cafe build tips

[burky23]

New member here. My wife just bought a 1980 xs400 special for $65 at a garage sale. I was actually on the Tail of the Dragon with my SV650 when she bought it. The XS was in a barn fire but never exposed to flame. just the fairing, controls and some wiring got a little droopy. so cafe/tracker it shall be. the tank inside is amazing, not a hint of rust. but other than that, everything might as well be replaced or restored. im leaning toward a tracker, but there are some cool cafes.

how do i go about getting most or all of the triangle section of the frame opened up?

heres what i want to get close to, minus the triangle plate: http://www.kruzcompany.com/#!yamaha-xs-400/c9rx

also the entire front end is going to need replaced. hopefully keeping the stock wheel. what replacement forks/ triples/ gauges can i use with it? should i just use all stock xs400 stuff?

thanks for the help!

 

[Demetrius]

Hi, and welcome!

First of all, the triangle section is not that difficult. Replacing the stock air filters with pod filters and moving the battery to a different location will clear it up pretty good. A lot of people move the battery to the bottom of the bike, near the engine and the swingarm, using a custom weld battery box. Like this:

Front-end replacement, as I have been told, can be done with Aprilia RS 125 USD forks. Apparently, they bolt straight in. Don't know if you can still use your stock wheel though, but there's bound to be someone here who does know.

As for the gauges. When replacing the stock front-end, you will probably also be replacing the front-wheel axle. Thus, your speedometer cable won't work the right way anymore and readings will be off. Best option, in my opinion, is to get a different universal gauge off of ebay or somewhere.

 

[levdir]

Norman1950 is working on a GSX-R front-end swap and his thread has some good general ideas for making axles work and whatnot. For the RS125 front-end you just need a different lower bearing, it's about as quick and easy as a fork swap gets.

 

[kirknd4spd]

A stock XS400 front end will be the easiest, if you want to keep the stock wheel. There are other front ends that will work, the majority of them won't just bolt up though. For the gauges, it doesn't really matter, you can get aftermarket gauges that look better and hook up to the bike easily, you can even go to electric gauges.
As for opening up the frame, that's not difficult. Just relocate the battery and put some pod filters on it. Getting the carbs jetted right for the pod filters will be the most difficult part of that, and even that isn't hard to do.

 

[burky23]

excellent. now will any xs model forks fit? and with the aprilla conversion, does it need the aprilla top and bottom triples, and what bottom bearing does it need?