XS650 Cafe Project:

[Cornish Pixie]

Hi

Thought I would start a thread for my upcoming XS650 cafe and classic track day build.

I've had the pile of bits that makes up the "donor bike" probably fpr around 4 years and never got around to doing anything with it, but a move of house and a relatively empty garage mean that I am now able to get on with the build.

Four years is a long time to ponder on what you want a project bike to end up like and trust me this thing has been many things in my mind during that period

The look I will be trying to achieve with this build is a vaguely a naked TZ inspired bike based around the OW19 and OW23 TZ500 racers, although don't be too hard on me if I end up going a little off course during the build!

The tank and seat are being custom made in alloy and are on order with a scheduled delivery date some time around Jan 2012 the tank is being based on the early TZ500 tank and the seat unit is going to be a blend of OW19 and OW23 (can't wait to get these items)

I am steadily accumulating bits and the garage is starting to look like quite good as it fills up with various bits and pieces and I think we are now ready to start the builld. I'm hoping to finish the build around May 2012 and look forward to sharing it with you guys.

Anyway, enough talking here are a couple of photo's of the donor bike and one of the "inspiration" for the build.

Will add more photos as the build gets underway.

Here's the donor bike with the XS850 tank I got from pugeyed got as a spare for track work. It's kind of low, stumpy and a bit of a "loose" handler at the moment

and another

and some mid 70's Yamaha porn

I can't imagine this project will finish up looking like the TZ, but hopefully their will be some recognisable TZ styling cues on the finished bike. Let the fun commence!

 

[Cornish Pixie]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

Had a little time to start pulling the old girl apart today.

First job was to get her on the lift and get her to a more comfortable height for working on.

I try to be quite methodical when I'm working so decided to start at the front and work backwards stripping the front end and removing the electrical wiring and components today.

Found an awaful lot of these throughout the loom

As the loom has had a few additions over the last 30 odd years I decided to label each connector or break in the loom as I went through it.
The end result looked like this so that hopefully I can piece it all back together in the unlikely event that I choose to reuse the stock loom.

So a bit of progress today and hopefully the end of this week should see it stripped down to bare frame and the bare bones of the engine still in situ.

Thinking about doing a monoshock conversion on this one, so if anyone has any experience or info thay can share, it would be most gratefully received.

Happy building and riding - Pixie

 

[Cornish Pixie]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

A bit more progress today. Finished stripping the bulk of the wiring out and all of the stuff in the middle of the bike like air filters, battery box etc.

It struck me today as I was packing the wiring loom and electrical components how needlesly complicated the XS650's electrics had become by 1979, theres a lot of wiring in one of these bikes, when you consider how basic the bike actually is.

Pic's of todays progress, feels like I'm making progress with the strip down now. The orange areas on the frame are the various brackets etc that are destined for a date with the great XS graveyard and will no longer be wieghing down Pixies XpresS.

Next jobs are finish stripping down, start to test fit the RD wheels, start lopping off surplus brackets and decide what route I am going down with the swinging arm.

 

[50gary]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

I did a mono-shock conversion on my XS650 back in 2004 worked out quite well.
Cheers, 50gary
Arte Primitivo...

 

[jeff4uk]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

Great start man will look forward to seeing this finished( did you see the TZs at brands this wekend ?)

 

[Cornish Pixie]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

Great start man will look forward to seeing this finished( did you see the TZs at brands this wekend ?)

Hi, I missed that as I was at VMCC autojumble at Shepton Mallet trying to source parts.

I suspect it will end up looking more cafe than TZ but hopefully it will have enough TZ styling cues when it's finished to be able to think I achieved at least part of the look I set out to get

 

[scm]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

test fit the RD wheels

Are you gonna use the nice 7 spoked cast wheels?
I think they'd look good with that 70s TZ style!

Best regards
Sven

 

[Cornish Pixie]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

I did a mono-shock conversion on my XS650 back in 2004 worked out quite well.
Cheers, 50gary
Arte Primitivo...

Would be interested in any info or links to build threads etc if you are happy to share info on what and how you sorted the rear end of yours.

Can pay in tea, biscuits and beer, when your in my neck of the woods

 

[Cornish Pixie]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

Are you gonna use the nice 7 spoked cast wheels?
I think they'd look good with that 70s TZ style!

Best regards
Sven

Hi Sven

Have got a couple of sets of 18 inch cast mags off of late RD400's which I am going to have powder coated gold and try out. Should look similar to a '78 or '79 TZ500/750 wheel?

 

[50gary]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

My XS650 is listed as bike #1401 here; http://www.650motorcycles.com/

 

[jchrisk1]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

Can't wait to see how this comes out. Sounds like a good one. I likes me some xs650's. Do you want to sell the 850 tank? If so, PM me a price. Thanks.

 

[Cornish Pixie]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

My XS650 is listed as bike #1401 here; http://www.650motorcycles.com/

Cheers Gary, much appreciated.

Very cool bike you built, loads of work obviously went into it. Much respect.

Pixie

 

[Cornish Pixie]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project

Realised that I've been a bit tardy with updates to this thread so here is a bit of an update.

