XS650 Cafe Project:
- Thread starter Cornish Pixie
- Start date
Re: XS650 Cafe Project: pics of fairing test fit added
Love high level pipes, but the swap over part is a bit "forced" IMHO and what about mufflers?
Fairing is looking good up there, but those intakes have no place on a bike that may be ridden. pressurization of the float bowls won't be too much of an issue because it won't go fast enough but jetting will still be a nightmare and the intakes are about a foot too long to be useful.
For me, the 916 fairing and that seat tank combo talk about old school cafe style and the exhausts and intakes are all chopper excess and pipes going round in circles for no good reason. Different design elements can work together, but I'm not a fan of this particular combo.
Just my opinion. After all it's your bike and you can do what you want with it, but I' thought I'g give you a view from teh otrher side of the fence. No "oH fence" intended. ;-)
Love high level pipes, but the swap over part is a bit "forced" IMHO and what about mufflers?
Fairing is looking good up there, but those intakes have no place on a bike that may be ridden. pressurization of the float bowls won't be too much of an issue because it won't go fast enough but jetting will still be a nightmare and the intakes are about a foot too long to be useful.
For me, the 916 fairing and that seat tank combo talk about old school cafe style and the exhausts and intakes are all chopper excess and pipes going round in circles for no good reason. Different design elements can work together, but I'm not a fan of this particular combo.
Just my opinion. After all it's your bike and you can do what you want with it, but I' thought I'g give you a view from teh otrher side of the fence. No "oH fence" intended. ;-)
Cornish Pixie
Ambitious but rubbish cafe builder
Re: XS650 Cafe Project: pics of fairing test fit added
Hey Teazer, no "OHfence" taken, modifying bikes is an individual thing and with this one I intend to play around a bit with style and function to see what can be made to work for my tastes.
Base jetting for the carbs is largely sorted from another build and they run fine on a bike that will be ridden. If I was going for outright performance I would have chosen another set up, however if I was going for outright performance I also wouldn't be working with an XS650 LOL. In it's first incarnation no mufflers will be used but a set of spring actuated baffles are going into the pipes to provide low rpm back pressure and noise suppresion. At a later date, I may modify a tri oval can to fit in the space under the seat and between the frame tubes, if it can be made to fit whilst looking right.
thanks for the constructive input. It takes all sorts of tastes to make the world go round and if we all conformed to the same set of rules, who knows, maybe the world would stop turning or it would be a mighty boring place.
teazer said:
Hey Teazer, no "OHfence" taken, modifying bikes is an individual thing and with this one I intend to play around a bit with style and function to see what can be made to work for my tastes.
Base jetting for the carbs is largely sorted from another build and they run fine on a bike that will be ridden. If I was going for outright performance I would have chosen another set up, however if I was going for outright performance I also wouldn't be working with an XS650 LOL. In it's first incarnation no mufflers will be used but a set of spring actuated baffles are going into the pipes to provide low rpm back pressure and noise suppresion. At a later date, I may modify a tri oval can to fit in the space under the seat and between the frame tubes, if it can be made to fit whilst looking right.
thanks for the constructive input. It takes all sorts of tastes to make the world go round and if we all conformed to the same set of rules, who knows, maybe the world would stop turning or it would be a mighty boring place.
Cornish Pixie
Ambitious but rubbish cafe builder
Re: XS650 Cafe Project: pics of fairing test fit added
Cheers the positive comments are much appreciated.
Work is still progressing on the bike although I haven't updated this thread because the work that is going on isn't all that exciting to look at in photo's LOL.
I'll update with some work in progress photo's tomorrow or Monday.
Pixie
DesmoBro said:
Cheers the positive comments are much appreciated.
Work is still progressing on the bike although I haven't updated this thread because the work that is going on isn't all that exciting to look at in photo's LOL.
I'll update with some work in progress photo's tomorrow or Monday.
Pixie
Cornish Pixie
Ambitious but rubbish cafe builder
Re: XS650 Cafe Project: pics of fairing test fit added
Thought I had better post an update so that you don't all think I haven't been working on this.
