New to the Forum

[festy]

Hey guys my names alex "fest" and i got my first bike, an xs400, over the past summer. I bought it for pretty cheep but with some tank and now carb problems. The tank had champagne holes all around and under the tank as well as a shotty cream coat job in the tank itself. i had to cut open the tank to get all of the cream coat out so i could get a different better professionally done coat which was a hassle. As for the carb problems which didnt come about till my last ride after fixing the starter motor. The needle must have got stuck open and the gas pooored in to the air filter trickled out and coooaated my back tire. knowing something was wrong with my bike after loosing throttle and white smoke poored out of the exhaust i slowly came to a stop or what i thought and the rear tire locked up and shifted fast and i dumped it . no damage except the clutch pulls at a wired angle now hah. carbs are fixed and it runs fine( still have to replace the needle tho... long story). But that being said i love to ride and to work on the bike. Im a fabricator but unfortunatly im clueless when it comes to the mechanical side of it so as for now i am
-Refab n painting the tank(black side white top red pinstripe between them)
-Single air filters
-reuse handlebars fliped and rotated like a clubman style which i did
-new speedo/tach(saw a post where someone did that with mini's)
-custom exhaust which will come down under the bike then turn 90 degrees off of one side of the bike(cant wait to do this but im having trouble finding the pipe for it)
-possibly halo light

I know its a lot to do but over the next yr i hope to complete it all and finish most by the end of winter. Ill post another picture hopefully sometime next week to show the finished tank / handlebars setup.

1st day i got it

End of summer

 

[njcafe84]

Welcome!

 

[ksqrly]

Nice maxim you have there.

 

[ksqrly]

Im doing the same thing for an exhaust. This is how I am doing it and its probably a lot cheaper than buying a pair.
-bought stock set from local boneyard $80
-chopped off to desired lengthe
-bought weld on 90 degree tips $22
-bought wraps $55
-weld them on and wrap the heads down to chrome tips

 

[ksqrly]

There is a guy on here named reegs, and he just recently posted a picture of an awesome custom maxim

 

[festy]

im actually going to make the exhaust hopefully by scratch (rusting is kind of bad) i need like a 10' str pipe get some 90's and cut to length and shape it that way or U-bends which is how most fabs do it apparently. im gettin a welder this weekend and hopefully a nice miter saw to do it at home.

 

[ksqrly]

Sounds like quite the project. Ya I have seen it been done that way and I thought about doing it, but I was skeptical about my own welding skills, and making the set exactly the same for both sides. Another thing that turned me off was the precision welding needed to weld the little piece on the pipe that mates the engine to the pipe.

It will be cool to see someone else tackle this. Good luck

 

[festy]

Sounds like quite the project. Ya I have seen it been done that way and I thought about doing it, but I was skeptical about my own welding skills, and making the set exactly the same for both sides. Another thing that turned me off was the precision welding needed to weld the little piece on the pipe that mates the engine to the pipe.

It will be cool to see someone else tackle this. Good luck

yea that one part is kind of sketchy for me ill have to take the exhaust off and c how that part is shaped and hopefully fab a new one. we just got a plasma table at work and i was one of 3 to be taught how to work it so if need be i can use it i weld 9 hours a day everyday so i hope i can do it hah

 

[ksqrly]

Nice... a plas table would be awesome to have access to. Sounds like you got it under control. good luck. Post some pics when you get going.

 

[ksqrly]

Another thing I just thought of was the fact that my pipes are double walled. This cuts down a lot of vibration, heat, and noise. Im guessing you dont care much about the noise because of the fact you are running a straight pipe (like me . The other two things are something to consider. Not all that important im guessing, because I have seen plenty of bikes with single wall pipes, but it might be something to think about

 

[ksqrly]

Just before you get to involved with a custom exhaust, Look at this. Only invested 150 with wraps and everything

 

[festy]

that looks nice. that was an old exhaust u got at a junk yard? hows the rusting?

 

[ksqrly]

Ya I went to the local bone yard, and picked up a set. They were actually in really good shape. So good in fact that I cut the pipes that were originally on the bike instead of the ones that I found at the boneyard.

I live in Utah, and there is nooo way you can get a bike registered with pipes that are as loud as the ones I made, so I have to keep a stock set to register it. Once it is registered I will be able to slip the loud ones on .

The rust on the original set wasn't to bad. There was some spots that were a little rusty, but I found if you use automotive sandpaper, I started with 320 and worked my way up to 1500, you can get most of the rust off. After the 1500 it looks almost polished, but I went over it again with metal polish. They looked almost new before I wrapped them.

 

[ksqrly]

Honestly Im not so sure that this new exhaust I built will look good on my bike. It might be up for sale if I dont like the looks of it on my bike

 

[festy]

i think the rust is a little to bad to reuse the pipes unfortunately on my bike (buffalo is rust city hah) im worried sanding will create holes that are to bad to repair. ill have to save this project for the summer

 

[festy]

i just took a 2nd look at the exhaust wile i was attempting to get the air filter box out to install pods and a little wile ago i used this rust/polisher on it called eagle one and it seemed like it took some off but rlly not enough. going back to it now the chemical on it must have dug in more that it was sitting and it looks like it took a loottttt off so for this year i might just use the exhaust clean them up and maby cut and use a Megaphone muffler which sounds pretty cool