1975 XS 650 cafe

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod *** bike is wheeled !! ***

Great job so far! The seat is coming along well and you seem to have everything moving along at a good clip....looks like you should make your deadline. Where did you find those neat zip ties? They look so much better than the plastic ones......I know a couple of places on my bike where they would work great.

Thanks,
JS

I got them at princess auto.... But I also found them here ---> http://www.tiewraps.com/stainlesst_ec_twrappage.html
Kind of pricey but I have enough now to do my next five bikes.... Building my harness now, I'm mocking it up with plastic zip ties once I have established that the prince of darkness isn't going to pay a visit I may use the stainless ones where the harness is visible. Maybe not it depends on how sharp the edges are, I haven't tried to cut anything with them yet...

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod *** bike is wheeled !! ***

Electrical is done! Well, mostly, still need to wire in the ignition and coil but thats a 10 minute job. Built an entire harness from scratch. Don't know if it would have been better use of my time to just buy a new one but I didn't so on to the pics

Ran most of the connection down the backbone of the frame, leaves the headlight empty except for the turnsignal wiring and the headlight wires

New clubmans from Flying Squirrel and new led taillight and the bracket that said taillight is attached to

Painted the headlight bucket with the intention of laying down the white, then gold, then the black and masking it appropriately to mimic the factory paint, but i'm kinda digging the white only so thats up in the air

Seat is in primer, first coat of many

And lastly the before and afters of some of the rear brake linkage parts

For this week i'm waiting for my guages to come in, once they're here I have to make their bracket and wire them in. Also to do is finish and cover the seat, wire the ignition, mock up the exhaust, tighten up everything that i've left loose, set the valves, figure out where the license plate is going to live and about a hundred other things.... Can't wait to get it done so I can start taking things off and making them more better

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod

One month today I started putting this thing back together..... Pretty much done now, waiting for a few nice days in a row to haul it up the stairs. Still a bunch of little things that I want to do to it but its together enough that it should start up.

Redid my wiring harness, didn't like the mess that I made of it. Ran all the wires through the clubmans..... someone would have to pay me alot to do that again. A pain in the ass to say the least but the final product is nice. Brakes are together and working front and back, fedex brought me my new tach and speedo, made a bracket for both. Wired in my - super cool don't know where its from - high beam light. Working on the little details that make the whole thing pop now.

 

[lassenc]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod

Any reason why you didn't use heatshrink? I think the cable ties will rub on the wires in the long run. Maybe get the classic rubber cable ties.

 

[jackstraw650]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod

Beautiful work, Montessa! I wish you lived near by to give me a hand with my electrics, I just cringe every time I look at my bike sitting there with that mess of antique pasta all over it. I have just about halted dismantling my bike because of the mental block I have with rewiring it. I'm not afraid of tackling an engine rebuild but the electrical system just baffles me! Your job was one of cleanest ones that I have seen in the forum.

From what I have seen in a couple of places on my old stock wiring harness, Lassenc may very well have a good point re the shrink wrap. I have had to slit a piece of shrink wrap to place it around some places where there is a bend or chance of crimp even on some of my newer bikes. This part of electrics I can easily understand, its just the diagrams, etc that seem to be written in some Greek code. Keep on with that nice build!

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod

Stopped raining long enough to get a couple of pictures. Bike is assembled, started up on the 4th kick. Have it timed, have the valves set, carbs synced and 21 miles accumulated on the odometer... Still have a few more mechanical things to wrap up, chain guard needs to go on, turnsignals are rotating as they wish, breather hoses need to be replaced etc. Also need to do some polishing..

First couple of rides went good, only forgot to turn the gas on once ! Clutch slip is now apparently an issue with the rebuild complete but i'm going to let it accumulate a couple hundred miles before I rip into the cases again. So thats that, there is still a bunch more that i'm going to do to this bike but i've met my goal of getting it ridable again.. I'll update as I change, modify and get better pictures... Cheers

 

[kookie31]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod

nice work. im a xj man myself but got much love to the yamahas lol. seat turned out great. hope my bike turns out nice like yours. they say third times a charm

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod

Well I thought I was done, clutch slip got worse, and worse and then 4 grand was all she had before it slipped red lined and caught up with itself. Slammed in some new to the engine used plates and it got a bit better, smoother engagement and held it's shit together til 5 grand or so. That's issue one, issue two is it's spontaneously dying whenever it feels like it, richened the idle screws and that sorted out but then it was some how feeding itself more fuel and revving up to 3 grand like the slides were sticking - which they weren't or the throttle cables - nope wrong again. Completely disassembled, cleaned and still the same. The clutch I could live with for a bit, past 6 grand and it's on the threshold of just making noise instead of power anyways, but the carbs I can't live with, I want a bike that will sit and idle until I shut it down. So I did what any reasonable bike owner would do, ordered new clutch plates, springs and carbs. Team brown should be dropping off tomorrow so I'll update some pics and the installation of said items. Oh and the seat I made is crap, not enough relief for the rear wheel so that's job number 3 for next week.

