Lightening the 650

chicagobob · Mar 17, 2014

I've embarked on a project to lighten my '09 ER6n. This was precipitated by a garage knockdown that dented the tank, and my feeling that the bike seemed to carry 30-50 lbs of excess weight. Also, I always hated the look of the seat - like a whale flipper or a giant banana.

I decided to experiment to see whether radical cutting, grinding, paring and parts swapping would improve the feel of the bike, and whether the bike would still look good. In other words, would form follow function? Here's where I am now:

The first to go on the block were the footpeg brackets. These are beautiful castings, but they weigh nearly 5 lbs each.

I managed to get them down to less than 2 lbs (at least the left one):

Installed:

[

Here's how the right side turned out (the brake fluid reservoir is a small one from another bike clipped to the brake line):

I removed this boat anchor (about 7 lbs):

and replaced it with this (1/16" aluminum, later braced with angle stock - holds the ECU, a Ballistic battery and the grip heater components):

Like this. The aluminum panel fits snugly against the bottom of the seat pan, so not much water will get in there (just all over my back):

Since I removed the radiator cowls, I installed a coolant reservoir in the battery box. The Ballistic 8 cell battery saves another 7 lbs.

I kept the stock instruments, but switched to a Vrod-type headlight (uses the same bulb connectors as the stock headlight). It's about 2 lbs lighter than the stock headlight and brackets.

I'm not much of a painter, but at least I got the dents out of the tank, and got the bike together enough for a ride (which turned out to be muddy, due to our Spring thaw conditions). Before and after, mud and all:

The seat pan (made of ABS plastic) and pad (skinned molded foam) are from Legendary Motorcycles. It's not as comfortable as stock, but I will probably get used to it in time. Pad looks good, anyhow. I still have some appearance improvements to make where it meets the tank, I think:

In the end, I calculate that I saved about 40 lbs. I've got a 60-lb box of body parts, nuts, bolts, brackets, etc., on my hands. Most of it will go to eBay.

The bike feels great, and runs like a champ after its winter sleep.

In conjuction with all this, I changed to a Progressive 428 rear shock and spring and installed Race Tech fork cartridge emulators and new front springs, and added a high-flow air filter. Aftermarket exhaust might be next.

bran077 · Mar 17, 2014

The stock exhaust weighs a ton, oem sprockets can be changed out for lighter and a lithium battery will save you quite a bit of weight as well

XPyron · Mar 17, 2014

He did change out the battery for a Ballistic. Like you, I do question the stock exhaust still. If only I didn't need to keep a passenger.

bran077 · Mar 18, 2014

Indeed, I missed that. Sorry.

chicagobob · Mar 17, 2014

Yeah, I'll probably add a Yoshi exhaust. I'll save 8 more lbs. Just want to ride, at this point, though.

XPyron · Mar 18, 2014

Understandable. How is the battery protected? From what I can see, it seems as though it would be exposed. Also, do the pegs still feel sturdy?

chicagobob · Mar 18, 2014

The battery is probably better-protected than when it was in the stock position. It's got a 1/16" aluminum plate between it and the tire. It's mounted on top of the ECU behind the seat.

The pegs are fine. Way over-engineered in the first place. I considered making new rearset brackets from aluminum plate, but the way I ended up doing it was much easier, with the brake pedal and all, especially if I wanted to add an aftermarket exhaust, because they all seem to hang from the rear master cylinder mount.

Lean It · Mar 18, 2014

Ambitious my man, I love it. Since i never plan to carry a passenger, the footpegs are my favorite part. y favorite part isMine is new now, but one of these days maybe I will drop mine on the tank! Lol. Thanks for the ideas.

HamMan650 · Mar 18, 2014

Hot DAMN! Love the bike!!! How long did the process take? Really looks awesome! I sometimes wish I went this route instead from what I did to my bike. :thinkerg:

I am interested in the side fairings if you wanna PM me a price for both sides!

Sammy · Mar 18, 2014

WAY COOL !!!

XPyron · Mar 18, 2014

Awesome!! Yeah, I misunderstood behind the seat but now that I see the pictures, it makes perfect sense. Nice work.

kojiiro · Mar 18, 2014

Nice work as usual! I shoulda kept the rearsets off my wrecked bike lol.

chicagobob · Mar 18, 2014

It's taken most of the Winter, but I found that time spent planning is more valuable than time spent cutting. Also, it's hard to spend any time in the garage when the temp. is below zero.

