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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 33
| Hi Vision riders. I got my 2011 8-ball in May and have almost 5K miles on it- IT ROCKS! I have done a few things like windshield motor w/16" CeeB shield, heated grips, tinted front turns, and D&D slip ons. A few cosmetic things I felt needed attention were the headlight and front fender. The headlight was reshaped using black gloss vinyl car wrap. The front fender is from an XC that put a 21" wheel on. I mounted it to the front lower fork mount and did a drop link from the back mount, it's rock solid and has 3/4" clearance to the cowl at the bottom. The passenger pegs were replaced with XC boards since 2011 8-balls doesn't have tip overs back there. They look great and work good but won't fold up due to the wide hips. I have quick release pins in them if they have to be removed so that's not a problem for me. I'm having a lot of fun tweaking this machine to my "vision", future mods might include an ipod type audio system and some cam work.
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Visionary
Posts: 1350
| Very nice. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 100
| Great looking bike! nice idea on the mods too!! |
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Tourer
Posts: 554
2 mi from Jim Beam n KY | Very nice! Love that fender! |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 763
Anderson, IN (48mi NE of downtown Indianapolis) | That fender looks good on the Vision. |
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Visionary
Posts: 3204
Memphis | Bike looks great but I'm just as impressed that you figured out how to post pics on your very first try! (Lots of guys get stumped on that.) |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 13
Central Nevada | Looks great. I was thinking of going with a XC front fender myself after reading of others problems with fenders breaking. You used the stock front tire ,right? You had mentioned something about a 21" tire? I think this fender looks much cleaner than stock. So this fender has clearance when turned both ways and full fork travel without hitting? Looks close in the pics. I may try it this winter, hope it fits as good on a Street Premium as on an 8 Ball. |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 33
| certz656 - 2011-10-24 5:01 PM
Looks great. I was thinking of going with a XC front fender myself after reading of others problems with fenders breaking. You used the stock front tire ,right? You had mentioned something about a 21" tire? I think this fender looks much cleaner than stock. So this fender has clearance when turned both ways and full fork travel without hitting? Looks close in the pics. I may try it this winter, hope it fits as good on a Street Premium as on an 8 Ball.
Yea, the 21" was the wheel put on the XC that this fender came off of. The XC guys going to the bigger wheels almost always change their fenders which leaves an opportunity for us Vision guys to go for the scrapped parts. There was a fender that sold on ebay recently for about 50-something $ but it was banged up and scratched. I paid about 300 for this one and it only had 500 miles on it. I think a brand new one goes for about 400-ish. I eventually will paint that mounting link black but I left it unpainted so that it would show up better in the pics. The fender is closest to the cowling when straight (3/4") and clearance gets better when turned. I could have given it more clearance than that but felt it looked better where it was at. I have over 500 miles on it now it it's still very solid feeling. I'm pretty sure the premium and the 8-ball have exactly the same fork, they both have the same crappy plastic fender, huh? |
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Cruiser
Posts: 96
Princeton, IL | Nice work. That baby looks sweeeeeettt! I am impresses with your innovation, I love do it yourselfers! |
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Tourer
Posts: 457
Green Bay, WI United States | I gotta have a fender like that. That looks like it was made for the Vision and ohhh how it cleans up the lines, both from the front and side. It also looks like it will protect the battery area better than stock. Anyone with a XC front fender to sell?????
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 33
| 8-ball - 2011-10-24 10:38 PM
I gotta have a fender like that. That looks like it was made for the Vision and ohhh how it cleans up the lines, both from the front and side. It also looks like it will protect the battery area better than stock. Anyone with a XC front fender to sell?????
This is what I did- I checked ebay everyday for fenders and looked at every victory forum in the XC section for guys showing off their 21" wheels, then I knew that there could be one available. It took me until the fourth XC guy until I found somebody who would sell and then we settled on a price. About three months of searching. There are some brand new ones listed online at dealers sites, not sure about availablility or shipping prices, this was going to be plan B if I couldn't buy used.
