Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber

Just figured I should slide over to the right area since most of what I'm doing from here forward will be modifications.

Here's the link to my previous thread if you want some more of the back story: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=38836.html

and a couple pics:

Before:



Now:





Still on the list:

forward controls (probably the TC Bros when funds permit)
exhaust - I'm thinking some fat slash-cuts with grey header wrap
rear fender - not sure what to do here yet....
hardtail - maybe next year
fresh paint - probably more than once :lol:
.. and anything else that pops up! :cry: :cry: :cry:

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

Looks NICE!!!

skillet

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

Thanks buddy - can't tell ya' how good it feels to finally have MY OWN BIKE as the wallpaper on my computer! :lol:

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

Sweetness. The one thing that I haven't figured out yet is what everyone is doing to the top of the shock mounts (bolts) after removing the grab handle. I had to put like 6 washers on them to get the nuts tight. Can you provide some insight?

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

I haven't really seen what others have done either but I used a pair of 3/8" ID steel bushings I had laying around from my handle bar swap (same thing is used as spacers on my risers). I got them at the local Ace hardware for like $2.50 a piece.

This pic shows the short one (1/2") I used for the risers on the bottom and the longer one (3/4")I used for the shock mount spacer is right above the tape measure.

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, those are the stock shocks from a Suzuki Savage 650. They bolted right on except I had to switch the metal sleeve from the lower mount on the right shock. I just drove the metal sleeves out with a couple of large sockets and pounded the one from the Maxim shock into the lower mount of the Savage shock.

I'm not a huge fan of the upper shock mount sticking out that far. Ideally, I'd like to cut it off and weld on a shorter one but I also thought about something like these from ebay - anybody know if these would work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bikers-Choice-S ... 4138wt_975

I also had 12-gauge shotgun shells shoved in the frame rail openings but forgot to "glue" them in there before I took off and lost one... now I need to find a matching set again. :lol:

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

What headlight did you use?

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

The headlight is from an "83 XJ1100. I bought it from a guy on here in the parts section for like $40 & it bolted right into the factory ears for the square headlight assembly.

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

Thanx bro. I was thinking the same thing, but didn't have any to fit right now. Need to drill them out some.

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

nice! looks great.

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

Thanks man, bike came out great, congrats!

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat sec

Been awhile since I've updated anything here but not much to report since it's starting to get pretty cold it's gonna' be awhile before I can accomplish much of anything. :?

A couple weeks back I decided to ride the bike to work (about 35-40 degress outside), got about a half mile down the road and went to take off from the stop sign.. nothing. Throttle cable snapped. Bummer. Ordered a cheapie online and figured while I had things apart and waiting anyway I also ordered a new valve cover gasket, new donuts, and bought some high temp engine paint for the valve cover. I used a $6 aeresol can of paint stripper from walmart and it did the trick in no time flat. This thing has been drooling oil down the front/right side and little elsewhere since I got it so I'm glad to finally have it sealed up.. now I just can't wait for some warmer weather so I can get in and clean things up in there a little better!

Here's the best "before" pic I have of the valve cover but this doesn't really do it justice. It looked like maybe about 15 years ago somebody let their 4 year old paint it with some poster paint and a hankie. :lol:



Again, not the best quality pics from my crappy old cellphone, but here's the after. I actually like the look of the red valve cover before but not too sure I'm gonna stick with the red/white/black color scheme for very long so I went with semi-gloss black Duplicolor high-temp engine paint.



Turned out pretty good, I think. I also polished up the ribs by step-sanding from 220 up to 1500. That probably took 10X longer than stripping and painting the damn thing but adds a lot to the look.

Oh, almost forgot - I mounted a couple red LED lights under the tank and behind the side covers.. wasn't really planning on it but I saw a pack of 4 on clearance for $5 at Advance Auto Parts and couldn't resist.. will try to get a pic up later. I might ditch them eventually but for now it's kind of cool.. my wife thought I was retarded when I told her what I was doing but seemed impressed when I lit 'em up for her.

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat sec

Did you remove the stock gauges? Wherd you get the seat?

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat section

Look's Good. More I see these with those Tank's more I wanna put one on instead of one I have on now.

 

Re: Ted's '82 Maxim 750 bobber - continued from the chat sec

Yep, ditched all the gauges. Right now I just have a Garmin GPS that I use for a speedo sometimes. I picked the seat up at the local motorcycle swap meet for $20 and fabbed a mounting bracket out of a $2 steel bracket from the hinge section at Menard's.

 

hey ted i love the look of ur bike what did u hve to do with ur cables, r they stock or extedned and how tall r ur bars?

