XJ550 street fighter Project, "pic heavy"... Finally DONE!!!

Re: XJ550 Project bike, "pic heavy" Updated Jan 21/07

I've been wondering something. How'd you make this front fender? I've been thinking of doing something like this for a custom job I'm brewing in my head. Kind of reminds me of the neck armor a war horse might wear, or maybe the overlapping pieces of shoulder armor (pauldron).

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

just cut the stock fender in pieces over lapped them and welded it all back together, little bit of filler and...

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

Thanks!

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

lol

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

well I was so close to being finished, but I had a slight set back...

finished most of the maxim saturday so I decided to take it out for a test run, had a problem with the idle, work fine for a bit then would take off to 7g -8g, rode it around and it seemed to get better... so I got my wife to take a picture, she got the pic alright :roll: , gave the bike a bit of gas and up she went, went about 10-15ft and she threw me...

before



during... you can see sparks from the frame under my feet, she can wheelie pretty good :roll: :lol:



and after



right wrist is fractured, dislocated my left shoulder, left collar bone popped out and rotated, tore muscles in left shoulder and neck, bruised a couple of ribs, 6.5hrs in emerg, going to need a few weeks to heal... bike on the other hand has a few scratches on the crash bar, very small dent in the tank and the rear peg is bent ( I was replacing it anyway)... guess I built it strong :roll: :lol:

once I get it fixed and finished, and I'm healed :roll: , i'll post up the rest of the pics and the finished product... felt good to ride it though, evev if it was only for a few seconds :wink: ...

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

Ouch brother,

Heal quick, and stay strong. Could have always been worse I guess.

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

WHOA!!

Well At least you have the pic... Your wife must've **** a brick watching you go over like that!

Get well man, still lots of riding left.


... I like how you're using the pic as your avatar now ...

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

at least I got one good thing out of the whole incident :roll: :lol: :lol:

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

Take care and heal up, man... That bronc will be ready for tamin' when you're 100%. It's looking sweet !

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

Dam! Looks good! Get better soon to fix that idle!

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

I dunno, that looks like it's going to take a lot of beer to heal up right
Here's to a quick mend..... and ya,,, fix that idle....!!!

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

don't know about the beer, but I can see some newf screech in the future :lol: :lol: ... carbs are coming off next chance I get

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

I am very bored looking at my cast so heres a little update...

carbon fiber on tank



silver base on... went with two round lights instead


blue candy with copper pearl over silver base (theres also a carbon fiber pattern in the paint)





wiring up tail and running wires for signals


this is about the only damage I done when I crashed the bike on the test run...


new front master that I ordered a weeks ago but showed up today, too bad I can't mount it and test it out :roll:




there's still more to do to finish, mostly touch up stuff like paint the rims, FIX THE CARBS!, fix the "mishaps", mount new rear pegs and strengthen mounts... will update when I heal up and get back at it (since I found out today that I've been walking around all week with a broken collar bone, thanks to the emerg doc that somehow over looked it on the eight x-ray's he done 8O )... :roll: :lol:

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

is your carbon paint the old mesh laundry bag or fishnet stockings trick?

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

the tail and top of the tank is real carbon fiber, the design in the paint everywhere else is done with the "old mesh laundry bag trick" :wink:

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

Very nice, looking rather Buellish

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

so I have been told... and that's not a bad thing :lol:... also been told it looks sorta similar to a triumph triple...

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

I like the Buell look myself

The more you do to that thing, the more tempting the one FS over here with the bum starter is looking ...

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

haha!... go get it... if I could find another one here for cheap, i'd have it... do something completely different custom chopper next time, if there is a next time

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

hehe, I would if it was in the budget..... maybe if he drops the price in the fall

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

Sorry to hear about your misshap. That bike is looking awsome!
Giving me some great ideas!

