So my main bike is a 2015 Mag wheel Bonneville but here in Nova Scotia we have some beautiful scenery along the fundy shore bit it's all only accessible from grated gravel and fire roads. After banging my exhaust on the bonnie a couple of times I figured I better look at something else for my off road adventures. Well in the garage I had this 78 XS750 triple that I was thinking about a café build for but the "Special" version of this bike that was more popular here in Canada than the " standard" version the UK enjoyed made a cafe build more expensive and difficult. So a tracker/scrambler build began to take shape in my mind.
I've lurked here a while so I thought it was time for a build thread. Now I didn't take many pictures of the starting point but here are 2 to kick off the build.
Earliest pic I have of my starting point.
I've since stripped it down some. This is not going on be a frame up powder coat restoration at least not yet. I don't have the funds at this point and the motor is in dubious health so ill get it on the road and see how it goes before I commit to a complete teardown... maybe over the winter.
I touched up the frame with Tremclad, cleaned up the forks and painted the lowers. fork seals are not leaking yet so a complete rebuild will come later. Cleaned up the triples with much rust removal and new paint, it has tapered roller bearings already and they were in decent nick so they were washed in wd40 then repacked with grease. Forks will see new ears and gaiters. Headers were sanded and painted with VHT header paint... may get wrapped later. Rear fender was bobbed but the plastic inner fender was cleaned and retained. This in not California and this bike will see bad weather so I want to maintain some crud protection. Stock airbox was in rough shape so it is getting pods (yeah yeah i know). Seat pan was completely rotted so it was trimmed and will be covered in plastic and used as a fiberglass template for a brat style seat.
I'm cheap so I reworked the stock tail light and I'm looking for signal light that will work with the look I'm after.
Also got longer shocks from a triumph Thruxton to bring up the rear to improve the lines and balance the longer "Special" edition stock forks. Will also increase ground clearance.
Here's how it sits now...
Psy
Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk
I've lurked here a while so I thought it was time for a build thread. Now I didn't take many pictures of the starting point but here are 2 to kick off the build.
Earliest pic I have of my starting point.
I've since stripped it down some. This is not going on be a frame up powder coat restoration at least not yet. I don't have the funds at this point and the motor is in dubious health so ill get it on the road and see how it goes before I commit to a complete teardown... maybe over the winter.
I touched up the frame with Tremclad, cleaned up the forks and painted the lowers. fork seals are not leaking yet so a complete rebuild will come later. Cleaned up the triples with much rust removal and new paint, it has tapered roller bearings already and they were in decent nick so they were washed in wd40 then repacked with grease. Forks will see new ears and gaiters. Headers were sanded and painted with VHT header paint... may get wrapped later. Rear fender was bobbed but the plastic inner fender was cleaned and retained. This in not California and this bike will see bad weather so I want to maintain some crud protection. Stock airbox was in rough shape so it is getting pods (yeah yeah i know). Seat pan was completely rotted so it was trimmed and will be covered in plastic and used as a fiberglass template for a brat style seat.
I'm cheap so I reworked the stock tail light and I'm looking for signal light that will work with the look I'm after.
Also got longer shocks from a triumph Thruxton to bring up the rear to improve the lines and balance the longer "Special" edition stock forks. Will also increase ground clearance.
Here's how it sits now...
Psy
Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk