Cafe/street Maxim 400 aka Tipsy build

Mindaugas Pranckus

XS400 New Member
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Campbell River BC, Canada
Ahoy me fellow grease monkeys:)
New member here, relatively new bike rider/owner but DIYer and wrencher since diapers. A friend gave away a Maxim400. Lost papers but it was registered in BC province in Canada before. Got a bill of sale but need to fill the form to get papers and I don't even know what year or model it is, therefore don't know which wiring diagram to download etc... According to VIN starting 15G, is it 1980 XS400J ???


Now the build:) I should've documented the process it but I was so pumped and excited that I jumped on it and did my chop chop in 2 months without any pics of my process.





Bike was sitting under a deck for 5ish years but before that it was well maintained by previous owner, after cleaning carbs she started almost instantly. The only bearings I had to change were steering stem ones, other stuff just needed some degreasing and honest scrubbing. All Tipsy needed is new shoes and that bearing but that's not how I roll, nothing is good enough for me out of the box.
So I chopped my rear, welded seat frame from 7/8in gas pipe (coz it's 1/8in wall thickness). Exhaust was shortened by 6in or so and tucked closer to swing arm, keeping H-pipe just behind oil filter. I moved my tank back a bit so I fit my clip-ons, moved up a bit and tilted the back upwards so I can have my flow of lines I wanted, also to hide my wiring and battery. Made my seat from fiberglass and integrated LED strip tail lights.
I wasn't planning a full rebuild but somehow it happens to me all the time with anything I get my hands on... LOL Once I had my wheels off to change tires, might as well paint them. Once I had engine out to weld the frame- might as well paint it on the same note and so on.
She's not super perfect quality as it is my first bike I'll be riding as a new rider. Like a drunk new girlfriend on Friday night I'll tip her over, eventually. Sooner or later it will happen, that's why she called Tipsy:)
 
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