Every year for the past 14 years I have built a bike over winter, and rode it all summer! I have mainly done Ducatis, one Guzzi, and last year a Honda SLR.
I pondered for a while what to do next, in a way I regretted doing the honda as I missed the grunt of a big V twin... When this Buell came along I jumped at the chance to buy it! It's in excellent condition, apart from a bubbling and swelled plastic tank. The original owner had already modified it, so I decided to do a full rebuild... here is the story so far!
First job has been to address the plastic tank… While it’s not too bad, its already showing signs of bubbling due to the ethanol in the fuel… I hate plastic tanks, so it has to go. Plan was to make an alloy under tank and then make a fiberglass seat and tank cover. However, I had an old Ducati Monster tank that was rotted out on the bottom so I got Arnie the angle grinder out and cut it up… just to see! I was really pleased with the shape and how it fitted! It did of course mean that I would lose that nice Buell filler cap, so instead of using the Ducati one, I made a conversion ring to take the Buell one, it worked a treat.
I made a new bottom for the tank out of some 1.2mm mild steel, and TIG brazed some mounting lugs on, and also a plinth for the fuel tap. This didn’t go well and I got some leaks (good job I pressure tested before putting the bottom in!) The reason was due to my TIG settings… you need both pre AND post gas with braze and you need to flood the weld area with gas before you arc up. The tap plinth brazed on much better. I did mill some shoulders to make it easier as its 10mm thick.
nice work Buzzer 
