Cafe project so far.

[WelderDave]

Hey everyone, just wanted to share what I’ve got going so far and thought, opinions, and things to watch out for or keep in mind are appreciated. I’m a career welder fabricator but single full time dad so I make do with what I can get ahold of. I also have gone to college for automotive, so theres that.

Got the bike for $400, 11k miles, he said it was running on one cylinder because the main carb was gunned up so he didn’t wanna mess with it.

That’s the background, so far I’ve stripped the bike down, removed the wire harness, added pod filters, breather filter, cleaned the bike frame up, cut the tail of the seat mount off, thoroughly cleaned the carbs, new spark plugs, new oil, got all the electrical components I’ll be needing, electronic 12v regulator suggested by people on here, electronic blinker module for led blinkers, 2.9ah agm battery, deleted starter per one of the threads on here with the rubber expansion plug, made custom mid foot pegs since the left was missing, and I may be forgetting a couple small things, but I also jacked up the original harness to just the basics and wired it up temporarily just to hear it run. The weekend is over or I’d have made the battery box, that will hold all the electronics and the battery, but after that’s done I’ll go through and do the harness officially. The schematics on here were kind of hard to read, I’m fairly good with electronics and wiring from my 3 automotive electrical classes, so I did what I could with some research and diagrams. I may draw up my simplified diagram to post up so you can all see how I did it. Bike doesn’t run yet, I need a new throttle cable since it was old and snapped when removing.

And here are some pictures:

 

[xschris]

I would strongly advise against those type pod/filters with these type carbs. They cause too much turbulence and block ports on the carb mouth. If you must run pods use uni foam ones. They are better but you should still use the stock H-pipe/ balance tube. If you want the bike to run its best the stock boxes and filters are the way to go.

 

[WelderDave]

I’ll have to pick up some uni pods then, but I was reading if you put ‘lollipops’ in the exhaust it help with tuning. Any thoughts?

 

[NewHavenMike]

Well, you have the stock exhaust so thats good. Honestly, I probably wouldnt do much more to the bike as it is. Get it street legal and make a seat and throw some clubman bars on it, just to keep things cheap and simple.

I get more compliments on my bike and how its NOT perfect than anything else.. Ill always point out the flaws when someone asks about it and they all say thats what makes the bike. Its rough and the patina adds character.

 

[WelderDave]

Yeah, that’s great. I have some handlebars and seat coming in the mail. I have to bondo fill a dent in the gas tank and the badge spots, then it’s getting painted black with a red 2” stripe down the tank. I’m welding some more pipe into the exhaust so i don’t feel as much of the heat on my legs, and I have exhaust wrap I’m putting on it. I want a nice sound for the exhaust and I just heard the ‘lollipops’ give it a nice sound and helps to tune the carbs when you have pod filters so I was thinking about it.

 

[xschris]

If you still have the stock exhaust keep it. Straight pipes with " lollipops" or washers welded on the ends will do nothing for performance and make tuning a big pain. If you want a "sound" look at a mac slip on or something like that. Your type head pipes are hard to find in good shape and I would refrain from welding pipes to it. Mac makes entire systems that include head pipes. But those are single wall pipes, yours are double.

 

[WelderDave]

In that case, maybe I’ll just make a slip on for a little extra pipe then and leave it all open. I did order a couple uni pods today which should be here by the time I go back up to my bike at my cousins. I have a whole bucket of parts to toss out too, lol

 

[xschris]

Open pipes are a bad setup with these. But it's your bike, do as you wish. I would setup the bike fully stock first and ride it for a while like that then make your changes. You will see a difference between them. Sell parts you don't want on here as some still need/want good stock parts to make there bikes run correctly.

 

[WelderDave]

Well all the lollipop really is, is a baffle if I understand it correctly. What would be the difference between that or a muffler?

 

[WelderDave]

Like if I ran an extension of pipe for the full length of the original muffler and put a lollipop in there, could I get away without burning the valves? Exhaust wrap or not I’m assuming the wrap doesn’t make a huge difference.

 

[NewHavenMike]

What parts do you have? Its too bad the tank has a dent that requires extensive work. The red would look great with chrome clubmans and the other polished/chrome bits of your bike. Headers look like they are in great shape too.

