1st post: Let me introduce myself

Hi everybody, I hope you are all good and safe.

After reading you guys for some weeks, I’m more than happy to announce that I just bought a 1988 XS400 L. It Was conserved stock until the previous owner transformed it into a cafe racer 3 years ago. He found himself not riding it often enough and put it on sale, and there I come

Here is a picture of its current state:



What do you think?

The bike runs good, it has some little things here and there but that’s part of the challenge. Even though I’m quite new to motorcycles I really want to start DIY maintenance and so on, and building on top of the existing build, so you’ll probably find me asking for some help often in the forum.

I’m from Spain but currently living in Amsterdam, Netherlands, so I also wanted to ask you for recommendations for online shops to buy parts in europe. I already know about Mikexs but the shipping cost won’t make sense unless I bundle some stuff.

Thanks!!

Welcome to the forum. Your cafe racer is tidy. It has good looks, I like the big headlight, clip ons and colour scheme. Since you asked, I would shorten/hide the wiring harness between the handlebars and headlight. Also the fork boots should be shorter. As far as parts go, being in the Netherlands you have access to the largest vintage part supplier in the world, https://www.cmsnl.com/

Very nice.

Id like to get my hands on a DOHC and see what the difference is between the two.

Specdog said:

Welcome to the forum. Your cafe racer is tidy. It has good looks, I like the big headlight, clip ons and colour scheme. Since you asked, I would shorten/hide the wiring harness between the handlebars and headlight. Also the fork boots should be shorter. As far as parts go, being in the Netherlands you have access to the largest vintage part supplier in the world, https://www.cmsnl.com/

Click to expand...

Thank you Specdog. Very good points, tidying up the wiring is the first thing I’ll be doing, yeah the handlebar hardness can be minimalized a lot. Didn’t pay attention to the fork boots until you mentioned, but its true they look super compressed when standing still.

Thanks for the link too, didn’t know about this one. Will check it out.

By the way...
Could you guys help me to correctly identify the specific model of the bike? All I know is it's a 1988 XS400 L, but I'm having a hard time finding documentation about this model both in the forum or Google (OEM manual, wiring diagram). I want to start working on the wiring, basically simplifying the harness, adding rear brake light switch and some speedo gauges that are missing(hi/low beam, indicators, oil warning). I asked the previous owner for the wiring diagram but he doesn't have it so I'll have to figure that out myself. Even though the wiring might have been modified during the cafe restoration, I think the OEM wiring diagram might be a good starting point for understanding especially the ignition and charging systems. I would appreciate if you guys could point me out in the right direction to find one that matches my xs400 model

very good looking cafe