Hello guys!
I am Lasse, 23, from Denmark, maritime engineering student.
I have been browsing the forum some time now, and seen various projects and thought I'd chime in a bit.
My bike is a Yamaha XS650 from the mid-seventies, I haven't been able to date it precisely due to mismatching parts. The bike is pretty much build from stock parts, although mismatched years. No bodge jobs so far.
The pictures will be shitty right now, as I only have my HTC Legend for a camera.
The shop:
Love it!
Present:
- Dragbars. The bike came with some apehangers and chrome/foam grips, yuck.
- PAMCO ignition. Suppossed to be one of the best electronic ignitions, so lets see.
- Brit-style headlight. When I got the bike it had a weird flatback kind of plastic headlight which had cracked in several places, so I got one from Mikes, good price, H4, what's not to love? Although I would prefer it in gloss black, which should happen someday.
- Service. New oil, filters, a link off the rear chain, a good general service.
- Miscellaneous. Shorter clutch and gascables to go with the shorter bar. Shorter brakelines too, braided SS ofcourse.
- Wiring. Alot of shitty wiring has been done to this bike, it's amazing with all these dead ends and general fuck-ups that it was even running. I am no electronic mastermind, but I know the basics. So I figured instead of spending ages going through the harness, to just get a new one. Not so simple though, because no numbers match the bike I have. So I have removed the bad connecters for stuff I don't use like flasher relay etc. Removed the old tape and re-taped it. An optimal solution would have been to have some shrinking rubber (What's the english word) over the harness, but I didn't want to pull it all apart, riding season is coming up, and tape is easy to make repairs on, or if I want to run flashers some day.
I don't plan to make it a full on cafe like Tim's XS, mine needs to see some distance use and riding in the alps, France, Italy etc.
Future:
Tank and seat:
I am in a little wrenching community and one of the guys are racing a bevel Ducati. He had an old tank and seat from the seventies which I am trying out. The setup reminds me of a CR750, but the hump is made for a small 250cc, so in scale it is probably 10-20% too small to be usable. I am thinking a squareish hump, maybe with an integrated numberplate, CR750'ish or a manx-like seat.
The pictures you see are just mock-ups, the tank is laying on the bike, seat too. Ultimately I would like the underside of the tank to be level with the framerails, but space is tight in the tunnel. Also I don't think the seat is matching the tank at all.
So I was thinking that there might be a way to soften cured glassfibre and space it out abit and then re-curing?
Pipes:
The pipes are something I'd like to change too. I am thinking a set of high pipes, one on each side, springmounted on a brassflange I will turning up on the lathe.
Footrests:
Rearsets is a must too if running this combination, as I will be forced too much backwards to comfortably use the normal footrests.
Instruments:
I think I own the ugliest instruments in the whole wide world, I mean, the guy who came up should be instantly fired. So I am thinking mini instruments, if! If the ignition switch isn't too complicated to relocate.
Mudguards:
Running sans mudguard is not an option, by that I mean, that there needs to be something on the inside, but not neccesarily something sticking out behind. I find it quite tricky to find a something suitable. The OEM rear mudguard is a monster in size, so I am considering what to do.
For the front MikesXS have a decent "sport" version, which would fall in like with the CR750 theme.
There is no time scale really, I will try to do it so I can keep the bike running the whole time. If I should choose the tank and seat combo I want to be able to go stock in a few minutes so I can go on a trip or the likes.
I am Lasse, 23, from Denmark, maritime engineering student.
I have been browsing the forum some time now, and seen various projects and thought I'd chime in a bit.
My bike is a Yamaha XS650 from the mid-seventies, I haven't been able to date it precisely due to mismatching parts. The bike is pretty much build from stock parts, although mismatched years. No bodge jobs so far.
The pictures will be shitty right now, as I only have my HTC Legend for a camera.
The shop:
Love it!
Present:
- Dragbars. The bike came with some apehangers and chrome/foam grips, yuck.
- PAMCO ignition. Suppossed to be one of the best electronic ignitions, so lets see.
- Brit-style headlight. When I got the bike it had a weird flatback kind of plastic headlight which had cracked in several places, so I got one from Mikes, good price, H4, what's not to love? Although I would prefer it in gloss black, which should happen someday.
- Service. New oil, filters, a link off the rear chain, a good general service.
- Miscellaneous. Shorter clutch and gascables to go with the shorter bar. Shorter brakelines too, braided SS ofcourse.
- Wiring. Alot of shitty wiring has been done to this bike, it's amazing with all these dead ends and general fuck-ups that it was even running. I am no electronic mastermind, but I know the basics. So I figured instead of spending ages going through the harness, to just get a new one. Not so simple though, because no numbers match the bike I have. So I have removed the bad connecters for stuff I don't use like flasher relay etc. Removed the old tape and re-taped it. An optimal solution would have been to have some shrinking rubber (What's the english word) over the harness, but I didn't want to pull it all apart, riding season is coming up, and tape is easy to make repairs on, or if I want to run flashers some day.
I don't plan to make it a full on cafe like Tim's XS, mine needs to see some distance use and riding in the alps, France, Italy etc.
Future:
Tank and seat:
I am in a little wrenching community and one of the guys are racing a bevel Ducati. He had an old tank and seat from the seventies which I am trying out. The setup reminds me of a CR750, but the hump is made for a small 250cc, so in scale it is probably 10-20% too small to be usable. I am thinking a squareish hump, maybe with an integrated numberplate, CR750'ish or a manx-like seat.
The pictures you see are just mock-ups, the tank is laying on the bike, seat too. Ultimately I would like the underside of the tank to be level with the framerails, but space is tight in the tunnel. Also I don't think the seat is matching the tank at all.
So I was thinking that there might be a way to soften cured glassfibre and space it out abit and then re-curing?
Pipes:
The pipes are something I'd like to change too. I am thinking a set of high pipes, one on each side, springmounted on a brassflange I will turning up on the lathe.
Footrests:
Rearsets is a must too if running this combination, as I will be forced too much backwards to comfortably use the normal footrests.
Instruments:
I think I own the ugliest instruments in the whole wide world, I mean, the guy who came up should be instantly fired. So I am thinking mini instruments, if! If the ignition switch isn't too complicated to relocate.
Mudguards:
Running sans mudguard is not an option, by that I mean, that there needs to be something on the inside, but not neccesarily something sticking out behind. I find it quite tricky to find a something suitable. The OEM rear mudguard is a monster in size, so I am considering what to do.
For the front MikesXS have a decent "sport" version, which would fall in like with the CR750 theme.
There is no time scale really, I will try to do it so I can keep the bike running the whole time. If I should choose the tank and seat combo I want to be able to go stock in a few minutes so I can go on a trip or the likes.