Offering your extra parts for sale on here would definitely offset your investment costs. I am sort of building a small catalogue of parts for my bikes right now. I have my xs360 and a 400. I like to have extra parts on hand like gaskets and maintenance stuff.

 

[NewHavenMike]

The wrap is an oldschool type thing that no one ever installs the correct way. The wrap will also eat at your headers in no time.. sell some of the extra parts you have and buy a set of cheap slip ons..

I have EMGO 15” tapered mufflers and they sound pretty good.

 

[WelderDave]

I don’t think I could get the $300 for the 2-1 exhaust I was looking at unfortunately. But if I could that would be nice. I think I’m gonna stick with the uni pods though, I just have to figure out how to tune the carbs, never messed with carbs before but would like to learn.

 

[WelderDave]

Alright, this weekend I'm going to go through all the stuff and ill post it up for sale what I don't need. I decided to go with the emgo shorty slip on mufflers, i liked their sound, and only $64 to my door for both. I'm assuming Ill have to rejet, but I'll do that after i get the rest of all this stuff done and get it running.Much appreciated for all the help guys! I'll keep you all updated so i can mooch off your brains and learn!

 

[NewHavenMike]

I had those shortys installed on my bike when I first got it running after the rebuild. They are real pieces of garbage lol. The tip of those mufflers is too big for the header and itll never seal. When I say they work, I mean to say that youll be able to go down the street and not go fully deaf.

Its your bike so obviously youll find out, but if you are on a tight budget and want to keep it cheap, just put the stockers back on.

Jetting can be a challenge. I ended up buying about 12 different jet sizes before I finalized. I think genuine jets are almost $7 a piece.

Aftermarket, EBay, China, anything that is not OEM Mikuni, you will never get it tuned right because aftermarket suppliers size their jets differently and have totally different tooling that makes the jets crappy.

So a lot of times when you cheap out on good parts you end up spending more.

Good luck and look forward to seeing what you do.

BTW, when jetting, there really is no exact recipe for what size jets you end up running. Its not like you add 2 and 2 to get 4.. its all about plug chops and starting at full throttle and working your way down. Then its all about how the bike feels when you run it up to redline.

Heres a guide that was really informative for me when I was figuring it all out.

http://www.factorypro.com/tech_tuning_procedures/tuning_carbtune,CV,high_rpm_engines.html

 

[WelderDave]

Oh trust me, they will seal, I’ll make them. But I liked how they sounded, and it’s just a weekend rider, so I’m not to worried. But as far as the jets, what size did you end up going to with those?

And thanks for the link, was looking for that too!

 

[spectra]

Go here for jets http://www.jetsrus.com/ have used there stuff in 3 bikes now. I learned my lesson on the 1100 I had and bought some K&L kits off ebay........waste of money they were not even close to the right size.....

 

[NewHavenMike]

Honestly I cant remember, I took those shortys off as soon as I could. I rebuilt my entire engine so the top end had zero miles on it. I barely hit 6.5k until maybe 1000 miles. By then, I had tapered mufflers I have now. I probably started off by going up one size. Throughout the tuning phase, I went up a few sizes and went down a bunch more sizes. I ended up at 130 from a 135 stock. My bike is a 360 with different carbs than you so my jetting is not the same as yours. I do have jet sizes from probably 125 to 145 though.

 

[WelderDave]

Here is how she’s doing. New uni pods, and sanded down and painted her. Handlebars and equipment aren’t on yet, paint is still drying for the bars. However, I reversed the bars, flipped them upside down, heated them and bent them outwards. Once paint is dry I’ll get the equipment I have at the moment put on. Seat is in the mail, and my mom is making me an awesome decal because she likes playing with her decal maker to match paint.

New wheel bearings front and back coming in along with front gator boots for forks, and fork seals. Having a machine shop fix up my rear axle since the motorcycle shop said it’s plenty usable if a quality machine shop cleaned it up. Will be greasing the sway bar bearings/bushing for fresh grease, might change those if they cause issues.

Got the engine mufflers to fit with good seal, painting the headers black with high temp paint tomorrow since they have some rust on them, but the exhaust mufflers will get the metallic red like the tank since it can withstand up to 500F to give it a nice touch.

Fabbing up the electrical box also tomorrow along with wiring harness. However I still need to buy new jets for the carbs.

 

[BBS360]

Looking good.