I have lived in several parts of the U.S. and currently call the NW suburbs of Chicago home. I am a technology guy (2nd generation, in fact) and am not afraid to jump into just about any project. I have an almost 10 year old daughter who's headed into 5th grade and a spouse of about 14 years, combining that with 1 great dane and a retired racing greyhound and two cats, we have a pretty active home.
Onto bikes..
I've owned somewhere between 60 and 70 bikes over my 30ish years of riding, and built the most extreme one on the Honda Blackbird (CBR1100XX) platform. (Click
here for picture and write-up.) On a forum for that bike I ran into someone selling an R3 at a very attractive price and the seller is a well known guy who takes great care of his toys so I bought a one way ticket and rode the 11 hour drive home on almost a whim. I liked it WAY more than I thought I was going to. The only part I didn't like about it was that it attracted HD riders who scoffed at it since it wasn't an HD when they got up close. That was less fun...
Anyhow, the R3 was going to be something I bought late last summer and would flip this Spring but my wife talked me into a Saturday afternoon "one last good ride" before I would list it for sale and we both looked at each other over some jalapeno poppers and she said, "Nope, that one has to stay so we can do more rides like this, I like this bike a lot."
And I replied, "Well, it can't stay in this form, you know that right?" She nodded. "It may end up with a side-car and turbo before 2013 is out."
She asked, "Which one of us rides in the sidecar?" with a furrowed brow.
"That's up to you and the little one to sort out..I'll be driving." and I winked.
So, that's where we are today. I'm thinking a PC-V and a faster spooling smaller turbo (possibly a GT-28R) tucked in behind the rear tire, where the cat would go, is the right idea. Now I just need to save up my pennies and bring the bike to have the plumbing fabricated up.
I wonder how many HP the shaft drive will hold up to?