Greetings from Indy!

Hello gents. Thought I had a username on here, but I guess not. Name is Brandon. "Restoring my my 1981 XJ650 from a shotty bobber to a cafe. It's made quite a transformation so far but it has a long way to go. New stainless megaphones and a Ducati half fairing, rebuilt shocks are my next purchases as well as custom 4-2-2 exhaust built by myself utilizing relatively the same design as the stock header. Updates as I go! Frame was modified to use rd400 tank. Seat was made from cold roll 22 gauge. Rear sets were made by me(aside from the Busa lever), NTC shocks, cbr600 tail light, battle ship gray spray bomb until mockup is complete etc etc etc

Pics!



Lots of grinding but I couldn't stand the rust for the time being... Even if I'm building my own set...



New tires



This was HARD! Even with 220 mig(I had to deal with .035 wire)!

 

Relocated shocks...


Under-Tail section...




Version 1.0 done.




Version 2.0 begins....



Mockup... Stock lever is now smaller to shorten throw..

I tried to get the brake lever as close as possible, in design, as the Busa lever..




Done.

Mockup

Picked up a set of gauges for 30 bucks! New tach cable and speedo cable as well.




More to come as progress is made... I've had the bike for a year and there maybe 80 solid hours in it so far. Cheers.

Brandon

 

Welcome to XJ Bikes, amigo. Nice work, you are obviously very talented. This is a great site to learn stuff about your XJ. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful members here. If you need parts, go to XJ 4ever here & Chacal will have what you need. Great pics BTW.

 

Excellent Bike man

 

Like it -- nice job

 

Thanks guys, much appreciated. Buying a new lincoln welder today!

 

How about painting that motor black?

 

Nice work. Looks like you are very handy around a shop.

 

The motor is last on my list. When I got it, the bike ran but poorly due to exhaust leaks, power drain, cracked intake manifolds, worn out carbs, and a used up filter. I replaced the intake manifolds(thanks to xj4ever), put in a new filter, buttoned up the electrical problem, and had the carbs acid dipped. Had the carbs re-synced and she fired right up with 1 up on the pilots and mains. I'm still fighting an idle issue which I cannot pinpoint but she has STRONG compression after performing a leak down test. No vacuum leaks that I can find but I'm considering a smoke test to verify. She can't hold idle at all. Dies after 10-15 seconds once the motor is warmed up... Even sooner if its cold. Once all the cosmetic work is done is mocked up, the frame will be completely stripped and I will remove any brackets not needed(such as the center stand). When at this stage, I'll paint the motor and polish the fin tips on the jugs.

 

Progress has been made. I've ordered some mild steel piping to redo my exhaust collector from scratch. The biggest thing is I bought a refurbished welder for $100 less than list price. Eventually I will convert to .023 and 75/25 with it but for now I will deal with .030 flux. Main thing is I'm no longer dependent on friends for welding assistance. Next tool purchase will be an English wheel.
..... I've been exploring options via pshop for aesthetic purposes.... Lower half fairing... Or maybe a Ducati twin replica fairing from Glass From The Past and hand made chin scoop.... I love the Ducati fairing but im undecided. Also I messed up the gauges trying to repaint them. It was a disaster and I had to strip a section. I'm considering making custom gauge faces from scratch. Has anyone tried restoring their gauge faces? What kind of paint did you use?

 

IMHO NICE before and NICE after!!! NICE work on that seat and rear sets!!!

skillet

 

nicely done e30

i like the slight bend in the tank to seat transition- I know lots of guys will lift the rear of the tank to straighten the lines out, but in this case the effect is unique and sporty looking.

 

Thank you! I actually did contemplate running it that way during mockup, but I didn't feel the work was worth it. The entire backbone would have to be cut out and re welded. I was nervous of the neck becoming too offset to one side or the other. It did look pretty good that way tho...

 

Revisited the wiring harness. I wanted to relocate the ignitor and rectifier underneath the seat. Mission was a success.




Also, the mandrel bends arrived today so let the exhaust building commence!!

 

Wow. That's beautiful.

 

I think that if you shorten the shifter arm to about half the length you will notice a shorter more positive shift, Also if you think of the shifter shaft a a clock, then having the shifter arm at exactly 6 o'clock will help too.
So this needs to be shortened to look like what you normally see on a bike: (that is in the optimal position I mentioned above)

Something about this length, also, note the position. Plus these are one size fits all and will tidy up the look

Having your shifter set up like this will lead to possible missed shifts, I figured that out during my racing days:

 

Good lord that it is nice!

 

I did shorten it. As far as missed shifts, The stock lever runs out of travel before the Busa does. The angle looks more dramatic in the picture than in real life. Its fine but thanks for your advice. I may clock it upward at 12 o'clock down the road.

 

These new pipes makes the old "new" pipes looks so outdated. Can't wait to mount them!!!! Btw the old pipes are for sale. Used for one season. $65shipped anywhere in the 48 states. Shoot me a message if interested.

 

One cylinder done

 

Do you want the GP shift pattern or is it something you want to try?

 

Never wanted the GP shift pattern. That's why I went through the trouble of making a shift linkage to utilize the stock shift pattern.

 

The reason I mentioned the GP shift is in the picture below it looks like if you were to press down on the foot shifter the gear selector would put you into 2nd gear, so to get it into 1st you would have to lift the lever.

 

Oh, haha. Sorry, it's just like that bc I needed extra room for mockup on the exhaust. It'll go back to the bottom when I'm done.

 

Went helmet shopping yesterday evening. I settled with an icon alliance. Wanted the AGV dual sport AX-8 but it was just out of my price range(by $120, lol). My buddy got the icon variant. ----Jealous.

 

Wicked graphics, me likey!

 

Took the whole weekend but one side is completely done. Muffler needs a coupling and I need more wrap for the other side...

 

New grips and throttle perch arrived. Nissin brake, external reservoir, cb750 clutch lever and perch should be here thursday or Friday. Clutch lever is being powdercoated satin black to match brake lever.

 

Clutch lever and nissin brake will be here tomorrow. I guess there was a f*** up in the powder coating process so it took a couple extra days to ship. In other new the wiring is done. Also, my welds are not amazing with flux core but running tack welds all the way brought good results. After that I ground down the welds and spatter to keep the heat wrap from getting snagged. The right side is done and waiting to be wrapped. In the meantime I had a secret project to do a rising sun with the rays wrapping across the tank(and possibly the seat). I used Honda Red to lay down the gloss coat and am waiting for it to dry. After that I will cut out the outline and spray the battleship gray back over the negative fill areas. I will also be paint-matching the wheels in red bring the paint scheme together.
-Brandon

 

Still needs wet sanding but paint is almost done. I'm diggin it but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.