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1981 XS400 Cafe Racer Project pretty much complete:
Benjies Fiberglass Dolphin series Tank and Seat
Vintage Firestone Champion Deluxe tires
Black powder coated rims
Custom open header exhaust
DurgamK universal solid peg rearset kit
Custom 2 into 1 intake with stock single Carb
Adjustable clipons
Dude ! I have been looking for some local Cafe riders to hook up with. I checked out your build, its coming along nicely too bad on the engine. Where at in Sioux City are you ? I am over in morningside.
Man that thing is so clean! Love the xs400 hopping to get mine on the road by the summer. Im just waiting on carbs... You wouldn't know anyone who has a set would you?
That bike is enough to drive a thinking man insane. It's a classic love hate thing.
I love the workmanship and hate the lack of functionality
Love high pipes and hate that they kill power and make lots of useless noise
Love the look of that intake and hate that it also kills upper end power
Love the light look and hate that no rear fender lets rocks, dust and water go straight into the carb
Love clean front end and hate that it has no fender or fork brace to keep it all in line.
Love the footpegs - Durgam makes nice parts.
Hate the useless tires. There's a reason people stopped fitting them to old cars years ago...
Love the clean little frame and hate those awful front lower engine brackets or whatever they are.
See what I mean. It does look great though. It would look great in a showroom or office lobby or photo studio or design company. I just wouldn't want to ride it.
That bike is enough to drive a thinking man insane. It's a classic love hate thing.
I love the workmanship and hate the lack of functionality
Love high pipes and hate that they kill power and make lots of useless noise
Love the look of that intake and hate that it also kills upper end power
Love the light look and hate that no rear fender lets rocks, dust and water go straight into the carb
Love clean front end and hate that it has no fender or fork brace to keep it all in line.
Love the footpegs - Durgam makes nice parts.
Hate the useless tires. There's a reason people stopped fitting them to old cars years ago...
Love the clean little frame and hate those awful front lower engine brackets or whatever they are.
See what I mean. It does look great though. It would look great in a showroom or office lobby or photo studio or design company. I just wouldn't want to ride it.
Thanks for the video. It looks great. Its always good when a creation can finally move under its own power. It's hard to tell on camera but I'm sure it is very loud.
I understand that, but there has to be a balance between looks and functionality and looks in my book can never be allowed to significantly compromise performance. There are always some trade offs, but to me, the emphasis on looks has made it basically non functional as a motorcycle.
The good news is that many of teh shortcomings can be overcome with very little detriment to the look and would bring it back into balance.
To me there is no point in spending time and money on converting a motorcycle form something perhaps boring but functional into something visually exciting and non-functional. I like to have a balanced blend of both and to be honest the balance for me is not always outright performance. All my bikes also have compromises and sometimes the look wins but it's how much functionality we're willing to sacrifice to look cool that makes the difference.
But it's not my bike. I'm just expressing the opinion that you could make it even better.
With all due respect, that's B/S. All loud pipes do is to annoy people.
That's not to say that bikes should all be at or below the crazy quiet legal limits, but really loud is just annoying. Like most things, there's a balance between what I think sounds racey and what is acceptable and neighborly. When I lived in Chicago there was a bunch of squids came past multiple times at night on their GSXR/Ninja/CBR things and many had gutted pipes. The noise was enough to wake the dead.
On more than one occasion I was asked by other angry residents if that noise was me and my @*&%$ motorcycle that woke them up.
@riotten22, did you have the seat custom made by benjis? The reason I ask: I have seen the benjis body work on other bikes and the seats seem shorter than yours and I know that benji has done custom one off seats for people before.
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