XS650 Monoshock

[mathil]

It's really subjective, but the seat shape doesn't look "right" with that tank. I suspect it's the roundness of the seat hump versus the sharper slab sides of the rear of the tank that mismatch. The tank has a very Benelli Mohave like shape and needs a seat that works with that oversize skinny rear tire. Much as I dislike tiny seat humps and short seats, I suspect that a very small hump would look right because it would accentuate the large diameter wheel where the current bump doesn't.

On a more serious note, what are you planning to do to stiffen that swingarm? As it is, it will bend at the brace and will fold up after a few hard bumps on potholes or speedbumps.

For the kicker, I'd remove it and blank it off for a more board track racer look and fit the electric foot which is pretty much unobtrusive on that motor. It will work well and look cleaner. IMHO

Yup, I've pretty much decided that the hump needs to be smaller length wise, height wise, and also that the sides shouldn't return down to 90*, but rather end on an angle.

Once there's a light tucked under and some signals poking out it'll look better too.

Earlier in the thread I talked about the swingarm. It'll get another set of tubes from the spring loop back to the axle plates on either side, and one from the spring loop forward to the pivot tube in the middle. I'm just leaving it until I pull the frame apart for final welding

I've thought about just deleting the kicker, and probably will. The starter looked good enough inside, and spun well, so it's probably reliable. Removing the kick mechanism probably saves almost as much weight as a starter delete, too.

 

[mathil]

"Saint" here on dotheton did an XS with a mojave tank, and it looks great! Smaller seat hump for sure.

India sells tank/seat sets for the mojave cafe racers, looking like this :

 

[mathil]

Well, I just did that ever so fun thing and threw 1000$ to the wind.

Ordered a PMA kit and a new slim brake master from Hugh's Handbuilt.

Ordered a Billet triple clamp and a breather from Bullit Custom Cycles

Ordered :
Shift lever
Tail light
Headlight
DIY exhaust kit
Clip ons
Throttle
Clutch perch + Lever
Tach
Speedo
Grips
Headlight brackets
Turn signals
Fork Gaiters

From Dime City Cycles

Next stop is XS650Direct for some random stock shit...

 

[mathil]

Looking for the rear wheel "spool" spacer for the rear drums, if anyone has one. It's part #33 on the 'sploded diagram. If anyone has one on their bike, would you be able to measure the width for me? I've researched and found 25MM on the internet, but I wanna be sure.

 

[mathil]

So, since I'm unsure if I'll be able to get the kick to work with the old school speed rearsets I decided I should investigate the starter. Those tiny Phillips machine screws were of course stripped, so I had to drill one out to split the case.

Everything looked great, brushes were fine, so I went about closing it again.

Of course those screws are un-findable, so I drilled and tapped the case for 1/4-20 threads and made 2 studs from readi-rod. I turned the threads off in the middle to give more clearance inside the case.

Ta-da, a fresh starter...

 

[mathil]

So, my big boxes of parts came a week back or so... I've been trying to finish a project in the shop so I haven't had much time to work on the bike... but here goes.

Nice line of parts.

I took the Carbs apart. Boiled them in lemon Juice, which took most of the varnish off. Soaked in simple green for an hour. Everything is spotless except for the small brass orifice tubes all over the carb, they're still full of hardened varnish. I'm going to try to get my hands on some real carb cleaner, like Berrymans. Most other stuff just isn't the same anymore... Once they're clean I might beadblast them and paint them, or perhaps hit them with an etch primer and paint them. I might not even use them, but for now it's fun to fiddle...

I made a bracket to fit the two gauges to the billet triple. It's 1/8" aluminum, that I cut and shaped with a wooden template and my trim router/tablesaw. I might remake it to spread the gauges farther apart...we'll see.

I installed my Hughs Handbuilt PMA kit. Let me tell you, this kit is awesome. Every part is extremely well made, and the mounts are much more robust than any of the other kits I've seen. Somewhere along the way I misplaced the 12-1.25 nut that holds on the rotor (go figure, I still have the lockwasher) so I'm waiting for Fastenal to bring me in the nut. Funny thread pitch, all the easier places didn't carry them.

I'm waiting on a brake pivot (drum specific) to come in, then I can finish up the linkage and drum stay. From there I just have to finish weld the frame, make some small tabs/brackets/gussets and pretty soon I'll be painting it.

I bought some headlight ears from Dimecity, but they might not work with the 5" headlight I got. I could flip them around, but they have huge holes in the sides (like around 1/2") where the light is supposed to mount, and the light itself has an M6 bolt...Go figure.

The cateye turn signals they carry are awesome. Aluminum bodies, look really well made. Nice and bright. Same with the cateye tail light, although it's all plastic, and the wire colors are odd (yellow is ground, but black is one of the positives....weird)

Clipons are good. Throttle is good. I got the brake master from Hughs, it's good. I just need to find an all in one switch for the clutch side. I'll have to paint the levers to match, too.

Let me know what you think!

 

[mathil]

12-1.25 nuts came in, so I put the rotor on and made a timing mark.

 

[Brodie]

Just found this thread, don't know how it didn't catch my eye earlier. Very nice work mate.

 

[mathil]

Blasted the carbs, bodies are nice and even.
Painted the accessories with the same wrinkle the engines in.
I'm pretty sure the throttle cable bracket is fucked though, I might have to beat it back into shape.

 

[grandchampion]

go ahead and throw those fork gaiters in the trash, i got the same ones from dime city and they all but disintegrated after only a few months, complete garbage... return them if you can IMO...

 

[mathil]

So I bead blasted the fork lowers and got all that clearcoat off them. Didn't bother smoothing them or anything.

Then I painted them with some epoxy primer, and then some black single stage urethane in my redneck spray booth...

I tried slipping the fork gaiters on the tubes and they definitely look 5/5 Ichiban Moto stickers badass, but I'll see how they hold up. If they fall apart it's just a few bolts here and there to swap out. Any recommendations for better ones next time?

 

[Ichiban Moto]

Those look badass ! ;D

 

[mathil]

So, I'm about to paint the hubs, wheels and spokes. Does anyone have any experience on converting a spoked wheel to tubeless? I've read up on it, just wondering if anyone's personally done it and has tips.

 

[Brodie]

I have seen a few kits that are basically gaffa tape "spoke nipple covers", silicone and self amalgamating tape.

I was planning to try it on my wheels once I have them trued. But that is a few weeks away yet.

 

[mathil]

Yeah. I was thinking of maybe doing the 3m 5200 route. The only thing I worry about is being able to adjust the wheels afterwards. I don't mind the thought of a tube, but putting a plug in a tubeless tire and rolling away again is a hell of a lot easier to repair on the roadside than fishing a tube in and trying to reset the bead.

But perhaps that's a problem better left for BCAA to pay for...