xs650 Caferacer - Brake upgrade!

[stange_dk]

Hi all,

I've been a member here since October 2007 when I met a guy with a red honda CB caferacer on College St W in T.O. I'm Danish but I was there for studies...

so, last spring I got a good deal on a 1975 XS650 standard from a guy who had owned it in almost 10 years and NEVER changed oil! But the engine (miraculously) did not make any bad noises so I went for it. The petcocks were both spilling gasoline when turned to "on" but only dripping when on reserve, the iginition timing was in no man's land and the front brake only pretended to brake when activated. so I had to take the ride home begging that the d*** thing wouldn't catch fire and explode on the highway.

But I got it home. It could only start when cold and it fired out of the mufflers and kicked like a mule. When hot, the engine would NOT start...

I got rid of the whole ignition and installed boyer, got some petcock repair kits and got the front brake to work. Changed oil and filters and gave it a mild cafe treatment (clubmans and lucas tail light). Then rode it as a rat bike for the rest of the season. Of course it let me down on a longer trip through Sweden where it stopped charging the battery. Luckily my brother who has had similar problems on his 1974 cb 550 had a charger so I got it home and after installing new brushes and cleaning the connections on the almost-rotted-away wiring harness I had plenty of power to the battery.

But since I really wanted a caferacer and my 1971 T500 is too original to modify I went all in. I have a thread at the XS garage with the transformation so far: http://xs650temp.proboards29.com/index.cgi?board=project&action=display&thread=4881

but here's a recap:

as I got it

light cafe mods

XS750 tank installed on "reversed" original rubber mounts

mockup

tear-down

how it looks now... soon to roam the streets

Thank you all for lots of inspiration.. by the way, the seat has cost less than $10. I will post a seat-making thread when it's all done .


stange

 

[HerrDeacon]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

.. by the way, the seat has cost less than $10. I will post a seat-making thread when it's all done .

Please do, would love to hear more about it. Looks awesome. I love seeing different methods of making stuff.

 

[Mortikan]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

Did you cut down the front fender or did the previous owner? looking real nice. I have a 73 tx 650, good bikes

 

[stange_dk]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

Did you cut down the front fender or did the previous owner? looking real nice. I have a 73 tx 650, good bikes

the PO cut the gray front fender in the before picture. what you can't see is that the fender had been rusting to pieces and was more or less held together by bondo :-X

The caferacer will get a nice, original chrome 1975 fender that I found on ebay

 

[stange_dk]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

since I dont have a seat cowl to hide all the electrical stuff I made this little tray that uses the original rubber mounts = less vibration.

because it's open in the front the rectifier and regulator should be cooled by the wind. If not, I guess I'll have a seat warmer 8)

by the way, here's the rims I am about to rebuild. They sure need some TLC

 

[Mortikan]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

very nice I remember rebuilding mine and what a pain. I am rebuilding a front drum hub now. I don't know what I was thinking but It's coming out nice.
where are you going to locate the battery?

 

[Tim]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

That's a great little tray - exactly what I'm planning, but alas I removed all my mounting tabs

I had a couple of plates welded on though, so I'm good to go. I'm probably going to hang mine from the plates across the seat tubes, with socket cap bolts and long spacers in the box area.

Looks great! The wheels are fun. What are your plans? I had the anodizing stripped off mine and then polished. Next one I build would get black powdercoating instead.

 

[stange_dk]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

very nice I remember rebuilding mine and what a pain. I am rebuilding a front drum hub now. I don't know what I was thinking but It's coming out nice.
where are you going to locate the battery?

That's still a big headache. The thing is that I am planning to scrap the whole XS650 charging system and convert to yamaha RD 350 rotor and stator, which will eliminate the battery. But I will not do it right now, so I guess that I will strap a small lead battery onto something as a temporary solution.. maybe hang it under the "V" in the frame behind the carbs...

 

[stange_dk]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

That's a great little tray - exactly what I'm planning, but alas I removed all my mounting tabs

I had a couple of plates welded on though, so I'm good to go. I'm probably going to hang mine from the plates across the seat tubes, with socket cap bolts and long spacers in the box area.

Looks great! The wheels are fun. What are your plans? I had the anodizing stripped off mine and then polished. Next one I build would get black powdercoating instead.

