XS400J Yamaha (Maxim 400) Cafe/Bobber?

Liuc

New Member
Good day all!

thought I share my ventures.

Every project I had all came from an impulsive purchase… this time is no different. Month after I purchased a Ducati Sportclassic 1000 monoposto rear suspension on ebay for no reason other than “wow it looked cool, and it’s so well priced!”. I found myself scratching my head trying to put that suspension to use. Between making motorcycle inspired furniture or a display piece I decided to build a café racer around that mono shock.

Month pass after many sleepless nights I settled on a XS400J (1982 maxim 400) as my base bike for the build. The decision was simple...Because no one has done it yet. Due to the the maxim and seca 400’s limited years of production and unique chassis shape, there wasn’t much aftermarket support as well as people welling to attempt a custom build café racer on the bike. However the 400cc twin made it a perfect choice for the local insurance bracket, and the power output of the DOHC is slightly more than the older SOHC models.

So I took the bike project on as a hobby, to prove myself my abilities to build a café racer unique to my own vision where no one else has attempted and to showing the world the potential of these DOHC

After finding myself a donor bike I got to work with the following parameters.
1-Color match
2-Raw and Aggressive
3-Clean
4-Madmax?
after considering the above I got to research, and finally ended up with the decision to fork swap an 2011 YZFR6 front end to match the rear shock color. And a La Rosa Design rear leather bobber seat for a Harley.

The build was simple as the vision was clear, the bike was stripped to the frame and measured and measured again and again before cutting and welding. Paint and assemble with new components was simple but electrical was an issue. The mix using R6 Hand controls and XS400 chassis harness with Acewell gauge and swapping to all LED lights was a brain teaser, many stock bike functions were let go and harness chopped and rewired. and like any custom café builds the fine line between “WOW” and “meh” is the harness management and the hiding of the battery to give it a clean look.

Needless to say between 2 jobs 7 days a week, family time and date nights with Fiancé this entire project took a little over 6 month to complete and I could not be happier with the end results.

Thanks for viewing!
 

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Welcome to DTT Liuc. The machine looks like a troublemaker. ;) Nice job.

Oh and maybe check chain adjustment.
 
trek97 said:
Welcome to DTT Liuc. The machine looks like a troublemaker. ;) Nice job.

Oh and maybe check chain adjustment.

Thanks trek!! because the Ducati shock is a 380mm and the stock is a 330mm, I am still playing around with he chain adjustments. seems ok at this moment with it having about 35mm free play when rear wheel is on ground but definitely need more test and adjusting.
 
Nice job! I have one of these and not sure what direction I want to go with.

What did you have to do to make the tree fit the frame?
 
spectra said:
Nice job! I have one of these and not sure what direction I want to go with.

What did you have to do to make the tree fit the frame?

Thanks!
they will fit with an allballs bearing kit, just measure the stem and bore of frame, but have to stack washers, so I went with Cognito Moto, they machined me a nice stem that's much shorter.
 
You make it sound like 6 months is a long time! Especially with that result, absolutely nuts.. dont you sleep at all?
 
Knocking the ugly off a Maxim takes some doing mate - your bike looks absolutely killer. Love it!
 
datadavid said:
You make it sound like 6 months is a long time! Especially with that result, absolutely nuts.. dont you sleep at all?

Hahaha! it is a long time! measure twice and cut once helps, but defiantly time to catch up on some sleep

The Jimbonaut said:
Knocking the ugly off a Maxim takes some doing mate - your bike looks absolutely killer. Love it!
Thanks!! very fun to put around town with! but the exhaust is too loud for me... I want a muffler but couldn't find one that looks half decent like the Toce... any suggestions would be great
 
Liuc said:
Thanks!
they will fit with an allballs bearing kit, just measure the stem and bore of frame, but have to stack washers, so I went with Cognito Moto, they machined me a nice stem that's much shorter.

Thanks! and all balls lists nothing for the 400s when it comes to fork swaps. I figured Cognito or machining was the only option.
 
krisscb1000c said:
Bike off the yearnice job..

Sent from my SM-N920T using DO THE TON mobile app
Thanks for the vote of confidence! hahaha

spectra said:
Thanks! and all balls lists nothing for the 400s when it comes to fork swaps. I figured Cognito or machining was the only option.

They don't, you have to measure the bore and shaft and go by that, the R6 shaft is too long and have a narrow section in the middle and the bearing will fall off... so if you want to keep the stock stem you will need to stack some serious spacer.... not recommended makes the triple look....off...
 
That is killer, mate. I just picked one up, with... a substantial amount of neglect, for $200.

I'm looking at fuel tanks and wheels right now. I've heard that you can throw in rods and pistons from a fj1100 I think it was, and bore it out to get an extra 50cc. But I have to do a WHOLE bunch of stripping first.

I think this platform is killer, and I'm probably going to be making a tracker style bike. Will start a thread on here, and will definitely be looking to the forums for support.
BEAUTIFUL, though, mate. And thanks for your service.
 
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