The $100 Wonder: Cafe build....

[scott s]

Thanks sxecafe. I'll try to answer your Q's....

The frame wasn't too bad to paint. I had removed lots of stuff from the bike during the build and just masked up the rest with blue painters tape and newspaper. When I ended up removing the engine from the frame, I went back and touched up a few more spots. I didn't have to worry too much about overspray because it was either masked off or removed from the bike at the time.

My local bike shop has a polisher/powdercoater they use. They run me about $60, including all four valve covers. I removed them from the bike and washed the grease off, they did the rest. The forks I won off ebay for only about $25!

The first time I painted the barrels was with the engine in the frame. Lots of masking, trimming and wrapping. I touched it up while the motor was out. Had I known the motor was coming apart, I would have just waited and painted the barrels while they were apart from the engine.

I believe I got the aircraft stripper at my local autoparts store. Check Pep Boys, AutoZone, Wal-Mart and such....

 

[scott s]

Some new pics with the side covers all painted up. Only about 50 more miles and I'll change the break-in oil, retorque the headbolts and I'll finally be done.
I'm going to try putting some foam rubber insulation on the center spine under the gas tank. The XS750 tank has a rattle when going down the road. If I grab it with my knees it stops.

 

[scott s]

She can be a little bit cold natured, too. The plugs look about perfect to me, but I may try running the K&N cones and/or bumping the mains up one notch to see if that helps.

 

[scott s]

And some over-all pics....

 

[coolatula]

I like it,nice classic looking bike that was tastefully done. 8)

 

[HerrDeacon]

Great build, love it. Nice work.

 

[kneedragger]

Is that an oil-cooler I see mounted low between the front downtubes? If so, is it OEM, or did you install something from the aftermarket? DETAILS, we want MORE DETAILS! Every time I re-read this thread, I notice some new detail...

That XS is a JOY to look at now; I always HATED the craptastic "cruisers" of the late-'70's and early-'80's! You took one of the ugliest Yamahas ever sold in the US, and turned it into something Yamaha would be proud to sell today. The XS650 engine deserved a better fate than to be relegated to "cruiser" status; with a bit of outstanding "parts-bin engineering" (LOVE that XS850 tank!), you've changed that XS from an ugly duckling into a magnificent swan.

Earlier in the thread, someone suggested that you trim the shock absorber covers to expose more of the springs, and I'd like to second that suggestion. First off, it would eliminate those ass-ugly relector warts from the sides of the shock covers, and I think it would also make the back end look just a bit less cluttered. Please consider it; if I had any photochopping skills, I'd try to mod one of your photos to show you what I mean. You could also install longer shocks, which would extend the rear end a bit; right now, it looks like the rear of the XS got short-changed in the rebuild... I realize you're probably stuck with that 16" rear wheel, so anything you do to reduce the look of the back-end squat would probably improve the overall "presence" of your XS...

OK, so maybe I'm only nit-picking; believe me, I wouldn't devote this much time to commenting on that beautiful XS if I didn't LOVE your results so far; I just can't help thinking that longer shocks would give your XS a more aggressive stance...

I'll get off the soap-box now; THANKS for turning an obsolete relic into a timeless classic!

-- kd

 

[scott s]

KD, that's the stock front motor mount you see down low in the frame.
I thought about removing the shock caps, but I didn't have the correct tools to compress the shock and remove the snap ring on the end, so I did the next best thing. It's all about low budget!

 

[kneedragger]

Thanks for the fast reply, scott s; please check out this photo; I copied it from you so I could modify it a bit:

Hopefully, that will work; I just opened a Photobucket account so I could post that photo here...

The object inside the red circle LOOKS like an oil cooler behind that shiny metal cover... if it ISN'T an oil cooler, it looks like a pretty good place to mount one... can you provide any close-up shots for us? I'd really like to get a better look at it

Thanks for your help with this; I've had to edit this post twice because I'm falling asleep as I type...

-- kd

 

[scott s]

Yep, that's just the stock front motor mount. I'll try to get some pics for you.

 

[Juice_Bruce]

Awesome.

 

[sxecafe]

I cant get over how great this bike looks. I have taken alot from this thread. Painted my crank case the same way. thanks for such a great record.

 

[JRK5892]

wow man that looks great!