Finally Finished my 1980 XJ650!

I was a bit more active on this forum a few years back - but I've had my attention pulled away by a few other project bikes and my DR650 dual sport, which has been suiting my adventure needs nicely! I posted the following on my DR forum earlier today, thought I'd share here while I'm at it. Cheers:

About 3 years ago, I took this bike apart. It's a 1980 XJ650. It is a relatively light (420 lbs), relatively fast 4 banger (1/4 mile in 12.5 seconds), and it's an early Japanese cruiser bike. It feels less like a cruiser, and more like a low slung standard - and I removed the REDICULOUS swept bars and replaced them with these renthall street fighter bars.



And for 3 years, at a snail's pace, I did a minor restoration. What I did:
1) Fork rebuild. It was leaking! I also polished the legs, and added gators.
2) Carb rack rebuild - It had vacuum leaks and fuel leaking from the rails.
3) Painted it.
4) Treated the frame internally for rust.
5) Big tune up, including valve inspection and adjustment, air filter replacement, cleaned all electrical connections.
6) Petcock rebuild
7) Tank treatment (it was rusted out inside, had a couple holes in it
8) Probably a hundred other small projects I'm forgetting I did over the last 3 years.

To be totally honest about it - after about a year of being apart, it started nagging at me in the garage. I have almost NO time to myself. I work 5 days a week as a manager/mechanic, and on my two days off, I have 7 hours of band practice - so I have no weekend, just the time before or after work - and I tend to spend most of that time with my fiancee.

After years in the garage nagging at me, all I wanted was to just be done with it, and I thought about just selling it outright in it's "project" form just to have it out of my hair. Even still, I was convinced I would just get rid of it when it was done. The paint job was a PAIN, and seemed to be a never ending process. I think I'd be happy to never paint again.

All said and done, I actually really like how it came out, and I plan to keep it at least for the time being.

Thanks for reading!




And a photo from my first ride on it, off to my favorite Chai place (I won't drink chai anywhere else) in Half Moon Bay:

 

Nice! Congratulations.

 

Thanks!

 

Very nice, it looks like a totally different bike, even though the mods were minimal.
Alan

 

Nice clean look. Congrats on your project!

 

Thanks guys!

A few things I didn't list that I did:
Starter rebuild with new brushes
New progressive rear shocks
Braid stainless brake line, rebuilt caliper and master cylinder
New clutch and brake levers
Spin on oil filter conversion
New clutch
New choke plunger on one carb as part of rebuild
All new butterfly shaft seals, needles and seats, carb hardware.
Colortuned
Bench sync, running sync, wet set.
Probably even more.

 

Thought I'd keep ya'll up to date: I've been riding the bike a bit since I got it back together - every other day to work, a couple ~100 mile rides on some local twisties, and lots of "taking the long way home". The result is that I'm starting to notice some issues I want to work out. It's generally mild in temperature in my area - and coming into winter, we will see temperatures in the low to mid 50's. I know, I know - that's not cold... But to me it is! And I tend to prefer gloves that offer lots of dexterity, so I run MX gloves (Bomber from Fox, to be exact). In those temperatures with those gloves, my mechanic's hands with numb up and/or get painful. I also notice that compared to all the other bikes on the road (including my fiancee's CB500F and my DR650) have MUCH brighter lights from a visibility standpoint. The lighting from the antiquated 55w sealed beam (which are being strangled by the tiny wires from the loom) is actually very good considering how dim it appears to others. There are watts to save...

A few more items I've got coming down the funnel:

i) Hella H4 conversion headlight for the front (and new outer ring since my original is breaking at the weld). I find that H4 bulbs are much more common to find, since they are standard equipment in many decades of many car manufacturers - and I've also had an extra LED headlight in my parts pile... Purchased this from Chacal - but I think it's gonna look something like this:

ii) Cyclops 3600 Lumen Headlight - I originally tried this on my DR650, but with the square headlight shape it had a bad beam pattern. I tried it in round headlight and it was a lot better - I'm hoping that it will work nicely in the Hella modular above. A great thing about this light is that it draws just 25 watts - the benefits of which will be more clear momentarily....


