XJ650 Somerset Cafe Racer Project

Hello All,

I purchased an old 81 XJ 650 a few months back and have been turning it into a cafe racer. I have been using this forum for information and ideas more and more recently and though i should put something back. It was my first effort at this sort of thing and it's still a little way off of being finished. Anyway, hopefully the picture posts work, my starting point was like this (Library pic as I was so keen to take it to pieces I didn't get any before photos).

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

Got my hands on a haynes manual (incidently, these are from Somerset, just down the road from where I grew up in sparkford), removed the fairings, removed seat, removed lights, exhaust etc pulled the engine and ended up with a rolling chassis like this

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

Stripped the chassis down, sanded off the old engine mounts, final drive box etc and got going with the primer, base coat and lacquer....

Having difficulty posting pics, don't seem to be able to compress them enough. will work it out.

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

looking good, let us know how it goes and keep updating with pics!

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

Ok, so engine out just took off the cam covers to reseal as the old gasket was cooked, had a look at the chain.

Sanded wheels by hand, primed and sprayed and lacquered in black. (I should point out at this point that in the true old cafe racer style I am on a budget and this build is mostly about having fun, learning new things and losing as much weight off the old girl as possible, whilst trying to maintain the cafe racer look. The caviat to that being that it will also be losing its aerodynamic ability by going naked. Anyways, i digress, the wheels are now shiney black. I'm thinking of putting red rim tape around them.
Tyres are new from the past owner and have only done a few kms.

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

Final drive got the liquid chrome treatment, It too is shiney, developed problems later but we'll come back to that.

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

Striped the chassis by hand, it was in remarkably good shape with minimal rust. A few untidy welds from the factory but other than that, it worked out ok. Got the first layers of primer and base coat on the front wheel fender also.

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

I will have plenty more buffing to do on the aluminium of the engine casing. But as above photo of the chassis with engine mounts i am going for a buffed steel with lacquer on top to prevent rust, did this a few months ago and it has worked out in some areas but not in others. I have also buffed and lacquered other details on the bike from the brake reservoir down to the centerstand (which i probaly won't have on the bike once work is complete, its off at the moment).

Aluminium bits like the top yolke, i have buffed and lacquered and am pleased with the results so far.

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

I will have plenty more buffing to do on the aluminium of the engine casing. But as above photo of the chassis with engine mounts i am going for a buffed steel with lacquer on top to prevent rust, did this a few months ago and it has worked out in some areas but not in others. I have also buffed and lacquered other details on the bike from the brake reservoir down to the centerstand (which i probaly won't have on the bike once work is complete, its off at the moment).

Aluminium bits like the top yolke, i have buffed and lacquered and am pleased with the results so far.

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

Next was the front brakes, I bought steel braided, hoses from Hel. Stripped down the calipers, checked the slaves, fitted new seals and then painted with high temp caliper paint.

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

Next I went to Herm at dime city cycles (Of Cafe racer US TV show fame) to get a list of parts including the following:
- Twin chrome headlamps
- Twin custom chrome mounting brackets
- rear shocks 13in chrome adjustables
- Acewell digital tachometer and speedo all in one
- 4 way synchrometer
- Straight bar 12in clip ons
- Aluminium bar ends and mirrors
- Pod filters
- Fuel petcock valve rebuild kit

I also started to fabricate a mould to make my own fibreglass seat hump and started hacking up the old seat and vinyl to customise the seat.

Whilst waiting for parts to arrive i was playing around with the battery location and attempting fit up of the old petrol tank, wiring harness etc. I fitted LED indicators and an LED tail light.
I polished the pipes up and got a couple of burly lads around to help me lift the engine back in without scratching the newly painted chassis

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

At this point I was pretty pleased that it was coming together nicely. After reading the forum extensively i had decided that i wanted to go the pod filter route but agreed with the members that thought the pod filter dramas could be avoided by keeping the intake tubes between the pods and carbs. This created a clearance issue for me with the old battery, which was temporarily slung down on the engine casing under the carbs. I was also unsure as to where the electrics were going to sit as I was sure that i wanted to go with the open chassis arrangement. I bought a chunky new earth lead to experiment with different battery locations.

