My Seca II headlamp conversion

Hey all. I'm new here.

I recently bought a Seca II which had been laid down hard on the right side at some time in its life. It had been repaired but not well. I didn't know this, of course, until I got it home and started working through some of the maintenance items. The biggest tell was the tank. I stripped it to paint and ground out about 2 inches of body filler to find dent-puller holes which had been welded, poorly, shut. The tank was bent enough to dent it on both the outside surface and the inside skin (underside of the tank).

I sourced a new tank, painted all the body plastics and decided to do a front end conversion as the original fairings were cracked and poorly repaired. Here's the result:

 

The Specifics:

The headlamp ears are made from 16 GA steel welded to 1 1/2" EMT Conduit. They slip over the forks and a 1.5" ID o-ring is used to seperate them from the upper and lower triples.

The headlamp is a Delkevic 7" H4 from EBay.

The small fairing is from a 2nd generation SV650N.

The gauges are Trail Tech vapor.

The handlebars are the European bend from BikeMaster (EBay), in black.

I used stock triples, stock cables and stock brake hose.

 

Better sideview picture. I need to tilt the headlamp fairing back forward; it's rolled backward to give me access to the headlight and its wiring and I forgot to roll it forward. Should lip over the front of the headlamp slightly.

 

Very nice looking mods! It looks like you have removed 15 years of style from the bike! Looks 2000 or later model year. Your gonna LOVE that H4, especially if you convert it to HID. $25 from DDM Tuning, an easy install and so worth it!

Loren

 

i like it, about as naked as you can get
same headlight i used, weighs about a pound the original bulb won't last long though
what kind of pickup did you go with for the speedo ?

 

Nice! Something to be said for simplicity, only spelling it isn't! LOL

 

Wow!
Nice.

At first glance it had the look of a Ducati.

Suggestion:
Look at the detachable windscreens on the Dual-purpose BMW's.
It might be possible to fabricate a completely detachable auxiliary screen ... to allow you to have wind protection for LONG Trips and be left-off for when just zooming around.

 

I also thought about a Ducati.

 

Looks great. I like the big headlights.

 

So sweet!

 

Oooooh nice..... I love the Seca II great lines......
Small front side cover for that little trianglish shaped part would clean up the look a bit as well....

Next time that guy throws his up on Kijiji here maybe I'll have enough cash for an offer ....

 

looks liek it just rolled off the show room floor, it's awesome!

 

Thanks for the Kudo's! The speedometer sensor is the generic hall-effect type with the magnet on the front wheel. I mounted it to the fork leg and routed the wiring through a hole I drilled in the front fender. I'll try and take a picture tomorrow.

I received my stock seat today and fitted; much better look in my opinion. I'm going to leave my SV650 in the garage tomorrow and take the Seca to work to see how it does. I'll get a nice picture when I get there showing the progress.

 

Pictures from amidst today's ride. Took her up through Coal Creek canyon and into Central City. She did great. I'm running a set of Kenda Cruisers and I'm quite impressed, bang-for-your-buck wise.

Here she is with the stock seat:


And a view of the cockpit:

 

very nice, makes you want to do it again doesn't it

 

I like the gauge man. It fits behind that mini fairing nicely.

 

I'm sure I'll do it again.

 

Seca II Tachometer Wiring

I'm finally happy with the tachometer performance of the Vapor. Here's what I did for the signal:

I connected the tachometer black lead to the coil ground and made an adapter for the tachometer red lead using a pair of spade connectors so that I didn't have to cut into the stock harness. The tach signal is conditioned using a 10k resistor and a 1 microfarad capacitor, soldered inline with the red signal wire. The schematic is as folows:

 

New update to an old thread:

I decided to give up on the Vapor gauges as the tachometer was just never as good as I needed it to be. It worked well at lower RPM's but would get really erattic at higher RPM's (when I needed it most).

I started by converting a set of FZR600 gauges and ended up redoing the paint and tail. Here she is, test assembled, before paint:







And here are the pieces, painted and cleared in lacquer, waiting for the 2k final clear coat. Once the rain stops, I'll get the stripes finished, the decals fixed and the clear shot. When done, the tank and tail will have a white strip to match the Holeshot fairing:

 

looks nice radare, can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Here's the tank and tail mid-section with the striping finished and the 2k clear applied. Tomorrow I'll finish the fender and fairing and get her assembled.

 

Is that the stock exhaust on the bike? I like the headers crossing back and forth!

 

Here are some updated pictures with much of the bike back together. I do still need to clean her up, polish things and put the 2k clear on the fairing/fender/rear tail sides. Oh, and paint/stripe the wheels and paint the rearsets. Lotsa work still to do, I guess.