iii) Super Bright LED's 45 SMD LED Bulb - I've put these in several bikes now and have had very good success with them - they are always brighter than stock, seem to last a very long time (have seen one survive 3 years now), and like all other incandescent to LED conversions, there are watts to be saved...


iv) Bikemaster Heated Grips - I've put these two other bikes to date, and they are great. They are relatively cheap (vs Oxford), relatively easy to install (vs. "under-grip" style heaters), and provide fairly even heat distribution and have a very nice range with simple control (one toggle button to cycle through Off and the 5 heat settings). These grips ensure that I can run my thin MX style gloves all year round, and I stay comfortable down to the mid 40's. The only pain is that the left side grip is challenging to install - but I've got my technique down pat and the second time I installed a set, it was very easy. The trick is to sand the inside of the grip down until you can easily get the grip about 1/2 way on. You want that last 1/2 to be hard so it doesn't spin and you don't have to use any grip glue.


Thanks for reading! And I will post some before/after pictures of the beam pattern that I get out of the new rig.

 

I read a few reviews on these lights, and I guess there is an issue were the wiring harness will actually burn up because of the extra draw? Something to look into.

 

Is it as simple as replacing the existing bulb with this new one? Or do you have to do something else to wiring etc, because the electrical demands are different? I had a friend that replaced his stock (bulb) turn signals with LED units. I believe he had to add something to the wires for the conversion. Electrical/wiring both in reality and their subsequent technical diagrams both amaze and confuse me...

 

Can you specify which "light" product you have seen burn up? I've listed several.

 

This is the first one I punched in:

http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-HLA-H83...263_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1T4SKE65G8P8HNY7KS58

If you read the customer questions and answers, there is a lot of problems with the wiring harnesses burning up. Not sure if this is an accurate listing on the swap you are doing or not, but something to keep in mind.

 

For tail light LED's, It is plug and play - just add the new tail light. Make sure you buy an LED light that fits, is dual function (as in marker/brake), and it's best to get one that emits red light vs white or yellow (as it will be brighter and lower draw in red light)

Turn signal LED's often need a diode kit and/or a special flasher unit since the draw is so much less. The lower draw will not activate the flasher unit... Since my XJ has a single dash signal indicator, it would need a diode kit AND a special flasher unit. At the heart of my LED conversion is a want for lower power draw - and since signals are used very intermittently, I've never felt the need to make the signal conversion.

 

Thanks for the tip - thankfully I won't be using any wiring from their kit, nor will I b using the provided bulb. I'm just using the 7" H4 modular unit (as in the round glass reflector unit) since the stock XJ that I have uses a sealed beam type bulb. I will be using the stock wiring from the XJ to connect to my H4 LED headlight listed further down my post.

 

W

what is the wattage draw for that LED headlight?
And how much brighter will you expect it to be?

 

It draws a bit under 25 watts. It will certainly be significantly more visible. Not sure if it will project as well as an incandescent, since it seems like the shape of the light housing makes the spread vary significantly. I've used this bulb on my dr650, and it was easily twice as bright as the stock incandescent. It's beam pattern was more of an "explosion" of light, but it gave me about the same, or marginally better vision at night. I was dissatisfied with it, so I replaced it with the second generation of the same light which gives me great beam pattern.... So in other words, this bulb does NOT work well in the square housing. I did have a chance to try it in the housing of an xs400, (round housing) and the beam pattern was much better, so I'm hoping it will be similar in the slightly larger housing of the xj. That was a mouthful, hope it made sense

 

I tried almost exactly that same bulb in a Z1100 rectangular headlamp and had a pretty good result from it. Otoh, it can be improved on. So, it just depends on circumstance. Some of these cheapy LEDs are a reasonable match for some light units and some / many aren't. The problem is, the majority of the badly-matched ones get used by riders / drivers who don't give a sheet about other road users and carry on using them.
Having said that, I'll be getting some more and fitting them to auxiliary headlamp units that won't be on in the face of oncoming traffic (or if they are, the dip beam will be low enough to not cause a problem).
Means I can have effectively 3 or 4 times stock lighting output for the same current demand as a standard bulb - and that's making some adjustment / allowance for the outright lies the sellers tell about lumens.
I will eventually upgrade the LEDs to later, better, more controlled ones, but the cheapies will do for the moment.

