83 SECA 650 Cafe Project

Quick Recap:

Before:




Clubmans:


Seat:


Frame Cut:


Primer:


Black:




I got the bike put back together today.

Here are some pics of the take-it-or-leave-it paintjob.

1-UP seat:

2-UP seat:

Front / Side view:


I love it personally... I got 2 of the cafe racer decals from Carpy (side panels) the Rockers decal straight from the Ace Cafe in London (back of the 2-up seat) and the emblems on the tank I had cut out of vinyl (as well as the checker stripes).

 

Very nice, I love the paint. And the 1 up seat.

 

This get's my vote for the best XJ ever! I love it! The seca tank works very very well for the cafe look. I like the first seat, but it doesnt look too comfy

 

looking sweet, great job...when I get my bike done we got to meet for a compare!

Jason

 

Very nice creation!! Now Ride like the wind my friend!!

 

Wow, what a compliment!!

Not too comfy at all, hah. I havent gotten around to fastening the upholstry to the 1-up seat.
I'm gonna call the guy that did the leather to come install it to the seat so I don't mess it up.

Here's a pic of the upholstry just laid onto the seat, It sits lower / more smooth when it's on there tight:

Yeah for sure. I'm looking forward to seeing how your fighter turns out.
I'll be taking my bike up signal hill for a few pics once exams are over at MUN.
You're more than welcome to come along for the photo-op, 2 modified XJ's done on opposite sides of the spectrum!

 

sounds like a plan, pics should be one for the books :lol:

 

Nice work Ease... Looks great

 

Paint job is unique for sure. Gives it that British look kinda.

 

Take a nice picture of it next to Cabot Tower or near the cannons if you can. It will give it a nice authentic Limey touch. Or Maybe Ches's Fish and Chips? Very nice job. Carpy at www.cb750cafe.com would be proud. You should shoot him a picture of it! I love seeing all the great old bikes of the 80's still on the road when I get home for a visit.

 

I'll def be taking a pic next to the tower. I'd like to try and get down to the huge cannons at cape spear.

I want to get a good pic of her on the George Street cobblestones too.

I was clearly inspired by Carpy's bikes (Specifically the CB750 Road Rocket), good eye pickin up on that.

You from St. John's? That would make it at least 3 of us Newfoundlanders here.

P.S. I'm Definately takin a pic next to Ches'.

 

Awsome bike ease. I think you have inspired me to mod mine like that. It reminds me of the Triumph Thruxtons. http://www.triumph.co.uk/usa/4553.aspx
Very Sharp.

 

Very Kewl looking ride! Very Simple yet unique. Now get out there and show her off, that is her destiny!

 

Another keen eye. That's the look I was going for with the stripes.
Be careful if you're laying checkers out of vinyl like I did. It's a little tricky to lay em out on a curved surface. You definately want a squeegee, and you can't use water like normal vinyls cause the checkers will seperate.

 

Well you did a great job on those decals. The checkered stripe really came out great. Did you clear over them?

If you get those shots on your trip, I would love to see a strait on profile of the bike.

 

Thanks!

Yep, I shot 2 coats of clear over the black, then waited for it to dry, wet sanded it, applied all the vinyls and decals and shot another 4 coats of clear on top of that (that should allow for enough buildup to wet sand everything level if I feel the need).

And don't you worry, I'll be getting 360 deg around the bike at all locations (including Ches' [bonus points if I get em to let me inside]).

 

I know the owners :lol:

 

Yeah, I was born in Corner Brook, moved to Mt. Pearl when I was 5 and lived there until I was 24. Moved to Alberta in 92, lived in Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary, then moved to Ottawa, where I have been since '02. With my usual excellent sense of timing, I left Alberta just before the economy there went ballistic... :roll:

 

Right on.
Corner brook hey? That would make you one of the few people that understood my signature on my other forum's (it's "Hey By'").

I'm from Mt. Pearl... and still live here.

If you're commin home for a visit feel free to pm me if you want to see the bike or whatever.

Me you and low-1-5-0 can head out to ches's for some free food (You DID say you know the owners, Right Jason??). 8)

HEY BY'

 

Got the Upholstry attached today, and had the inaugural run tonight at 12:30.
The new pipe is louder, but according to my father (Who is on vacation and therefore is slightly inebriated, :wink: ) it sounds good... And Luckily my a*shole neighbor didn't come over and threaten to give me a fine this time (as in, what he did the first the day he moved in)... I mean I respect cops... but this guy is just mean... Anyway, I digress...



