New member intro & pics

[Pawl]

Hi All,
Nice to see a site dedicated to the Ole' 400. I live in Yellowknife NT Canada (of Ice Road Truckers & Ice Pilots fame). A few of us have been messing around with xs400's. Here's a pic. of my ongoing daily driver digger project and a couple closeups of the mods. so far. I plan to hack the back end off and install a solo seat this winter.
I'll try to start an album soon and post more pics of this build.
Pawl

 

[Travis]

Welcome to the site!

Did you just use two plates for the rake job?

 

[Pawl]

Yes, I cut them out of cardboard first then plasmacut the shapes on some 1/4" steel (think it was 1/4" ?) as well I cut and welded in 2 plates for the swingarm, to move the shocks back and drop the arse end. The problem I have now is, it sits so low that the kickstand drags on the ground in a left hand turn, and it sits almost completly vertical on the stand (I'm always worried that a slight breeze might blow it over on the throttle side). I'll have to work on a fix for that for sure.

 

[drewpy]

welcome Paul.

I think what travis was saying is he doesn't think two plates will be enough to build the strength back in. I'm no expert on this so I'll leave that to others to comment.

 

[volcomskater77]

that looks like its E6010 electrode. that's what pipe fitters use on everything. 6010 on some 1/4'' thick SHOULD be OK. but no guarantees. did you bevel the plates? is the neck now weak from the heat? the area that you welded is actually now stronger than it was originally. im no expert, just speaking from general knowledge on the subject.just my 2 cents

 

[Pawl]

Yeah, pretty close 6011 rods, (they were out of 10's) I like them for this type of welding, I find more control going around the curvy parts than a Jet rod (7018 family). I spent the most time on this part grinding and beveling (with a 1/8" land). The mockups, plasmacutting and the welding went the quickest compared to the time spent on metal prep, although I did allow cooling time between rods (the steering column sticker did'nt burn at all) the metal plates I used are as thick as the axle plates on an xs400 swingarm.
This is the second bike we have raked, the first one I welded in a wedge shaped ring to fit into the gap where the downtube was cut and splayed. I really seemed like overkill so I did'nt bother for this one. I drove this bike with the rake & shock drop for the last half of summer, it's real cool to drive, feels very solid, it is more sluggish in slow corners, but more stable at high speed, and fast corners seem ok, overall this thing grew 8" in length by this mod.
I just started an album "Trails End Chop Squad" with a modded/stock photo comparison.

 

[volcomskater77]

got my seal of approval

 

[Pawl]

Thanks man,
I feel even safer now!