One thing about installing this fender, if you want to install it without removing the front wheel this is what I did. I started out by attaching it to the lower front mount just to check alignment, clearance, etc. When I rotated the fender in from the front the rear tabs on the fender hit on the forks, but not by much. I tried to wiggle them past but no go. By just bending the rear tabs in a small amount I could get the fender to squeeze by the forks. I protected the forks from scratching by putting duct tape on the inside and lighly greasing the area. Once in place I realized I could fab up some drop links with a fixed hole at the top and a slotted hole on the bottom for tweaking the aligment. These links were only going to be used for prototyping the final links but they worked so good that I decided to keep them in use. Bending the rear tabs also helped in lining up the drop hanger to rear fork mount alignment so win-win.
Another way I thought about doing this was making an adapter plate that spanned the fork mounts and then attach the fender tabs to the adapter plate. This plate would have required spacers to mount the plate since they are not flush with the fork legs and also would have required bending both sets of fender tabs in plus pulling the front wheel. This was too much work for me, I want to ride!!! Love to see how others will engineer this issue, there's more than one way to skin this cat.
Edited by gilbertma 2011-10-25 5:59 AM
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Fountain Inn, SC United States | Nice Job! What treatment did you do to your front turn signals? Vinyl wrap? Nightshades spray? |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 33
| Jedi Jeff - 2011-10-25 12:38 PM
Nice Job! What treatment did you do to your front turn signals? Vinyl wrap? Nightshades spray?
I did the swap that Heavy Metal Designs offers (core charge) they were nice and dark like I wanted. I'm only using the turn signal portion of the outer amber lights and have disconnected all the amber running lights. So this bike is really blacked out. I haven't had any problems with anyone seeing me (yet) and this bike has probably got the best headlight of any bike I've ever rode. I'm still not used to people looking at me at stoplights and gas stations (batmobile?) I'm the kind of person that likes to blend in and this bike is not helping in that regard.
Edited by gilbertma 2011-10-25 12:21 PM
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Cruiser
Posts: 188
Tifton, GA | The only place a Vision would blend in is about 30 years in the future, or maybe a Syfy convention. Mine has been photographed so much at Bike Week and Biketoberfest that I worry about premature paint fading from all the flashes. It got me some hugs from very cute ladies, some with their husband taking the picture! |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 1109
| I've had people follow into a gas station to ask me what kind of bike I drive. I had one guy tell me the Vision looks like an armor plated bike. |
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Tourer
Posts: 457
Green Bay, WI United States | gilbertma, you like to blend in you said. Nice Camaro, lord knows you blend in in that.... LOL Really nice job on your 8-ball, I am jealous. Thanks for sharing how you found your fender. Where are you from? You did a good job scratching out the plates on the car. My guess is So. Cal or AZ< NV by the stucco on the home. Good luck with the bike and as I always say....
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 33
| 8-ball - 2011-10-25 8:41 PM
gilbertma, you like to blend in you said. Nice Camaro, lord knows you blend in in that.... LOL Really nice job on your 8-ball, I am jealous. Thanks for sharing how you found your fender. Where are you from? You did a good job scratching out the plates on the car. My guess is So. Cal or AZ< NV by the stucco on the home. Good luck with the bike and as I always say....
I'm in N.E Florida about 80 miles from Daytona. The RS Camaro is a 2011 that I bought for my wife to drive to work, I try to keep her happy because if she ain't happy- you know the rest. Of course I drive the 8-ball to work and in Florida that's year round due to the mild weather. Everyday I take the Vision to work vs my F150 puts $5 in my pocket, not too shabby. |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 8
Minnetonka, MN United States | gilbertma - 2011-10-25
I'm only using the turn signal portion of the outer amber lights and have disconnected all the amber running lights.
Is there a write up anywhere on how to do this? |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 1066
Peru, IN | Gilbert --- If you're still around, I've got some questions about the front fender conversion. PM me if you're about. |
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Visionary
Posts: 4278
| Is that a XC header. LOVE LOVE the headlight. scared to do mine |
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Vision 8-ball with XC Parts