I have cut the spokes and will get the wheels blasted. Then the hubs will be painted black and the rims polished.. I dont know how much they will charge for polishing - if it is too expensive, I'll have to do it myself 8)

 

[Tim]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

Polishing isn't cheap when you have it done. I think I paid about $60 per rim.

Be careful blasting the rims if you're going to polish them - it may make it 10x the effort to get a smooth finish again as the blasting will pit the alloy pretty badly.

I'd take them in as-is to the polisher to get their recommendation. I had my rims stripped chemically to remove the anodizing. Some people would probably just take it off as part of a more aggressive polishing process.

 

[jay_kent]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

starting to look good.

 

[shoe48]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

You do nice work .. ;D ;D

 

[saucer]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

hey i remember you, last summer, i was trying to get my 360 started on college, nice to see you join, great project you have going, good work,i sold my cb earlier this year, starting over with this, same bike, different pipes,more polishing,

 

[stange_dk]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

hey i remember you, last summer, i was trying to get my 360 started on college, nice to see you join, great project you have going, good work,i sold my cb earlier this year, starting over with this, same bike, different pipes,more polishing,

first of all: thanks! and yes that was me on college st. I just can't pass a cafe racer on the street without hearing a bit about it. I think I have pictures of your bike somewhere ;D

well, I'll be back when I have some shots of the wheels...

 

[stange_dk]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

So, the wheels and rims are at the glass blaster and I decided to let a professional painter give the gas tank the old school silver flake paint job. I would have to invest too much money in equipment to be able to do it myself and having zero experience with painting I chose to pay for getting it right the first time. So I'm really exctied to see what I get!

Tomorrow I'm off for Toronto, Canada for 10 days vacation, so if anyone there wants to show off their creations, I'm would be happy to see your bikes

- stange

 

[stange_dk]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

So, I'm back after a vacation and managed to catch a few hours of work today: Got the "instrument panel" made

"on/off" and tacho.. who needs more? ;D

still waiting for my gas tank.. cant wait to see it!

 

[stange_dk]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

@tintin: yes, I did use the original dustcaps and I needed some force (plastic hammer) to get it into place. I greased it all up, rested the swing arm just above the holes for the bolt and then slowly knocked it into place. It's a tight fit but rather that than play in the swing arm...

@sure: thanks.. I have put some hours into the project ;-)

well, I got my rims back from glass blasting, which is good and bad. Good because they're clean. Bad because I can now see how the 30+ years have eaten the alu... The rims look like the surface of the moon :-[

here they are

I'm still thinking about what to do... I'll figure it out during the weekend. Just got my new Avons and I'm dying to get the wheels done.

I bought some pretty expensive Hammerite ($20) black spray paint and made a little "paint booth" on my balcony:

then the hubs got 5 coats...

and I think it came out really nice! the paint is expensive but it's thick, leaves a shiny finish and covers the worst of the rough aluminium surface. I also painted my frame with this stuff and I recommend it to anyone who thinks that the powdercoating is too heavy a cost.

I also bought some cable, fuses and connectors so I'm giving the wiring harness a try this weekend... uh oh

 

[Tim]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

What did they blast the rims with? They may have gone to town to try and remove the anodized finish. I had mine stripped before polishing.

Were you going to polish or paint the rims? Polishing seems out of the question now - powder might smooth things out, or maybe that thick paint you have going. It looks pretty good! Is it dry in those pics? Any baking in the oven needed?

 

[Druro]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

I've found that powder coat makes a hella difference on pitted wheels. Mine look awful going in (tons of pitting + abrasive blasting) and gold coming out (2 coats of Powder, 1 red, 1 clear).

For me, wasn't too bad... had the rims done plus all the spokes for 150$ (spokes with one coat in black). I think the fellow quoted me about 70-80 for the rims.

 

[Speed2XS]

Re: xs650: from granpa's donkey to caferacer

What did they blast the rims with? They may have gone to town to try and remove the anodized finish.

+1. I had some car wheels blasted once and the guy showed me a "sample" of an aluminum piece he had blasted, which looked smooth and shiny. After I got my wheel back they looked very much like your rims, more of a texture than a pitting.