Looking at that frame on that Seca, it reminds me of a Bimota HB2 with the bodywork off. Distantly. But there's a lot of potential. As for the Vision it might be cool to consider a fairing of some sort, the way the frame rails come down the sides, that's some good support and it reminds me of a fairing stay. Also, those two lines coming up, I am assuming they're for a carb de-icer? Would do for a good oil cooler. You could look at a different radiator, something with a curve to it like that one there only shorter and wider, maybe even a bit smaller, and an oil cooler plumbed in below that. The radiator has cowls on the side, which doesn't ALWAYS have to be ugly, look at first generation Gold-Wings and you'll see just what I'm getting at! The passenger peg brackets have got to be "latticed" like we do on the CB750/900F so as to look like the CB1100F/R, you might be able to save those things if they don't look so bloody awful, probably shed a lotta weight too. I can't say more than that without seeing the thing stripped right down to the frame and engine, maybe even with the wheels off. 'Cause you could swap out to some wire wheels for not too too expensive, if you're fine with either skinny tall rims, or better still a pair of wide 16" rims front and back, they're often available very cheap for harley hubs. Which might just fit nice with some MX hubs, I dunno. Or, you could grab a pair of narrower 17" three spokes, the type that everybody takes off of their smaller sport-bikes to go with fatter ones off bigger sportbikes. Then you could have radials that aren't too fat and ugly either way, and the shorter hoops would change your stance a whole lot. Doesn't need to be any kind of crazy expensive wheel swap, some odd type dirt wheels, like off a Husquevarna 500-ish single, I forget the model. But I saw a yamaha SRX600 with wire wheels on it, on youtube, that looked really cool with those wheels on it. AND it was a Yamma, like yours. Lemme look for a link....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJt85DKCVnE&list=FLw0Dw9KCAU7mok5xFKTNy6w&index=8&feature=plpp_video
Just think of how much MORE interesting that bike would be, if it didn't have a regular old upright single engine in it. To me, I think about my old Honda 70cc scooter and the neat little engine in that, I'd like to have one of those Moto Guzzis with the single cylinder, not the old "bacon slicer" type with the big open flywheel, but the ones they were making just before they built the V-twin 700cc that became their hallmark. It's kind of like a giant Honda 50/70cc engine, or Aermacchi Alo Doro (Aka Harley Davidson) 250/350 etc. Actually, you CAN get that Aermacci new today with a 500 race spec engine, but not my point. The Guzzi was 500 to start ... kind of a forgotten beauty like the Ducati vertical twins of around the same displacement. Not really my point, I'm just saying, a different engine configuration and frame, that still sits in a stance like any other cool bike in it's class ... kind of like a BMW flat twin cafe racer, or a Harley-Norton hybrid cafe. One of these little Yamaha 80's V-twins would be really cool. I mean, there's a hell of a lot of people aware of what you can do with a VIRAGO as a cafe. But your little bike there, it's something different. You tweak that thing right, the coolest thing would be when a bunch of other young guys out there start showing up at the scrappers sayin' "Have you got a Yamaha Vision 550 kicking around? Ha ha. Do you think they'll have been picked over for parts? Probably not. Not a lot of bikes like that anymore. I remember going to the yards looking for parts for my little Kawi 440, and I could see then, and would see later on, that if I was looking for parts for the big fours and all of the popular stuff like that, that I was screwed. But the Kawi I could pick from five whole bikes in just one yard. I'l like to think they're all rolling now, that would be cool. But yeah, that's the cool thing about fixing up an odd-ball, is that you get to save the breed. And nobody else is gonna say "I like that OTHER Vision custom, oh and THAT one's even better....
