Double Aught '81 XS400

Hey all. I'm jumping into this thread when the bike is already half way done. The good news is I won't bore you with a bunch of wordy explanations. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking to get us caught up.

I love all motorcycles, but Japanese bikes are my favorite. As a hobby I find old, non running bikes then strip them down and rebuild them the way I like them. I ride them for a while and then find another one to start working on.

I'm currently working on a 1981 Yamaha XS400 Special II. I got inspiration from a lot of different places, but this build reflects a lot of what I like about the WrenchMonkees.

Here she is as I found her. She had been sitting in a garage for the past 10 years. These pics are after a good washing.





Of course the carbs and petcock were completely gummed up, but after a thorough cleaning and rebuild, the bike fired right up. The engine ran, but the wiring was a rats nest, so nothing else worked. After toying with it for days and trying to fix it, I ended up just tearing the whole harness out and starting from scratch. I rewired it pretty much bare bones.





I had a headlight that I had been wanting to use, so I made a mount for it and put it on.

I'm really not a fan of the stock bars both functionally and aesthetically, so I got some new ones. Something with a little more aggressive control.





The next thing I needed to work on was the rear end. I wanted a long, flat seat with twin taillights. I had to make some changes.





I also wanted heavier duty shocks than what came stock on the 400. I had a couple different spares laying around and decided to with a set from a Virago. They were better looking, beefier and dropped the rear end a couple inches.

Before:


After:


Here's what I came up with for the rear end

The tires were shot of course, so I needed some newER ones before I took it on the road. Fortunately for me, a friend of mine just got new tires for his Road Glide, so he gave me the old ones. Worked out great because I was looking for a wide whitewall for the rear.
I eventually want to put a 21" rim on the front with an Avon Speedmaster tire. I was able to find a skinny, ribbed, old school Yokohama that would fit my current 18" front rim. I got new tubes and put the tires on.



I made a seat pan out of fiberglass. I only had a couple layers done before the Church of Choppers / Dice Magazine Party in Des Moines. I threw some fabric on top and rode it anyway. Here's how it looked at the time

Did you figure a seat for that bike? Any updates?

Yeah, I got the seat upholstered in black. I moved out of state and left my bike and most of my stuff in a storage unit. I'm going back in a couple months to get the bike, so I'll have some updates in the spring.

Obviously I haven’t had any recent updates on this build. I took a job transfer from Iowa to Ohio at the end of 2011 and left the bike at a friend’s house thinking I’d be back in a few weeks to pick it up. Well, it ended up being a year and a half before I picked it up. I flew back to Des Moines a couple weeks ago and picked up the bike. It’s time to get back to the build.

I tried firing it up, but to no surprise it wouldn’t start. I needed to rejet the carbs anyway so I rebuilt the carbs and rejetted with a 6 Sigma jet kit.

I accumulated a few goodies during my year and a half hiatus. One of them being some Firestone Deluxe Champion tires.

I started working on rebuilding the wheels. Doing a paint and polish, then wrapping them in Firestones.

Front drum before:


Front drum after:


Front wheel before:


Front wheel after:

By the time I relaced the wheels and got the new tires on, I had completely F'ed up the paint. So, I stripped everything back down and did it all over again.



After the paint cured I put the front end back together.





Now I have to re-relace the wheels and try to get the tires on without scratching the paint.

Still have a lot to do, but I finally finished the wheels and tires. These Firestones are so huge compared to the old tires. The chain barely clears the rear tire. Looks like I will need bigger rear shocks as well.