81 xs400 fatassed cafe build

Right so about a year ago i picked up a little neglected xs400 for $350NZD (i live in NewZealand..) thats like $250 U.S.
I chucked it in the shed over last summer while i enjoyed my new Harley but since now summer is upon me im smashing it out into something different.
The plan is pretty simple, hack off all the bits it doesn't need, bling up the motor with fresh powdercoat, relocate all the electrics to the starter motor location (after removing the starter), a small battery into the breather space with the help of a spacer plate, and cool it all off with an edf mounted in a tube blowing through the alt case into the electrics compartment and new battery space! New indicators, controls, grips, mirrors, head& taillight...
Now for the fatassed bit.. relacing the factory drum hubs with 3.5" up front and 5" in the rear running 120/170 tyres! ofcorse I'll have to pump the swingarm out 30mm and offset the sprockets 20mm but that's part of the fun, did i mention the monoshock bit??


Prestrip

Cleaned up ready for powdercoat

Case bored through

Holey hell

7 position gear sender!



Machined and leather wrapped rizoma grips

pretty crazy what a quick wire brush and buff will do


Powdercoat came back

The texture is like 400 grit wet/dry..evil

Little bit hori, hacked up the swingarm and takced a jig to the bench, close enough..

Bent up and notched some new bits, slugs to go in and drilled for plug welds

nek minute boom!

Way more to do but its a good start!

Wow,looks good, that gear position sender...how exactly do you go about installing it? Your speedo will give you the gear Indication?

looking good so far, like to see a vid of you turning on the bike with those fat tyres

Don't think it will be a good idea to put a battery in that spot. With heat and vibes it wont last long. Also the bike needs to have that area for proper venting of the crank case.

Jeff0133 said:

Wow,looks good, that gear position sender...how exactly do you go about installing it? Your speedo will give you the gear Indication?

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It just bolts on exactly the same as the factory item, but instead of having the 1 earthing point it has 7, then there are 7 wires going to the speedo and when each gear clicks through the speedo shows up what gear is earthed, Fiddly as to make but think it'll be worth it.

Came with the Speedo? Where did you get It?

drewpy said:

looking good so far, like to see a vid of you turning on the bike with those fat tyres

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Ill happily do one when its finished!

xschris said:

Don't think it will be a good idea to put a battery in that spot. With heat and vibes it wont last long. Also the bike needs to have that area for proper venting of the crank case.

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It's only a vrla, the heat and ventilation wont be a problem since it's taken care of by a 30mm ducted fan that'll push more than enough air around the battery to cool it, if anything it'll be better case venting that stock since it's forced not passive. If worst comes to worst ill drill another vent in the case, cover over the current vent and fully insulate the battery from heat and vibration. I'll take some photos of the setup tonight

Jeff0133 said:

Came with the Speedo? Where did you get It?

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I got the speedo on a whim, when it arrived i didn't like the idea of having a flashing 0 where the gear is displayed so I just made the sender to suit it. Kinda just winged it and it worked..

alright here's the cooling hardware setup for the electrics
left side cover is bored out and a tube machined to fit snugly through and slot into the old starter motor hole, another tube is machined to fit inside this and a slot cut through the top and a hole drilled to allow the wiring down, a 30mm edf slots into this tube and the smaller tube pushed into the main case tube and grubscrewed in place, wiring will run through into where the electrics will be situated and attached to a speed controller, air blows into the electrics compartement, then out the top via a newly welded hosetail and into the battery compartment (case vent..) im yet to decide where to vent this back out.

Oh i also reassembled my top end, not even kidding i'm a little turned on right now.

Interesting idea on the electronics. Curious to see how it goes.

There have been a couple gear indicator projects. Cool that this one's built-into the speedo and didn't require cutting up the neutral switch housing.
More here:
http://www.xs400.com/threads/gear-indicator.10732/
http://www.xs400.com/threads/my-cafe-racer-build-and-re-build.12753/page-9#post-155859

Me too! I really hope I can fit everything, I feel like its going to be quite tight with the ignition module and keyless rfid main switch jammed in there, along with relays, speed controller etcetc

I did read through those a while back, probably where i got the inspiration for it tbh. Although some of them seem to get WAY too complicated...Love keeping it simple..where permitted.

Nice works so far.. engine looks clean as ...

So this just happened..

All of the work looks great. I particularly like the wrinkle finish on the engine covers. That was my original intention on my engine, don't remember why I just went with the flat black. Needless to say you attention to detail is impressive!

Cool job

Slowly getting there eh!! got the patterns all made up for the tail section just have to get around to cutting the alloy rolling it and welding it up! spokes should be here this week so so i'll finally be able to lace up my wheels then it'll pretty much be rolling..ish! Exciting (summer here very soon!!)

Excited to see the end result of this project! Engine looks superb!
No hurry though.

Seraph said:

ignition module and keyless rfid

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What are you doing with the keyless rfid?
i bought a set from velleman inteded to work with security systems, at the moment i'm just not sure it can handle the power.

Sorry for being so slack lately! Summer arrived and the harley n boat got all the attention.

Second set of spokes arrived and I test laced my wheels. Original drum brake hubs drilled out to 4.5mm laced to 5.25" and 3.5" supermoto rims with 8G stainless spokes. It CAN be done