 

Thanks man! These are the bars:

http://www.tcbroschoppers.com/index.php ... oated.html

9.25" rise - All the cables are stock length except I had to get a longer (24") upper brake line.

 

Cool i just measured mine out to be the same bout 9.25 i think im gonna build my own i have drag bars currently than i bought from a local shop called grim cycle salvage for 30 bucks

 

looks great! i have the same stock one now that i just picked up same color and all and i would love it to end up like yours did , i just got everything stripped down , which direction do you suggest to start toward first ?

 

wondering if instead of shotgun shells you could use a 50 cal shell?

 

Its all about the imagination

 

harmsxiii - Thanks! I checked out your gallery and looks like you got a pretty good start there. My honest opinion - as much as I hate to say it - is to make sure your bike is mechanically sound and safe to ride before putting too much time and money into the mods. Hopefully you've already done that and I'm wasting time typing this but we always hate to see someone spend a bunch of time tricking out a bike to find out later that it won't run or ends up as a rolling death trap! After that's all done - did you start a build thread? That's a good way to get some ideas and keep track of your progress. Good luck man, I look forward to seeing it!

Jethro - good idea.. I actually was looking at some bar-end weights on ebay that looked like bullets but I don't think they would work with my setup. I ended up getting some of these for now (I'll try to get an actual pic up later):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RUTTMAN-MINIBIK ... 1072wt_959

 

That looks great! Very simiar look to what I am after for mine. What did you use for the rear fender and how did you attach it?

 

That's actually the factory hard plastic inner fender . I just hacked off the back end of it and tapered it in a little at the bottom and it just clicks into a couple little tabs on the frame. It's just temporary though.. I'm hoping to find a good fender at the spring swap meet in a few months.

 

Very nice mod Ted.. I want to do something similar if conditions permit (by conditions I mean avalibility of various parts which is almost non-existent where I live!) :-(

 

Amazing bike nice work, and a true inspiration!

 

Hey thanks a lot man, I appreciate it!! It's definitely still a work in progress and probably always will be but I love it.

I've actually been working on a couple small things and will try to add an update in here with a few pics soon... just waiting for parts to arrive!

 

Nice bike man its good to see another xj bobber here in sufu

 

Yeah for sure, thanks man! Got any pics of your ride?

 

Yeah I just got them posted check it out http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=42774.html

 

Geez, I really should be updating this thread.. I've been working my ass off on this thing over the last couple of weeks.. hopefully it shows when I'm done!

No more empty promises - pics coming today for sure!

Recent updates:

New bar-end mirrors (cheap ebay ones - look nice but a PITA to mount)
New pegs (cheap ebay ones - looked okay but not what I expected & I already scrapped them for..

TC Bros forward controls!! Yussss! :lol: Pretty excited for these.. not installed yet because I'm doing some framework (grinding down the old brackets, paint, etc.) before I put them on.

Exhaust! I got a set of Emgo shorties that are welded on to the collector. I wrapped the headers but need to redo one of them & will also be wrapping the collector and mufflers almost to the end. I have a feeling reassembling the exhuast is going to be a major PITA but can't wait to see it finished and hear what they sound like. They have removable baffles so I can play around with the tone a little too.

I'm hoping to have everything back together & riding by the end of this week but I'll snap & post some progress pics tonight when I get done the father's day festivities... gonna' try to talk my old man into taking his Harleys out for a ride with him. Happy father's day guys!!

 

Oh, almost forgot.. finally welded on a bracket to mount the rear fender too. I used a chunk out of the original seat bracket that was hacked off last fall. I picked up a fender for $15 at the swap meet a couple months ago and I'm keeping most of the plastic inner fender as well. Just slapped some paint on them last night.

 

Here we go.. progress pics! Hopefully I can follow up with finished pics by the end of the week.

Everything is suuuuper dirty from all the grinding..

Forgot to mention I put a headlight visor on a couple months back. Next step here is to reroute the wires so they're not sticking out under the headlight:



New bar-end mirror:



3 wrapped pipes - have to redo the first one because I didn't like the way it turned out:



exhaust collector with muffs on, almost ready for wrap:



Here's my seat bracket.. still need to clean up the edges a little then sand, paint, etc.:



Left side frame after hours of grinding. The worst part was getting rid of the center stand brackets. I envy those that tore it down to the frame and had the right tools to make it quick and easy. This was a bastard of a job with everything still together, a 3" air-powered cutoff tool, and a 4 1/2" angle grinder. Made my share of rookie mistakes & buggered a couple little spots but nothing we couldn't come back & fix:



Other side. Next step here is scrub, sand, lots of tape & plastic, then paint!



