New guy, new build

Im not exactly sure about compressed shock height, but the seat pan on my bike is flat across from where you made your cuts on the frame. The rear hoop rakes up 15* and the seat pan remains flat with the bend of the frame.

I have scraped the tire on the seat pan once or twice, but only when hitting hard bumps on the highway. Rear tire is 18x3.5 and I have the preload set to the 2nd hardest setting.

I weigh about 160lbs and have ridden passengers, so theres been some weight on the back and I havent scraped from that..

Thanks. So your seat pan sits on top of the frame, right?

I probably have 2 inches more clearance in that area. The spot I worry about 2 inches past my frame cuts there is 0.080 inch aluminum sheet to mount the tail light that's more or less vertical. It's just above the frame rails. That's the first thing the tire can hit on extreme travel. Best I can figure is measuring on the arc established by the swing arm I have about 3.5 inches clearance. I'm thinking if there's a way to add some stops or cushions at the end of travel it might be a good idea.
 
I had photos of it all before. A lot of my documentation was lost though. I will get the ruler out and get a couple shots for you when I can. I havent Winterized yet so I do have some work to do before it gets put away.

Yes, my seat sits flat across the frame rails. It was the first seat I made so it is pretty crappy and all I wanted to do was ride so I ended up just leaving it alone.... That was like 2 years ago lol.
 
This is the concept for the seat. I think the front of the tank dropped down a bit. There should be a straight line defined by the bottom of the tank-seat-tail. You can see a sliver of the tail is not polished. That area angles under to wrap the frame, that will be painted black to make it less visible and help define the line I'm talking about.



 
Tank is next. I'm using a cap I have not used before so had to come with a process to flange the hole to fit the filler bung. It took a few tries and some help from allmetalshaping.com but I think I have a plan that will work. The first few pics are with really simple hand tools, I got the neck in but it's not too attractive. From there I worked out a fixture that holds the sheet flat while guiding a plug through to form the flange that looks good in test runs. You clamp the fixture centered on a clearance hole where you want the bung with the all thread and then push a plug through the create the flange.

 
Getting started on the tank. I carefully peel the tape covering off and completely cover with more tape to make patterns for panels. The relief cuts that flatten the pattern also provide a guide for how much shrinking I need to do along the edges, the wider the relief cut opens up the more the panel needs to shrink in that area. The stretching in the center area and general smoothing is by english wheel.











 
Dang, I missed (bottom picture). I was trying to fit the tunnel in one piece and miscalculated the placement of the flange on the tank top. I think I will cut off the wings on the tunnel and welds the wings and the tunnel in separately. Also needed another smaller flanging tool (top picture)for the petcock. The split ones were either too small of a hole to begin with on not polished enough before pressing. Finally got a couple in a row to work with a well polished 3/8 inch hole for a 3/4 ID flange.



 
Still plugging away on the tank upper getting it nice and smooth before I close it up.

Thinking ahead to mechanical work I want to extend the swing arm a few inches to visually balance the rear wheel with the tail cowling. I will do the extension either at the pivot or in the straight part of the tubes leaving the axle plates intact. I will use longer shocks to keep the attitude close to stock. I'd like to start with a used swing arm so I can keep the bike together while I do the fab on the extended swing arm. My bike is a 78 XS400E. Can anybody tell me the models/years that use the exact same swing arm?

I'd also any advice on a source for rear shocks, there's tons of them on ebay but I want to make sure to get a pair that work well.
 
After smoothing the tank top I finally pressed in the filler neck flange. A little nervous after spending weeks of spare time on the tank. It came out good as far as I can tell.



















 
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