No problem. I've been riding withe the leather over the regulator this year.

That shouldn't be a problem but you are right to be concerned about the cooling fins on the regulator...after all, why are they there, right?

To be prudent and not to place too much pressure on the regulator/fender, when I reinstalled my seat I merely cut out the leather to allow the bags to hang around the regulator.  The fins are still exposed.  That way, I didn't have to use a lot of pressure to get the seat back on.

What kind of custom piece are you putting in place of the pillon seat?

Well, as my goal is a solo bike, I'll be interested to see the results of your project...which isn't much more radical than mine.

At this time my goal is a solo seat with back rest and or some kind of rack or luggage compartment over the rear fender...which would center the weight over the rear wheel, not behind it

The project started last winter with the removal of the rear footpegs (no passengers)....I did not just remove them, either.  I removed the swingarm, ground off the footpeg mounts, welded the holes closed and smoothed the whole thing with Bondo.  With a good coat of primer and lacquer paint you can't even tell if they ever existed.

Savage_Greg wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:08:

Sounds like you are making amazing progress.  Do you have an up-to-date pic you wouldn't mind sharing?  I'd love to see it.  

I will keep you posted on my various projects, although they will be slow for now as I'd rather ride now and do more work over the winter.  I am trying to get this piece done sooner but we'll see.  

Had a great ride tonight.  Went riding with our neighbors for the first time with me on my own bike.  Lots of back country hilly twistys.  Very fun. Am trying really hard not to get overconfident, however, 'cause I know that's when I'll blow it.

Hello Ms. Sue & Fellow Savages,
I have the large W&M Gray Thunder (#746 ?)

http://www.willieandmax.com/746onfxstc.jpg

I mounted them under the seat, which covers the electronics. I believe there is enough turbulence at speed to keep these cool not to mention the rear fender is a kind of heat sink.
They have been on 3 months and have ridden over W. TN & N. MS temps in upper 90s w/o any probs.

I wish I found ya'll a year ago. This is a great forum.
I bought my 650 last March. It had been sitting in the back of the dealer for about a year, w/ rear rack and saddlebag brackets, a small scrape on brake rez. cover and pipe from a ‘drop’, only 436 mile on the 'clock'. I offered $2500 for it and was surprised when the said yes, w/o hesitation. (D**n, I bid too high) So since I was broke, I said can I put that on my card? He thought for a minute this time,...OK. Anyway, I picked it up the next day as the Battery needed a charge and they changed the oil to boot. This spring I added the W&M bags and the light smoke (clear) fly screen to pimp it a little. I purchased one complete exhaust system on ebay w/ minimal bluing, and w/ a 1/2" service bit, open the frt. baffle and the rear baffle plug.
It helped the sound some but not quite what I had in mind. I have uncovered and adjusted the carb idle mixture. The bluing is coming in now that I have 3700 miles on my 650, so I plan to send the other head pipe off for coating. I crew for a sportsman racer here and we found a guy out east, He did a set of zoomies w/ a silver coating that polished to high reflectivity, near chrome, better than the Jet-Hot I have seen. Many report the Supertrapp is best performance/deal. I ordered a new Supertrapp this week. (I bid on that ebay Supertrapp too, Junkboy bumped the bid 4 times up to my max, then crawfished, thanks). I plan to do the carb needle spacer thing and/or re-jet w/ a 150. I like my economy and hope this will stop the bluing w/o  fattening the mixture to much. Greg what do you think about the 150 ,will it prevent bluing the Supertrapp?  
Thanks to all for  the  good  input,
Scot

Oh yeah....a couple months ago, I helped a guy with his backfiring problem on his '97 Savage.

Since his center baffle is drilled out on his stock muffler, we put a #152 in there.  He didn't want to mess with the spacer at that time, so we left it alone.  He has since reported that his backfires are gone with only small pops on decel.

If someone can run a #152 with a modified stock muffler, you know that it will work with a SuperTrapp.  Our little thumpers are Really, Really, Really lean from the factory  

As I mentioned in tha last post.  Yes.  But that was with a stock muffler..  It got the #152 w/o a spacer change.

With a SuperTrapp, I believe that your whole throttle range will be too lean.  The #152 will be great 1/2 to full throttle, but I think that you may encounter some popping above idle to 1/2 throttle.

Aside from taking the seat and tank off, the spacer is easy to get to....actually, you don't have to remove the carb itself for either part as long as you don't round out one of the phillips screws