PancakeShake
Been Around the Block
So here is my second solo project.
I bought this ’80 Yamaha XS 400sg as a bobber project. Had a handful of parts but still a good amount was missing. Along with the missing parts, it had a homemade wiring harness that was barely half way complete. I was able to pick it up for $300 so I looked through the mess and saw a sweet café bike…somehow.
Brought the bike home and did the typical breakdown. Stripped it down to the frame, cleaned up some of the parts, took a look at all of the “iffy” looking welds and parts.
After the breakdown I made a hand sketch of what I kinda wanted the bike to look like, pinned that to my bench and went at it.
First I decided to get the frame on its feet and get it to a place I liked. Made a quick model in CAD and using some basic dimensions from the frame I was able to get some lines I liked in places they would fit. Then I headed to Ace, got some tubing and got started. I have a small 200amp TIG welder at home I use for bike frames, and was able to get the messy welds cleaned up nice, and get my new frame pieces in place. After about 2 days I got the frame to a place that I liked, but the stupid shock mounts took me a solid week to get finished. Once the shock tabs were cut, welded, and mounted I built up the bike and felt the geometry. Felt great, but the moment on the rear swing arm was too great for the dinky coils, so I upgraded them to some beefy coils from McMaster.
After the frame was in a good place I whipped up a seat pan. Same deal, made it in CAD, converted to sheet metal, printed it out, traced, cut, welded. IMO, it came out great. Fit nicely and looked just how I wanted it to.
After I had the seat done I moved onto making some foot pegs for the bike, as well as a pair of flat “fighter” bars for it.
Next was paint.
I have always loved the red frames on Monsters so I decided to go for it. I don’t know about you…but I love it. I think it’s perfect having the frame be the accent while keeping everything else sleek and black.
After the paint was done, I headed down to Coopers to pick up an exhaust and a headlight. Found a MINT 2-to-1 exhaust for the bike and it looks and sounds great. Headlight was from an older GS and bolted right on to the fork tubes I got there as well.
Now that most of the parts were there it was time to conquer the beast…electrical.
Started from scratch. Took a wiring diagram in one hand, beer in the other, and went for it. Took a full afternoon’s work, but I got it to a point where I felt comfortable putting 12v to it. Hooked it up…and it wasn’t quite right. One plug was always ON. Made one quick post on the forum, and realized you CANT use a battery charger IN place of a battery. Its AC I guess, never knew. So I hooked up a battery and whaaa laaa! “Crank, crank…put put put!” Started right up.
Pretty pumped at this point. I started the boring finishing work. Made a clutch cable, made a new throttle cable, made a new LED blinker / tail light piece, wired in the headlight and started cleaning things up along the way.
However, someone made me an offer I couldn’t refuse so I sold it
I think it came out pretty nice for my second project. Lemme know what you think.
I bought this ’80 Yamaha XS 400sg as a bobber project. Had a handful of parts but still a good amount was missing. Along with the missing parts, it had a homemade wiring harness that was barely half way complete. I was able to pick it up for $300 so I looked through the mess and saw a sweet café bike…somehow.
Brought the bike home and did the typical breakdown. Stripped it down to the frame, cleaned up some of the parts, took a look at all of the “iffy” looking welds and parts.
After the breakdown I made a hand sketch of what I kinda wanted the bike to look like, pinned that to my bench and went at it.
First I decided to get the frame on its feet and get it to a place I liked. Made a quick model in CAD and using some basic dimensions from the frame I was able to get some lines I liked in places they would fit. Then I headed to Ace, got some tubing and got started. I have a small 200amp TIG welder at home I use for bike frames, and was able to get the messy welds cleaned up nice, and get my new frame pieces in place. After about 2 days I got the frame to a place that I liked, but the stupid shock mounts took me a solid week to get finished. Once the shock tabs were cut, welded, and mounted I built up the bike and felt the geometry. Felt great, but the moment on the rear swing arm was too great for the dinky coils, so I upgraded them to some beefy coils from McMaster.
After the frame was in a good place I whipped up a seat pan. Same deal, made it in CAD, converted to sheet metal, printed it out, traced, cut, welded. IMO, it came out great. Fit nicely and looked just how I wanted it to.
After I had the seat done I moved onto making some foot pegs for the bike, as well as a pair of flat “fighter” bars for it.
Next was paint.
I have always loved the red frames on Monsters so I decided to go for it. I don’t know about you…but I love it. I think it’s perfect having the frame be the accent while keeping everything else sleek and black.
After the paint was done, I headed down to Coopers to pick up an exhaust and a headlight. Found a MINT 2-to-1 exhaust for the bike and it looks and sounds great. Headlight was from an older GS and bolted right on to the fork tubes I got there as well.
Now that most of the parts were there it was time to conquer the beast…electrical.
Started from scratch. Took a wiring diagram in one hand, beer in the other, and went for it. Took a full afternoon’s work, but I got it to a point where I felt comfortable putting 12v to it. Hooked it up…and it wasn’t quite right. One plug was always ON. Made one quick post on the forum, and realized you CANT use a battery charger IN place of a battery. Its AC I guess, never knew. So I hooked up a battery and whaaa laaa! “Crank, crank…put put put!” Started right up.
Pretty pumped at this point. I started the boring finishing work. Made a clutch cable, made a new throttle cable, made a new LED blinker / tail light piece, wired in the headlight and started cleaning things up along the way.
However, someone made me an offer I couldn’t refuse so I sold it
I think it came out pretty nice for my second project. Lemme know what you think.