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Much like Cafe-XV750 on this forum, I too was inspired by the Zero tribute XV750, so much so that I started looking on the net, bought a bike and started work on it last Monday night (17/05/10) after work.
This is how the bike looked in my garage, only thing I've done here was to remove the Dririder saddlebags:
You can see the patch on the rear brake drum cover where I ran the wire wheel, the paint is so old it came of very easily.
This last one you can see I started to polish the alloy engine case, the chrome is long gone so it will be a case of polishing the alloy and stripping back the chrome where it's still around.
Here are some pics taken on the 18th after my night of taking bits off the bike:
I took some more pics on Saturday with the bike literally in bits, engine out, wheels off...everything. I'll post them up along with other pics and progress updates as I go
Good start, you're really getting into it now. Was thinking of picking one of these up myself but decided I want another two-stroke after learning on an Aprilia RS125.
You planning many engine/drivetrain mods or mainly cosmetic stuff?
Cosmetic stuff really, the engine is so underpowerd as is and you can't change the final drive (easily anyway) I didn't think there's mush point spending heaps of cash getting a few hp out of it.
It's got less power than me 300 2 stroke dirt bike ;D
Wouldn't be surprised hahaha... although I bet the 750 will be quite nice to cruise around on with the torquey v-twin. And don't knock a 'few hp' - they have a tendancy to add up over time. Even simple stuff like advanced ignition timing, high output coils, inductive leads and new spark plugs will give you better performance, and if you keep on going a bit at a time then sooner or later you might end up with a bit of a monster.
Still, nothing wrong with having a cool looking, torquey, v-twin powered cafe
Some pictures taken on Sunday morning after my work on Saturday:
The frame needs a lot of girnding, welding and smoothing. The top triple clamps are gonna be taken to with the grinder as well.
I have had a bit of an attempt at cleaning the engine up, the fins and heads look nowhere near that clean, must be the flash. However, the bottom end and crank cases look a lot better. Plenty more elbow grease required on that front though.
Brake cleaner takes off the factory paint on the aluminum bits VERY easily ... I was just doing some cleaning and found that out the hard way and had to repaint some things.
How did it run? Do you have any of the 1st Gen starter or charging gremlins?
As well, you may be short changing that engine as far as power is concerned. Much of the problem actually comes from pork and much.......porky bike on mushy suspension. You're well on your way to lightening it up so that's good. Spend some time (and a little money) on good suspension. If you firm things up and trim some of the chub, that engine will be able to do it's job much better.
Skim the heads 25 thousandths, clean up the ports, a set of cams and some VM34 carbs and that'll be a completely different animal.
More work at the weekend. The rear brake cover isn't finished but is getting there.
Stator side cover :
Stator side:
This was painted black:
Halfway through the tank revealed some big dents:
Clutch side:
Dan the fork technician:
Heated, chopped and bent spring:
Removal of steel breather tubes:
Sparks down my shoes making me dance like a ballerina:
Cafe XV750 - As can been seen above I dig have a look at the starter gear as it did have the box of rocks sound. It doesn't have any shims so I will get one made up. The bendix/throwout gear is a little worn on the flywheel engagement side but should be okay with the spacer fitted. Otherwise I'll be looking for a new gear. It ran fine when I picked it up, the next day it didn't fir on the front cylinder for about 45 minutes whilst riding home and was backfiring heaps. 45 minutes in though she came good and rode very well. Engine sounded quite tight.
Swagger - You are correct, I am just used to my dirt bike that has more power and weighs 100Kg! I don't need it to be a super speedy racer, there are plenty of other bikes I could bought if I wanted to go fast. Once the build is sorted though I may look to spruce her up on the engine side down the track...
Well, it looks as though there are several of us with XV projects, eh? Are you doing the rear to front conversion? My project is springing to life as my wheels were just coated. I'm picking them up Monday. My project tear down started two whole years ago and life sort of got in the way, yada, yada, yada. In those two years, I began to veer away from Englebert's bike and towards Sepp Koch's designs. Most recently, I discovered Sunny Zhao's XV commission on Johnny Rylands cool-ass blog, http://johnryland.posterous.com The Zhao bike hit me like a sack full of quarters. That is now where my XV is headed. The major expense I'm looking at is a full R1 front end. Once that hurdle is overcome and the bike's stance is set, then I can determine the final look. Every time I look at the XV, I think it could go one of two ways, bobber or cafe.
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