*-*-*-* TX650 *-*-*-*

xulf13

West of Tennessee
As promised, here is my build project. Many of you know I ride the 82 seca. Many don't, oh well.

I picked this 1973 TX650 last Friday January 15, 2010

The photos looked great, the price was decent (I suppose) for a running 650.
These are the photos from the CL add:
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As soon as I saw it, I knew all the things that would need to be done in order to get it right. Yes It's already a cafe, but it needs attention to detail and poor quality photos can hide a lot. I knew the tank was not lined up properly by looking at the photos. See how the front of the tank is slanted upwards? I'll get to that later.

I drove to Denton NC about 2 1/2 hours from home. I spoke to the P.O. prior to this and asked what this bike would need within the year. He said he would upgrade the ignition to an electronic one. I agreed and planned on that expense.


The seat looks descent right? I'll get to that later

The rear shocks seemed very worn when I arrived at the location and even by looking at the photos They seemed a bit short in my opinion.

When I arrived, I noticed the front had been lowered about 1 1/2" but yet the front still seemed high. Probably because the rear shocks are smaller, even though they look to be stock.

I took it for a test ride and it had good pick up on the bottom end, but could not get it to go past 65MPH. The bike had just woken up for it's hibernation. A little too soon perhaps, but it was backfiring off and on. I presumed it was the fuel mix and or the timing, so being that I will keep on riding my SECA while I work on this, i opted to buy it anyways and was able to get a $300 discount off the overall price.

The tank was wobbly, I asked the guy why and he said he never got it quite right and he did not know how to weld so he cut out the old stock tank tunnel and welded it to the bottom of this tank and filled the gaps with high density spray foam. It looks horrible under there. ( I will eventually take pictures of that ordeal.) But when the guy grinded down the mounting tabs on the tank he left two holes on top of the tank and sealed them with some sort of putty. I want to remove all that and weld the stock type tabs on this tank but the proper way. this in itself will be a project. of its own.

This is my bike soon after getting it to my house.
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In this photo you can see the carb is missing the choke lever and will need to be replaced.
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This is the attention to detail that you don't see in poor quality photos, but I will strip this and repaint with a solid color more than likely or do away with the side covers once I relocate the battery sometime in the future.
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The seat stitching is not the greatest, but it will hold my butt until I get another seat.
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This seat is made out of plywood and fiberglass. not too bad but I want something lighter and that is properly mounted. this seats mounting points are iffy and where the hinge mounts is not very stable causing the seat to slide backwards.
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There is a leak or two somewhere, I still have to determine where it is coming from. one I found coming from the valve adjustment cover on the rear right.
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My two bikes side by side. The specs rate both these bikes at 478 Lbs, but the SECA sure weighs an extra 100lbs. the TX650 is light as a feather compared to the SECA.
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My 10yr old son in the background getting ready to help me out. He passes me the tools and takes photos as I go.
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First thing I decided on was to remove the front windshield fairing, Although it looks ok, I personally can do without and it wasn't properly mounted anyways and had some damage.
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This doesn't scare me, I've seen worse. Thing is, every other connection has a crimp connection on. I will go the solder route when I get to it. The gauges are not lighting up at the moment.
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Here I am removing the brackets for the fairing.
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These cheap handlebars cracked when i was trying to strap it down on my truck on my trip back home. I had to find another location to tie the bike down. I ordered a new set of clubman's until I can afford my tomasellii adjustable clip ons.
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And this is how it looks at the moment.
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I figured out why the bike was back firing and perhaps it is also the reason why the bike wouldn't go past 65MPH. The left carb rubber holder has cracks all over it and you can see the back firing in there and it's sucking a lot of air through there. I temporarily placed some electrical tape around the holder (it's what I had at the moment) to see how it would run. Well it idled much better.
In my haste to take it for a ride around the property (I have a little acre to putter around and some woods in the backyard.) I disregarded the handlebar being damaged (big mistake) and went for a ride around the property. A couple of passes later My son climbed in the back and we headed for the woods, when suddenly the handlebar gave as i was slowing down around a turn and down we went.

I got a bit of tree rash on my left forearm and a few bruises, my son twisted his ankle as he jumped off the bike. We were only going about 5MPH when this happened. After I checked on him and make sure nothing was broken, I lifted the bike back up and rode back to the shed, where the bike rests until the handle bars and now a set of headlight brackets are on their way (yeah I broke those too.LOL)

My son put some ice on his ankle and says he can't wait for the handlebars to arrive so we can do it again.

So this is my list of things needed in order of priority.

Handlebars (on their way)
Headlight brackets (on their way)
carburetor holders (need to order) ( will clean the carbs when swapping the holders)
Rewire lights and buy a new set of turn signals.
Electronic ignition system 9next month)
Tank modification and fixing (will start in two weeks)
Fiberglass seat
New tires ( the ones that are on have cracks all over)
 
that bike must weigh a ton! it seems to have bottomed out the suspension on your truck ;) ;) ;)


looks like this bike has some serious potential....

ill be watching this build for sure!
 
LOL, yep it sure get even lower when you have a minitruck.

I had the truck painted last tuesday, I did not like th color and they owed me a free paint job since there was some peeling going on already and with the guarantee in effect, I figured i pay the extra $150 for a color change.

Now, I'm flat broke,, but took the TX650 back to my shop (At work) and started to pull it appart. i am about to tear into the carbs to check what size jets are on there, for my own reference. I drained the tank and am ready to modify it and fix the mounting points the right way. There is plenty of work to do. Front 35mm forks and 77 or later year swing arm are in the works. Hope to have this back together by spring. I need to do a lot of rewiring and need new tail light, signals, headlight, front fender bracket. I might try to straighten mine out if posible.

