83 XV920 - yeah it's a virago, but not for long

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this. I wish I could say I finished the bike and was to busy working on it to update, but no. Work, family, garden, everything seems to get in the way of bike building. Anyway, I have made a bit more progress. Last time I checked in, I had welded up a subframe and was posting for opinions on it. I finished up the subframe, welded in more gussets, put on a pan to mount electronics/seat. I also picked up a taillight/lisence plate mount off ebay and welded a mount for it:

subframe1-1.jpg


Next thing was to suck it up and start on the seat. It's been years since I've worked on fiberglass, and I have been dreading this part. I finally figured I would just try one and see how it comes out. I can always ditch it and start over. First was the mold.

seatmold1.jpg


seatmold3.jpg


Little bit of fiberglass. Side note, I had some fabric on hand, but I saw most on DTT used matt. I went and got some matt - man that sucks to work with. I ended up using both - matt in the flat sections, and woven fabric on the corners. This is after 3 layers of each:

seatmold4.jpg


At that point I pulled the seat off the mold. It didn't want to come at first, but a bit of persuasion and it was off. Bad news, it was still quite flexible. Worse news, I was out of fiberglass and had too many beers to run to the store. Solution: I have a ton of carbon fiber woven fabric left over from car stero days years ago. Two more layers of CF and it looks pretty good. Well, no, it actually looks like shit, but it's sturdy, and ready for smoothing. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture at this point. Next came a ton of filler and even more sanding. If/when I redo this, I'm planning on building a wood mold, and vacuum bagging over the top of it. This should cut out much of the filler. As I stated above, this first one is a test to see if I like the shape/size.
 
After a bunch of filling, it's starting to take shape. Still needs more, but it's good enough to start working on other areas. One of which is mounting the light. I orginally wanted to mount the light under the tail, but wasn't sure of clearance. Decided to mount it behind the frame hoop.

seatcowl.jpg


seatcowllight.jpg


Not totally in love with it, but I think it will grow on me.
 
While working on the seat, I've been sandblasting and painting all the bits and pieces. Frame first - man this is a funky looking frame!

paintedframe.jpg


and subframe

paintedswingarm.jpg


Also did all the front end parts.

At that point, I had a dilemma with the wheels. The front wheel was from a Seca 650 Turbo. The rear was from a Vision 550. While the style matched, the seca was cast and polished while the vision was black and polished. I decided I liked the contrast, but wanted a semi gloss black and polished look. After a bunch of masking, I'm really happy how they turned out once I spooned on the tires. I should mention, the front tire came with the front end, and is checked, but good enough for mock ups. I'll be replacing it before it's on the road.

wheels1.jpg


wheels2.jpg
 
All that catches me up to today. With the day off and the wife and kid busy, I had the shop to myself. On to the next issue - providing clearance for the clip ons. I've never purposely dented a tank, and was a bit nervous about it. Figured the best way to deal with the situation was to put on some angry music and go to town. The tank is beat to hell on every side anyway, so the worst I can do is have to replace it with another. I marked it out, grabbed a plastic tipped hammer, and started on the first side. It went pretty easy, but I was reluctant to go to far, also, I was scared of splitting the seam.

tankdents.jpg


A couple trial fits, some more pounding, etc - it's close. As you can see, this wasn't the first repair the tank had seen. The top looks like it was caved in a bit a while ago, and fixed. I filled in the rest of the spots, and we'll se what it looks like with fresh paint.

tank1.jpg


While waiting for filler to cure, I figured out a place to mount the shock adjuster. There really was no great place, but this gets it out of the way. I don't care for the cables running beside the frame, but for now it'll do. Down the road, there may be a different shock in there which will do away with the adjuster. I could have done away with it, but figured the suspension might need all the help it can get!

adjuster1.jpg


adjuster2.jpg
 
Here she is so far:

roller.jpg


roll3.jpg


roll2.jpg


Seat doesn't seem to be lining up as well as it did on the mold, will have some tweaking to do. As always, comments, critique, suggestions welcome!
 
Nice work Duck - thanx for the updates - motivates those of us who......need motivation !

Just a thought, if there are no legal issues, how about part Frenching the light through the rear of the hump ? Tidies the rear end and still allows clearance.
 
I hope a Virago shows up in my future. I love the natural swoosh look of them when they are cafe'd. It would need to have those swoosh type rims too. I think XJ maybe?
 
I was actually thinking the same thing as beachcomber there about frenching the taillight, it would definitely help with the look of it.
 
I really admire the way the seatpan is splahed up to the tank. What did you you t prenvent he resin from adhering to the tank?
 
gentlemanjim said:
I really admire the way the seatpan is splahed up to the tank. What did you you t prenvent he resin from adhering to the tank?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the Dunstall tank cover I bought for my Cafe Racer "Vindicator" just won't work out - unless I do a complete revamp. In that case I might as well continue with my AJS 7R styled buck.

However, I was playing around with a stock tank yesterday and took a parallel line across the bottom [ where the upward curve is ], raised the back slightly to bring the bottom of the tank level - and it changes the whole image !

I've got a spare tank so I might try that with a steel infill / bondo at the bottom and at the same time lose the pressed seams all round the extremity of the tank. Then swap in my Brass Monza gas cap and the Manx stainless strap...yep I'll try that.

Jim - don't forget those pix you were going to send me !!!!!!
 
I'm humbled by the compliment - but I must say, your TR1 build was the first one I saw when I started down this road - IT provided me the motivation to get going.

As for frenching it in, I had thought about it, and I'm thinking that will be a part of seat/subframe #2. If I go that route, I do have to figure a way to iluminate the tag, but that shouldn't be too much issue.

Thanks again!



beachcomber said:
Nice work Duck - thanx for the updates - motivates those of us who......need motivation !

Just a thought, if there are no legal issues, how about part Frenching the light through the rear of the hump ? Tidies the rear end and still allows clearance.
Click to expand...
 
I thought about keeping the swoopy wheels, but in the end I hated that 16" rear, and wanted closer matching front and rear. The XV's had 16" rears, not sure about the XJ's/XS's.

Really? said:
I hope a Virago shows up in my future. I love the natural swoosh look of them when they are cafe'd. It would need to have those swoosh type rims too. I think XJ maybe?
Click to expand...
 
Blue painters tape, waxed with paste wax. Epoxy came right off.

gentlemanjim said:
I really admire the way the seatpan is splahed up to the tank. What did you you t prenvent he resin from adhering to the tank?
Click to expand...
 
DuckHunterJon said:
I thought about keeping the swoopy wheels, but in the end I hated that 16" rear, and wanted closer matching front and rear. The XV's had 16" rears, not sure about the XJ's/XS's.
Click to expand...

XJ/XS bikes have 16" rear wheels. I like your choice.
 
The XS750/850 had really nice looking 7 spoke alloys, and the standard version had an 18" rear that can be fitted to your swingarm.
An SR500 cast front wheel is 18" and can support two discs....
 
I've seen a few really cool Virago builds and they make me want to pick one up off CL. You aren't helping any.
 
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