This NAKED BEAUTY followed me home . . . I had to say yes

[Rincewind]

Beautiful bike.  IMHO it is one of the best (if not the best) of the recent Japanese open-class standards.  Smooth, powerful, and refined.  

Just get rid of that windscreen.  

[sammyseaman]

That looks like a nice bike and would make a great second bike or around-town bike.

 

[motormike]

 

Relax.  My reasoning for saying that was based on my riding preferences because it's a naked.  Sure, you could drive it whereever, SPORT-Tour, Sport-TOUR or whatever.  But since it's a naked, you would probably have more windage.

That's all.

[Ken Phenix]

That looks like a nice bike and would make a great second bike or around-town bike.

Beautiful bike.  IMHO it is one of the best (if not the best) of the recent Japanese open-class standards.  Smooth, powerful, and refined.  

 Exactly! So why not take her touring? It seems the 919 has one of the best power to weight ratios on the market, especially in the under $4,000 bracket. Heck, I'm old enough to remember when all bikes were naked.

Just get rid of that windscreen.  

Nope, and if I do it will be to add a bigger one.   I really plan to take this baby long distance touring - with more comfortable bars, hand guards, auxillary HID's, hard luggage and maybe even some suspension mods. Anything goes, right?

People told me I was nuts for touring on a 600 Bandit. Well I'm nuts alright but that wee Bandit carried me through 12 states - 90k in 6 years and never missed a beat.  

[Meemuh]

 

[sammyseaman]

People told me I was nuts for touring on a 600 Bandit. Well I'm nuts alright but that wee Bandit carried me through 12 states - 90k in 6 years and never missed a beat.  

People that told you that are nuts.

[2DFlyer]

Very nice   Remember when 750cc was the big touring platform?  All you needed was to get and stay comfortable and haul the stuff.

[chimera]

Nice ride.  Curious what bars you are putting on

[Ken Phenix]

Nice ride.  Curious what bars you are putting on

Sorry, I have been remiss posting my progress. Work gets in the way.  I put on some Tusk Raptor bars, raised the suspension 38mm and a few other mods. I'll post pics when I get to a computer. There's a thread on wristtwisters titled the 919 Transalp Project and pics at kphenix.smugmug.com. I'm really pleased with the mods so far.

[Ken Phenix]

Yeah work on the bike has been slow but at least I've been able to enjoy my commutes and a few day rides. I am affectionately calling my transformation of this standard muscle bike into an adventure touring machine The 919 Transalp Project as inspired my test tide of a 1050 Tiger. I'm not much for naming bikes but I'm being pressed to come up with one. So after perusing the urban dictionary I'm thing about calling her "The Tigress."



More mods to come, crash bars, adventure luggage, etc. Stay tuned.  

[Yokel]

Sweet rig!

I LOVED my 599... unfortunately, I got too fat for it.

Always wanted to ride a 919, but you guys that own them would generally start to twitch if I hinted at it.  Awesome platform!

[heinzrx]

Another vote for the 919. These things are a blast!

I had to have green...

[Ken Phenix]

Yeah I would have gotten a green one if there had been one close enough. It's gotta be easier for the cagers to spot than the concrete gray ones.   I must say the candy apple has really grown on me.

The other day I noticed a man eyeballing "The Tigress" while parked in front of our bakery. He appeared to be kicking himself.    I stepped outside and greeted him. He said he just sold his beloved 919 to buy a dual-sport.

[Ken Phenix]

Here's an update. I've been stealing garage time here and there when I can.

I got rid of the #2 pine puck. I modified a sidestand from an unidentified donor. Heat (acetylene) is a wonderful thing.



I drilled holes in the back of the stand and in a washer to accommodate the Bike's rotary safety switch.

 

And lastly, I welded tabs to the stand and cut a piece of aluminum in an oval to make a permanent puck.



I adjusted the bar position hoping to avoid shelling out for custom cables (I still might have to) and added the Moose Racing hand guards. The mods required for the hand guards made it easy to mount my heated gear controllers.

[Ken Phenix]

I got the chance to throw the switch on the old stick welder - and that's usually a sign of a pretty good day. The plan is to adapt my old homemade Seahorse case rig to the 919.
I got off to a pretty good start.




Days later, I worked on the side case install. I'm trying desperately to make this rig job of a rig job not look like a rig job. The only place to hang a bracket on the 919 is the muffler mounts inside the tail plastic. Here's what I came up with.


This made replacing the tail section a little tricky.


I needed to make new rear top case supports but found myself short on material. What to do? Oh, this'll  work.  


Perfect.

[hovmaven]

 

[Justin]

Nice work  

That luggage rack looks like it is stronger than the bike!  

[squeezer]

 

I second that. Nice bit of work.  


But, um, where are the STN stickers?    

[Cablebandit]

Very ingenious.  I love to see people actually making things to solve a problem.

[ConPilot1]

I second that. Nice bit of work.  


But, um, where are the STN stickers?    

Impressive. Nice job man. Great home fabbing.  
She looks like an extremely versatile machine and probably a shitload of fun.
I saw one of those 919's at a local stealer used, and I really liked the looks of the bike. Looks like a nice tight, compact package for a naked,
and I'm sure that 919 Honda mill is a blast.