Venduro DT360 build

wfo speedracer

Been Around the Block
So after 6 months of searching on Craigslist I run across this ad for a Virago, I call the guy up , no answer, I figure it is already gone, a few days later I decide to call again, he left his name in the ad so I left a message, called his name and left my name and number.

A few hours later he calls back, he still has the bike which I am thinking is a 750, the ad did not say, the ad stated $350.00 in one place and $300.00 somewhere else in the ad, so I asked is it $300.00 or $350.00, no he says it's a 920 lol.

Ok time to restate the question, whats your bottom dollar I asked, he says I need it out of the garage, bring me $250.00 cash and it's yours, I say I will be there to pick it up tonight.

I don't have a pic , I will post one up later today but I am doing a build similar to Doc Chops 920 build seen in the pic below. The reason for this is I grew up on dual purpose bikes and I owned a 1974 Yamaha DT 360.



A couple of differences in my build, I won't be using a Benelli tank, It is a good looking tank but I feeel it's been way overdone at this point So I will be using a stock 750 tank which is similar in shape and size to a DT360 tank, a original DT rear fender, headlight mounts and bucket, footpegs, taillight, turn signals , replica seat and handlebars.

Those are some of the items I did not like about Gregs build, I still think the above bike is amazing but it's Gregs design, this one is mine and I want it like I want it. I want a seat you can actually sit on and the bike to be stockish looking like Yamaha could have actually built it if they wanted to.

I will stay with the stock mag rims right now due to the complexity and expense of changing over to spoke rims on the first gen Viragos. I have dual discs on my bike since it is an 82 model, I will be keeping those

Ebay parts should be arriving shortly and I will get this thing up and running , this bike is basically a rolling chassis with a good engine, in a way that's good as I won't be throwing a lot of stuff away and I didn't pay for a lot of crap that I ill not be using , I will be buying a lot of parts such as a complete ignition system, wiring harness, front brake master cylinder, handlebars and mounts, left footpeg, seat, right switch housing, fenders , tires ,etc.

This gives me the opportunity to upgrade the bike with new parts and not be stuck with 25 year old parts, I see that as a good thing.
 
Re: Virago DT360 build

Awesome! Sign me up! Though this may be a better thread for the Trackers section.
 
Re: Virago DT360 build

great idea !! good luck with the build !
i agree about the seat the brat seat looks stupid,as always, a close replica of a dt seat is the way to go
 
Re: Virago DT360 build

I really didn't know what section to put it in, I looked at a few builds in this section and it seemed to fit here best.
 
Re: Virago DT360 build

Considering I kept the last bike from 1983 to last year this bike has probably found its permanent home for a while lol.
 
Re: Virago DT360 build

Ok I am a day late with the pics, my suggestion...............



Anyway here are the pics and yeah I know the subframe is bent and someone put a chain drive rear wheel on it , the taillight is the original taillight of of my 1974 DT360, how cool is that !



 
Re: Virago DT360 build

No real progress to speak of other than spending a shitload of money on missing parts,lol.
I got the headlight brackets which have to be modded, a headlight bucket and a left footpeg in this week, I have a gas tank, rear brake pedal and handlebar holders on the way, thanks Ebay !
 
Re: Virago DT360 build

Tank is in along with the left footpeg, rear brake pedal and the handlebar risers, at least I now have bars and can move the bike around, headlight ears and bucket are mounted, I am waiting on the seat to get here so I can start on the rear subframe. I will post some pics up Thursday the bike is at my ATV shop and I work at the watercraft shop on Wednesdays.
 
Re: Virago DT360 build

and a few more., I made a new tank mount and raised the rear of the tank up some, bottom rail was cut off the footpeg brackets for a cleaner look, headlight ears modded and bucket mounted , handlebars mounted up so I can move it around



 
Re: Virago DT360 build

Interested in your thoughts on the "foot-peg mounts". Some leave them and use the rear mount for rear-sets. You seem to have trimmed the bottom of and are you planning on using the rear mount for your pegs or are you gong to keep the pegs forward? One of the things I did not llike about Doc's Virago was that it seemed odd to have rear-sets and knobby tires. I love the look, as usual he has a great eye for aesthetics, but as a practical matter where should the pegs and therefore riders weight be on a dirt bike?
 