Needless to say, I'll be ready for my tour of the Avalon Peninsula with a camera in towe... Bike runs nice - maybe even better after a good carb sync...

Don't know if you can pick out anything in this pic... My monitor is extremely dark... All I can see is the headlight. But here it is, first ride of the year:

 

Ease
You may have answered this in another post but where did you get the 1-Up seat? Did you make that or is there an aftermarket seat I can find? Great upholstry work.

 

To make the 1-up seat, I first ordered a stock seatpan from e-bay, and then a fiberglass shell.
Had to cut the back off of the seat pan in order to get the hump to sit right, and also had to cut the inside of the cafe hump around the fender-shaped portion of the seatpan.
I fastened the hump to the seat pan, and used fiberglass to fill in the voids on either side and smoothed it out... Then it was just a matter of putty and bond to get it all looking good.
I have a thread on another forum that has a little more detail and some pics:
Seat For My Seca on dotheton.com

 

You must have one of the few cops that did not/does not ride as a neighbor. Usually, we cut the bikers a lot of slack. I for appreciate a nice exhaust tone, the WRX would set off car alarms...

Getting back on topic, it looks like the project turned out well.

 

That's awesome! Slick paint and graphics! It sure has a certain "look" to it that is just cool.

 

Yeah I know, he just happens to be a jerk. I only mentioned he was a cop because he threatened to use his "pull" to get my bike off the street. No offense meant to any other guys on the board.
He just happens to be up his own ass.

Yeah, the bike turned out pretty much exactly how I had envisioned it. I'd like to strip it all down and clean up the frame, maybe add pod filters and such. But not this year.

 

Beautiful, its absolutely amazing. very British, and thats why I like it

 

None taken. Some people can't leave work at the office. :roll:

 

Allright, So I'm a picture whore...
My buddy (a Harley mechanic) recently moved to London, England. He was supposed to be helping me along with my seca but left before I got my feet wet.

He wrote me today looking for some pictures of the project, so I took these in the driveway at about 4:00 today (Apr 15):





I have as many hours into the headlight bucket as I do in the gas tank.. that thing was a mess.

 

is the cafe racer a euro type bike, cause it looks it.

 

You could say that.
Basically it comes from London, a place called the ace cafe.

Check out ace-cafe-london.com. There's some history and what not there.

In case you dont want to bother going there... a cafe racer is a stripped down standard street bike in racing trim. There were a group of guys who used to take their old Triumphs and Nortons and mix and match parts/frames/motors (I.E the invention of the Triton, a Triumph Motor in a Norton Featherbed frame).
The goal was to get these bikes to do the TON (100Mph).

Here's another Link, the site above is difficult to navigate - this is a direct link: Cafe Racers

 

Ease
Bl**dy good job ,rearsets would finish it off
then job done, have a look at www.discovolantemoto.co.uk they might have some u like

 

Thanks Ferret!

I'd like to have rearsets on there - but I have 2 problems:

1. The budget just isn't there for fully manufactured rearsets such as the ones on the website you posted. If/When I do add rearsets (unless I feel I can spare the loot) they're most likely going to be adapted from some junkyard pegs from a sportbike.

2. This bike is convertable from a 1-up to a 2-up seat. So I have to engineer some way to have rearset pegs for myself and the passenger (that has to be easier than removing everything and bolting back on the stock pegs).

While this is something I am planning on looking into in the near future, the seating position is actually quite comfortable right now with the stock pegs - and will probably do for this riding season.

 

Got the bike back from the mechanic today... and she's runnin like a top.

I'd still be out on her now if only it was a little warmer (just about froze my fingers off on the way home).

Still waiting on the flasher for the mini indicators and a couple of LED bulbs for the taillights (should be here friday :?.

Feels good not to have to worry about gas... Summer is so much cheaper than winter. Great to be riding again.

 

Went out for a spin today (May 12) with my buddy Jason, and we stopped at a place called Topsail Beach just outside of St. John's.

The fog was rolling in over conception bay so I figured it'd be a cool opportunity to snap a few pics of the bikes.

My Bike and helmet:


Jason's R6:


Some Pics of both bikes:




Here you can see the Fog comming in over the bay:


P.S. I don't think we were supposed to drive up there. 8)

 

Like I said previously, I absolutely LOVE your bike. So much so that I'm thinking of a cafe project for myself. The only thing I would do diffrent is go for a smaller or lower headlight and gauges to try to keep everything even with/lower than the top of the tank. Maybe a very small shield/fairing. That's just my preference though, you did an outstanding job.

