So, what’s next for the project?
1. Take a saw to the seatpan and an xacto to the RDL seatcover and foam (followed by needle and thread). I’m going to cut the seat down to a true “solo” seat and use the pillion foam and cover on a new backing piece for a backrest. Take a look at the top view of the seat in the first post, “squint” and you can see what I mean.
2. Grab the rear subframe from my local ‘86 parts bike. Remove all the tabs, seatmount, etc from above main side tubes. This is the basis for an aluminum tool/firstaidkit/stash box that runs the full length and width of the space under the top box. Access will be through a hinged back door with the taillight raised and mounted on that. This becomes the new ‘tailpiece’ to replace the plastic OEM seat surround and token rear luggage rack.
3. Remove the rear-half of the fender liner from the normal joint line that is under the pillion seat. Replace with an aluminum fender that is hinged off the bottom/rear of the new toolbox. This will raise to allow the rear wheel to be removed from the back of the bike while on the centerstand with no sideways gyrations.
4. Misc details like rubber mat liner in the topcase, snap-in cable lid-holders for the side cases. I already have fitted sidecase liners to fit the new luggage custom made by
Karla Kiefer at bagsforbikes.com. If you don’t know about her, Karla’s been making Connie bag liners since waay back (I’ve had ‘em since I bought my ’04 new), she does excellent work that is guaranteed forever (literally!).
This certainly isn’t for everyone, but then neither is the Connie. But it is a great bike for my purposes on the road and is an easy platform for tinkering in the shop beyond all sane investment of time and money – like riding and camping, another source of enjoyment in my life.