Bobber Project

I have just recently purched a 82 xj650 shaft driven. I am wanting to convert it to a bobber but I am such a noob at this and was wanting to get any info on what steps need to be taken in order to get the ball rolling and to finish my project. If anyone could inlighten me on things to take into consideration and to help me out would be appreciated. Thanks and hope to get some good input on the situation. Matt

 

Hello moeman, great choice of motorcycles! From what I've been reading around here, it's best to get the safety and mechanical affairs in order before any mods are made. I'd start with the brakes. The coolest bobber in the world is worthless if you crash because the brakes failed. You'll find all the tips & help you need here, these guys are great. Enjoy your bike & good luck!

 

wwj750 The bike is in good mechanical standings and everything is in working order I picked it up from a family member who took good care of it. I just got the brakes changed and its good to go. Im just not sure weather or not to remove the rear springs or leave them and just shorten up the rearframe

 

When I do hardtails I like to run struts first. It lets you try what height you want, and to ride it for a while first do debug drive angles, position, etc. Also means that if you have a tiny ass like me you can discover how painful a hard tail is and still revert back to coils/shocks

 

Very smart thing to do. I see a lot of people that hard tail them with out knowing how its going to ride. Guess they don't know that if you run over a dime it feels like a speed bump

 

I'm not really sure on what you mean by that. Ive just seen some bobbed with the shocks still on just cut up the seat frame and added a rear fender and a small seat, others Ive seen them cut the frame way down and extend the frame down to the middle of the tire. You know more of like a chopper look. If you all could give me like a break down of the process or about anything would be great. I came from crotch rockets to the xj so its new territory for me. lol

 

Click on the XJ MODIFICATIONS forum. Lots of ideas there :wink: ...

skillet

 

Skillet did you order this wind and cold temps BURR. What skillet says is true its hard to explain you can see where people hack the rear section off in many posts with pics. If it was me i would keep the shocks or maybe buy shorter ones. Coming from a sport bike to an xj hard tail your gonna kill yourself. Corners you thought nothing about are gonna be major on a hardtail bobber

 

As skillet said, there are many other bobber projects from basic to advanced. Take a peek around and get some ideas

Agreed, whenever doing mods like this you mess with the geometry of the bike and adversely affect the steering.



You can see where the shocks have been replaced with solid metal. That is what I am talking about with struts. You make the difference of the strut length and stock shock length how much you'd lower it as a hardtail. This way you will get the height and the ride style of a hardtail to see how it feels for you before hacking the frame.

 

Ok guys thanks, Ive checked out alot of other bobbers and kind of got a mock up building in my head. As soon as I get started on it ill start posting b4 and through the build as well as the finished.

 

I have got my bobber project two thirds of the way done now. All that is left is the making of the seat and a paint job and it will be done. I will post pics of it on here soon.