Progress (the result of one day's work). Work has resumed on hood as of June oneth.
- The hood scopes are gone as per your vote in my last pole
- The center line has been established as a guide for the new deck profile, (see the new center line in photo). This raised center line helps establish what will be the inverted V shaped crest on the hood deck-you'll see that develop next week
- The rear flip is beginning. I'm making the rear flip in the V shape of the 1978 RXLs
- I will now be working weekly on the hood and will send a zillion reports to you
Okay, you can see that surgery has begun. I knocked off the headlight pod. I sent a questionnaire to all you who have asked to be on my "list" for progress news. I asked "should I make the hood with scoops?" The answer you sent back was a resounding "NO", no scoops. Note: work will stop for a period on the RXL. It won't be ready until spring so it's going to be a 2012/13 release. I'm going to jump over to my 650 Yamaha Storm motorcycle kit and finish it for a Spring into. Then I'll get back to the RXL.
It now begins. What you see is my custom Velocity hood which I made for early Indys in 1992. You can see what that hood looks like here.
The Velocity hood will be the basis of the RXL--its overall shape is right. I am not going to mold in air scoops. I polled all the folks on my 'list' and they said "no scoops". Most will use LC sleds. I will have a jig to cut in air scoops for us F/C owners.
One of the biggest challenges will be to minimize the hood hinges. I have to use the Gen I style hinges which mount to the backside of the forward bulkhead. The Gen II hinges mount outside of the bulkhead and will get in the way of nose mounting.
With my advisors, the Sayen family of ardent Polaris fans, it has been determined that the smaller Polaris gauges (3" ?) will fit on the dash. The next photos you will see will be the cutting part where the headlight pod will disappear.
The first week end of every October certain motivated individuals from planet Earth gather in a small place near the town of Deweese, Nebraska to do battle. Battle on vintage mini bikes. This race event, started in 1999, is the product of promoter Fred Cuba's fertile mind.
Fred runs a successful custom bike building business in Hastings. He constructed a small 1/8 mile TT track with one modest jump, grand stands, an announcer stand (with a superb announcer) and a team of volunteer staffers to create a spectacular one day Mini National race 
event. The race is captured annually on video tape and is traditionally covered in Cycle News magazine.
Competitors attend from as far away California, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado. I started attending in 2007 and was badly thumped and went away with a third and a fourth. I spent a whole year scheming how I would do better but came away with a third and a fifth.
There are some very excellent riders who attend Fred's affair. And at 66 I'm not as good as those young bucks. But damn-there's next year!
