Hey guys, I'm new to this forum but not forums in general and not to XS400s. My bike is a 1983 Yamaha Maxim 400 that I got back in 2008.
This picture was about a week after I got it. I had to swap the tires right away and I removed the fairing the previous owner had put on...which was crooked.
I rode it like this for a year or so before I cut the mufflers off to give it a better sound. That began the next stage of the bikes transformation.
So at this point I swapped bars and removed the gauges as well as the headlight and added a subframe to put forward controls on. I'm a big guy at 6' 4" and I wanted a bike that I didn't feel so cramped on.
The bike stayed like that for a couple years while I hashed out my next plan. The seat needed to go and the subframe I built needed some modification. The exhaust also needed some rerouting and to be done the right way and I had been watching for a cheap set of shocks to show up on Craigslist.
I built a steel seat pan, repaired the frame, built the exhaust and found an old set of Yamaha dirt bike shocks that fit the rear.
And that's how it sat up until this past weekend when I decided to tear it down and fix it up properly with fresh paint. I'm going to clean up wiring and some of my previous welds I'm not real happy with, get my brother to cover the seat in custom leather, paint the frame, engine and tank, build a rear fender and do a few other mods along the way.
Here is how she sits today.
This picture was about a week after I got it. I had to swap the tires right away and I removed the fairing the previous owner had put on...which was crooked.
I rode it like this for a year or so before I cut the mufflers off to give it a better sound. That began the next stage of the bikes transformation.
So at this point I swapped bars and removed the gauges as well as the headlight and added a subframe to put forward controls on. I'm a big guy at 6' 4" and I wanted a bike that I didn't feel so cramped on.
The bike stayed like that for a couple years while I hashed out my next plan. The seat needed to go and the subframe I built needed some modification. The exhaust also needed some rerouting and to be done the right way and I had been watching for a cheap set of shocks to show up on Craigslist.
I built a steel seat pan, repaired the frame, built the exhaust and found an old set of Yamaha dirt bike shocks that fit the rear.
And that's how it sat up until this past weekend when I decided to tear it down and fix it up properly with fresh paint. I'm going to clean up wiring and some of my previous welds I'm not real happy with, get my brother to cover the seat in custom leather, paint the frame, engine and tank, build a rear fender and do a few other mods along the way.
Here is how she sits today.
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