focusinprogress
City Limit Moto:Parts-Service-Apparel (716)8038606
This is a project I've been silently working on for about 8 months.....I'm at a standstill while I get through some customer projects to save up money to buy a milling machine before I can get back into it so I figured I'd finally get a thread together.
Story time!
So a little over a year ago now, I found a craigslist ad that read something like this: "Three yamaha motorcycles. $800 for all three. No I will not sell one. No I will not sell parts. No I will not take less money. Call for details"
I liked this guy's style. Called him up for some info and an address, called up two of my motorcycle enthusiast buddies also looking for more bikes, and took a ride. Long story short, two bikes were complete, one was parked outside missing some major parts and had a locked up motor. All three had titles. Me and my two buddies worked out who got which bikes and for what portion of $800 and made the deal. Checko took a complete xs850 for his brother and made a chopper with it. Luke took the parts bike with plans to get a non-titled donor to bring it back to life, and I took the other xs750 complete.....now, you're probably thinking that's the bike for this build.....actually I did a quick bratstyle seat on that bike with a skateboard and rebuilt the carbs and have ridden it all year.....I ended up finding a parts bike for luke, and bought it....he found something else he wanted to I bought him out of the titled parts bike and that's how I got into this build. I loved the way the bratstyle rode but wanted to do something more involved with one, so I jumped at the opportunity to own two (three if you count the donor non-titled one I bought for $100)
anyways, ON TO THE BUILD!
so Checko and Luke split the shop with me, so whenever I say "We" it means they helped.
We started out by completely stripping the titled frame of all it's damaged and weathered parts. Then I started hooping the rear of the frame and mocked up a knee-dent xs750 tank I got at a swap meet for $25.
I realize now going through pics I've taken that I missed some steps....I'll do my best.
anyways, the three of us started swapping in the non-titled donor bike parts to this titled frame, and quickly realized the hoop would be too close to the tire. So I cut it and added an angle to it to kick it up. Then got some foam to begin forming a mold for the seat. I also started playing around with the stock exhaust parts trying to come up with a 3-1.....
I hated the way the exhaust was coming out, so I trashed it and called a buddy that works at an exhaust shop and had some tubes bent up so I could start from scratch.
I'll get to that a little later.
anyways, I started planning out rearsets....wanting to be able to retain kickstart made it a little tricky, but I made up some parts on the lathe and made use of my new tubing notcher for this part of the project
I sat on the bike and clamped vice grips around until I found a comfortable spot...this was it
I had the peg part from some old controls and made use of them with the mounts I made and welded to the frame....then I started trying to learn this knurling tool to make some stubs for the levers.
(Damn some of these pics were blurry! What was I on all those months ago!?)
I then used cardboard to design some levers and cut them out of some plate, used some solid steel rod to bend up a linkage, and stubbed the stock shift lever to complete the shifter setup.
I did a similar treatment for the brake side, but to clear the kickstart it had to be a short lever
OK, so at this point I started playing with the exhaust parts. I grabbed some plain 1.5" tube and started building a 3-1 collector. This is 7 pieces, with a lot of trimming/cutting/grinding/notching to make it.
Also scored some tires at the swap meet for $30 and refurbed the wheels while changing them out
Painted the frame
started mocking up some headers
finished up with my collector welded in, and a little kick-up extension to position this peashooter I scored for $20
MUCH happier with this exhaust that that first go-around using the stock crap.
At this point, I started envisioning this bike as a real serious cafe racer. So I sought out a modern front end. Landed a GSXR complete front for $225 and started playing around with it.
I bought some 1.25" solid bar to make axle adapters, and modified the stock XS750 axle to play nice....retained factory wheel, speedo drive, and bearings.