You could mould a seat pan right onto the frame by covering it with tin-foil and cardboard, then ten or fifteen bucks worth of Bondo with glass cloth, two layers and some chopped strand matt in the middle, maybe a couple more layers just to give it some beef. Ridges down the length of it, a lip around it, etc. Maybe make a shape on the frame with the cardboard, so that you can use a given seat cover of a type you like the look of. Or, you could try working with the stock seat, and just cut that existing bodywork down to a thin strip of colour around the base, maybe it could be chromed; then strip out the foam, replace it with thin dense blue camping matt foam and then re-cover, etc. If you're thinking of ditching the tank, it might be worth trying to hammer into a new shape first. If it's not too too rusty inside, you might consider just building a cover for the tank, I guess a lot of bikes have done that. The Bimota I just mentioned, now I hear that Rickman CR's did the same thing. But if you think about it, if the back lower edges can be painted black and then a nice rubber knee pad insert, especially if you could hammer down some of the sharp angles on the thing, you could get a classic looking tank out of it. Kinda reminds me of Kawasaki KR tanks. But with the right treatment, maybe even some chrome side covers with the rubber knee pads and the badges, you could get a nice effect. I kind of picture this as a tribute to the old Yamma two stroke twins, with the crank-case induction carbs. Maybe one of those tanks could work, but I doubt it just from looking at that frame cause it almost looks like you've got air-filter stuff going up up in that tunnel with some odd back-bone configuration. Whatever you decide to do with the tank I guess depends on whether it's all rusted up inside, and needs "kreem" anyway, then it would be a good donor tank for experimentation. Might yield something really cool. Also, it you don't like all of that big boxy stuff around the gauges, then the clocks themselves can be stripped right down from that block, and then you can cut down the faces as small as you like and put 'em in little cat-food tins, or thereabouts. No need to throw them out and then screw around with ratio adapter and matching stuff and all of the rest, when all that you don't want is the actual box or can that the stuff is fitted into. You could look for those print-out programs, they do 'em on a lot of other forums for sportbikes and the like, you could even go to a vinyl sign company or sign painting company and either have a semi-opaque face printed for back-lighting, or just a re-paint or just a sticker cover, to refresh the clock faces. Or paint 'em yourself if you're some kind of miniature model painter expert. Then you stick the things in some water-tight cylinders of your choice, some kind of lunch-kit things or fancy coffee "traveler's" mugs. Maybe some little film developing cans, something alloy from ... whatever. The point is, the actual innards of a typical tach or speedo are rather tiny. You just don't wanna screw with the "clock springs" in them at all. That header looks good, if there are no holes, maybe you could have it sand-blasted and re-chromed, or done up in some kind of ceramic coat, but the mufflers themselves are a bit dated, very much an '80s item there. Heck, those are some very very interesting looking rims though, hey? Real odd-balls. Who knows, maybe they'd be really something if you had them widened? Ha ha. I should go and look at more pics of the breed, but I didn't mean to get sucked in to THIS thread in the first place, ha ha. I was curious about that Seca pic. Yamaha really took some cutting edge frame technology and then put very mild commuter engines in them. Gotta wonder. But they're good frames, I'd bet they'd hold up to some track abuse pretty well. As for the Vision, that front end will probably strip down to a classic looking top clamp that would polish up really nice. Those side covers would be a bitch to polish, but with some contrast painting on certain parts, polish on others, it could really look like a cool engine. If the heads or valve covers are too ugly, then maybe go black on them, and black out the cylinders with the high spots or the standing out shapes sanded bright, like the fins that get sanded on the edge on my DOHC Honda CB750F engines, that type of treatment. But maybe with some rounding off of the sharp corners, those valve covers could look good all shined up! If that little triangle in the side is essential, maybe it needs some paint. I think people put too much red on an engine and it goes to shit. But look at the old Guzzis, the way the distributor or magneto or whatever that thing is ha ha, it's painted red way in there under the tank and it brings the eye into the detail of the engine. And the carbs could benefit from as much exposure as possible, or if it's injected then work with that. Some kind of air filter pod sticking out like other V-engines I think you get the picture. but nothing to obscure the carbs. Is that a clip-on bar? Would it benefit from simply being dropped, like the swan-neck bars on old Guzzis? Just a thought.
Oh Good Gawd, I just caught that comment about turning it into a bobber. Please don't do that. IMHO, anything that looks like it was developed later than the twin-shock rear suspension or any rear suspension for that matter, when it gets a hard tail welded on, or anything meant to look like a hard tail ... it just looks like you've done some damage that you couldn't figure out how to fix. Which is probably where a lot of bobbers originated. Ha ha. Just 'cause it's a V engine, doesn't mean that a bobber makes sense. There are a lot of other cool ways to "Wind Back The Clock", other retrofications, dirt trackers, street trackers, they all make sense with a V. But so too does the Cafe. Me, I like original bone stock UJM looks. In places where those looks don't belong. That's why I'm styling my DOHC honda four like a sand-cast. Heck, I'd like to see the same treatment on all of the crotch rockets out there. There's that Whitehouse Japan CB1100 "K10"
http://www.cb750cafe.jp/cb750cafe/1100.html The thing is, there are loads of Yamaha bikes with odd shaped engines, in the classic era, '60s bikes and '70s racers. Lots of 'em are really cool too.
Just a suggestion, or suggestionS. MY interpretation. But hey, now that I'm visualizing it, I'll be excited to see what YOU do with it! My last thought on the subject, for now ... sometimes it's the most unexpected bikes, the most ignored and neglected, that when they get the PROPER amount of TLC, in other words a TON of work, then you get a hell of a reward in the end.
Good Luck!
-Sigh.
