Back in the shop

Well you could do the white in green. The fairings are unpainted? You could do it like a mike hailwood replica. Beat the rush. The 50th anniversary is just a few years away.

Steven31371 said:

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So the original plan was to paint the remaining white primer parts matte black…but I kinda like the look of this, especially when the black has cap and black tank grip pads go on to balance things out…thoughts?

Either way I need to let it cure for 3 days before I do anything else, the masking tape was pulling up the primer in a few places. Annoying but fixable…and…track part.

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Nice job. Do you think the primer was still too soft where you removed the tape or did it not get enough perch?

cl955 said:

Looks good. Aren't the white parts on the tank high contact areas? Will the primer be durable enough? I could be talking nonsense of course.

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Move along if you don’t have any practical experience.

cl955 said:

Looks good. Aren't the white parts on the tank high contact areas? Will the primer be durable enough? I could be talking nonsense of course.

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We’ll see I guess…if I leave it white I’ll PAINT it white over the primer and then clear coat it.

Looks good.

baggerman said:

Nice job. Do you think the primer was still too soft where you removed the tape or did it not get enough perch?

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Thanks, it looks good from far but is far from good lol

About the primer, I think I either didn’t rough it enough or let it cure long enough or both. i only let it sit overnight..a buddy of mine said you really want 3 days of cure time…so we’ll see…fingers crossed lol

baggerman said:

Well you could do the white in green. The fairings are unpainted? You could do it like a mike hailwood replica. Beat the rush. The 50th anniversary is just a few years away.

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Using these fairings for now…that’s why with all the white accents I think painting the primates sections white for now might look kinda different and cool.

Okay so the white bit is painted matte white lol…need a bit of polishing on the red bits to match the fairings but is essentually done. Looks good from about 10 feet away or more, next to the bike it looks like my 11 year son did it lol

I’m happy with the design but the implementation borders on juvenile…but I like it…

Wabi Sabi

And…track part



Tomorrow we’ll take a run at the plumbing.


Bagger when it’s mounted in the next 3 days or so I’ll tell you how much of my 5 gallons gas pale it holds ;-)

This weeks todo list:

Trim and shape the Delrin bushings to replace the rubber bushings.

Cut tank foam into small 3 inch cubes and fill the tank.

Line bottom of tank with adhesive thermal shield

Transfer the tail fairing inner stay bracket.

Transfer the gas cap and figure out plumbing and venting.

Transfer fuel pump assembly.

Find a new place to tuck the electronically adjustable suspension delete resistors away from engine and exhaust heat as they are heat sensitive.

Also, I saw a legit unicorn ride right past my house yesterday…a guy was out riding a Ducati 916, like the OG version…was so surprised that I didn’t even try to wave him down to stop.

I’m wondering if he lives in my neighborhood or was just visiting…so

If anyone was riding an OG 916 in Nellie Gail hit me up bro…super cool to see someone actually riding one!

Steven31371 said:

Okay so the white bit is painted matte white lol…need a bit of polishing on the red bits to match the fairings but is essentually done. Looks good from about 10 feet away or more, next to the bike it looks like my 11 year son did it lol

I’m happy with the design but the implementation borders on juvenile…but I like it…

Wabi Sabi

And…track part

View attachment 52607

Tomorrow we’ll take a run at the plumbing.


Bagger when it’s mounted in the next 3 days or so I’ll tell you how much of my 5 gallons gas pale it holds ;-)

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Thanks I appreciate that. I haven't heard from them yet.

That should do it for the heat shielding.

I got the tank foam in, gas cap on, and fuel pump installed…all the wiring that goes to the tail section is a slight issue…it’s too bulky to bind up and stuff under the fuel pump. Would be an easy fix to just cut it all short but I want to be able to return this bike to the Street Bike it started out as if I want to sell it at some point. In a real WSBK setup you’d have a little box fabricated to hold all that stuff below the tank…my solution is to just bind it all up tight, zip tie everything to the end of the heat shield and wrap it in silver thermo wrap. Not elegant but is functional.

Nearly done, will probably have it mounted and running tomorrow.





I used this stuff for the heat shielding, pretty easy to work with and can manage sustained temps up to 500 degrees and heat spikes up to 2000 degrees.