Lots of work on jobs that to be honest haven't warrented the posting of pics (or maybe I have got lazy :-\ ) I've been doing some work on the fairing and have trimmed all of the lower portions off so that it's lowest point is now just above where the front triangular air vents were. Also filled in the headlight apetures in readiness for a vent slot/holes for the oil cooler. I'm still working on this but TBH I've got a feeling that I'm not feeling the love for this set up so I may try a more traditional race type fairing in the future to see which look I prefer.
Also been working on an undertray for the seat. The original one I made out of steel wasn't really doing it for me and I was a little concerned about wheel clearance so I have been making a "mk2" version with a more curved shape in the middle to give a little more clearance. This mk2 is a combination of the original steel one and the original XS splash guard which bolts to the frame rails in front/above the swinging arm pivot. This is now largely complete, but no pics until I have finshed it off with a carbon fibre skin (hoping do the carbon skinning this weekend)
What else has been going on? slowly collecting parts for the oil cooler instalation have now secured a nice small Mocal cooler rad which I think will sit nicely in the nose of the fairing and I bought this a few weeks ago 8) seems to be genuine Halco unit (if not, it's well put together)
Just need to purchase the remote filter housing and we can start to think about fab'ing the brackets etc Will probably also upgrade the sump filter as well.
Also decided the Marzocchi piggy back shocks that were originally going to be used were not going to be long enough so I secured a minty mint set of Koni dial a rides that are a bit longer than the Marzocchi's and won't need cosmetic refurbishment;
Just noticed that you can just see the mk2 version of the undertray in the above pic, will share better pics when I've done the carbon fibre skinning.
Have also got a hydraulic clutch conversion on its way from Hugh's Handbuilt, but no pics of the actual unit as it currently sitting at my in laws in the States and I'll be picking it up in a couple of weeks when I'm over there visiting them at their holiday pad in Palm Beach. Link to Hugh's blog which will show you what it is and how it installs;
http://hughshandbuilt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/xs650-hydraulic-clutch-conversion.html
Hmmmm..................what next?
Happy building Dudes 8)
Thought I had better post an update so that you don't all think I haven't been working on this.
Lots of work on jobs that to be honest haven't warrented the posting of pics (or maybe I have got lazy :-\ ) I've been doing some work on the fairing and have trimmed all of the lower portions off so that it's lowest point is now just above where the front triangular air vents were. Also filled in the headlight apetures in readiness for a vent slot/holes for the oil cooler. I'm still working on this but TBH I've got a feeling that I'm not feeling the love for this set up so I may try a more traditional race type fairing in the future to see which look I prefer.
Also been working on an undertray for the seat. The original one I made out of steel wasn't really doing it for me and I was a little concerned about wheel clearance so I have been making a "mk2" version with a more curved shape in the middle to give a little more clearance. This mk2 is a combination of the original steel one and the original XS splash guard which bolts to the frame rails in front/above the swinging arm pivot. This is now largely complete, but no pics until I have finshed it off with a carbon fibre skin (hoping do the carbon skinning this weekend)
What else has been going on? slowly collecting parts for the oil cooler instalation have now secured a nice small Mocal cooler rad which I think will sit nicely in the nose of the fairing and I bought this a few weeks ago 8) seems to be genuine Halco unit (if not, it's well put together)
Just need to purchase the remote filter housing and we can start to think about fab'ing the brackets etc Will probably also upgrade the sump filter as well.
Also decided the Marzocchi piggy back shocks that were originally going to be used were not going to be long enough so I secured a minty mint set of Koni dial a rides that are a bit longer than the Marzocchi's and won't need cosmetic refurbishment;
Just noticed that you can just see the mk2 version of the undertray in the above pic, will share better pics when I've done the carbon fibre skinning.
Have also got a hydraulic clutch conversion on its way from Hugh's Handbuilt, but no pics of the actual unit as it currently sitting at my in laws in the States and I'll be picking it up in a couple of weeks when I'm over there visiting them at their holiday pad in Palm Beach. Link to Hugh's blog which will show you what it is and how it installs;
http://hughshandbuilt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/xs650-hydraulic-clutch-conversion.html
Hmmmm..................what next?
Happy building Dudes 8)
Cornish Pixie
Ambitious but rubbish cafe builder
Hi fellow Cafe builders
As promised in an earlier post, here are some work in progress shots of the seat "undertray" (what are these bits called?) I've been working on (on and off) for a few weeks now and some photo's of the carbon fibre skinning process I used on it.