SOme of my early attempts looked like this.

Before the clip-ons arrived and acewell turned up, the old dials were hanging off the front like a couple of old chrome mountains.

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

Whilst waiting more time for parts, fibreglass resin to go off and paint to dry, i cross drilled my front discs and set up to replace some of the exhaust cable ties (replacing old aluminium chunky bits for rear footpegs temporarily) with proper metal mountings, buffed and lacquered as per the other bits.

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

The day the gear turned up from DIme city cycles was a good one, lots of progress in no time!

I relocated my ignition switch to under the seat and so the acewell mounted nicely up front on a bracket that i made up to go between the old ignition screws.

This was pre yoke buffing and pre wiring in (Dramas to follow) but gives an ide of the fit up and look from both front and back.

Note the chunks of unattractive wiring hanging out front.

Cross drilled discs also back in there

Clip ons fitted and brake master cylinder stripped from black to brushed aluminium and detailed (as inspired by someone else here on the forum)

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

New shocks fitted to rear, LED tail light and rear seat hump.

The seat at this stage was just the cut down version of the original so as you can see was waaaaaay too chunky to maintain any lines on the bike.

 

Re: Somerset Cafe Racer

These are all the pics i have with me at the moment until i get home in a few weeks. It takes the project almost up until the present day. SHortly after this i started wiring in the LEDs, started the seat build proper and playing around more with the wiring configuration.

HAd some real dramas, the bike was running badly when i got it and when pulling apart the loom i could see why, relays missing, bodged wires shorting out where relays should have been, random splices, wires without end connectors etc.

Still working through this but recently i purchased a TCI from a breaker in the US after tracing poor spark on 2 and 3 back to the unit. The pick up coil tests as per haynes manual check out. I'm thinking now i will go with an aftermarket TCI.

In other news, i purchased an antigravity battery which is lithium ion and really a neat little unit. it fits up under the seat and is hidden. I haven't fired it up with the new battery yet as i'm waiting on the TCI.

 

Looks good.

 

Looks great! Where did you get the battery? Looking to relocate mine in the hump so I can keep that open look. Need a battery that can lay on it's side. A couple people on here suggested a Motobat Battery.

 

nice build, keep up the good work and keep the pics comming.
now!! from experience, i think you may need to put the clipon handlebars above the headlight brackets, especially as the footrests are in the original position, the bars are way too low to keep the footrests as forward as that,imho
it may seem fine in the garage but try sitting on it for a half hour, and your belly will be aching.
unless you're a super nimble athletic young thing, if so please accept my appologies :wink:
cheers stu

 

Thanks guys. Might not be to everyones tastes but I like how its going so far. The battery is one of these:
http://antigravitybatteries.com/?page_id=994
, if you wanted to go really small then you could probaly get away with the 4 cell. I have the 8 cell as reccommended by the manufacturer. WIll get some comparison pics when i get home in a couple of weeks and stick them on here. I have a pretty small seat hump but have left in the inverted U part of the frame and the battery sits in there easily, my only concern was clearance if i hit a large bump at speed. Plus it fits under the seat pretty nicely. I used the original plastic clamp and rubber strap, some one sided sticky foam comes with the battery to pad it out in the original box which comes in useful. It really is a neat little unit, way smaller and lighter than the original battery and not that much more expensive (Here in WA, standard new Pb or gel batteries of a decent quality go for over 100AUD). I won't sing its praises too much until i've seen how it runs on the bike but physically it works.

Other people sell them, for example dime city cycles, the dealer in aus wanter 230 AUD so it was cheaper to get one sent from the US than buy from home sadly.