Re: Virago DT360 build

Pretty sure the footpegs are staying where they are on this one note the location in the photo of the DT below
 

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Re: Virduro DT360 build

A few updates , I made a set of spacers for the bar risers out of a couple of spare air hose couplers, perfect fit !





Mounted the new handlebars, they are Fly racing vintage bars



Drilled the left footpeg mount, right one is next, these are a pitfa , I also remounted the rear shock control.



Test fitted the seat, I modified the front of the pan and rear of the tank , I am working on a new subframe now, the seat will probably be shaved down and recovered to look more like a DT seat at a later date.

 
I got a few parts in from Bungking.com. , counterbored bungs, frame tabs and tabs for the subframe, these guys have some very nice quality stuff , yeah I could have had them made but for the price and the quality these guys can't be beat !





And here is where I ran into a roadblock, I don't have the correct rear rim for this bike, or the rear fender, fender should be here in the next few days but I must have the wheel to properly align the subframe prior to welding the tabs on the frame. looks like more Ebay shopping for me, yeah !



Rusty is closely inspecting my work, nothing gets by that dog, I mean nothing !



I will say this building a seat to fit a subframe is a lot easier than building a subframe to fit a seat, this is a PITFA !@^%$@#
 


Rear fender is in which kinda gives you an idea of what I am going after, alas the fender isn't wide enough so I ordered another one , man its time to Rebay some of these parts I have been collecting lol.
 
Time to update this b!tch!

Got a wiring harness in and started modding it to remove all the crap, the pic below shows what was removed.


here is the harness after the diet plan and before it gets wrapped, I will install it on the bike and make sure everything works before wrapping it up.I used zip ties on the harness to hold it together, this made it easy to add or remove wires as needed. I soldered most of the factory splices and redid any splices that I had to cut open, they are crimped , soldered, heat shrunk and wrapped with tape. The eyelet connectors for the fusebox are crimped then soldered as well.


I did add some relay wiring back to the harness, I wired up a neutral safety switch so it cannot be started in gear.



Wired in a plug for the Seadoo starter relay I am using.



My new Blue seas fuse box, I had to reroute the brown wire to the fusebox as it feeds all the circuits from the main switch, the ignition is being changed to a two post , two position switch and I am using a set of Chinese hbar switches, these have a headlight cutoff integrated into them.


fuse box all wired up, I ran a wire from the fuse box to the new starter circuit relay, it will ground through the neutral switch to complete the circuit.



A pic of my electrical tool kit.

 
I have no affiliation with these guys but here is where most of the terminals and all the molded nylon blocks came from, most of the terminals are small pin with a few ring terminals and ring connectors thrown in, personally I thought it was a good deal.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/361017798850?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I also have the single fire Harley coil for this build.



And I am patiently waiting on these two handlebar switches to arrive, I think they are on a slow boat from , wait for it ,wait for it, China !





On the same boat are these which I plan to use as front and rear turn signals, I have a set already which I unsucessfully tried to mod, the quality is not that good so I plan to pot the LEDs in epoxy and glue the lenses to the backs with silicone or some other glue, the first set I got a little carried away with the epoxy, as they come the lens is stuck on with double sided adhesive tape, not too good as Delbert would say !

 
I moved the footpegs to holes drilled in the rear brackets, these are TR1 footpegs I believe, I will probably be replacing the actual footpegs with genuine DT rubbers at a later date, moving this this made the rear brake lever way too long so I cut it and welded it back together, it will also necessitate a linkage for the shifter, I believe I have that under control as well.





Yeah. yeah I know the hole spacing sucks, I will probably replace that piece and redrill the holes by hand this time, I tried to do it on a drill press, didn't turn out so well, so sue me lol

I am also thinking bolts alone may not be enough to hold that footpeg in place, I may have to weld an aluminum strip under it to hold the peg, the bright side is I could weld it through the hole from the backside and it would be fairly clean looking .
 
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