1979 XS750 *clever moniker goes here*

Hey all, I've been lurking here for a while. I'm a 19 year old automotive engineering tech student from Ontario, Canada. I've done some puttering around on the carbs on my honda VF750 magna, but last week I decided to jump in with both feet and pick this thing up for $200:



I'm using Classified moto's XS750 and Moto Hangar's SR500 as inspiration. Don't know if I'll do bare metal, but if I choose to paint, it will be fairly low-key. I know for sure I'll be getting rid of its current godawful paint job.



PO said it needed a new battery and some carb work. I've ordered carb kits, pod filters and a ballistic evo2 battery. I put a spare battery on and got it to run for around 30 seconds, shittily, so I pulled the carbs.


Could be worse, I guess. I did the whole boiling in diluted lemon juice thing. Can't say my housemates appreciated it as much as I did.


Got the carbs back together, here's where I'm at now.


I'll make myself a vacuum gauge to tune the carbs after this (Canadian Thanksgiving! ) weekend.

And here's my work space:


I was pretty damn pumped that I found a house with a garage.

Pictured also is a 1982 FT500 Ascot with starter motor issues and a leaky lower crankcase and a 1972 CB350 that require more work than I have time/money for right now. I'll make build threads for them in the future.

Thoughts? I appreciate any input/tips for a new builder.

Clean your workspace you savage! I like those bikes.

that tank is very cool.

brad black said:

that tank is very cool.

Click to expand...

It looks a million times worse in person, I promise.

So I did some sketching. Here's approximately where I'm going with this:


OR



Shortened forks, re-positioned headlight, clip-ons, pod filter, different muffler, maybe rear sets. I'm on the fence about the hump.

Started tearing into it. I think I'm going to use a stock battery, but make a nice stainless battery box and perforated steel side covers.



Does that engine ever need a good scrubbing.

Started stripping the tank. I'm thinking of painting the tank either gloss black or british racing green with 2 white stripes up one side, from the mini fairing thing all the way back to the seat hump. I'll be picking up sheet metal and perforated steel for the seat, mini fairing, electrical tray, battery box and side covers later in the week. I'm sort of hesitant to take the leap and chop the rear of the frame, but it'll have to happen at some point. :-\
I've ordered clip-ons. Once I get the seat made I'll look at riding position and whether or not I should make rear sets. The mounting points for the stock pegs are way back from the pegs themselves, maybe I could use that to my advantage.



What's the general consensus on plasti-dip wheels around these parts?

Subscribed. Any plans for modifying the forks? Both the builds you referenced have front ends that have been dropped by 3+ inches. Classified swapped in a shorter modern front end and the SR clearly has modified forks.

Subscribed also, looks like the triples are making a bit of a comeback on DTT!

Beldrueger said:

Any plans for modifying the forks?

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1" internal spacer and dropped max 1" in the triples for starters, we'll see what the clearance is like when that's done.

Didn't get a whole lot done today, got the rest of the tank stripped and started mocking up for metal fab. I'm a little concerned about rear wheel clearance, don't know if I should add a little kick up to the seat hoop.

With stock ride height, you'll bump the tire on the hoop if you don't kink it.

Dude, I hate you, I almost bought that in Hamilton, I think you were a few hours earlier than I was because I literally replied the morning the ad was up haha

But good luck on the build and here are some inspiration bikes for you

http://thebikeshed.cc/2013/09/13/luke-robinsons-xs/
http://thebikeshed.cc/2012/12/13/ugly-xs750/

The forks are leading axle on the special so I'm not sure but you might wanna look into the standard model forks, they seem to look a bit lower if thats the look your going for

IT LIVES ;D ;D
Finally got a battery, charged it up and put it in. Hit the starter, nothing happened. Tightened and checked everything, put new plugs in, tried again and it fired up.

It idles with the choke on, but as soon as I give it any throttle or turn the choke off it dies.

I'm still pretty excited.

Made myself a cheap manometer to sync the carbs and spent a few minutes getting that all sorted out.

It's just 3/8 OD tubing and a T connector. The XS750 already had vacuum syncing ports built in to the cylinder head. Each of the tubes connects to each of the ports and the carbs are set relative to each other.

Startup video here
I believe I have it running decently.

Now on to the next thing: the seat. I have decided to make the seat hump flat like such:


The reason for doing it that way is that it involves no compound curves and will be simpler and easier to do on my own.

My clipons arrived from Hong Kong in what's got to be record time. Got those installed and dropped the forks ~0.5" in the triple trees. It feels pretty low.


I'll have to make new mounts for the speedo and tach, they look too goofy sticking up like that.

For the gauges, on my Suzuki I disassembled the back of them enough to take the stock bracket off and just flipped it around so I could send the studs up from the bottom on the triple tree with the nuts on the top. Not sure if this will work for you but it lowered my gauges quite a bit

Hello from the Wet Coast of Canada!
I just picked up a very clean 79XS750 for $400 and want to do a simple - clean cafe mod. You mentioned that you picked up some cafe bars out of China. Is there an online source you use or was that an eBay purchase. Thanks in advance and I look forward to more of your posts - sounds like we like the same kind of bikes. Cheers!