Which would be the better mod choice...XB/R with S fairing, or XB/S with R tail?

[JoeAsheville]

Greetings, new to the forum and the finer points of the XB's although I've been aware of the Buells for decades. Mea culpa if I omit some details or get some facts incorrect.

I am in the market for an XB12, preferably 08+. I have been looking at both the Rs and the S models, and I believe the major difference is in the bodywork (feel free to enlighten me if incorrect). I prefer the front "naked" fairing of the S, but the tail section of the R. I was wondering which swap would be more cost effective. I am a mechanic with reasonable fabrication skills (I restore and ride low production vintage MX bikes and have been riding street/dirt for nearly 35 years), but I don't have the equipment for large scale fabrications of, say, whole support sections for the rear bodywork.

The assumption is that a R is reasonably local and appropriately priced, but I would have to travel to retrieve an S. Shown below is the desired fairing from an S, and the tail from an R...

XB12S.jpg
XB12R.jpg

[Cooter]

Putting an R section on an S is pretty easy with only small bracket that needs to be fabbed. Subframe, seats, and rear fairing are all inexpensive.
SPHDonline.com for new stuff
Ebay or these classifieds for used stuff