Wife had to take a pic to put up on her Facebook page of us doing man shit:



Let my buddy get down on the grinder.. perfect time for a photobomb! :lol:

 

One last action shot my dad just sent from his phone.. in retrospect; shorts and flip flops may not have been the best choice for this job. :lol:

 

With the pod filters did you have to do any tuning to the bike?

 

Yes. After switching to pod filters and removing the stock mufflers it was running lean so I went up 2 sizes on the main jets to 124s. I've been waiting to finish my exhaust before I do more fine tuning and maybe bump up the pilot jets as well.

EDIT - hey, I just noticed you're from SD, too.. whereabouts?

 

Finally done - except for a shifting issue. I some how ended up flopping the shifter so I have 1 up and 5 down. 8O

I think it looks pretty good. I'm not 100% happy with the exhaust and will probably end up redoing it, or at least re-wrapping it at some point but this will do for now.

 

I like it man. I'm considering a bobber build also but probably way down the road for me. But nice to see.

 

Very nice job on the bobber, it looks very clean, actually looks comfortable to ride as well.

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate it! It is pretty comfy but the seat has very little padding so it's a PITA after about 20 minutes! :lol: The forward controls are nice but definitely take some getting use to. I rode in to work today and had a couple take-offs where I was searching for footpegs.

All-in-all I'm pretty happy with where it's at but the question now is;

what's next!? :lol:

I do have some small things on the agenda:

1. shorten the kickstand! A strong wind might tip this puppy over 8O
2. Clean up the wiring - especially the two big bundles that cross under the headlight. I'm going to reroute them from behind to clean up the look & maybe mount my toolbag down there.
3. New fusebox - got one from Chacal that will be installed soon.
4. Rear fender - I'm not totally satisfied with this one. It's definitely a front fender and it looks like it... I might try chopping the end of it flat or maybe pointed and/or move it forward a little but I think I'll end up with a different one eventually.

Cheers!

 

NICE! Now lets see some pics of that mower with the whitewalls!

 

Here you go.. sorry for the delay!

I would just like to say also that this mower gets a ton of looks when I'm chopping the grass. It's one of those things where you either love it or hate it. Some people think it's cool as hell and others think it's absolutely retarded - I agree with both of them. :lol:



Here's what it looked like when I got it from my dad (free, just like my bike!) ..

 

Almost forgot a pic of the taillights! 8)

 

Shorts and flip flops... that's how I work on everything. and I tend to mow the grass barefoot.

 

Took a couple vids so you guys could hear it run.

http://youtu.be/jlXgWy2TQi4 - baffles out

http://youtu.be/qRm_xTtMdjo - baffles in

Just for the record I never ride anywhere wearing shorts except the quick test run around the block & I wear a full helmet about 90% of the time (try to force myself 100% of the time).

I've only put about 100 miles on this thing with these new mufflers & the baffles are f***in shot! I think it sounds a little better without them now anyway but I might try repacking the baffles later on.

 

nice bike, and nice mower!

 

hey were did you grab your spacers from? Stopped by homedepot today with no luck.

 

Got them at Ace Hardware.

 

Somebody asked for an explanation of how I mounted the seat. After I hacked the back of the frame off, I took the support and moved it up between the frame rails and drilled a couple holes through it for the seat bolts to sit in. It's not actually attached in the back (though I still might do that for added safety). It is only attached with this steel bracket that is secured by the lower gas tank bolt. The bracket was just a piece of flat steel that I bought at Menards. Bent it with a vice and a hammer and drilled a hole.

 

Ugh.. I hate winter.

So back in early November when I laid this bike down for her winter slumber, I filled the tank with Premium petrol and a little bit o' Sta-bil. I ran the motor for a little while to make sure the gas in the carbs was stabilized and there she sat until about a month ago when the temp finally got back in the 40's here & I decided it was time to blow out the cobwebs. Good news - after topping off the battery she fired right up. Bad news - I quickly realized that I had committed the cardinal sin of leaving the petcock on prime when I saw a steady flow of gas/oil mix puking out of the breather filter.Frrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiick. All over the wrapped pipes and everything. I flushed & filled the crankcase and installed a new breather filter but haven't started it yet. Need to replace all that gas that drained out first.

Also got some new shocks installed this week (http://www.dimecitycycles.com/11-inch-black-shorty-eye-to-eye-rear-motorcycle-shock-absorbers.html).

They're a little longer than the Suzuki Savage 650 shocks so I'm hoping that translates to a smoother ride but I'm not holding my breath. The Savage shocks are getting transferred over to my new bobber project within a couple of days.

I'll try to post up a pick or 2 later...

Cheers!