them, and how massive they look. Wanted something cleaner. After some research (and annoying you good folk by bringing up dead topics), I decided to go the VW tip route. Ebay to the rescue. I found a set that had a slight factory bend right after the inlet. Fit like a dream and took a total of twelve minutes to install. The bend works perfectly with the factory heat shield, no clearance issues at all. Anyone looking to buy TOR mufflers? Let me know!

Exhaust sorted for the meantime....

Next on the list is getting rid of the awful turn signals/tail light, and chopping the rear fender. I ordered the Supernova mini LED's from Revival for the rear. Once they arrive I will fab up some brackets for them off the seat rail.

Also (from Revival) I ordered the Motogadget M-pins for the front. I think I will mount them on the headlight bracket for the time being. See how I like that.

Taillight is still up in the air. I'd love to do shock mount tailight/plate bracket, but unfortunately it is illegal in canada. Plate needs to be centered at rear and I dont feel like being pulled over any more than necessary. Any recommendations on a minimal LED rear?

Over the next while the seat is getting gutted, shaved and reupholstered. New paint for the lady as well (the name is a dead giveaway). Lots of cleaning and polishing, as well as some powder coating.

Couldn't help but get a new keychain for it too. Gotta love the creative world of Etsy.

Lots more to come...
 

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#5 · (Edited)
Alright, had some fun yesterday. Good and bad. Picked up a new LED tail light, was planning on waiting to revamp the rear until my new signals turned up, but still waiting (3 weeks) got a bit impatient. Cross boarder shipping sucks.

Plan was to shorten the rear fender and chop the sides to keep it hidden under the seat pan, then mount the new bates style tail light on the fender, and fab a plate/signal mount. That was the plan, anyways. Had everything shaped, happy with how it looked and was giving it a quick clean up with a wire wheel on my angle grinder. Ping! Damn, caught the edge. I dont know if anyone else has chopped one of these fenders, but they are thin! And once you take the sides off it loses a lot of its rigidity. Let's just say it got a little bent.

After a few minutes of trying my hand at metal shaping, I went to plan B. No fender.

While contemplating how to execute plan B, I decided to start some wiring and test out the new light. Everything worked, all tests were a go, let's start splicing. Signals were no problem, just wanted to shorten the lines so I didnt have an excess of wire under the seat. Got that done. Moved onto the brake/runner. At this point I second guessed myself on the wire order, no biggie, quick test and I'll move on. My mind must have been on the previous dumb move because the trend of the day continued. Somehow touched the two live wires together and pop, no more running light. I assumed it was just a blown fuse, but was pretty confused as I couldn't see any other lights that stopped working when the fuse blew. After a cry for help on TR and some good advice (Thanks!) I figured out the runners are on the same fuse as the speedo/tach lighting. Swap fuse, back in business.

I decided to keep it pretty simple for the time being with the mount. Piece of 1" flat bar for the tail light, and mount the stock plate bracket to the bottom of the flat bar. I also decided I may as well put my wavy fender out of its misery and use it as an under seat protector for wiring, as well as a mounting point for my flat bar. Few more cuts, some holes drilled and some black paint and we have a (somewhat) tidy tail. It's not perfect, or permamant, but it's a little easier for me to look at than the stock set up.
 

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#8 ·
Hmmm.....

Maybe flip the bolts on the tail light mount around so the excess shank is hidden in the bracket? And then shape the flat stock to match the profile of the tail light mount? Just looks a little too DIY to me right now. I think those two suggestions might go a long way to polishing up your work.

And since you've got the die grinder and black paint out, why not nick this little eyesore off as well?

 
#9 ·
I definitely agree, the mount was a throw together for the time being, as the fender plan got kiboshed. Once I have some time I will clean up the flat stock and try to shape it a bit better. That stock exhaust mount has to go as well, but the wife and yard work were calling.
 
#10 ·
After going back and forth on spending too much on a BC airbox eliminator kit, chopping my stock box up, or fabbing my own, I came across a UK company called RamAir. Under 200CAD shipping inc. full kit to get rid of the stock airbox and get the bike breathing better. Steel battery box (with mounting points), foam pod filters, crankcase breather filter, and AIS cancellation plugs included. Ordered Saturday and was here the following Friday. Only thing not included is a carb support but that's an easy DIY.
Hurry up spring!
 

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#11 ·
Alright havnt posted in a while but have been working on the bike quite a bit. Lots of parts have come in and slowly but surely (as the title indicates) are being installed.

- Tank is back from paint, annoyed the hell out of my painter by changing my mind on colors daily for 2 weeks. Very happy with how it turned out in Sterling Grey
- New Sixty8 Heritage badges (powdercoated black) are installed.
- New Rizoma reservoir installed.
- New Motone "Skinny Brat" Mamba seat.
- Lots of bits and pieces away for powdercoat.
- Ignition relocated
- Replaced stock headlight brackets.
-Rectifier relocated.
- New black front rim to replace the bent (previous owner) original.
- Back rim is currently unlaced waiting for powdercoat to match new front.
- Motone brushed aluminum rear fender. Didnt get it in time for paint so it's in this week.
- New set of Avon Trailriders en route to finish off all the wheel changes.
- Set of Bitubo rear shocks to replace the back-breaking stockers.
- All new pegs

I am sure I am missing a few things but that's been the last few months. It's a good thing I've been busy as we've had the coldest Feb on record where I live in Canada. Awesome. Spring can come any day now.
 

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#22 ·
Lookin' Good

Nice posts. I appreciate the pics as I'm doing a bunch of small things to my scram right now as well. How do those VW pipes sound? I'm plenty happy with my arrow but thought it'd be fun to have another option and have always been intrigued by those.
 
#23 ·
Nice posts. I appreciate the pics as I'm doing a bunch of small things to my scram right now as well. How do those VW pipes sound? I'm plenty happy with my arrow but thought it'd be fun to have another option and have always been intrigued by those.
Thanks, man. The VW tips sound awesome. Quite a bit more of an aggressive snarl than the TORS I had on before them. And for the $22 cost of them, they cant really be beat. Once spring has sprung around my neck of the woods I will post a video of how they sound.
 
#26 ·
Wow! That’s a sweet package. I’m modding a Scram myself, too. You can see some of the stuff I’ve done in my gallery. Happy to exchange ideas should there be anything you’re interested in.
 
#28 ·
Everyday gets a little closer to wheels on the ground again. Speaking of wheels, big steps in the last 24hrs. After having to replace my stock front rim due to a warp, I had sourced out a replacement from Brian at A&J Cycles NY (thanks, man). The new rim was black, which worked for me as I planned on blacking them out anyways. So after going back and forth on whether to paint or powdercoat the rear to match, I bit the bullet and started Un-lacing to head to the blasters.

Picked up a fresh set of Avon Trailriders (had them on last bike, loved them). I was lucky enough to find a guy right down the street that specializes in bike wheels and works out of his home shop. So once I got the rear back from powdercoat (turned out great), I dropped them off to have the rear re-laced and both tires mounted and balanced. At the end he charged me pennies on the dollar compared to what local shops had quoted me. Good connection to have so close by.

Anyways, spent the morning putting the wheels back on the bike, and can finally start to see it coming back together (Still waiting on my Bitubo black series rear shock to get back from rebuild, so please ignore the ugly chrome stock one in the picture). Pretty happy with how the blacked out gauge bracket and headlight bezel turned out after powdercoat as well. Little bit more wiring to do, waiting on my fenders from the painter, but the end is in sight!

Also got bored waiting and threw some yellow tint on the headlight. I think it kind of suits it.
 

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#29 ·
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