Welded an "L" tab to catch the notch in the speedo driver
I knew I'd be having some pretty fancy front brakes, so I wanted to update the rear. I made a template at work on AutoCAD and spent some time with a punch and drill press
Then I noticed a little oil on the forks and ordered up seals to refresh them
A buddy of mine dabbles in powdercoating and owed me a favor, so I gave him my rearsets to do in whatever color he had around
Finally made the correct mounts for the knee-dent tank and wanted to see where we're at
Stock rotors from the GSXR front end are 5-bolt mounting, XS750 wheels are 6-bolt....so I did some research and found some rotors that were the same diameter and thickness but with 6-bolt mounting....Some ebaying got me these RC51 rotors.
so now I have to figure out how to mount them....so I ordered some 2" thick pucks of aluminum from IndistrialMetalSales.com to machine some adapters....
Beauty. now at this point I've got a decent roller, and without getting too far ahead of myself wanted to take some measurements of this GSXR front end vs. the stock one (good thing I had another one of these bikes parked near by). After using a tape measure, angle finders, plumb-bob, chalkline, and marker....I determined that to correct the GSXR fork geometry to not ruin the steering/handling I needed another inch of offset in the triple clamps.....so I went back on InustrialMetalSales.com and ordered up some beefy aluminum plate. I found some free time at work again and designed some new clamps in AutoCAD to see about having them cut locally.
Now, this bike isn't my only build....and also isn't the only bike I've been working on inverted front swap.....I got pricing locally, and the cheapest I was able to find was $90 per clamp....$180 for a pair....and I'm doing 4 bikes this way. That's with me providing the drawings AND the material. At this point, I decided I'm just going to buy a milling machine....so the front end is on hold until then.
So I went on to other things. I ordered up a cateye tail light from DimeCity, and some really cool LED's from SuperBrightLEDS.com to use as rear turn signals....then made up a bracket for them
Then Luke wired up all the GSXR controls into the stock harness for me, and I ordered up some lines and fitting from Summitracing to build some steel braided brake lines. Also used a goodridge double-banjo pressure switch bolt to get a brake light signal.
Well, that's where I'm at now. Once I get my milling machine (have one saved in my cart on Grizzly.com just waiting on funds) I can then get into making the triple trees. Aside from that, I have only a few things left. I have to make the fiberglass seat cowl, upholster and paint, and make headlight ears/mounts. Looking forward to riding this spring.
Oh, I almost forgot.....here's a link to a video of the exhaust.....I tossed it on my other triple after we made it to see how it sounded.....HEAVEN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdoyYPYKVeQ
Story time!
So a little over a year ago now, I found a craigslist ad that read something like this: "Three yamaha motorcycles. $800 for all three. No I will not sell one. No I will not sell parts. No I will not take less money. Call for details"
I liked this guy's style. Called him up for some info and an address, called up two of my motorcycle enthusiast buddies also looking for more bikes, and took a ride. Long story short, two bikes were complete, one was parked outside missing some major parts and had a locked up motor. All three had titles. Me and my two buddies worked out who got which bikes and for what portion of $800 and made the deal. Checko took a complete xs850 for his brother and made a chopper with it. Luke took the parts bike with plans to get a non-titled donor to bring it back to life, and I took the other xs750 complete.....now, you're probably thinking that's the bike for this build.....actually I did a quick bratstyle seat on that bike with a skateboard and rebuilt the carbs and have ridden it all year.....I ended up finding a parts bike for luke, and bought it....he found something else he wanted to I bought him out of the titled parts bike and that's how I got into this build. I loved the way the bratstyle rode but wanted to do something more involved with one, so I jumped at the opportunity to own two (three if you count the donor non-titled one I bought for $100)
anyways, ON TO THE BUILD!
so Checko and Luke split the shop with me, so whenever I say "We" it means they helped.
We started out by completely stripping the titled frame of all it's damaged and weathered parts. Then I started hooping the rear of the frame and mocked up a knee-dent xs750 tank I got at a swap meet for $25.
I realize now going through pics I've taken that I missed some steps....I'll do my best.
anyways, the three of us started swapping in the non-titled donor bike parts to this titled frame, and quickly realized the hoop would be too close to the tire. So I cut it and added an angle to it to kick it up. Then got some foam to begin forming a mold for the seat. I also started playing around with the stock exhaust parts trying to come up with a 3-1.....
I hated the way the exhaust was coming out, so I trashed it and called a buddy that works at an exhaust shop and had some tubes bent up so I could start from scratch.