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod

More pictures

And redid the tail piece cause I wasn't happy with the other

Put 60 miles on today, couple of issues to sort out, breaking up at 1/8 throttle, oil leak from cam chain adjustment nut cover, clutch slip, blown fuse for head light / tail light. Other than that pulls like hell with the new carbs on, thumbs up all over the place today. Cheers...

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod

Car swap meet today at the fairgrounds in Ancaster, picked up a tail light and what will become a headlight. Fog lights are from an early 50's White truck I was told. They're 5" glass with a fairly shallow shell.. Tail light is a reproduction piece..

Also got my leaking base gasket sorted out, ran a brake booster check valve onto the head breather. Theory is that the check valve will allow the pistons to push the crank case air out but not allow it to suck back in. Hence creating a vacuum in the bottom end. Seems to work, base gasket isn't leaking anymore..

 

[Tim]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod - swap meet goodies..

Great stuff. Too many threads for me to follow. I did up an XS a while back (thread #448) and did my own wiring as well.

Mind posting up your wiring diagram? I might re-do mine.

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto-mod - swap meet goodies..

i think i'll bring this one back from the dead... Lots of good stuff is going to happen this winter... pics and a plan to follow shortly..

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto - mod - v2.0 less resto more cafe


SO the plan is this winter to have a bike diet, reinforce the frame, rebuild and paint the wheels and a bunch of other items that i'll tackle as I go... Should finish up with a machine thats alot further from stock than it is now..


As it sat as of 6pm with the new tank mocked up

New head light ears

New headlight

And as it sits right now, back half of the frame is stripped and ready for some weight removal and bracing

Also have on order clipons and petcocks for the new tank...

I'll get some more pics as I grind and file my way to happiness tomorrow..

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto - mod - v2.0 less resto more cafe

Well, the back half of the frame is detabbed and i'm going to weld in all the crossmembers tonight..

 

[Tim]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto - mod - v2.0 less resto more cafe

Looking good - google Minton Mods for some bracing tips.

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe resto - mod - v2.0 less resto more cafe

Thanks Tim, I read Mintons article a few years ago, I'll give it another go and refresh my memory... Replaced the cross member on the upper frame rails tonight, I removed the stock one that the battery / electronics box was suspended from, i also got the rear frame behind the shock mounts flattened out.. It had a kick up right before the rear loop that made fitting any seat a real bugger. Should have some parts coming in the mail this week ... ;D

 

[gentlemanjim]

Re: XS 650 cafe - v2.0 less resto more cafe

Nothing beats an XS750 standard fuel tank for a cafe bike. I used one on my XS650, XV920 and now on a CB650 SOHC build. I like your style

 

[montessa172]

XS 650 cafe - v2.0 less resto more cafe

Thank you sir, I had to hunt long and hard and use every bit of patience I possess to find one that needed nothing other than bolting on.

 

[50gary]

Re: XS 650 cafe - v2.0 less resto more cafe

A Suzuki GS 450 tank makes a mighty handsome cafe looking tank on the XS 650. I used an RD400 tank on my XS650 (Avatar) I did that bike in 2003/4. The XS650 is one of the great bikes of all time and I'm not joking. I built most of my frame but the secret brace is a 3/4" tube on each side of the bottom of the down tube. A wide V & horizontal it's angled back from the front of the big tube to the "ugly plates" It's about 6" on each side. It's a tight fit but it stabilizes the swingarm. Vintage racers will also mention the downward curve of the main backbone will sometimes crack just past where the sub-frame attaches. Great bike have fun.
Cheers, 50gary

 

[montessa172]

Re: XS 650 cafe - v2.0 less resto more cafe

I'll keep the swing arm brace in mind, unfortunately pulling the engine isn't in my time table this winter, but next winter when I strip it down again for powdercoat, i'll get it done!

Update, i'm finished the bracing that i'm going to do and i've filled in the top frame tubes, made them a little more asthetically pleasing, i think anyways...

| also got some new parts in the mail,

and i've got the hard part of my 2 into 1 fabbed up...

I have to reassemble the back half of the bike so that I can do the rest of the exhaust and muffler and make sure that it isn't going to be in the way of anything important..