 

That's because the one on Amazon is an 80/100W bulbs, which is sure to burn up something (up to and including all the other wires inside the housing). The ones that we sell (and which Tombo bought) use the 550/60W bulb that is much more in line with the stock type bulb (and thus current draw and heat output). In fact, although we OFFER the 80/100W bulb, we recommend against it:

HCP8570 Aftermarket modular headlight system HALOGEN BULB, rated at 80/100W output, for all models that use a modular (replaceable bulb) headlight system. I cannot tell you how much we urge you to NOT upgrade to this rating bulb....but for the "bigger is always better crowd" well, here it is. Don't be surprised if you melt your wiring, or catch your headlight housing on fire, or fry your computer-controlled dash if your electrical system isn't up to snuff, though. Or even if it is..........


And just for gits and shiggles, here's what you REALLY need to know about bulbs (headlights, especially):

Although most people feel that the BULB is greatest determinant of a headlight's light output, this isn't really the case. Although sealed-beam headlights and modular bulbs are available in a variety of wattage ratings, the amount of USABLE LIGHT (meaning: "how much?" and, especially, "where?") are controlled as much by the LENSE and REFLECTOR DESIGN as by the bulb's rated wattage.....

And lets talk about those rated wattages for a moment, because that's an important issue: all automotive bulbs are rated for a certain current draw (which translates somewhat nicely into "light output", although it is really not a one-to-one relationship) at 12.8 Volts DC or higher. But are you actually getting 12.8 volts DC (VDC) at your headlight? Probably not....and if you want to check for yourself, hook up a voltmeter and read the voltage drops while the engine is running at various speeds. Do you get 12.8 VDC (or above)? Probably not. And that's where the problems begin.........

Because the reduction in voltage available to the headlight reduces the light output from the "advertised" or rated level rather quickly......i.e. a 10% voltage drop gets you about a 33% reduction in light output (yes, you read that correctly, a 33% reduction, whoa!).

This is why the condition of your wiring system is so critical to proper lighting. But that's only part "A" of the story............

Here's part B: your glass LENSE. Whatever amount of light your BULB is outputting---dependent upon the bulb's wattage rating and the capability of your electrical system, as outlined above----the "how much?" of the available bulb output and, more importantly, the "where?" of that light output is controlled by the lense.

You see all those raised ribs (called "fluting") on the glass lense? The light comes from the bulb, then it bounces off the reflector, and is then finally concentrated or diffused ("spread out") according to what and how that lens fluting has been designed. The fluting can be designed to give a broad, spread out pattern of light, and perhaps with a narrow, focused "pencil beam" of the available light output all going straight ahead----or anywhere in-between. Reflector and fluting design elements are what really make the difference between "standard", run-of-the-mill headlights and high-performance headlight manufacturers (such as Cibie, Hella, Marchal, etc.)....after all, a 55/60W bulb is basically going to output the same amount of light whether it's installed in a No-Name brand headlight lense/reflector, or whether it's installed in a Hella Euro Vision Plus headlight. It's what the headlight lense/reflector DESIGN does with that available light that determines whether, or how far away, you see that deer that is about to jump out into the road in front of you......or not.

There, you're almost an optical expert. You can now hopefully make a better, informed decision as to what you want and need, and how much that is worth to you.

 

P.S. very nice looking bike Tombo!

 

I've used the SuperbrightLED signal bulbs in the past (on my scooter). I found them to be severely washed out in direct sunlight; so much so that I was pulled over for not signaling a turn. A dedicated LED turn signal, with a housing that has been engineered for the LED array, is a much more effetive solution.
The same goes for any LED headlight bulb conversion, but in that case the issue is the cutoff of the beam. Most are very fuzzy, and can be a nuisance to oncoming vehicles.

 

I feel edumacated.

Lighting is something I'm going to have to conquer on my Honda XL:



Driving at night I feel like Ray Charles riding a washing machine.