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

thanks man... turns out my collar bone was broken so I got another 6-8 weeks of healing to do... can't do much but I am managing to do some small stuff, like mount the new master, mount the new signals, paint my rims...whatever I can do with my best arm, and thats the one in the cast :roll: :lol:

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

well busted up or not I had to keep my sanity so I kept on at the bike, worked through the pain and finally got it finished, well just about, only thing left to do is design and make a small crash cage (a little better than than the stock bars), and install a new butterfly valve in carb #4 when I get it (compliments of chacal )...bike is running pretty good now after the carb bench sync and clean but I noticed a small indentation in the bottom edge of the #4 butterfly which could account for the slight hesitation and slow idle down the bike has, thought it was better to replace it.

so heres some final pics:

idle screw extension:


was going to paint the rims white, but I would never keep them clean so out came the copper and silver paint, then went on the new rubber (went with the stock 130 rear but put on a 110 front, bike had a 100 on it:



decided to do some silver on the blue to brake up all the blue, there was too much blue for my liking:



And Finally After such a long time of picking at this...It's done! (it just stopped raining so I hauled it outside for a few pics, will get some better ones when I get the cage built, better scenery and a better day! ):mrgreen:




I would like to say that this site and the members with the vast knowledge and opinions were, and are an asset, inspiration and life savior in some cases... Don't think I would have been able to do all of this project by myself if it wasn't for that lovely search button on the top, it saved me alot of money and time :lol: , and thanks to chacal for the few parts I needed that the dealer said was "no longer available :roll: )

THANK YOU ALL! :wink:

I've had this bike for 14 years and don't plan on getting rid of it anytime soon... and you never know If I get sick of this Look a few years down the road I may turn it into something else, But either way, it will always be an XJ
:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

Wow !!! Now that is impressive. Congrats Man... looks awesome !

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

Looks great man!

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project bike, "pic heavy"

Great work man!! Really nice build. I love your tank awesome.

 

*Applauds* Very nice.....
That's got to be satisfying having her done..

 

Those are some eye-popping colors! Looks great, man!!

Dean

 

Cool Beans!

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project, "pic heavy"... Finally DON

The bike looks good man.. Do ur thing man!

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project, "pic heavy"... Finally DON

THANKS everyone, a lot of time and thought (and mind changes :roll: ) went into it, now I got to find something else to do on those raining and winter days :roll: :lol:

 

Dude... seriously. You should be very proud of yourself. And just think. You'll never have to hear "oh yeah, I got one of those too"

 

Very very cool! great job

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project, "pic heavy"... Finally DON

Time for the dumb question.
Why doesn't rain water drain into the gas tank?
It looks like the gas cap is sitting in a depression.

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project, "pic heavy"... Finally DON

not really a dumb question, it's something I had to consider...

the gas cap 'is' sitting in the depression, but is on enough of an angle not to enter the fill hole, plus the tank is a GSXR tank graphed on the stock maxim tank so theres a hollow between the two and theres a small drain hole by the bottom of the gas cap, any water build up just drains down between the the two tanks and out under the seat to the ground...

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project, "pic heavy"... Finally DON

just a couple of pics with the cage on...

 

Wow! The cage looks great with the rims!! Awesome looking bike, Dude!

Dean

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project, "pic heavy"... Finally DON

Man that is awesome. nice work. 8)

 

What the...?
I thought I responded to this... Guess it got deleted??

Anyway bro, awesome. Love the cage.
The whole bike came out wicked.

Hope I get a chance to see it on the road this season!

 

do you have the r6 pipe on one side and nothing on the other?

 

Re: XJ550 street fighter Project, "pic heavy"... Finally DON

yes, R6 pipe is on the right and I blocked off the end of the crossover on the left, my crossover is just a hollow box with 4 pipes in and 2 out so it was easy

 

so you essentially made yourself a 4 into one system?

 

yeah, but should be better once I make a 4 into 1 collector to replace the crossover this winter coming

 

do you have any videos? i would love to hear how it sounds i dont know what im going to do for exhaust yet. im thinkin that i might get some harley sportster pipes my buddy did that on his gl500 it sounds pretty mean

and did you actually raise your tail end with shocks or did you just do the frame fabbing?

 

try and get a vid later today... as for raising the tail, I did both, made a new mount for the shock on the swingarm that gave a 1" lift and I fabbed up the rear frame
the lower bolt is where the shock use to mount, upper holes is where it mounts now:



here you can see where I pie cut the frame, bent it up and welded it back together, then I welded on the new frame rails

 

thats awesome i wish i knew how to weld... but the good news is i have access to a welder at work so i should just start practicing on junk parts lol (i work at an auto shop)

 

that's all it should take, a few days fooling around trying to spell your name on a piece of metal with a welder and you'd be surprised what you can learn...

 

do you paint with a gun or rattle can it? cause all of your paint looks awesome

 

copper was done with a can, the rest was done with a HVLP gun...

 

even the rims?