XJ700 Mods In Progress - New Pics of Final Product

Just a few mods I did recently:

1. Cut the seat down and had it recovered. Turned out very nice.

2. Installed "European" Bikemaster bars and new grips.

3. Installed a "Flyscreen" windshield.

Next up: Get rid of that but ugly rear fender. Install some 10.5" shocks. Paint er up!

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Jezus... that seat looks great...

I want to solo seat my XJ700 as well... was thinking about just leaving the stock seat... but after seeing yours, I'm thinking I may have to do the same...

Do you have a pic from the front? I'd like to get a better look at the flyscreen.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

I'll post a pic of the front tomorrow. Cutting your seat down is probably the best single thing one can do to improve the looks of these bikes. Them stock seats is fugly.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Love the seat, and 1-up on hoping to see more of that flyscreen.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Howbout some more pics of that Flyscreen windshield, plus more info on it.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

As requested, some pics of the Flyscreen. After going to a lower profile bar the gauges stick up pretty high so I thought the Flyscreen would help the lines a little.

Specs:

1985 XJ700
17K miles
Owned for 3 years. Bike is in great shape for being 25 years old.

Mods/Work Done:

Fork seals
Valve clearances
Carbs gone through
Strip clear coat off aluminum
New brake fluid

Tomorrow I'll be replacing the clutch cable and adding black clutch/brake levers.

Also up is a carb tune and sync. Didn't have the right tools when I went through the carbs the first time. Got a Colortune and YICS tool now so will try the 2 bottle method.

Replace the mufflers. Got some used ones off here. The current ones look good but have JB welded rust holes in them.

Did all the work myself with the help of the great tutorials on here. Nothing was that tough if you do your research right here. The carbs were a breeze. I was expecting much worse.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

wow, man that bike is so clean. Nice work on keeping it so clean, i love a bobber/chopper, but this bike is way to clean to hack up. Props!

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

So whare did you get that there Flysreen?

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Flyscreen here. Not cheap.

http://www.cheapcycleparts.com/products ... -dark-tint

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Today I replaced the clutch cable and installed new black clutch/brake levers. Clutch pull went from 4 finger make your hands sore to two finger holy sh*% I can't believe I didn't do this sooner pull! Black levers look pretty good too.

Started to replace the mufflers but I think that's gonna have to wait till winter when I do the rear fender. Bigger job than I'd counted on.

Got some shorty LED turn signals on the way so that will be next.

Also replaced the pics above with some better ones.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Can you give me more info in the seat mods? How did you attach it after it was cut down. Have you replaced the rear fender yet? What shocks did you go with? I cut some coils out of my stock shocks and now it bottoms out. I love the look of you bike. Please help if you can. Thanks, Mark

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

NICE!!
What a sweet ride!
Looks like you have some good ideas. I usually don't like the bobber thing, but you seem to have done it tastefully.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

I love how clean your bike is. The seat is just nice. One thing that might increase the classiness of your bike would be spoked wheels.

i just inherited an xj700 and I can't wait til I get it looking like yours.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

I had a baby and have been off the site for looong time.

The seat attachment is still stock. I just cut the excess plastic off the seat pan.

Installed some new used mufflers this weekend. Mine were actually cleaner than the ones I replaced them with but mine had rusted out in places. Stock mufflers are hard to find.

Bike seems to run better now with the added back pressure.

Next up: Going through the carbs again and getting to work on that ugly rear fender.

Going to need a new tail light, turn signals and license plate bracket.

I've got an extra rear fender to practice cut on so I don't hose up the good one.

Will keep posted on progress.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Cut down the practice fender to see how it will look. Not exactly what I was looking for but I'm limited using the stock fender. Any feedback is welcome. Keep in mind it will eventually be lowered in the rear by 1.5".

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Went a different route with the rear fender. Decided to keep the grab bars as I like the look of them so I cut the fender around the outline of them.

Going to mount a 6.5" cat eye tail light up in the fender. I like the way it turned out. Kinda bobbed but still keeping the Maxim look. I always liked the Maxim styling anyway.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

CUrious to see how this works

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Getting my bike painted. Will post pics soon.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Well got the following done this past month:

Sanded and painted the tins satin black.
Fabbed a bracket for the cat's eye tail light and wired it up.
Wired in new LED turn signals.
Added the Maxim X rear wheel

Had it all back together and running then decided to rip my carbs apart and replace the throttle shaft seal and all the rubber. So this also meant a valve clearance check.

Waiting on parts from Chacal so I can get it back together....finally.

Pics of how the rear fender turned out:

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

I'm just wondering if I could get a little more information on how you slimmed the seat down. I'm looking to do the same on my 85 maxim 700.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

That rear fender turned out pretty sweet.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

I ripped all the padding off, put it back on the bike and traced around where I thought it looked right with a crayon. I kept the stock mounting including the the big tab in the back. I did the cutting with a saw tooth bit in the Dremel then had it professionally recovered.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Man that looks good

Where'd you get that cat's eye and what kind of shenanigans did you have to wire in for the LEDs?

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

I really like that look! Did you have to add the resistors to the turn signal wiring?

BTW, I got a chuckle out of your location. I thing we're all heading there.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Nice bike -- like it

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Got the tail light on ebay here:

www.ebay.com/itm/CHROME-SMALL-CATEYE-CA ... 1458wt_905

LED signals were easy and I'm no EE. I just wired in a new $10 flasher relay. That's it. There's a few threads on here detailing it.

 

Re: XJ700 Mods In Progress

Carbs are back on and it fired right up and runs pretty good for a bench sync but now my clutch is making funky noises. Grrrrrrrr. If I have to pull the cover I might as well replace everything while I'm in there.

 

Took some pics today of her just about finished. Going to add some 10.5" shocks one of these days and bead blast the engine covers.

 

Go to my gallery and check out my 700's treatments.

Dave Fox

 

That is exceptional looking. What makes me mad is how casually you describe all that work and mods. Here I am crying over a bad float needle and having to replace the handgrips

Kentucky plates. Last pics were KS. What part of KY? UK or UL?

I lived half my life in central and Looavul. Haven't been back in years though.

 

did you make that seat? if so how?

 

Hey hash, read back on page 2. He has an expl. on it. It's just the original seat cut and re-up'd.

Looks really pro, huh? Makes me want to do more to mine.

 

I'm about 40 miles NE of loo uh vull up in God's country. Been here a year now, I like it.

 

Let me guess, Florence? I remember the water tower that said "Florence Y'all" b/c the Florence Mall was not allowed to advertise on gov't property.

Always did that trek to hit Kings Island in Cinn. Love coasters, hence the joy of motorcycles.

 

I don't know if this will get an answer on this old of a thread, but i was wondering exactly how you mounted that cat-eye taillight to the fender? I have done a similar setup with the same light, but i would have to drill through the light housing in order to make any holes for a bolt to thread through. Is that how you did, or is there an easier way?

Thanks in advance (and it is a nice looking bike, super clean!)

 

I figured out a way to mount it on mine, but thanks for the idea of that cateye!

 

So clean! The rear fender braces seal the deal. I've never looked or seen any XJ's lowered in the rear, but, if you're into it, you could put shorter length shocks to close the rear gap up. You will unfortunately degrade the engineered suspension geometry, but, because mods.

 

yea i followed suite from Dave and ran Virago shocks that are 1.25" shorter so mine is already lowered.

 

That real wheel looks tits.

 

lol thanks, its just what came on mine. I don't know why there are different wheels dependent on which year of the XJ700 you have...

 

Did you run this light on your bike? becuase i cannot figure out how to wire it correctly now that its on...