 

That is pretty awful, I must admit. Reminds me of the type of lighting we had to put up with in the 70s. Which is why I hunted around and found the big Kwack 11 light was the best available to me cheaply and, for once, Stanley had done a good job with the reflector and lens design. That was made 30 years ago, and things have moved on, a lot.
Mind you, a lot of these older lamps really wake up with a modern halogen in them - the Philips Nightbreakers, or Osram Silverstars, for example (not the Sylvania Silverstar, from what I read, not the same thing). I've been using Osram Silverstars (+30) for years in my cars and bikes and they genuinely make better use of the available electrical power to put out a better light; largely due to more precise filament positioning and some over-driving of the filament, so they don't last quite as long as the normal fitment. I've not noticed any real shortfall in lifespan from them, though. Now you can get +50 and +90% (claimed) light outputs from them, with no greater current demand than the standard 60/55 halogen. If the reflector and lens design of the lamp is good, the better bulbs really make it work well.
Of course, there aint no substitute for a Cibie, but there are some surprisingly good budget alternatives. REading candlepower forums alerted me to the existence of the Koito 7" unit that was fitted as standard to the Mitsubishi Pajeros and Shoguns of the late 80s and early 90s. A couple of the pundits over there reckon they're right up there in terms of design and beam quality with some of the best and can be got from a breaker for very little money.
I got a Koito 7" a couple of weeks ago, but won't be able to evaluate it properly until it's mounted in the fairing and set up right. We shall see...

 

An even better way is to use a headlight relay set-up (like modern vehicles do) that gets full battery voltage to the headlight, and uses those two dreadfully thin wires from the headlight switch to merely do the low-voltage switching of the relays, rather than trying to carry full voltage to the headlight itself as in the stock wiring.

Your stock or aftermarket headlight will become 30% brighter immediately by providing full battery voltage to it, as opposed to the typical 11.5V you'll get at the headlight in the stock system.

It's a simple installation.

 

NICE !

 

I haven't yet installed these things into my xj, but I've been running the tail and headlight in my dr650 for more than a year... The tail light led vs the incandescent is probably twice as bright - and that's both (don't mind the pun) "night and day".

My thought is that perhaps you used white led's in your indicators, which COULD result in a washed out look... If anyone here decided to do an led conversion for brake/tail, then I would recommend led's that are a corresponding colour.

As for headlights, kmoe is right on point, they can have crappy beam patterns depending on the light. As I mentioned in a different post, the 3600 lumen Cyclops (version 1.0) gave me a very bad beam pattern "fuzzy" as kmoe said. But I replaced the version one for version two, which both SIGNIFICANTLY improved the beam pattern, and actually, just about matches the incandescent bulb in beam pattern. It also had a true high beam...

I am going to try the Cyclops 3600 in the xj, perhaps a round housing will improve the beam pattern over the square housing of my dr650. If not, I am happy enough with the version 2 to buy a second one for the xj

 

I used white LEDs at first, then switched to colored. Not much difference; both were invisible in the noontime sun. The key (I think) is the reflector and lens. Neither are even close to ideal for LED lamps.

 

Which led lamp did you use? I've used the same super bright leds tail bulb with great success in several bikes

 

I'll have to dig to find the box. This was about 5 years ago, so the lamps will have been made with different LED elements than the newer ones are. Maybe I need to give them another try.

 

If you can use the watts elsewhere, I'd give it a try. LED's have come a long way in 5 years! Especially now that it's winter, extra watts for heated grips and clothing is very helpful. Just did a 4 day dual sport ride, and with temperatures between 45 and 32 degrees, I don't think I could have done it without the heated grips. My dr650 has an adequate charging system, but doesn't offer any excess - so the LED headlight and tail light was a perfect solution - roughly 40 watt savings vs ~45-50 watts on high for the grips. I've only used the high setting a few times (a couple of them this weekend!), and I never lost any charge.

 

I ran them on my scooter so I could have both headlights on at the same time (one LED headlight and one halogen). The big savings was in the taillights and the LED headlight, but the extra savings from the turn signals (I ended up running angled LED arrays instead of bulb replacements) ensured that I never went over my amperage budget, even when using my GPS
( a 1/2 amp left over, YAY! (yes, scooters can go places)).

I have handguards and find that those, plus winter gloves, are good (for me) to about 30ºF. Below that and I really don't want to ride anyway.