Well,
What's all the fuss about?
I have a cafe Virago sittin' outside my back door - in fact, most of it was built there (I'm pretty pressed for space these days).
So far:
front forks straightened, added new seals and Progressive spring kit,
fork brace from Pogue Machine - originally for a Kawasaki superbike and modded to fit,
"spoiler" front fender which bolts to the brace,
braided steel brake lines,
new brake pads,
fork gaiters,
tapered steering head bearings,
clipons,
self-made headlight brackets,
chrome British style replica headlamp with H4 bulb,
self-made tach / speedo bracket, which is getting redone to take a Mike's XS 1.9" speedo,
relocated warning lights,
Gunnar Gasser-style straight pull throttle and simple kill button to replace the right hand side handlebar switch,
Hailwood NCR-style Ducati gas tank uber modified to fit the Virago (like, major),
VM38 round slide Mikunis with Ducati-style K&N air filters,
high / low exhaust - low on the right side and high on the left - to try and get equal length headers and some ground clearence,
really big reverse cone megs, which will be replaced with something smaller / lighter / louder once the safety is done,
self-made rear subframe - the original was bent, way too heavy and the wrong shape,
Hailwood NCR seat to match the tank - has been shortened a bit (I'm 165cm tall), with LED frenched taillight and turn signals that function as running lights as well,
Progressive spring on the monoshock,
rearsets designed by me, basic machining done by Abbot and Costello Machine in Ballinafad ON and final drilling, fitting, polishing done by me,
shift linkage / lever and brake linkage / pedal modified by me,
ditched the enclosed chaincase and made a lightweight aluminum chainguard,
ditched the #630 chain and replaced with #520 chain and sprockets,
drilled the living s**t out of any part I could, just like we did back in the 60's - in fact, the rear brake stay is from my 1967 350cc Yammy and has more air than aluminum,
about (it seems) a million little brackets, fittings and fasteners,
Things to be done:
where to put the big, big battery,
throttle cables,
paint.
Stuff down the road a bit:
I have a 120/18 and 180/18 spoked wheelset to go on the bike,
295 drilled front discs and rear disc (I have 2 setups, don't know which one I'm going to use, yet),
Norton Manx full fairing,
oil cooler
Give me a couple of weeks to sort the TTBD list out and I'll post a couple of pictures...
Pat Cowan,
Pacomotorstuff