I have had this 1990 K75 for over ten years, and this is it's third incarnation. It rides so well and is my favorite working bike, so. why not make it exactly the way I want it. The first rebuild was to take some of the plastic off- lighten the look and the bike. Pretty conservative change. The second time around I chopped the seat, and removed the instrument cluster, scrambled the look and added a back rack. I rode it like this for years, and then I saw some bobbers and was inspired to lose some weight off the bike.
I weighed the bike, and it came in at 499LBS (I can only imagine what it weighed before the first mods..). I'm not a big person so that was always a heavy bike for me. My goal was to try and lose 100 lbs off the bike while bobbing it.
I removed almost everything I could- cut the back, cut the passenger pegs off, chopped the bike as much as possible, then came the replacing of...the handlebars, switched them out with heavy wall aluminum, lost the muffler, replaced the 21lb lead acid battery with a 3.2lb lithium ion battery(amazing little thing), made a new seat, aluminum (and leather), some new paint and voila- the bike came in weighing 429LBS. So not quite 100, but I can really feel the difference. And it sounds great-loud. This bike will be heard when I pass someone. And yes, I am sure that I traded some performance and speed for the look, which is fine by me. It's still a fast, powerful bike.
I am thinking about one more mod, which would be to replace the air box and use pod filters instead. I have seen this mod before, although it is rare and under plenty of critique.
I love the way my bike looks and rides now- it's like I have a new motorcycle.
Below are some pre and post pics.
Enjoy!
