will be replacing stock handle bars this weekend with some pro taper bmx bars, lower, slightly wider, and much much lighter bars await.

some folks mentioned i need to come up with a name for my ruckus.. still thinking about it. i'm somewhat inspired by the Red Bull F1 team's driver Sebastian Vettel, who named his first car of the season "Kate" and then when he crashed it at the first race of the season, named his new car "Kate's dirty sister" -- and then proceeded to do very well for himself during the first 5 races of the season -- including the win in china, and second in bahrain.

also, the squid helmet arrived today... yippee!

it was a little rough this morning when it was really cold but this evening it rode like a champ around the neighborhood. for sure, rejetting is imperative at this point, and the main jet set won't be here until next week, but i've got new handlebars to install this weekend to keep me busy.

parked at work today

not sure if i'm going to go through with mounting the speedo in the battery box or not, cutting into the battery box is pretty irreversible.. but then again so was bobbing the rear fender--which you can sort of see in the above photo. the fender isn't attached to the airbox at the moment, because if it is, it rubs against the tire. pretty cool huh!

oh yeah, i'm also thinking it might be time to get an actual kickstand and retire the center stand.

So, with the extension installed, the shock bumps into the airbox, even with the extended shock mount. This isn't a long term problem, since I've got KN filters coming to redo the intake system/replace the airbox, but right now, it means I can't run with my fender, because the shock pushes the airbox out of alignment, which only leaves a small amount of clearance between the airbox and the tire, so when I put the fender on, it rubs against the tire. Not great, but not the end of the world, I guess.

We'll see how the airbox replacement affects this once the filters arrive. Then it'll be time for rejetting. I've got a complete set of main jets coming (70,72,75,78,80,82,85,88,90,92,95,98) so that'll be fun to play around with. Using the spark plug as a guide to tell whether it's too rich or too lean is brilliant. Learning so much as I do this.

i opted to install it without actually taking EVERYTHING apart. many thanks to the contributors to this thread (and actually several others) on TotalRuckus.com.
And yeah, I used old computer books instead of chunks of wood to prop the ruck up ;) Recycle amirite? Read more »

The rear view of my ruck is shaping up nicely. Just need to bob the fender a bit (or more than a bit) and get the extended engine mount installed and it should start looking really nice.

lol I had the peg up because i was afraid i'd smack my head into it -- after i nearly did ;)

Looks great, sounds great. Small backfiring happening but nothing it cant handle until i get the main jet kit. I don't ride it for hours and hours, so the 5 minutes to and from work for a few days shouldn't be an issue. I got a HUGE jet kit, so when i subsequently do intake mods (probably following SJ's outline) i'll already have all the main jets i need. whether i need to do the slow jet or not is to be determined. the leaflet that came with the exhaust says not.

I'll get a video with audio up within a day or two i'm sure. cheers! Read more »