Kawasaki Mean Streak Upgrades Round 1

This is the first of many hopeful rounds of upgrades to my 04 Mean Streak 1600. This is my first big bike, and it just keeps growing on me, especially after doing some things myself on it.

So, on to the goods. In this round, upgrades include:

• Rectifier relocated to the front (via Constrictor's 62 cent mod) and bag fitted in its place
• Rear fender brace covers moved closer to fender
• Removed reflectors and moved helmet locks up on the front frame brace
• Handmade license plate and turn signal brackets
• Anodized aluminum license plate bolts (Made in USA by ebay seller mlochridge)
• Blacked-out air cleaner covers and turn signals (using Dupli-Color's Shadow kit)
• Blacked-out turn signal lenses (using Nite-Shades)
• Added 5% tint to windshield
• Kuryakyn Shift Lever cover (thanks to my wife)
• Kuryakyn Bar End Weights
• Kuryakyn Scythe II Mirrors

License Plate and Turn Signal Brackets

I made these (with the help of my dad and his tools!) out of 16 gauge sheet steel from Lowe's. Hadn't ever done anything like this, so it was a learning experience. I had to scrap the first set I made since I was trying to make them nice and curvy using only a jigsaw (definitely not recommended!) If you have a bandsaw, this would be much faster and easier. So as you can see, I ended up going with straight cuts and then filing to smooth out, which worked fine. They're pretty ugly up close, but I didn't care since the point was to paint them black and have them hardly show at all. The only thing about the turn signal relocation was redoing the wiring of course, because I had to untape the entire harness and add wire extensions for the turn signals since the way it's set up at the factory wouldn't allow the lights to go very far. It saves a few inches of wire, which is why they do that, but I had several feet of small-gauge wire around that I just soldered in to extend the reach.

Painting stuff

This was interesting. After seeing the video on the Shadow paint kit on Dupli-color's site, I really wanted to use that, so I did, and I think it turned out pretty well on the turn signals and air cleaner covers, but it's definitely not the black chrome look I was hoping for. It's probably mostly the result of me being a novice painter with a rattle can, but I had a hard time getting it between either making it look like overspray and not covering, and spraying too much and it running. In shooting between these two, I ended up doing 3 coats and it came out much more black than black chrome. However, the turn signals do have a nice high gloss.

In contrast, the Nite-Shades was super easy and fast, just needed one coat, then let it dry for a good long time, and then shine it up with some Mother's carnauba wax. When the lights are off, it looks completely blacked-out, but with just one coat, the lights are still perfectly visible through the amber lens when on.

Kuryakyn Scythe II Mirrors

It took a while to decide to go with these mirrors, and I initially wanted the original Scythe I mirrors, but ended up going with these because I think they look just a bit cleaner while still having a bit of a wicked edge, which is what I'm going for. I just got them installed and absolutely love them.

License Plate Bolts

Just wanted to say a quick word about these. They're great quality and nice and light in black (you can also get them in chrome). The only thing is that the bolts are thicker than normal license plate bolts (in the US, anyway), so I had to drill out my license plate and my newly-painted brackets a bit so they'd fit, which peeved me a bit, but wasn't too hard. Just something to keep in mind.

Tinting the Windshield

I did this myself based on the write-up here from vee-strom.com. It looks fine from a distance, like over 10 feet, but being my first tint job, it's pretty terrible up close. I'll blame it on the compound curves on the Memphis Shades windshield. I wasn't sure how to make nice even final cuts, and despite using the applicator spray, it just wouldn't stick in some places. In the end, it looks like the edges were hacked with a dull knife rather than the razor blade I used, and there's still many bubbles and I probably scratched the tint. I may try again, or I might see if it can be tinted at a real shop, or I'll just get a new screen someday. I don't often ride with it, because it completely changes the look of the Mean Streak, and not in a good way in my opinion.

Okay, enough talk, here's some more pics. The first is a before shot.