This is the MK2 version which was built out of the original steel plate MK1 version, which whilst having nice clean lines and being significantly lighter than the MK2 version, was potentially not going to give enough bodywork to wheel clearance without using ridiculously long shocks. This version was made using the original steel plate MK1 and a cut up splash guard (normally site in front of the back wheel on an XS) that I had kicking around in the garage.
The plan was always to use this piece of the bike to try out some carbon fibre skinning to see if it would be a viable process to use on some of the bigger parts on the bike and to learn about "skinning" in the process.
Here are some photo's of the stages completed so far
The undertray ready for laminating and looking very "home built"
A layer of glass fibre was put on the back to hold it all together and give some structural strength (with hindsight this step could have been eliminated and replaced with a layer of carbon cloth)
Both front and back were given a coat of black epoxy base coat (each side was done seperately throughout the process) and left to cure for around 4-5 hours until it was virtually dry
A layer of 2/2 200g pro finish carbon cloth was applied to each side and given a very light coating of epoxy top coat which was left to fully cure (overnight) (in the interests of keeping this post as short as possible I'll only include photo's of one side, however all of the following steps were applied to both sides)
Once cured this was lightly rubbed down with 120 paper and then given 3-4 coats of epoxy top coat (leaving to go "tacky" between coats - around 3 hours for each coat)
Once these coats were fully cured, both sides were flattened off using 120 paper in preperation for a final coat of epoxy top coat
Top coat applied, this coat was kept warm with a fan heater and a hair dryer was used to draw out any air bubbles that may have got into the resin while I was mixing it
A close up of the finish after the final layer of epoxy top coat was applied
The next steps will be to flatten off the top coat with diminishing grades of wet and dry paper in preperation for a layer of 2K top coat or possibly polishing using different grades of polish (haven't decided which yet and need to experiment with both types of finish before commiting to either) Will post pics of the finished product installed with the seat once it is finished off.
Sorry for the long post, just thought I would share the carbon skinning process I used in case it was of interest to other forum users. This has definately been a useful learning experience which has informed how I am going to tackle some of the bigger bits on the bike.
Thanks for reading
Pixie
As promised in an earlier post, here are some work in progress shots of the seat "undertray" (what are these bits called?) I've been working on (on and off) for a few weeks now and some photo's of the carbon fibre skinning process I used on it.
This is the MK2 version which was built out of the original steel plate MK1 version, which whilst having nice clean lines and being significantly lighter than the MK2 version, was potentially not going to give enough bodywork to wheel clearance without using ridiculously long shocks. This version was made using the original steel plate MK1 and a cut up splash guard (normally site in front of the back wheel on an XS) that I had kicking around in the garage.
The plan was always to use this piece of the bike to try out some carbon fibre skinning to see if it would be a viable process to use on some of the bigger parts on the bike and to learn about "skinning" in the process.
Here are some photo's of the stages completed so far
The undertray ready for laminating and looking very "home built"
A layer of glass fibre was put on the back to hold it all together and give some structural strength (with hindsight this step could have been eliminated and replaced with a layer of carbon cloth)
Both front and back were given a coat of black epoxy base coat (each side was done seperately throughout the process) and left to cure for around 4-5 hours until it was virtually dry
A layer of 2/2 200g pro finish carbon cloth was applied to each side and given a very light coating of epoxy top coat which was left to fully cure (overnight) (in the interests of keeping this post as short as possible I'll only include photo's of one side, however all of the following steps were applied to both sides)
Once cured this was lightly rubbed down with 120 paper and then given 3-4 coats of epoxy top coat (leaving to go "tacky" between coats - around 3 hours for each coat)
Once these coats were fully cured, both sides were flattened off using 120 paper in preperation for a final coat of epoxy top coat
Top coat applied, this coat was kept warm with a fan heater and a hair dryer was used to draw out any air bubbles that may have got into the resin while I was mixing it
A close up of the finish after the final layer of epoxy top coat was applied
The next steps will be to flatten off the top coat with diminishing grades of wet and dry paper in preperation for a layer of 2K top coat or possibly polishing using different grades of polish (haven't decided which yet and need to experiment with both types of finish before commiting to either) Will post pics of the finished product installed with the seat once it is finished off.