I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out a way to modify the stock seat for this project, before giving it up in favor of the cafe racer seat. The new seat cost $200, but was a much better fit for the project, and it weighs about the same as the factory seat.

xpmar9x · Mar 18, 2014

First of all, really digging your bike. The seat is awesome, I wish I had time to do that to my wanna-be cafe-racer.

As others have said, get rid of the stock exhaust. That thing is probably 20 lbs on it's own.

giovannidc · Mar 18, 2014

The modification looks quite cool, i like the end result.
Good job.

kojiiro · Mar 19, 2014

Do you have a price/link for the seat?

chicagobob · Mar 19, 2014

The seat is from Legendary Motorcycles and cost $198 with the pad. Fiberglass costs about $40 more.

http://www.legendary-motorcycles.com/

Dime City Cycles also sells Legendary's seats.

Bradmeister · Mar 19, 2014

chicagobob said:
I've embarked on a project to lighten my '09 ER6n. This was precipitated by a garage knockdown that dented the tank, and my feeling that the bike seemed to carry 30-50 lbs of excess weight. Also, I always hated the look of the seat - like a whale flipper or a giant banana.

I decided to experiment to see whether radical cutting, grinding, paring and parts swapping would improve the feel of the bike, and whether the bike would still look good. In other words, would form follow function? Here's where I am now:

The first to go on the block were the footpeg brackets. These are beautiful castings, but they weigh nearly 5 lbs each.

I managed to get them down to less than 2 lbs (at least the left one):

Here's how the right side turned out (the brake fluid reservoir is a small one from another bike clipped to the brake line):

I removed this boat anchor (about 7 lbs, I think):

and replaced it with this (1/16" aluminum, later braced with angle stock - holds the ECU, a Ballistic battery and the grip heater components):

Like this. The aluminum panel fits snugly against the bottom of the seat pan, so not much water will get in there:

Since I removed the radiator cowls, installed an aftermarket coolant reservoir in the battery box. The new battery saves another 7 or 8 lbs.

I kept the stock instruments, but switched to a Vrod-type headlight (uses the same bulb connectors as the stock headlight). It's about 2 lbs lighter than the stock headlight and brackets.

I'm not much of a painter, but at least I got the dents out of the tank, and got the bike together enough for a ride (which turned out to be muddy, due to our Spring thaw conditions). Before and after, mud and all:

The seat pan (made of ABS plastic) and pad (skinned molded foam) are from Legendary Motorcycles. It's not as comfortable as stock, but I will probably get used to it in time. Pad looks good, anyhow. I still have some appearance improvements to make where it meets the tank, I think:

In the end, I calculate that I saved about 40 lbs. I've got a 60-lb box of body parts, nuts, bolts, brackets, etc., on my hands. Most of it will go to eBay.

The bike feels great, and runs like a champ after its winter sleep.

In conjuction with all this, I changed to a Progressive 428 rear shock and spring and installed Race Tech fork cartridge emulators and new front springs, and added a high-flow air filter. Aftermarket exhaust might be next.

Sweet Chicago Bob!!!!!!

A+ for originality and design! Woot Woot!

Man that's awesome! I'm tring to do a little weight savings myself, but not nearly to the extent (and results) you have achieved! RIGHT ON !!!!

Bob could you tell your readers, How you came about to use progressive and How was the fitment and Install? Do you absolutely love the way she squats and sags now, or do you still have some calculations to do before the Spring Breaks?

Cheers~!

Brad

chicagobob · Mar 19, 2014

I chose Progressive because the price was right, it was designed for this bike, and it has a wide range of preload adjustment. It fit perfectly and installed in a couple of minutes, once the bike was properly supported for removal of the old shock.