Design Engineering 010400 Heat Screen 36" x 40" Adhesive Aluminized Mylar Radiant Matting (10 sq. ft.) https://a.co/d/ejbrPFP

Okay the RADE garage tank/seat is installed.

The biggest pita was solving the bushing problem. The rubber bushings at the mounting points flexed just enough that I knew it would bother me more over time and probably get worse, and possibly inhibit the feel of what the tires are doing. I ordered several Delrin bits to use as bushings, I found one piece that was machined to the exact right size from the factory, but the problem with that is that I remembered that Delrin bushings really need to be press fit, so they need to be a mil bigger.

So I spent most of my day figuring out how to press fit the bushings into the tank without cracking the tank or screwing up what is admittedly and sub par DIY paint job. Ended up spending a couple hours with a Dremel cutting and trimming the bushings to be a press fit but not too much so that it could crack the tank…then to get them pressed into place I found some longer bolts at the hardware store that would reach the screw hole without the mounting hardware being fully seated, then I just slowly cranked the bolt in with lots of WD40 lubing things up. It worked out great, no flex in the setup whatsoever. It’s more firm and solid feeling than the MotoHolders and RaceSeats.it setup because the RaceSeat.it stuff as some flex and movement when you sit on it that you don’t notice until you sit on a seat that has none.

Ergonomics feel great but I didn’t get to test ride it as it was dark when I finished. Will do tomorrow and next track day is Jan 13.

Overall I’m VERY happy with the setup, but I like to give a full review including the negatives.

Obviously the bushings that came with it suck, but that’s fixable very literally a few dollars and a few hours of your time.

There’s no place to put your tail wiring neatly tucked away, could use a few extra screw holes molded into the tank underneath so you can fab and mount a little box away from the engine heat underneath, or just sell it with one for a bit more money.

Regarding heat, obviously no heat transfers into the seat, but….there is a section on the subframe right where the inside of your knee touches that gets so hot you could not ride the bike without leathers, and even with leathers I think it would be uncomfortable…I’m going to wrap it in heat shield I think. I circled the hot bit in blue in one of the pics.

Bagger I didn’t measure exactly but the tank holds right about 3 gallons.

Steven31371 said:

Bagger I didn’t measure exactly but the tank holds right about 3 gallons.

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That’s not a lot. Stock is a little over 4 gal. You’d probably realistically only be able to get 2 sessions out of a full tank

SuperDomestique said:

That’s not a lot. Stock is a little over 4 gal. You’d probably realistically only be able to get 2 sessions out of a full tank

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Will be lighter though. I do have a good amount of tank foam in there but that stuff is only supposed to take up about 3% of the tank volume.

Steven31371 said:

Bagger I didn’t measure exactly but the tank holds right about 3 gallons.

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No wonder I haven't heard from them. 3 gallons is a long way from 5. Bummer not viable for street use. Thanks Steven.

You put the foam in first right? Do you have specs for the foam? They'll be some volume lost versus the tank sans foam. So maybe it's 4 gal?

baggerman said:

You put the foam in first right? Do you have specs for the foam? They'll be some volume lost versus the tank sans foam. So maybe it's 4 gal?

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Maybe but that’s a stretch, I didn’t measure exactly, because my five gallon pale was filled close to the top, so I’m just guessing how much more than 3 gallons it was…the tank foam supposedly only takes up 3% of the tank volume. I doubt it’s 4 gallons. More like 3.5

Took it out for a test ride today…love it…the thing I noticed most in a quick 20 minute street ride is the seat. Sure the hook in on the tank is great, but what stood out most was the wide solid flat seat. Everything just feels so much more settled and comfortable with the wide flat seat. You feel much more connected to the bike.

But of course a quick street ride is no fair assessment, needs to be ridden at the track at full speed and lean etc. Will report back after next track day.

You definitely sit a bit lower with this setup, which I personally like, I feel more settled INTO the bike….gunna need to go back to my standard Woodcraft clippons versus the side mounted 2 inch risers I have on the bike now.

So far I’d rate it as one of the best mods I’ve done to the bike. It’s now more comfortable and stable feeling to move around on than even the Gixxer sitting next to it in the garage…I always said a bike the handles and accelerates like the Ducati but has the ergos of a Gixxer would be a perfect liter bike…now the ergos are better than the Gixxer with all the Ducati flavor and power and handling.