Narratis
XS400 Enthusiast
Hey everyone,
I'm trying to get my bike back on the road in style, as a café racer.
This is my first mayor project, after rebuilding my rusty Zündapp moped a few years ago, and some modest repairing and retouching on my NSU Fox last year.
As the XS400 burnt to the ground, essentially turning every part into garbage, there was, is and will be a lot to do.
I've been at it for about a year, one babystep at a time, but right now the build is picking up speed again.
I can only work on it over the weekends, as I study away from home, where the garage is, so I tackle things one at a time, one post at a time hereafter. Posts will be edited, as I am slow with photo uploads.
First, some history (or read my intro here http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13753:
I bought the bike with sidecar from my cousin, who left it in his driveway rotting. He needed to get rid of it so it was cheap, which is why I bought it really (didn't have a licence yet, so no riding for me). I then put it away in the back of our garden.
One day, dad set to work on it trying to get it started. Some sparks jumped, went on a fiery date with gasoline, and left glowing cinders where once stood a motorcycle.
I got the crazy idea in my head to start building this thing back up from scratch, using all the spare parts that came with it, and some of dads life-collection of parts.
During the cold wintery months of last year I began the ordeal of stripping away the molten plastic and rusty, burned metal bits until I was left with an empty frame. Meanwhile, I let my imagination run wild, resulting in a cool reversed handlebar mount and some intense "VrooomVroooommVRROOOOOOOOOMMMMM-ing."
I actually really like these wonky speedo-needles
Dad hooked me up with some of his assets:
- A Suzuki T500 spoked front wheel (19 inch) that has double-operated drumbrakes which looks
really cool! With it came the forks (no springs unfortunately) , for which I had the
Yamaha mounts modified.
- A Suzuki GS550 spoked rear wheel (18 inch)
- An aftermarket fibreglass body kit for the T500 of which I used the long-ass gastank
I mock-mounted the wheels into the frame, so it is easy to move, but some serious engineering will be needed to make it work later.
The front wheel in most but not all of its glory:
Mock-up (kinda looks like a Brat to me)
Over the summer I began constructing a café seat/rear-end, which didn't go exactly as planned. I ended up poylesther-fibreglassing my model and left it unfinished. I will resume work on that when the bike is approaching roadworthyness.
First steps
Seat mock-up
I used construction foam to fill the space, then filler to fill the foam holes
This construction was far from solid, so I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do some fibreglass work, which was entirely new to me. I used this model as a negative, destroying it in the process (so many hours of work lost
)
Taped up to be fibleglassed.
Then I started working on the engine (yes, this is CHAOS). For some reason I wanted to clean it up first and then see if it even runs, so that cost me a lot of valuable time.
On the up side, I did experiment with sodablasting, and managed to replace all the burnt cables with donors from the spare engine.
Eventually I proceeded to mount the engine, half cleaned, into the frame and do some rewiring. This is how it sits now, with seat, tank, front-end, wheels and engine:
Next thing on the list was the carbs.
I opened them up for inspection, only to find them gunked up in oily gasoline residue. One of them was jammed badly so I took it apart and broke it in the process (as discussed in detail this thread: http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10312
So, I took it to my uncle, who knows a great deal about anything that concerns combustion. He wanted to try and solder it, using some sort of aluminium solder. But first, I had to clean it up.
nicely bristled steel bits
Last weekend, I went back to my uncle to get the carb fixed. Unfortunately, the soldering was ultimately a failure; Nothing would adhere to the break-surface. To my delight however, he agreed to try and weld it, so my uncle fired up his TIG welder and built a neat little bauxite tower on the foundation of the old one.
So I went home with a blob on my carb and started filing away the excess, after bolting it onto a good solid plank to hold it still (greatest tip ever!).
Some measuring, for good measure
The result is fairly neat, only the redrilling is not quite horizontal, just a little off. If it proves troublesome, I'll just have to redo it...
(more pictures soon!)
Next weekend: Cleaning up the second carb.
(I hope)
Cheers!
