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Post by larsencamp on Apr 18, 2008 21:18:35 GMT -5
OK Chanito - here are my favorite Three Free Mods. If anyone is interested, I'll post the 'how-to' guide for each of these. Enjoy - larsencamp
1. Frame Stretch - 6" of Leg Room
2. Frame Gap Diamond Plate Fill
3. Exhaust Pipe Stock Mod - Deep & Throaty
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Post by larsencamp on Apr 18, 2008 21:43:55 GMT -5
OK - here are mods #1 and #2. picasaweb.google.com/larsencamp/RuckusMods/photo#5190779455362980562This shows two mods: #1 - Frame Stretch Mod - this consists of two pieces of 1.5"x3.0"x0.12"wall tube steel. The steel has been cut to match the rake of the frame and drilled to match the frame bolts. There is an identical piece of tubing for each side of the frame. The four existing frame bolts were used, and four more matching bolts were purchased for the other side of the tube steel/frame interface. The tube steel cost $5 (really, from a junk steel rack), the bolts were $5 from Ace Hardware, and the paint was leftovers. #2 - Frame Stretch Fill - this consists of a piece of 3/4" EMT conduit bent using a standard conduit bender that coincidentally rolls the tube in exactly the wide of the Rucks seat. The ends are then flattened using a vice and drilled to match the seat bolts. Longer bolts are use with a larger nut as a spacer between the EMT tubing and the seat mount. The EMT was scuffed and painted. A piece of diamond plate was cut to match the tubing and riveted to the bottom of the EMT. The frame stretch took ~6 hours, the frame fill took ~2 hours. The leg room is fantastic (I am 6'-2") and the diamond plate looks great. If anyone is interested I will dimension these parts and post the sketches. larsencamp |
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Post by larsencamp on Apr 18, 2008 21:57:22 GMT -5
OK - mod #3 - Exhaust Mod picasaweb.google.com/larsencamp/RuckusMods/photo#5190779408118340290Here is a picture of the stock Ruckus exhaust but with a much larger tail pipe. The stock tail pipe was removed using a 1-5/16" metal cutting hole saw from Ace Hardware. This revealed an internal baffle in the exhaust. The baffle was drilled out as much as feasible using a 3/8" drill bit. This resulted in ~10 internal holes in the baffle. A one inch long piece of 1" I.D. black iron pipe was then fitted into the hole and welded into place using a small wire feed welder. The sound is fantastic - much lower and throatier than my wife's stock Ruckus - especially when decelerating. It sounds much more like a four stroke Honda four wheeler. larsencamp |
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Post by larsencamp on Apr 18, 2008 22:04:52 GMT -5
Mod #4 - Seat Lowering picasaweb.google.com/larsencamp/RuckusMods/photo#5190779502607620834OK - this is my fourth favorite mod so I will go ahead and post it! Seat lowering frames are crazy expensive - this one is not. The front of the seat is attached with two bolts ~1.5" apart; the rear is attached with only one bolt. The front tubes of the seat frame was pinched in a vise and an additional hole was added into the newly flattened area the same distance apart as the original two holes. The tubing was then cut off below the middle hole leaving one existing and one new hole. The rear seat bracket was also redrilled to match and cut off to clear the back frame. The result is that the seat is lowered and moved rearward ~1.5". This mod, along with the frame stretch mod, results in ~7.5" of additional leg room - resulting in a comfortable cruising position as compared with a stock Ruckus. Yee Ha! larsencamp |
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Post by Kami no Chiizu on Apr 19, 2008 0:18:27 GMT -5
Let's get some full-bodied shots of that girl. And I'm sure people would like to hear that exhaust note. Thanks for sharing.  |
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Post by varroa on Apr 19, 2008 4:20:12 GMT -5
well, finally someone did the blocks himself!!!
no credit going to me, though... dude, did you come up with these by yourself? hard to believe...
but, we might have another genious on board!!!
based on your other mods, looks like you actually did "re-invent" them all by yourself...
edit: now i found your post in my thread back in march... good job!!!
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Post by rattmobbins on Apr 19, 2008 16:16:58 GMT -5
Let's get some full-bodied shots of that girl. And I'm sure people would like to hear that exhaust note. Thanks for sharing. +1! I am really considering this as my stock exhaust is just WAY too quiet. Throw a vid up on YouTube. PLEASE!!! |
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Post by chanito on Apr 20, 2008 15:08:17 GMT -5
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Post by walkingwolf on Apr 20, 2008 20:07:06 GMT -5
the exhaust mod sounds great but at the same time does anyone know a sure fire way to make the ruckus SUPER stealthy quiet? all i want to hear is the hum of my tires on the asphalt and the crunch of gravel down dirt roads. maybe a cruiser muffler could be installed on it somehow? any ideas? i'll greatly appreciate a good recommendation.
