Search results

The XS400 project has been mothballed. I hope to get back to it later this year. I've gotten sidetracked by some vintage trials bikes, a 1967 BSA Shooting Star and a 1987 Yamaha SRX 250.

The best alternative I've found that's like EvapoRust or Metal Rescue is Rust911. http://www.rust911.com/ It costs $60.00 for a gallon of concentrate that makes 16 gallons of solution.

This is the reason. I remember shortening slides at my uncle's Yamaha shop back in the 70's. It was all about complying with license or insurance horsepower restrictions in some locales a particular model was sold.

It also has ground and backlight wires. So, in total there are four wires: switched power, ground, coil and backlight. The backlight is kinda too bright at night.

Here it is.

It connects to a wire going to the coil, not the spark plug wire. Not a noticable lag. I can shoot a video tomorrow if anyone's interested in seeing it in operation.

Here's a link to the one I bought from Dime City Cycle. I think the brand is "Bikers Choice" which is available though lots of places.

I used an electronic tach on my SR250 cafe. Works well.

I turned the air pressure way down and bead blasted them.

I've used a the "Vermont registration" technique a couple of times to get old bikes titled and back on the road in Massachusetts. For bikes of the right age, it's a great money saving bureaucratic bypass. In Massachusetts, if you don't have a previous registration or title, you're pretty much SOL.

Other projects have kept me from making any progress on the bike recently. Hope to get back to it soon. All of the fabrication is done. The bike is ready to be disassembled for cleaning and paint. I picked up the upholstered seat today. Here are a few photos with the decals and stripe mockups...

I have a stock tank in Massachusetts. Blue & rusty on the outside, clean on the inside (last time I looked), no dents.

The foil is adhesive backed and sticks on it's own. Had I given the emblem enough time to cure, I don't think the foil would have wrinkled. I used 2K automotive paint and figured 24 hours and an afternoon in the sun was enough time. The tech data sheet said it would dry in 60 minutes. There is...

Your pen work looks good, even better than the foil. I was worried about pen strokes and already had the foil, so I decided to give it a try. Here's a closeup. The wrinkles in the foil didn't appear until several hours after applying it. They appeared before it was clear coated. I think maybe...

On my SRX600, the finish on emblems with the word “YAMAHA” were damaged. I would have replaced them if new ones weren’t so damn expensive. List price for one of these plastic emblems is $55.00 each (or $36.00 mail order). I decided to try refinishing them and am happy enough with the result...

Here's my SR250 cafe, I didn't post a build diary on dotheton. However, you can find it here.

I found a whole non-running bike for $75.00 on Craigslist. Once a breaker gets ahold of a bike and starts selling it off a piece at a time, there are no bargains in my experience. The xs400.com forums are a good place to look for parts.

I put the wheels and forks from an XS400 Seca on my SR250. Everything bolted right on. Just had to add a brake arm and get a custom rear sprocket made with the XS400 bolt pattern. The XS400 has a 530 chain. The build blog for my SR250 is here.

I buy most of my nuts and bolts from belmetric.com and boltdepot.com. Belmetric is 15 minutes away, so they're very handy. Boltdepot is also in MA, but has more stuff. I think both of these places has stainless acorn nuts.

If you're still looking, I have a rectangular one from an 82 Yamaha XS400 Seca. The housing is plastic. It's roughly 6x8. The distance between mounts is about 7.5". Chrome is in decent shape.