 

Looks great! Really came out nice. :wink:

 

Really Nice!!!

 

Hi Mate - A 1st class job! I think you have really done the bike justice.

 

I painted the wheels and added the rim-stripe last night. I think it turned out well.



Today, I rode her nearly 400 miles on a very WINDY tour of southern Colorado. Had quite a few looks on the interstate and a couple guys stopped me at Safeway in Monument to ask what it was. Not the typical response to a "Seca II" :roll:

 

That is a magic looking bike great job mate,very nice.

 

Added engine guards, gave her a bath and then put 500 miles on her. Not a single problem. I am now eyeballing a nicer set of tires to fit on the FZR600 wheels I have, but that's another update.

Here she is in Clear Creek canyon this morning.

 

Your bike is beautiful to say the least. Very very nice!

 

I've put about 1200 miles on the XJ since the conversion and couldn't be happier with it. The FZ600 gauges are working well and the LED indicators are perfect, well, almost perfect. The high-beam blue led is atrociously bright. I need to pull off the blue cap and give it a bit of Nighshades to tone it down.

The next change for this bike will be an FZR600 fork/ wheel conversion so I can run some wider rubber and dual-disc brakes. But that's a winter 2011 project.

And I'll end with some quick photos from a recent ride to Mt. Evans.

 

I just can't leave well enough alone. Since the last update, I've swapped out the rear wheel to one from a '94 FZR600 which lets me run a 150/60 rear tire. I've also added brembo rotors, a 2007 V-star 650 rear shock and am currently working on an FZR600 front fork conversion (so I can have dual front discs).

The v-star shock added about 3/4" lift to the tail. Enjoy the pics!

 

SUHWEET! Nice job!!!

Those are the kinds of mods this old fart likes! You improved the bike without losing the "spirit" of it. And you got rid of the square headlight. Now it's a proper motorcycle! Is that a Formotion clock on the top of the dash?

I'm kinda partial to those turn signals, too:

 

Thanks Bigfitz! That's a nice, clean, gorgeous bike you have there too!

The clock and thermometer are made by Stem Captain. They're actually designed for mountain bikes but they're shock and vibration resistant and at $20 each, pretty cheap.

 

Hmmm............ your giving me ideas to do to my '92 XJ600 Seca II
You have build yourself one HOT lookin' bike there. A tip of the helmet to you!

 

Beautiful bike man, I love it! I've read through the entire thread a couple times. I did love the SV650 mini-fairing too. Then I seen the new one you got on there!

I was just out at my local bike yard the other day trying to source one just like it, or something I could fab for that look. Please, give me all the details you can afford me. I love the look. I'm hoping that this small addition will save me the "bobble head" effect my helmet gives me at speeds beyond 3rd gear.

 

Here's a better look at the fly screen:


This screen is made of fiberglass by Dale Walker at Holeshot. It is high quality and quite nice. It typically runs $149 but I bought mine second hand for considerably less.

For much less money, you can get the screen off of a Buell Blast (or Buell Cyclone) which is identical but made of ABS plastic.

Here's a black one on EBay for $45

 

thanks man. I'm gonna check them both out. now I cant decide what look i like better. Does either one deflect the wind better, cause any noticeable handling differences?

 

Very very nice! Bet it turns heads wherever you go. Love the naked look with the updates and the throwback cues fit perfectly. It probably does need that extra rotor considering how fast it looks now. Truly a good mod.

Props to bigFitz for that shiny clutch cover as well, that's a Mirror!-what's your method?

 

I'm so stoked! I spent a couple hours today trying to find the Buell Blast windshield today. The closest I got was ordering a new one from Harley for $76+tax.

In the end, I posted a WTB add on craigslist. 2 hours later a gentleman called and offered me one he had. He said it was like new and he only rode with it for a couple hundred miles. Its black, "blast" sticker removed, with mounting hardware... $35 I'm going to pick it up tomorrow after work.

Weather is due for mid-50s but I think I'm gonna take the bike anyway to be sure its a good fit/look. I'll post pics after its on.

 

I'm curious if you can share more information about your gauge cluster? I was almost ready to go for an acewell or a vapor, but I like analog gauges and they just look right on a naked bike IMO. Are the FZR's an easy swap? What year(s) would interchange? My stock gauges are fine, but would look like crap in a naked swap. Trying to find that headlight too, easier said than done, hope you dont mind me copying you a bit your setup looks nice!

I've also spotted a maxim X gauge cluster on ebay, thats a liquid cooled bike, but otherwise would the gauges work??