I've been working at what should probably be desccribed as "snail like progress", however I think "slow and steady" sounds better

Actual work on the bike has been focused on a combination of de-lugging and removing surplus bits of frame such as rear footrest hangers etc and mocking up of components to measure up for things like rear wheel spacers, exhaust and mountings for brake calipers etc.

Pretty much all of the de-lugging is done now, I've got one small bracket to take off and that job will be complete.

quite a lot of the major components for the build have been bought or ordered now, so e bay activity has slowed down a bit now. Recently bought components include the ignition which is an Electrex world race set up, Mikuni VM36's, a set of secondhand rebuildable Marzocchi shocks, some Brembo calipers for the front and back, one of Pandemonium choppers front Brembo caliper mounting kits, a whole heap of Ducati 916 fairing brackets and a pattern 916 upper nose cone.

Here are a few pics taken over the last few weeks

mocking up the Radian swing arm and 18 inch RD400 wheel to measure for wheel and sprocket spacers (everything marked with orange paint is no longer on the frame having fallen prey to the grinder )

Mocking up (very very loosely) the VM36's and rear sets to measure up for the exhaust and check for clearance around carb and rear set area. I won't be using these filters on the final build and have managed to find some dead cheap and very slim trumpets for them.

Marzocchi's and the Brembo caliper that is going on the rear, sitting patiently waiting to be rebuilt and refinished (I've managed to source a full set of decals for the shocks including the ones for the reseviour)

And lastly, some shots of the 916 fairing very loosly mocked up (what did we do before cable ties and gaffer tape ) I'm using my XS850 tank for mocking up and these photo's highlight what a big tank these things are. I'm quite pleased with how the fairing looks in mock up guise, although final positioning is likely to be a little different and the tank is sitting about threequarters to an inch high in these photo's so the bottom of the tank and the bottom of the fairing will probably line up a bit better.

Riders view?

Hopefully it won't be to long before work on making it all look shiny and clean can commence.

Thanks for reading

 

[Cornish Pixie]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project: Preview of exhaust build pics added

DTT exclusive pics sent to me from Dan at Pandemonium Choppers of the first phase of the build of my exhaust. This is work in progress and their is still work to be completed on it, but I couldn't resist sharing the pics ;D.

The exhaust is on Dan's shop bike as he is in Ohio and I'm in the UK, making working on my bike a little difficult . Anyway hope you enjoy, I'm stoked with progress so far.

 

[Cornish Pixie]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project: Preview of exhaust build pics added

A couple more photo's that Dan sent over last night, showing how the exhaust exits on the right hand side of the bike

 

[diesel450]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project: Preview of exhaust build pics added

Love the XS's! Watching along, Welcome aboard too!

 

[50gary]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project: Preview of exhaust build pics added

Are you going to relocated the foot pegs? Could end up with warm legs from the pipes? They look cool though.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers, 50gary

 

[Cornish Pixie]

Re: XS650 Cafe and Classic track day Project: Preview of exhaust build pics added

Cheers for the comments guys.

Warm legs? Inevitable I think, although when the pipes are wrapped I think the left hand side shouldn't be to bad. The right hand side should exit just (only just LOL) behind my leg. The rear sets I'm using are quite high and help push the leg out of the way a bit. To be honest this is one aspect of the build where style won over function because I wanted to do something different.

 

[Cornish Pixie]

XS650 Cafe Project: Preview of forward facing carbs and inlets

Update:

I thought I had better prove that I am actually working on this bike as updates to this thread seem to be happening on a monthly basis at the moment.

Been working on all sorts of bits and pieces recently, but have been mostly focused on sorting the seat and tank combo and the associated fabrication work for the seat undertray, exhaust heat shield under the seat area, rear subframe, starting to prepare the swinging arm for paint and new shock mounting brackets and making fairing brackets.

The twin forward facing Inlet manifolds finally turned up after spending 10 days in UK customs, I know they won't be to everybody taste but I like them and I think they will fit with the overall look of the bike once the exhaust arrives and is fitted (pics of exhaust mocked up on bike, hopefully early next week (that is also stuck in UK customs at the moment) and having seen pictures of it being built, I can't wait for it to arrive)

Anyway a few pics of the seat and tank loosly in place and the inlet manifolds and VM's loosly bolted in place. Still a long way to go and I can't wait to start actually making this thing look nice but I guess a bit of patience now will pay dividends in the end with a bike that is exactly how I want it. Thanks for looking and please excuse the "junkyard" look of it at the moment. Also apologies for picture quality, pictures taken in the iphone.

 

[Cornish Pixie]

XS650 Cafe Project: Pics of custom exhaust test fit

Well after what has felt like a lifetime waiting for it to clear UK customs, my Exhaust turned up today from Dan at Pandemonium Choppers and I have to say I'm completely made up with it. Even Mrs Pixie came out to the garage to look at them twice this afternoon and proclaimed them to be "cool" (trust me that's high praise indeed)

Top work Dan, and thanks for making sense of my laughable drawings and turning a concept into reality:thumbsup:.

The pipes were designed in part to sort of echo the way in which the pipes on a TZ750 pass through the frame from left to right, as this build was originally going to take some styling cues from the TZ racers.

Anyway I'll let the pictures do the talking and apologies now for the picture fest as I am really made up with how they look.