XR650R Baja 1x Dream Bike Build (Plastics & Decals)

Another major update in the build is the plastics and stickers/decals.  I got rid of all my old plastics bar the front fender which was passable as new.  Despite all the cleaning and polishing of just about every piece of the bike and motor, it would be massively detrimental to have less than perfect plastics (ie. tank, shrouds, side covers, rear fender, headlight fender, rear wheel mud flap and radiator guards).  The IMS tank, as mentioned in the last update, came from Mike Childress's father in the States.  It is the white/clear dry break 3.2 gallon from IMS and the dry-break race filler cap came from Ebay in the States.  I still need the breather hose and cap cover to complete the tank.

Here is the original bike as a reference:

So the first thing to do was order everything new from the states.  These arrived some time ago but I was reluctant to have the plastics exposed to the dust of my garage until the bike was nearly done.  I had to also find the decals.

The parts and plastics begin to arrive!

The initial decals fitted to brand new plastics, still waiting for the tank to arrive from the US

Light fender from the US (the Aussie spec one is different), IMS tank dry-break cap and carbon fork guards

Believe it or not the hardest to locate components of this build were the graphics/decals! So here is where I got each one:

• IMS radiator shroud logos - Precision Concepts (PC)
• White side-covers incl. airbox cover - PC
• Rear fender multi logos - (paticularly tricky to find, finally found non-identical ones at a Ballard's Off-raod here in Australia, who just happened to have one lying about from years ago)
• Handguard Honda wings - PC
• Handguard Renthals - Ebay
• Swingarm D.I.D and Renthal combined - PC, also on Ebay
• Front mudguard (under side) 1x International Johnny Campbell - PC
• Front mudguard Precision Concepts each side - PC
• Fork stickers - PC

It may seem like a simple task of calling Diane at Precision Concepts but I can assure you it was no where near that simple. At first I was told that there were none left, but after some more searching and some help from inmate from Advrider, BUMP who knows Diane well and visits their store I was lucky, Diane found a few more left overs. As far as I know there really are none left now, but who knows?!

The rear guard decal, which is a custom made three piece sheet had me about to give up and get some made by a custom graphics company. I contacted both Custom Decals and FX (who both made graphics for the 1x bike), but they both no longer have the designs.  But I struck it lucky seeing a nearly exact decal set for sale on Facebook with Australian company 'Ballards Off-road'.  There is less colour and a couple different logos but for now it will do.

I thought it was a good idea therefore to scan all the decals for future replacements. I have quality scans of each decal, which can then be enhanced and printed as needs be. 

In saying this I have not yet got the 1x number decals (easily made), the 'Score' sticker (widely available) and the fork 'Precision Concept' stickers which have been very difficult to get hold of, even after trying PC directly.  So if anyone has any please get in touch :)

Well now it's time for some eye-candy:

So here is the latest photo of the bike with plastics temporarily fitted!

Beautiful curves - Rear stickers not identical but near enough perfect

Looking real - the bike is starting to resemble a motorcycle again at last!

For more on the side cover please see my 'batwing and airbox' post.  Although the bike is looking nearly done, there is a lot of work behind the plastics that still needs doing but the good news is it looks better than even I had hoped!  It just shows that working on each piece at a time and settling for nothing less than reasonably perfect eventually results in what you see above.  This build has taught me a few lessons for sure.