Half Hardtail, Struts

sharps09

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I 've been looking for a bolt on hardtail kit. Thinking of just having the swing arm lengthened, then welding a tube across upper part of the downtube creating an attachment like the swing arms. Then bridging the gap with straight pieces. Have you guys seen anything of what I speak.
 
I 've been looking for a bolt on hardtail kit. Thinking of just having the swing arm lengthened, then welding a tube across upper part of the downtube creating an attachment like the swing arms. Then bridging the gap with straight pieces. Have you guys seen anything of what I speak.
I pretty sure there isn't a bolt-on hardtail kit available for the XS400. There are a few weld-on kits to choose from though, but most of them aren't advertised for these bikes.

I think I understand what you're saying. You're just wanting to stretch the swingarm, then weld a tube coming from each side of the swingarm up to meet with the outer two tubes of the 3 piece backbone....sort of like the way mine is in the pics on page 1, but instead of having the lower rails, you want to keep the swingarm.....Is that what you mean?

If it is, then I will give you my honest opinion.....DON'T DO IT!! Hardtailing the bike while keeping the swingarm is asking for something to break. The swingarm uses bearings and those bearings will wear out REALLY fast from all the stress that the "hardtail" puts on it.....then you're looking at a hardtail that is only "halfway" hard....know what I mean?

I know there are bikes out there like this, and they may last for years and years too, but the question isn't if it will fail, it's when. The same thing holds true with replacing your shocks with struts...it's just not a good idea.

I will no doubt stir some sh*t with this post, but who cares....it's my opinion and I like to feel safe when riding....that's the whole reason I'm RE-DOING my hardtail.
 
Hardtailed, do you have any pics of where the rear struts meet the top tube, like just at the back of the tank? Just curious! call me snoopy! lol I agree with what you said in your last post, halfway hard! just take the shocks off and put a piece of steel in its place, extend the swing arm and its just gonna have more leverage to break sh*t.
Im just throwing my 2 pennies in... Im no frame builer but I would listen to Hardtailed's advise
 
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Hardtailed, do you have any pics of where the rear struts meet the top tube, like just at the back of the tank? Just curious! call me snoopy! lol I agree with what you said in your last post, halfway hard! just take the shocks off and put a piece of steel in its place, extend the swing arm and its just gonna have more leverage to break sh*t.
Im just throwing my 2 pennies in... Im no frame builer but I would listen to Hardtailed's advise
There should be a pic in my thread....but I'm not sure. I will take some tonite and post them there for you though.

And I'm no frame builder either...haha
 
I mean it looks cool man, but I don't trust it at all. The holes in the square tube is even worse....just lessening the strength of the tube. For the price of a hardtail kit, you could do it right the first time. Take my advice on doing it the first time, I didn't and look at me now....spending more money and time to go back over things. I payed $160 total for my kit, and I could do up a 6 inch stretch, it also came with axle plates (with fender strut/sissy-bar mounting tabs), the cross bars, and even the slugs.

Take my advice or leave it man, but I just don't want to see you hurt or even worse.
 
If ya want to strut it, cool, but don't weld the struts in.
As Hardtailed77 said, those bearings WILL wear out, and the extra movement will cause cyclic fatigue around the weld and the base tube will tear/crack at or near the weld.
If you just bolt solid struts in place of shocks, the extra stresses WILL wear out the bearings faster, but there are no welded tube joints to fail, just pinned joints in a truss structure.
 
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