Here are some pics:
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Alright I have been busy with other stuff, this week and last I did a bit more work and it turned into a nightmare. it was supposed to be a "just rejet the carbs and get new tires type deal"
I finished the carbs got new boots then onto the tank i went and what a hack job mess the P.O. had done.
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I had to take the tank off because it wasn't sitting straight and I wanted to know why. Well there you go. Now I have to cut and weld tabs on the tank to fit the frame. since the P.O. grinded the tabs off the xs750 tank so he could stick part the bottom of the stock tank to make it fit.
 
Then I decided to upgrade the swing arm bushings. As I was trying to remove the swingarm to add some brass bushings I realised that the swing arm bolt was seized into the frame and I ended up having to cut the whole swingarm and then drilling thru the bolt to get it to come off the frame.

3 blades, 2 cutting wheels and 6 drill bits later:

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Who needs a bike lift when I have this:
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So I decided, enough of the chit-chat and took the engine off, the front forks, everything came off.
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Next thing I'm about to do is sandblast the frame do some minor work to it and paint it. I haven't decided on a color just yet, but i'm leaning towards red or copper. If red then the tank will be silver and if copper then the tank will be black.
 
That's probably the worst case of stupid PO I've ever seen. Good to see it in the hands of a pro now though.
 
Good job man!

You'll be so much happier now that you just eliminated the BS from the bike from the get go and made it what you wanted. Just a suggestion, but I think that the profile of the bike would look so much better with a little bit longer shocks in the rear. It has that typical TX/SX chopper squat in the rear. It will handle better, and look the biz with 1" longer or so rear shocks.

Great job so far man.
 
Kanticoy said:
Good job man!

You'll be so much happier now that you just eliminated the BS from the bike from the get go and made it what you wanted. Just a suggestion, but I think that the profile of the bike would look so much better with a little bit longer shocks in the rear. It has that typical TX/SX chopper squat in the rear. It will handle better, and look the biz with 1" longer or so rear shocks.

Great job so far man.
Hey Kanticoy, Thanks for the tip. Yes I am placing an order of longer shocks for the bike already 13.75" rear shocks. That was one of the first things I noticed on the bike as well, even before I bought it.
BTW, your bike (Gretta) is a big inspiration to get this bike done right. I'm not going the same route as far as the monoshock, but oh man that is one sweet bike. Any tips are greatly welcomed. I want to make sure I do this right.

I have a 2 up and a 1 up seat idea in mind, but it will be a quick 5min seat swap deal. Once i get my frame back I will start on that.
 
Big R said:
That's probably the worst case of stupid PO I've ever seen. Good to see it in the hands of a pro now though.
Wait till I show you the seat he made. Everything looked good from far on this bike, but it is far from good. Even so i still bought the bike and planed on doing it right. I hope it turns out nice. With the help of DTT I don't think there's anything that can't be done.
 
Wow - can't judge a book by its cover, that's for sure! Nice job - when it comes time for an electronic ignition, google Pamco ignitions. One of the guys on an XS650 board came up with a simple inexpensive good ignition setup.
 
Tim said:
Wow - can't judge a book by its cover, that's for sure! Nice job - when it comes time for an electronic ignition, google Pamco ignitions. One of the guys on an XS650 board came up with a simple inexpensive good ignition setup.
I just received my Pamco Ignition Today from MikesXS. LOL I saw your post regarding that ignition on the 650 board as well. I know you're running the Boyer Bransden though (right?) Thanks for the heads up though.
 
hey... im not the only guy sitting on my frame like that i guess... ;D ;D

looking good.

any idea what tank that is? im realllyyyy diggin it.
 
Rocan said:
hey... im not the only guy sitting on my frame like that i guess... ;D ;D

looking good.

any idea what tank that is? im realllyyyy diggin it.

Haha, post your photo of you riding your frame here!

That is a XS750 tank, I'm diging it too. ;)
 
Well, I had to put on hold my frame powder coating until next week. I have some massaging to do on the frame, remove stuff here and there. I'm still iffy about removing the passenger fot rest brackets as I am making this a two up bike with a quick removal of the rear cowl. My biggest thing is, the battery wil be in the stock location, but i don't want to use the stock tray and want to make it look cleaner. if not, then I will have to use the side covers the bike came with. That would eliminate me having to build a new battery box and relocating the wiring. that so far seems to be the best route. Another thing is, I don't know if i should remove the center stand brackets. I wish the center stand was there to begin with but since they aren't there I'm thinking of just removing and smoothing out the frame by removing the brackets.

I have a big pain and that is removing the exhasut manifold studs. they are all seized in there and I can't seem to get them out, I think I am going to need proffesional assistance with that one.

Anyhow, the motor is still dirty but I replaced the cranck sprocket seal, the shifter seal and the clutch rod seal.
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I had my buddy Tom, recreate the frame for me and weld some added tabs.
Also my tank now sits straight.
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Also got this swingarm to replace the one I had to cut to pieces to remove.
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the thing is, the passenger foot rest brackets are not on the way, but I feel they are aesthetically or visually on the way. but I want to make this a two up bike so I don't want to cut them off unless I can figure out another way to relocate the passenger pegs.
 
you might want to see if your chain clears, i ran into that problem.
 
whitexk said:
you might want to see if your chain clears, i ran into that problem.
If the chain clears what? The swingarm or the stock passenger foot rest bracket? because it will clear the brackets.
 
I didn't remove hardly any tabs on my Honda, but if I were you, I would def keep the mounts for the center stand. Those things are extremely handy once you get hold of them!
 
clears the swing arm

just speaking from experience not trying to step on your toes, but this was my initial setup and my chain hit the bottom support.

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