Sorry for the long post, just thought I would share the carbon skinning process I used in case it was of interest to other forum users. This has definately been a useful learning experience which has informed how I am going to tackle some of the bigger bits on the bike.
Thanks for reading
Pixie
MotorbikeBruno
Over 1,000 Posts
Damnnnnnnnnn that's slick looking man! Great pics and info.
RustyOlive
Been Around the Block
Wow! How'd i miss this build?
Wicked job thus far.
I'll be watching more closely now. ;-)
Wicked job thus far.
I'll be watching more closely now. ;-)
cyclefreak
Over 1,000 Posts
Re: XS650 Cafe Project:
^^^Yep what he said^^^^
^^^Yep what he said^^^^
Cornish Pixie
Ambitious but rubbish cafe builder
Thanks for the positive comments guys, going to tackle skinning a slightly bigger part of the bike next, photo's when it's finished.
Cornish Pixie
Ambitious but rubbish cafe builder
Re: XS650 Cafe Project: Which fairing looks best?
Morning,
Yes I'm still alive and working on the XS (very slowly though
)
I recently acquired another fairing and screen which could be used on the XS. The fairing in question is a replica mid 70's Ducati 750/900ss item, which has a very classic look about it which may be more in keeping with the original intention of building something loosley based on the look of a TZ racer.
The fairing I have been using on the build so far is a cut up Ducati 748 item, which has a more "modern" look.
My question to you guys is; which fairing do you prefer? (I think I know which way I am going to jump, but I am curious to see what you guys think?)
A couple of shots of the bike as it stands with the modified 748 fairing (there are more elsewhere in this thread) the markings on the nose of the fairing are the approximate overall location of the oil cooler ventilation slots.
And a couple of the bike with the 750ss fairing loosley mock'd up (it will need to be placed about 5-6 inches further back towards the tank if it is fitted to the bike properly and the mounting bracket in these photo's is for the 748 fairing, which will be changed for a newly fab'd bracket to suit the fairing) which gives a rough idea of what it might look like.
Let me know what you think?
Oh....., I've since cleaned the garage up a bit as well :-[
Morning,
Yes I'm still alive and working on the XS (very slowly though
)I recently acquired another fairing and screen which could be used on the XS. The fairing in question is a replica mid 70's Ducati 750/900ss item, which has a very classic look about it which may be more in keeping with the original intention of building something loosley based on the look of a TZ racer.
The fairing I have been using on the build so far is a cut up Ducati 748 item, which has a more "modern" look.
My question to you guys is; which fairing do you prefer? (I think I know which way I am going to jump, but I am curious to see what you guys think?)
A couple of shots of the bike as it stands with the modified 748 fairing (there are more elsewhere in this thread) the markings on the nose of the fairing are the approximate overall location of the oil cooler ventilation slots.
And a couple of the bike with the 750ss fairing loosley mock'd up (it will need to be placed about 5-6 inches further back towards the tank if it is fitted to the bike properly and the mounting bracket in these photo's is for the 748 fairing, which will be changed for a newly fab'd bracket to suit the fairing) which gives a rough idea of what it might look like.
Let me know what you think?
Oh....., I've since cleaned the garage up a bit as well :-[
deepwaterimports
Over 1,000 Posts
that faring looks awesome mate i love those old school ducatti style ones.
deepwaterimports
Over 1,000 Posts
also where abouts is the faring from and did you have to make the mount or was sold with mate???
hurricane7
Been Around the Block
CP, as big a fan as I am of the '70s style fairings, I think the modern one is more fitting for your build.
Cornish Pixie
Ambitious but rubbish cafe builder
deepwaterimports said:
It came from Titan Performance (member on here) without the mounting bracket, which needs to be fabricated.
Cornish Pixie
Ambitious but rubbish cafe builder
Thanks for the feedback guys, much appreciated.
Have got the 750SS fairing mocked up on the bike at the moment and am spending some time in the garage over the coming days looking at it and deciding if I'm feelin' the love for it.
Any other views/opinions welcomed
Pixie
Have got the 750SS fairing mocked up on the bike at the moment and am spending some time in the garage over the coming days looking at it and deciding if I'm feelin' the love for it.
Any other views/opinions welcomed
Pixie
