Frame up bike build?

Hello from South Africa guys. Liking the forum but still new here.

Been looking for an XJ for a few weeks now and the good ones seem to keep escaping me. Now, I'm having a different idea. I can buy a XJ frame off ebay and have it shipped over and simply buy a motor locally.

My thinking is that I would have probably changed out the wheels, suspension, rear sets, handle bars etc etc anyways as I'm looking to build a cafe/brat/bobber.

Now I don't have much experience working on bikes, especially older ones. Do you guys who have experience with these bikes think that's a crazy idea? Or financially a bad one perhaps? Any input appreciated.

thanks

 

Yes, but a little bit of crazy is always a big part of genius.......

"Disaster" is the word that immediately springs to mind, unless parts at breakers are really cheap over there!

I would start with a suitable donor bike (which would need to be a Seca model, the Maxim models don't translate so nicely into the café/bobber/brat style) and plan on keeping the suspension (front forks/brackets) and the rear suspension/swingarm, as replacing those items starts to make a project exponentially more time-consuming, labor- and money-intensive (as well as presenting engineering problems a/k/a "nightmares").

 

The plan is to use a gsxr tripple tree and forks. I see a company called cognimoto supply the hardware to fit that fork setup to any bike, and also do gsxr hubs for spoked wheels. I'm sure it wont' be a very cheap build, but I'm hating to start with an overpriced complete bike and then throw half of it away. It would be nice to see how everything fits together though before disassembly. Quite a few "cheap" bikes over here but without paperwork (title etc) in order, or licences that are so far behind it would cost more to update then buy another good bike. So buying one of those as a parts donor may be an option. Importing the frame is just a better way to get a "clean title" bike.

 

Have you looked into the import duties that may be required to import a titled frame?

 

yeah we pay 0% duties on bikes. Only VAT at 14%

 

I'm in a long, slow build of a maxim X from scratch....... Stated with just a bare frame, every piece that goes on is either new, repainted, or detailed . Eventually it will get done

 

should be a nice brand new bike in the end I imagine.....

link to build thread?

 

No link

 

You asked for opinions so here's mine: Why not look on eBay, Kijiji, Craigslist etc. and find a built bike that is just what you want or very close so that you can enjoy the bike right away. Then when you want to make changes, do a little at a time. After reading what you said above, starting with just a titled frame seems like a big stretch for someone that does not have much experience.
Also you have to have a lot of basic as well as precision tools to take on a project of this size.
I wish you luck on whatever you choose, but I would rather be riding than wrenching unless I absolutely had to!

 

It's not a crazy idea at all.
There are two people who will be riding in the motorcycle cannonball this year (1916 and earlier motorcycles from coast-to-coast in the U.S.) who have just about built their bikes from the frame up, starting with not much more than a frame. As an exercise in wrenching it's actually a good idea.

 

thanks for the input guys. Food for thought. Will hopefully post up the direction I end up in soon.

 

Post a link, sounds like interesting reading. Do they show the build progress?

 

Here ya go.

1916 Indian Powerplus #1: Powerplus or Bust

1916 Indian Powerplus #2: http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/dickin-around-in-dougs-garage.516355/page-156#post-25677785
(this one is a long rambling thread, that is well-worth reading in its entirety)