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Post by larsencamp on Apr 21, 2008 19:33:46 GMT -5
Mod #5 - Diamond Plate Bling - this is a simple add to match the frame stretch fill. Cardboard was used to develop a simple template that fits the front rack leaving ~0.50" gap between the cardboard and the perimeter frame. The cardboard was used to cut the leftover diamond plate that was bent 'by eye' to fit the rack angle. The install? Simple - four velcro pads attached to the diamond plate and the rack bars. picasaweb.google.com/larsencamp/RuckusMods |
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Post by larsencamp on Apr 21, 2008 19:39:02 GMT -5
Mod #6 - GPS Mount I have a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx - a rugged, waterproof GPS good for navigating...and geocaching! Ram Mounts sells high quality mounts for this unit. www.ram-mount.com They sell a 'ball stud' mount that is shown here. The right hand mirror was removed and re-drilled and tapped for the ball stud mount. The ball stud mount was installed using loctite. When the GPS is not being used, the upper cradle can be remove simply leaving the ball stud in place. picasaweb.google.com/larsencamp/RuckusMods |
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Post by larsencamp on Apr 21, 2008 19:48:25 GMT -5
Mod #7 - Rear Light Lowering This mod is a little tricky requiring cutting and welding. I have a Lincoln Electric WeldPak HD from Lowe's. It is a wire feed welder that plugs into a standard 20A outlet and is heavy enough to weld up to 1/8" steel with a little patience. It is very easy to use - with a little practice the beads will be flowing. The rear light was removed and the upper mounting bracket was unbolted from the frame. The bottom portion of the upper mounting bracket was cut off below the license plate mount. The lower bracket was also trimmed to clear the light. The upper bracket was then welded to the lower bracket, a little paint added, and viola!, the lights are now low slung for that cruiser look. larsencamp picasaweb.google.com/larsencamp/RuckusMods |
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Post by larsencamp on Apr 21, 2008 19:53:27 GMT -5
Mod #8 - LED Neon Lights
This may not appeal to everyone, but having lived on both coasts and having spent way too much time at the beach, this is a natural for me.
Instead of using real neon (very fragile), this is LED neon made by Plexi-Neon. The plexi-neon was tie wrapped to the frame and the power was taken off the rear lights. The light is on all the time but is only visible at night.
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Post by larsencamp on Apr 21, 2008 20:18:28 GMT -5
Mod #9 - Ruckus Dual Hitch Carrier This is by far the most advanced of all the mods listed here. This dual hitch carrier is designed to slide into a 2" receiver and carries two Ruckuses. The backbone of the carrier is a 2"x2"x3/16" wall tube. Attached to this are two pairs of 2"x2"x1/8" angles that form tracks for the tires. The frame has an internal nut and a threaded pin is used to tighten the frame to the hitch to reduce wobble. Finally, a safety chain is wrapped through two of the angles and attached to the hitch for that 'just-in-case' redundancy. The hitch was engineered with a 4X factor of safety for static stress to ultimate tensile stress. It was a lot of work, but now we can lug our Ruckuses around with us and scoot at our final destination. This may look a little over the top, but I am a product of a long line of engineers who all enjoyed garage projects a little too much. But in defense of the time spent, four young budding engineers have learned to tear things apart, put them back together, weld, paint, grind, torch, break, start over, fix, and generally use a little creativity to enhance a great product. My wife thinks we're a little nuts but doesn't complain when we use these skills to fix the washing machine! Enjoy your modification adventures! larsencamp picasaweb.google.com/larsencamp/RuckusMods |
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sparky
Junior Ruckster
Posts: 66
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Post by sparky on Apr 22, 2008 11:04:47 GMT -5
Larsencamp,
Great work on the mods. The diamond plate rocks! ;D
I'm thinking about extended my ruck with the mod varroa came up with. (thanks varroa!) Did you end up extending any of the cables / lines to accomodate the spacers?
sparky
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Post by larsencamp on Apr 22, 2008 19:59:55 GMT -5
I left the cables the stock length but had to move the brake lever in about an inch. I am looking for a vendor that sells an extended cable. Any thoughts?
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Post by varroa on Apr 24, 2008 21:44:32 GMT -5
i have one that i don't use.
bought from BSS, used for a couple of hundreds miles, in excellent shape, fully working. make your offer; i bought it for a little over $30 new.
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Post by varroa on Apr 24, 2008 21:47:13 GMT -5
I'm thinking about extended my ruck with the mod varroa came up with. (thanks varroa!) Did you end up extending any of the cables / lines to accomodate the spacers? sparky you're welcome. if you keep stock handlebars, you will have to get an extended rear brake cable; all others you can reroute and rewire. if you go to lower, aftermarket bars, then no need to change anything, man. |
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Post by dylan0057 on Apr 29, 2008 14:50:07 GMT -5
hey man post up some drawings, dimensions, and instructions for the frame extension. It would be much appreciated. ;D
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Post by rattmobbins on May 1, 2008 19:04:44 GMT -5
Mod #7 - Rear Light Lowering This mod is a little tricky requiring cutting and welding. I have a Lincoln Electric WeldPak HD from Lowe's. It is a wire feed welder that plugs into a standard 20A outlet and is heavy enough to weld up to 1/8" steel with a little patience. It is very easy to use - with a little practice the beads will be flowing. The rear light was removed and the upper mounting bracket was unbolted from the frame. The bottom portion of the upper mounting bracket was cut off below the license plate mount. The lower bracket was also trimmed to clear the light. The upper bracket was then welded to the lower bracket, a little paint added, and viola!, the lights are now low slung for that cruiser look. larsencamp picasaweb.google.com/larsencamp/RuckusModsLooks great! I was thinking of trying something very similar. Nice to see how it might look before I do it! |
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