I'll get to that a little later.
anyways, I started planning out rearsets....wanting to be able to retain kickstart made it a little tricky, but I made up some parts on the lathe and made use of my new tubing notcher for this part of the project
I sat on the bike and clamped vice grips around until I found a comfortable spot...this was it
I had the peg part from some old controls and made use of them with the mounts I made and welded to the frame....then I started trying to learn this knurling tool to make some stubs for the levers.
(Damn some of these pics were blurry! What was I on all those months ago!?)
I then used cardboard to design some levers and cut them out of some plate, used some solid steel rod to bend up a linkage, and stubbed the stock shift lever to complete the shifter setup.
I did a similar treatment for the brake side, but to clear the kickstart it had to be a short lever
OK, so at this point I started playing with the exhaust parts. I grabbed some plain 1.5" tube and started building a 3-1 collector. This is 7 pieces, with a lot of trimming/cutting/grinding/notching to make it.
Also scored some tires at the swap meet for $30 and refurbed the wheels while changing them out
Painted the frame
started mocking up some headers
finished up with my collector welded in, and a little kick-up extension to position this peashooter I scored for $20
MUCH happier with this exhaust that that first go-around using the stock crap.
At this point, I started envisioning this bike as a real serious cafe racer. So I sought out a modern front end. Landed a GSXR complete front for $225 and started playing around with it.
I bought some 1.25" solid bar to make axle adapters, and modified the stock XS750 axle to play nice....retained factory wheel, speedo drive, and bearings.
Welded an "L" tab to catch the notch in the speedo driver
I knew I'd be having some pretty fancy front brakes, so I wanted to update the rear. I made a template at work on AutoCAD and spent some time with a punch and drill press
Then I noticed a little oil on the forks and ordered up seals to refresh them
A buddy of mine dabbles in powdercoating and owed me a favor, so I gave him my rearsets to do in whatever color he had around
Finally made the correct mounts for the knee-dent tank and wanted to see where we're at
Stock rotors from the GSXR front end are 5-bolt mounting, XS750 wheels are 6-bolt....so I did some research and found some rotors that were the same diameter and thickness but with 6-bolt mounting....Some ebaying got me these RC51 rotors.
so now I have to figure out how to mount them....so I ordered some 2" thick pucks of aluminum from IndistrialMetalSales.com to machine some adapters....
Beauty. now at this point I've got a decent roller, and without getting too far ahead of myself wanted to take some measurements of this GSXR front end vs. the stock one (good thing I had another one of these bikes parked near by). After using a tape measure, angle finders, plumb-bob, chalkline, and marker....I determined that to correct the GSXR fork geometry to not ruin the steering/handling I needed another inch of offset in the triple clamps.....so I went back on InustrialMetalSales.com and ordered up some beefy aluminum plate. I found some free time at work again and designed some new clamps in AutoCAD to see about having them cut locally.
Now, this bike isn't my only build....and also isn't the only bike I've been working on inverted front swap.....I got pricing locally, and the cheapest I was able to find was $90 per clamp....$180 for a pair....and I'm doing 4 bikes this way. That's with me providing the drawings AND the material. At this point, I decided I'm just going to buy a milling machine....so the front end is on hold until then.
So I went on to other things. I ordered up a cateye tail light from DimeCity, and some really cool LED's from SuperBrightLEDS.com to use as rear turn signals....then made up a bracket for them
Then Luke wired up all the GSXR controls into the stock harness for me, and I ordered up some lines and fitting from Summitracing to build some steel braided brake lines. Also used a goodridge double-banjo pressure switch bolt to get a brake light signal.
Well, that's where I'm at now. Once I get my milling machine (have one saved in my cart on Grizzly.com just waiting on funds) I can then get into making the triple trees. Aside from that, I have only a few things left. I have to make the fiberglass seat cowl, upholster and paint, and make headlight ears/mounts. Looking forward to riding this spring.
Oh, I almost forgot.....here's a link to a video of the exhaust.....I tossed it on my other triple after we made it to see how it sounded.....HEAVEN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdoyYPYKVeQ
