Tombo's intro and 1980 XS400 street fighter build

[Tombo]

Hello all!

You probably have seen me around here on the forums, but I never have done a proper intro.

So far, I have owned two bmw's in my life: 1987 k75c (naked), and an early r100gs. It turned out I couldn't afford the r100gs because of the cost of parts (but I got all of my investment and then some when I sold it) - and my dad took care of my k75 for me (he borrowed it for about 6 months, and in that time, bought himself a new BMW. When he went to pick up the k75 from the dealership, he crashed it on the way home and totalled it out. He was fine, so that's good! And he bought the bike from me for the amount I had into it. I currently have a 1980 yamaha xj650 maxim - which I use for highway riding, and two-up riding. Compared to the 'ol bmw's - I think that these yamaha's suit my needs a lot better. Cheaper parts (that seem to be much more available), and they weigh a lot less. In fact, my xj650 has more horsepower (and the same torque for more of the power curve) than the k75 I had (750) - and it's not even water cooled or fuel injected! I have posted several pictures of the xj. When I bought it, the side covers were mismatched to the tank - and it was just too ugly. I painted the covers black, and will paint the tank black at a later date. I also swapped the cruiser bars for renthal street fighters (I love these bars!) First, a picture of me (fresh outta college!) and my old k75 just before a west coast tour. Could not find pictures of the r100gs.

The last picture is with me and my dad's bikes together about the to head to thanksgiving in Sacramento. Him on his beemer, me on my jap bike - we're like the axis of evil rolling down the road!

I have 13 years experience at bike shops around the SF bay area. Push bikes, mind you (bicycles!). While I have been working with my hands my whole life, I had never felt totally comfortable working on motors. The most intensive motor work I had done was oil changes - everything else I would pay someone to do for me.

I decided it was time for that to change....

 

[Tombo]

Alright - so intro - DONE!

On to the xs400. Here are two pictures from the PO before I bought the bike. Notice the sissy bar and the stock swept bars (which are for sale! Lemme know if you want them).

The run down: When I first bought the bike, it did not run. The PO and her (ex)boyfriend bought the bike for her as a project, and they were hoping to restore it to running so it could be a first bike for her. They got it to fire up, but it ran like shit - they were going to bring it a mechanic to finish off, but then they broke up. The PO lost interest in the bike after the break up and decided to sell it. I found it on Craigslist for $450. I showed up to her house and pointed out all the things I would have to do to the bike, and the money that would go into it. I also let her know what the bike is worth (kbb) - which isn't much! Last I checked, if it were in "good" condition, it would command about $600.

Long story short, I bought the bike for $300. The best part is that when I got it home, I got it fire up pretty much immediately. Granted, it was not running well.

The good:
•It was all there! Nothing missing.
•New needles and float bowl gasket on carbs
•Fresh fork seals and oil
•Fresh battery (however, I think it was improperly charged initially, and has weak amperage. This is on my to do list, but runs fine for now if I use kick start)
•New headlight with the H4 bulb conversion already done
•All signals, starter, and electrical all working. Even old fusebox has a decent amount of spring
•No rust in tank (but a little surface rust on the outside)
•Great compression: 155psi each
•Fired up within 10 minutes of unloading it!
•Brand new air filters

The problems:
•Severely blued pipes, and a crack in the left side muffler just behind the crossover. The right side header was leaking, and the mounting bolt was stripped!
•Loose baffles in mufflers = rattletown
•Bad carb holders (cracked and leaking)
•Bad float adjustment
•Poor sync on carbs
•kinked brake cable
•Ripped up seat cover
•Sissy bar!?
•Weak spark
•Was not charging
•"melted" tach face plate (the numbers are almost illegible, but it worked)
•Chain rusted, but ridable. Sprockets getting close to worn.

What I've done so far:
•Replaced exhaust system with stock from ebay. (damaged during shipping, so left side muffler is a little banged up - but functionally it is flawless. Plus I got a pretty good deal on it)
•Removed old header bolts and replaced with used stock from XSChris (thanks!)
•Cleaned carbs (which were not too dirty)
•Adjusted float height
•Set timing with timing strobe
•Synched carbs
•Adjusted idle mixture with colortune
•New Carb diaphragms from JBM
•New plugs, wires, caps
•New carb holders from Mikes (we'll see if they hold up, 500 miles so far, no problems)
•Installed Renthal Streetfighter bars (sweet!)
•Oil change X2. One to clean (with 100 miles), one for good. I used really cheap oil for first one, and 20w50 castrol 4T standard for now)
•Installed HUGE fuel filter (after first cleaning, bike ran great, but started running like crap after about 50 miles. No problems since installation
•New ethanol resistant fuel line
•Replaced tach with used stock from XSCHRIS (thanks!)
•Rewired generator
•New regulator

Pictures! The first one is a cockpit look at my new bars.

This one's before the new exhaust went on - but shows what the bike looks like with new bars.

And here is a picture of my HUGE fuel filter!

One really cool thing about this filter is that I can tell if I'm not getting gas - it's crystal clear.

"To Do List"
•Paint tank and side covers - one of my buddy's is a visual artist, a great one in my opinion - I am going to do a functional prep/paint job on it, and let him have license to do whatever he wants.
•One more carb cleaning - the bike runs totally awesome, but for some reason doesn't like the full choke setting. It will run, but it runs on only one cylinder. I usually start up in half enrichment, and then switch it off after a few minutes. Idle is strong and predictable.
•Remove fenders... Perhaps I'll keep the front one since even if I take it off, I'll need some type of cross brace, but I want to take the metal part of the rear fender off, and just leave the plastic one for function's sake
•Reshape and re-upholster seat - I want to move the "hump" about 3 inches back, cut the back of the seat pan off so that it is more like a single. I will then wrap in brown leather.
•Paint frame
•Install new nickel plated heavy duty izumi chain and new sprockets
•Polish crank case, and perhaps paint jugs black and polish the "tips" of the airfoils
•New tires. Was thinking of dual sport tires, but I might just do some cheap kendas for now

Thanks for reading!

 

[drewpy]

phew! that's what you call an intro

 

[Tombo]

phew! that's what you call an intro

'scuse me drewpy! I do tend to be a bit longwinded!

 

[xschris]

Good to see you have most of the bad stuff fixed

 

[volcomskater77]

http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4924

One of the best threads on here since your mentioned street fighter.

I like the direction your goin. Tasteful mods. Are there any frame mods in mind? A fork brace would be cool.

Posted via Mobile

 

[Tombo]

Volcom - thanks! I can't compete with that thread though, that is fully amazing. I have had thoughts of doing some type of fork/front wheel swap, and potentially a rear wheel - but I hadn't thought of swing arm (unless I do a swingarm that has a disc tab so I can switch to discs). I am not a welder unfortunately, so frame mods will be "trimming", probably not much more than that.

I do, for the record, plan to cut about 3 inches off the back of the seat, and the frame and fender will be cut pretty much to the same point, The idea is to remove the "metallic" part of the rear fender, cut the crame to that point (just enough to keep the stock seat lock mechanism). It's not much, but I think that with that, a smaller set of tail lights and signals (perhaps LED), the back end of the bike would look awesome.

For forks - an inverted GOLD fork would be my most excitable option - but I will look at details, maybe pick the brains of some of the members who have done a different fork. My plan was to take the fork, front wheel, and brake system off of whatever bike offers the most direct swap, just to simplify the installation. The fork is a pipe dream, but if I happen upon some good money, or a great buy, it won't be passed.

PLEASE! If anyone has fork ideas, please chime in. I will go an re-read the gixxer install on this awesome thread.

 

[Tombo]

Alright! 4th carb cleaning solves my 1/4 to 3/4 throttle response! It had felt jerky before this cleaning.

This time, I used the compressed air at my bike shop, and also I used ribbed wire guages. To clean each rifice of every jet. I also ensured the "three streams" with carb cleaner through the openings under the butterfly flowing through the pilot air jet.

The results are awesome, the bike feels "right".

 

[xschris]

Compressed air is the best way to get all the little bits of crap out Good to hear you got it working now.

 

[Tombo]

The compressed air definitely good - but I think my tedious wire guage cleaning produced the mlost obvious results - I got a white chalky residue collecting on the ribs when I was rubbing the inside of the jets. Imust have restored the ID of these things to stock! I'm glad I did this before attempting to llift the needles.