Homemade Lowers

[rick50]

Originally Posted by KawaVulcan

Does anyone have any suggestions for homemade lowers on a 900 Custom. We have a different setup on our forks (no shock covers), so I was just wondering if there's a setup for us. Thanks!


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you can have a look at what i did here................

http://www.vulcanforums.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=22976

[KawaVulcan]

Here's what I came up with for a set of homemade lowers for my Vulcan 900 Custom:

I bought everything locally; 1/4" plexiglass from Lowes and the clamps from Northern Tool. They're not "p-clamps" because I couldn't find any (nobody around here even knows what a p-clamp is). These are "Apache T-Bolt Clamps". They're stainless steel and I bought stainless acorn nuts to put on the front side. Total cost in materials: $35.

They work well in that there is less air blowing around between me and the windshield, there's less buffeting of air at head level and I believe my legs will benefit from them too. If you need to know any dimensions, just let me know. Thanks!

[steve900c]

[QUOTE=KawaVulcan;269378]Here's what I came up with for a set of homemade lowers for my Vulcan 900 Custom:


Great idea to clamp the lowers to the forks like this... first thing I thought (after looking at my own 900C) was that it looks like the lowers are going to hit the turnsignals when the forks compress. What did you do for clearance in this regard? Under hard braking, do the top edges of the lowers go past/in front of the turn signals?

[KawaVulcan]

Originally Posted by steve900c

Great idea to clamp the lowers to the forks like this... first thing I thought (after looking at my own 900C) was that it looks like the lowers are going to hit the turnsignals when the forks compress. What did you do for clearance in this regard? Under hard braking, do the top edges of the lowers go past/in front of the turn signals?

Thanks Steve! Under extreme braking, the lowers I made do lightly graze the front of the turn signal lenses near the top of the lens, but there's enough flex in the lowers and signals to do little or any harm. If the lowers begin to adversely affect my lenses, I will cut a notch the top of the lowers to provide additional clearance. I considered installing them like rick50's, but I wanted to try this first.

[Infinite_Day]

Thanks Steve! Under extreme braking, the lowers I made do lightly graze the front of the turn signal lenses near the top of the lens, but there's enough flex in the lowers and signals to do little or any harm. If the lowers begin to adversely affect my lenses, I will cut a notch the top of the lowers to provide additional clearance. I considered installing them like rick50's, but I wanted to try this first.

Did you put anything between the clamps and the fork lowers to keep them from slipping and/or scuffing?

[marcwhite]

These work well but I'm sure take a little more work to pretty up. The length and the fact they fill in above the turn signal keeps everything very calm.

[KawaVulcan]

Originally Posted by Infinite_Day

Did you put anything between the clamps and the fork lowers to keep them from slipping and/or scuffing?

Nope. They will definitely not slip; they may scuff the coating on the forks a little, but I'm not really worried about that. If it was a $20K bike with chrome forks, I would have been a bit more concerned about the finish, lol!

[KawaVulcan]

Originally Posted by steve900c

Great idea to clamp the lowers to the forks like this... first thing I thought (after looking at my own 900C) was that it looks like the lowers are going to hit the turnsignals when the forks compress. What did you do for clearance in this regard? Under hard braking, do the top edges of the lowers go past/in front of the turn signals?

Update on the lenses rubbing: I discovered today that only one lens was rubbing on hard braking. That baffled me because the lowers we perfectly even, so I put a straight edge across the forks and discovered that one of the turn signals was crooked. I worked on that lens until it was even with the other side; this was accomplished by adding a washer in front of the brace as a spacer. Now my both my lowers pass in front of the lenses.

[Kennyg]

Thanks for the info guys. I'll have these on the bike for spring riding.

[Busboy]

These homemade lowers look great. My only problem is that I cannot source anywhere here on this big Island the 2 15/16-3" "P" clamps unless I go to some SS hose clamps.

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