I haven't had time to do any adjustments. Seemed much better than stock over the short time I've ridden since the build.

twowheeladdict · Mar 19, 2014

Looks great! Now if you weigh on the light side for your height you really have something there. But, if your the typical american you just brought the bike into the power to weight ratio the Japanese engineers designed for.

chicagobob · Mar 22, 2014

Got the Yoshi exhaust. Another 8 lbs off. Impressions: Not much louder than stock, but much deeper and more motorcycle-ish. I'm running the DB-reducing insert. Increases peg vibes a little, but that might be due to my cut-down peg brackets.

theSLEEPER · Mar 23, 2014

I'm torn between keeping my lower fairing or not. I really like the way yours looks without it. Love the whole bike.

chicagobob · Mar 23, 2014

It seems the chin fairing's only function is to hide the ugly exhaust can, so if you have an aftermarket exhaust, you may not want it.

theSLEEPER · Mar 24, 2014

I just installed a turn-out on the exhaust. So I took the fairing off, and I like it so far. I'm not sure about the straight exhaust quite yet, so we'll see.

MarktheShark · Mar 24, 2014

WoW Looks Great!

So how much weight total do you think you removed? I guessing it's close to 50lbs. I think mine is around 30 something lbs lighter and it was a noticeable change in handling and acceleration. I'm 6'1" and 230lbs so any weight savings would be noticeable to me.

Keep us updated on how you like that rear shock, I'm somewhat torn between the one you chose and the YSS shock.

chicagobob · Mar 24, 2014

MarktheShark said:
WoW Looks Great!

So how much weight total do you think you removed? I guessing it's close to 50lbs. I think mine is around 30 something lbs lighter and it was a noticeable change in handling and acceleration. I'm 6'1" and 230lbs so any weight savings would be noticeable to me.

I counted 47 lbs - 64 removed and 17 added back (headlight, exhaust, battery, peg brackets, turn signals), but I haven't been able to weigh the bike yet. Not much chance to even ride this week. 18 degrees with snow forecast.

HamMan650 · Mar 24, 2014

Cant wait to get those side fairings

HilbillyKat · Mar 24, 2014

Looks great Bob. But if I were you..I would take the seat to someone that could sculpt it into a more supportive saddle shape..with a little more foam. Just a thought.

bran077 · Mar 25, 2014

+1

Looks aside, you want to enjoy the ride. I was thinking they would probably be able to angle the seat more into the tank to solve that fitment problem as well.

simsim · Mar 26, 2014

very, VERY cool!

jam · May 15, 2014

awesome build i want to find a650r to do like yours !

Napkin Legend · Jun 18, 2014

I honestly couldn't tell you how much I've lost in weight. The belly pan will probably come off soon too. Then I've got to add about 10 pounds after swapping to the 180 wheel and adding various brackets. I also have to get the exhaust can back on after it's done being brushed.

chicagobob · Nov 17, 2014

I made a few changes recently, in preparation for making a new seat, and shaved another pound off the beast. I was happy with my original idea of locating the coolant recovery tank in the battery box, but after I removed the stock exhaust, I had room for the tank around the front part of the swingarm, since there was no longer a muffler under that area to overheat the tank and its hoses. This allowed me to stuff the Ballistic battery, the ECU, and most of the wiring into the battery box, which moved that weight lower in the bike, allowed shorter, lighter battery cables, and removed the need for the heavy stock ECU mounting bracket. The Power Commander fits under the fuel pump, and everything is now more centrally-located and closer to the ground. I also have a free hand to design a new seat and tail section. I'll let you know how that comes out.

In the meantime, here are some pics of the change:

The coolant tank in the swingarm. It's an aftermarket rectangular 16-oz container with a molded-in nipple on the bottom. It came in white with mounting tabs, which I cut off for this application. It's almost exactly the size of the stock battery, and so fit nicely in the battery box (I guess that means that the stock battery would also fit nicely in the swingarm, but that would raise a few other issues)

You can also see here how the rear brake fluid reservoir clamps onto the brake line:

The view from underneath the swingarm. The coolant tank is a wedge fit, but I riveted an aluminum bracket underneath for extra security:

The new rat's nest. The battery and ECU are under there somewhere. The important thing is that nothing projects above the top of the frame rails, so I can use part of the stock seat pan:

Now there's lots of room under the tail section. The square black thing is the controller for the heated grips. The relay can be seen under the left side of the fuel tank mounting bracket:

Power commander peeking out from under the tank. Grip heater relay to the right of the tank bracket in this photo:

Lightening the 650

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