ATKustom

Monday, May 6, 2013

MODIFICATION: POLISPORT HALO

My headlight bezel plastic was looking pretty tired, and looking for a DOT legal headlight that wasn't too futuristic, or too bulky, I settled on the Polisport Halo after seeing how it looked on Zumina ZX's ATK 605 and seeing the nice DOT stamped on the front.

This is an easy plug an play conversion. The wire harness hooks directly into the Halo, and mounting is as simple as routing the rubber around the forks.

The Halo does have a daytime running light that I have yet to hardwire into the electrical system, which would be a nice safety feature to have when not wanting to run the full headlight during the day, or god forbid the times I start up the ATK and forget to turn the key that extra 1/3 rotation to turn on the headlight.

Hmmm, that pesky speedometer seems to stick up quite a bit... That will have to be fixed!

Part # wp64-6921

Cost: $63.86

MODIFICATION: POWER MADD MIRRORS

The big antennae-like dual sport mirrors that come stock on the ATK do their job alright.

In all reality, the desire to stay CA legal and maintain a modicum of safety that a vibrating piece of reflective glass can actually provide can be achieved with the small fish eye mirrors from Power Madd. They bolt up clean to the Cycra Probend Hand Guards if you replace the self tapping screw with a through-bolt and locking nut.

Clean!

Inspiration from a post on Supermotojunkie

Part # PM14255

Cost: $16.17

MODIFICATION: CYCRA PROBENDS

The stock Acerbis bark busters do a good job at protecting the controls and the controler from major damage, but in the spirit of customization, I made the switch to Cycra Probends on the ATK 490 with plans to clean up the front end... plans... big plans...

This took a considerable amount of adjustment to the stock controls, in order to accommodate the new mounting bracket for the Cycra unit, and I can't begin to explain the number of times I had to break out the 6 mm Allen and 12 mm socket to get everything to sit just right.

I am happy with the result, and it gives me plenty of "real estate" for my bigger picture project of cleaning up the look of the front end.

Part # 1CYC740212X

Cost: $102.53

Sunday, May 5, 2013

BIKES: ROCKERBOX 605 STREET TRACKER / CHOPPER

Repurposing street legal dirt bikes into cafe racers and street trackers is becoming more and more popular, as is evidenced in Lincoln Black's Blog Crossed Purpose. Not a whole lot of folks are jumping on the ATK bandwagon for this building trend (who can blame them due to a serious lack of cross compatability). But the Rockerbox show in Milwaukee bucked this trend and converted an ATK 605 into a street tacker / chopper for last year's raffle. Not a lot of diehard ATK enthusiasts have been impressed by the build, and even though I am not a huge fan either, I believe it is worthy of mention due to the pure ingenuity that it took to make a peanut tank to mount to the single sided frame.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

MAINTENANCE: CAM BELT CHANGE VIDEO

Here is a helpful video guide for the Rotax Type 348 Cam Belt Change from a Harley Armstrong MT350:

Here's a step by step Google doc

Thanks to Pantera from the ATK riders forum for the find.

REPAIRS: SIDE PLASTIC MOUNTING BRACKET

Whether it is due to excess vibration or poor welding, it is not uncommon for the ATK owner to experience some weld failures on the rear subframe where the side number plate mounting bracket resides. There is also a contingent of ATK owners who who would like to find suitable replacement plastics for their ATK, but must turn to the available UFO KTM plastics (1996 ktm 300exc) as an alternative and thus have to relocate their mounting brackets. I found myself in the previous category rather than the latter, and after finding a local art welder (with a significant understanding of TIG welding thin aluminum), I had my panels secured for beer money.

While I was getting the bracket rewelded, I took the opportunity to replace the 12 mm bolts with 5 mm Allens for easier disassembly.

Cost: $20.00

BIKES: DUAL-SNORT

There are dreamers, and then there are dreamers, and then there are dreamers who will fabricate the crap out of something. The ATK based Snocycle is one of them. Now I feel bad for feeling bad about having to get a spacer fabricated for wheel fitment.

Images taken from: Snocycle