I'm trying to get my bike back on the road in style, as a café racer.
This is my first mayor project, after rebuilding my rusty Zündapp moped a few years ago, and some modest repairing and retouching on my NSU Fox last year.
As the XS400 burnt to the ground, essentially turning every part into garbage, there was, is and will be a lot to do.
I've been at it for about a year, one babystep at a time, but right now the build is picking up speed again.
I can only work on it over the weekends, as I study away from home, where the garage is, so I tackle things one at a time, one post at a time hereafter. Posts will be edited, as I am slow with photo uploads.
First, some history (or read my intro here http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13753:
I bought the bike with sidecar from my cousin, who left it in his driveway rotting. He needed to get rid of it so it was cheap, which is why I bought it really (didn't have a licence yet, so no riding for me). I then put it away in the back of our garden.
One day, dad set to work on it trying to get it started. Some sparks jumped, went on a fiery date with gasoline, and left glowing cinders where once stood a motorcycle.
I got the crazy idea in my head to start building this thing back up from scratch, using all the spare parts that came with it, and some of dads life-collection of parts.
During the cold wintery months of last year I began the ordeal of stripping away the molten plastic and rusty, burned metal bits until I was left with an empty frame. Meanwhile, I let my imagination run wild, resulting in a cool reversed handlebar mount and some intense "VrooomVroooommVRROOOOOOOOOMMMMM-ing."
I actually really like these wonky speedo-needles
Dad hooked me up with some of his assets:
- A Suzuki T500 spoked front wheel (19 inch) that has double-operated drumbrakes which looks
really cool! With it came the forks (no springs unfortunately) , for which I had the
Yamaha mounts modified.
- A Suzuki GS550 spoked rear wheel (18 inch)
- An aftermarket fibreglass body kit for the T500 of which I used the long-ass gastank
I mock-mounted the wheels into the frame, so it is easy to move, but some serious engineering will be needed to make it work later.
The front wheel in most but not all of its glory:
Mock-up (kinda looks like a Brat to me)
Over the summer I began constructing a café seat/rear-end, which didn't go exactly as planned. I ended up poylesther-fibreglassing my model and left it unfinished. I will resume work on that when the bike is approaching roadworthyness.
First steps
Seat mock-up
I used construction foam to fill the space, then filler to fill the foam holes
This construction was far from solid, so I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do some fibreglass work, which was entirely new to me. I used this model as a negative, destroying it in the process (so many hours of work lost
)Taped up to be fibleglassed.
Then I started working on the engine (yes, this is CHAOS). For some reason I wanted to clean it up first and then see if it even runs, so that cost me a lot of valuable time.
On the up side, I did experiment with sodablasting, and managed to replace all the burnt cables with donors from the spare engine.
Eventually I proceeded to mount the engine, half cleaned, into the frame and do some rewiring. This is how it sits now, with seat, tank, front-end, wheels and engine:
Next thing on the list was the carbs.
I opened them up for inspection, only to find them gunked up in oily gasoline residue. One of them was jammed badly so I took it apart and broke it in the process (as discussed in detail this thread: http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10312
So, I took it to my uncle, who knows a great deal about anything that concerns combustion. He wanted to try and solder it, using some sort of aluminium solder. But first, I had to clean it up.
nicely bristled steel bits
Last weekend, I went back to my uncle to get the carb fixed. Unfortunately, the soldering was ultimately a failure; Nothing would adhere to the break-surface. To my delight however, he agreed to try and weld it, so my uncle fired up his TIG welder and built a neat little bauxite tower on the foundation of the old one.
So I went home with a blob on my carb and started filing away the excess, after bolting it onto a good solid plank to hold it still (greatest tip ever!).
Some measuring, for good measure
The result is fairly neat, only the redrilling is not quite horizontal, just a little off. If it proves troublesome, I'll just have to redo it...
(more pictures soon!)
Next weekend: Cleaning up the second carb.
(I hope)
Cheers!
Ugh.. can't ride that yet anyway, just 17 more months till my next license.