 

Awesome shots there!

Oh, and your bike is FAR nicer looking than the R6!

Beautiful!

Jim

 

Actually, I agree (all except the smaller headlight - I think the stock 8 inch headlight that came on these bikes is freakin cool 8)).

I'm planning on ordering some headlight brackets that attach to the forks and then removing all the stock hardware (the heavy ugly mess that holds the indicators as well) & mounting some tiny inticators on the headlight bucket, or somewhere similar/out of the way.

I havent looked at how to move the gauges - but the plan is to try and lower them with the headlight - If I cant lower them easy enough I'll get a small fairing, similar to the thruxtons, buells, or ducati monster.


Thanks for the comments!

 

Ease, what exhaust do you have now? I recently put a Radian 4:2 on my 650 and am waiting on a set of EMGO Dunstall knock off mufflers. Kind of want to get that vintage look. Was going to do the Kerker with the Supertrapp muffler I got of the 'bay, but the radian exhaust works well and I actually got better power with it over the Mac 4:1. cruzerjd

 

The 4-into-1 on the bike now was on it when i bought it. But I assume it's MAC... they all seem to be.
The muffler is a $40 muffler from e-bay. It sounds great IMO.
It's a little restrictive for the 4-1 but it should flow like a champ on a 4-2 (although the bike has been tuned and still goes like stink).

I would say your EMGO mufflers are probably the same. :?:

Here's the link:
Top Shelf Parts
It looks like they don't have any of the shortys like mine left. But I think they get new stock in. I suggest calling them if you want the same mufflers as me.

Hope it helps!

 

Beautiful bike Ease, well done! The pictures are just magnificent! I especially like the top one.

 

Sure is nice when someone does one right!

I like it!

Yep you can go buy a sweet R-1 or R-6 OR you can do like Ease did.... build a sweet ride yourself!!

 

Guess what I'm tring to say here is....

U can go buy a nice R-1.... for a bunch a money

or

U can build a... N-Ice 1

 

I acn't be for certain, but I don't think the 4:1 is a Mac, collector length is wrong unless you added an extension. Looks to be Kerker or Jardine maybe? Anyway, did the muffler come baffled as well? Don't want too much noise, but still retain a bit of character. Jon

 

Hmmm.. I added about 3 inches to it (it's the silver part of the pipe just before the muffler). Just a reducer.
If anyone knows what the exhaust is based on the pic I'd like to know.

The muffler is baffled, BUT it's fiberglass and it's a little raspy.
I've had a few of my buddy's screw up their face when i pull up on it - cause they think it's my friend's R6 (the one in the pics)... and he has a Yoshi Tri-Oval pipe (Joke's on him - I paid 40 bucks and he probably paid $600 :lol. It really screams in the high RPM's (but I'm sure yours does too - the bikes have a nice note to them).

I think I have a video of the sound... I'll put it on photobucket and add the link...

 

The video is completely lame - Don't judge me, :?, but it gives a 360 view of the bike and I wanted to have that for future reference (you never know what this bike will end up being before I'm done).

Should be able to hear it, but unfortunately you'll have to wait till the very end (alot of outside noise until the camera is turned away from the wind).

 

Sounds nice, right now mt Seca has a nice throaty sound, but the Radian mufflers don't look quite right as they end right by the rear pegs. Cn't wait to get the Reverse cone Dunstal knockoff mufflers and see how they sound. cruzerjd

 

Ease, I noticed on the before pics it appears that you have Vance and Hines Street sytem. Perhaps the header was Vance and Hines? Great bike and a real template for mine. Just gotta get a paint scheme going. cruzerjd

 

Four! 8)
That is one bitchin' bike. And I also love that big headlight - looks huge with the dropped bars

 

Nice to see more locals on the forum!
We've had some decent riding weather here lately, so I haven't been spending much ime on here. Plus I'm going to school in the AM and working at Teletech till 12:30.
I tend to spend all my free-time during the week riding now, and my weekends building another bike (not an XJ, though) for a buddy of mine.
...Talk about an un-related rant...

Anyway, thanks for the comments.
I love the headlight too - but I don't like how high it is on the forks. I'm planning on dropping it all down a few inches (headlight and gauges).

See you on the road.
- Ease

 

New Mods - Got rid of the old round turn signals (finally).

Here are a few pics from today (June 4th - Ignore the timestamp).