 

The gauges are from an '80's FZ600. The FZ600 uses the same pulse generator as the Seca II so the tachs work. It also has the same size front wheel so the speedometer will be accurate. I don't know if the maxim uses the same pulse generator but I do know it has a different sized front wheel.

I did a lot of custom work to them. I removed the speedo/tach from the FZ600 cluster and built cans for them out of 16 GA steel. I welded the cans to mounts for the headlamp ears and then made a faceplate for the LED's. Here's a picture of what they looked like (I took this one from EBay):



The extra gauges are a Stem Captain clock and Stem Captain temperature gauge. They're made for bicycles but worked well with a bit of ingenuity. I used LED's for the indicator lights and added directionals. Lots of work. I wanted something a bit different and very easy to read.



The headlamp is a Delkevic knockoff of an SV650 headlight. You can find it on EBay from China, pretty cheap:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200518641632?ss ... 1423.l2649

 

I wont make any claims at being the fabricator you are, but I think with this info I'll be able to make something that'll look respectable and most importantly function! Side bonus, FZ600 gauges are dirt cheap lol! I'm trying to keep my project seca cheap, but I've got a laundry list of things I want to do. I'll make a formal project post once I get it bought and get some parts gathered together.

Thanks for the help!

 

Just beautiful; clean consistent level of workmanship and detail. The ONLY thing I'd do differently would be to continue the stripe on the front fender.

I'd leave the single disc in front; the bike is so light does it really need a second disc, at the expense of all the extra unsprung weight to slow down the steering? I was all about adding the second disc to my 550 Seca (easier because the bolt holes are already there on the wheel) until I switched to stainless lines, and upgraded to a floating rotor and modern-tech pads. Then I realized I really didn't need the second disc at all, the improved brake is way more than the bike will ever need for what it weighs. I can almost pick the rear wheel up.

 

I'm going to dig up this old thread, exhume it, and breathe new life into it.

Here's the latest incarnation of my 1992 Seca II. Since you all last saw it, I've done a YZF600R front fork conversion, fitted a Honda Hornet headlight (CB600f), built a new pair of custom headlight/gauge mounts, installed Radian gauges and a Buell S1 fairing (cut-down). The bar-end mirrors are made by Napoleon. The YZF600 front fender was dreadfully large so I opted to modify a Ducati Monster front fender using a pair of GT1000 inspired mounts. I found a good deal on an NOS black tank and decided to flip-flop the color scheme. I've put about 7k miles on her, like this, and I'm loving it.

• 
  
  Mods to get it to the Naked stage:
  1. Cut-off and ground down mounts for fairing on sides of frame and below triple.
  2. Horn relocated to below the triple and it's mount cut off.
  3. Home-made fork tubes/headlamp ears to fit over the 41mm forks.
  4. Custom-cut 3/8" aluminum headlamp brackets
  5. Honda Hornet (CB600F or 599) headlight
  6. Buell S1 fairing, cut down
  7. 1986 Yamaha Radian gauges & indicator lights
  8. Yamaha XT350 Speedometer cable (2" longer than stock cable)
  9. Honda VFR700 clip-on handlebars
  10. Napoleon bar-end mirrors
  11. SV650 clutch cover (rubber thing that keeps dirt out of the clutch lever).
  12. All-balls taper headset bearings (required to fit the YZF600R triple)
  
  
  Mods NOT necessarily related to the N conversion:
  1. FZR600 rear wheel (18x4) w/ Brembo rotor
  2. V-star rear shock (2007 XVS650)
  3. Wheels painted black
  4. '97 style tail conversion
  5. Custom paint, GM Black Micah, by me
  6. YZF600R front forks, wheel & triple
  7. Ducati Monster front fender with custom brackets
  8. Dual front R1 gold-dot calipers with EBC HH pads
  9. Goodridge Shadow stainless steel brake lines (30" master, 18" crossover) with straight ends
  10. Shinko Podium 006 tires (120 front; 150 rear)
  11. Center stand added
  12. Engine crash guards added
  13. Clear signal lenses

Read more about it's ongoing transition.

 

Superb. The key to a good customization is for it to look like the bike came that way; with engineering and fitment equal to or better than original. You're there.

 

That looks soooooo nice!!

 

Holy hell, thats a thing of beauty. How was the front fork conversion? Was it just different bearings or more involved?

I like the little fork guards, where'd you find those? It's usually pretty tough to find them small enough...

Seriously, though. I've just been drooling over this for like 30 minutes. I'll also be checking Craigslist for a Seca II....

 

I believe they may have come on the front end, which is certainly not "small" especially in fork tube diameter.

 

Found some online, but have yet to locate them in the US.

http://www.wemoto.com/parts/picture/pw-701-001/