check out my custom xj650 j maxim. What do ya think?

I did all the work to this bike myself with some help from my friends. It took all winter but it turned out just like I had invisioned it would last fall. This is the first bike I've redone. I hope I'm adding these pics the right way. I will try to get my before pics up soon so you can see the defference. ok sorry for posting with out the pics i think I have it now

 

Retry photos. Cant see anything. From that description, that air horn sounds loud!

 

ok i got the pisc on there.

 

veery nice, love the front fender on the rear

 

Holy Cow. That looks fantastic. Nice work and thanks for the photos, she looks great.

 

Yes i like it. Looks great sort of has a Batman feel to it.
Good work fella.

 

wow that is great!

 

love how you blacked it all out just what I have in mind for my "Edith"

 

Nice!

 

That bike looks incredible. If only I had the tiime!!!

 

very nice don't it feel good to sit back and say I did that nothing is better than a vision coming to life.

 

Thanks for all nice comments.
Plumer that is a front fender off a honda vtx I got it from my friend and set it on the rear tire last fall. Thats how my whole build got started. I liked the look of it so much I had to roll with it. I was just going to replace the clutch and maybe do the forward controls. Well one thing lead to another. I spent about $1600.00 in parts and maybe have 200 to 250 hours into it. A lot of that time was drinking beer and brain storming with Josh. And a hole lot of sanding.
About that front fender on the rear I'm working on designing another bracket to mask the fork recesses. maybe

 

Do you mean you are going to make a bracket that will sit inside of the fork recesses rather than where it is now? i think that will look better, but It looks good where it is, maybe try and fill in the recessed with something, although the fender is probably plastic huh?

 

also wanted to mention how you smoothed out the neck, it looks great, I want to do that to mine when I strip down the bike to paint the frame.

 

Nice!

mikeg

 

yea its plastic so filling doesn't sound to fun to me with the flexing and all.
I have a couple of ideas I'm thinking about for the bracket.
-fab another small piece of alum to tie the two holes together and add a small blue led light behind the piece so you can only see the glo up into the recess
-make a larger piece and mount it so it fits like a triangle with the point of the triangle at the 2nd hole with about 3" legs
I really don't want to make a hole new bracket, it was a real bugger getting all the bends right so the spacing was equal around the fender.

As far as shaving the neck goes I ground most of the ugly down taking care not to grind to much of the structual integrity out of the neck welds. I then filled the rest in with "allmetal" its a body filler, like bondo but much stronger and it won't crack like bondo. You mix it up in the same fashion but be carefull it will harden before you can walk across the shop if you put a couple of drops to much of hardener in it. Its not a good idea to let it stand to long before sanding either because when fully cured its almost as hard as a soft aluminum. I found that out the hard way. Its best to sand when you can just make an imprint with your finger nail. Also it needs to be put onto bare metal don't primer then almetal it doesn't like to stick to primer or paint.
To show off the neck I also raised the front of the tank 1 1/2" . If your going to do this make sure you move the mounts back slightly or the rear mount won't line up :wink:

 

I think it looks great. You have talent sir.

 

The neck pretty much sounds like how I was going to do it. I've been using that same sort of allmetal stuff all over my bike instead of bondo, It holds a lot better. I think I am going to strip down the bike this winter to paint it. I have enough to do during the season already besides riding it.

I love the all black (or is that like a dark gray?) look by the way, That's how mines painted now although I say it's temporary. But as they say, "There's nothing more permanent as something temporary."

 

the frame,wheels,final drive,exhaust, and swing arm are flat black
the engine is semi gloss high temp engine paint
the fenders, covers, and tank are a dark grey with heavy metalic base coat with 3 coats of silver pearl clear coat and 5 coats of staight clear so I didn't wet sand off the pearl (it sparkles like it has crushed glass init when its in the sun)
the engine covers are stripped polised and alumacleared so all i have to do in the future is wash them no more polishing

 

Great unique look! This is one of the reasons that I just keep coming back to this site, you can get so many great ideas to apply to your own ride. Thanks for posting the pictures. I have yet to post a single pict of my bike. Its in way too many peices right now and, I want to show it at its best when I'm done. This year is mechanics, next year will be more cosmetic. I only have one bike and, I want to make it "mine". The mount of the rear fender has given me inspiration but, I'll have to wait and see where I finally end up.
Cheers
Ken

 

Real nice! I love that seat, where did that come from?

 

datzbul,
The seat is off an '08 nightster bought it off a friend. I had to do some mods to it to make it work but it didn't take to much. :wink:


XJ700VET,
Some bad news about that fender. I did a little burnout last night (tire needed replacing this season anyway so why not run it to the top of forth gear in an insane burn out [video on its way]) So I put a new tire on it this moring and it was a little tight to the fender I bent the bracket up a little to gain some clearance and thought I had it licked. Well about 50 mi into my ride today I notice my fender is all f--k-d up and melted from the bracket about 4" down and 2" wide. I guess I didn't make my mounting brackets so they would hold the fender far enough off a new tire. Oh well cann't swett the small things. I still have plenty of paint to do a new fender and the bike does look pretty sweet with no fender at all. I'll try and get some new pics up of it with the melted fender and my fix of it. I figured 3/8" off the old tire was going to be enough, well lets hope I met my qouta of error for "trial and error" for this year.

So in conclusion,
Buy a new tire and use that for mocking up your custom fender, your going to need it some day anyway.

 

It looks really great, nicely blended, the gray parts look good- a change from standard black, and that rear end... can i say it looks modernized?
Very well done...

 

Very cool ride. Nice work!

 

The bike looks really good. I'm REALLY digging the nightster seat on there. Thanks for giving me a few ideas.

 

and did you lower the rear at all?

 

The shocks are nightster shocks with 1" risers at the top. I think its only an inch. or two lower than stock never really measured it. The lower profile seat makes it feel a lot lower with out loosing suspension travel. With no weight on the shocks they measure 14.5" from eye to eye with the riser on the top.
I really need to try and get some new pics up I'm in the process of using the old passenger grab handle and a nightster passenger seat to make a quick detach passenger seat. The problem I'm having is finding an alternate location for the rear turn signals. I really cann't find a way to mount them that looks as good as where they are under the seat. My best solution so far is to cut down the stems on them and mount them on the two bolts on the side of the rear fender mount. Then find someway to hide the wires. :?

 

Very VERY cool. It looks professional and definitely a head turner. I like that you kept the shocks on it. A bobber you can actually ride. Haha. Awesome

 

List of this years mods:
-rebuild forks again
-new floating rotor and new pads
-new front tire
-repaint exhaust
-check valve tolerances
-new doughnuts on valve cover bolts
-clean resync carbs
-oil and filter change
-longer rear brake lever for more braking presure
-fab quick detach passenger seat
-relocate rear turns
-add 4 more 4 diode leds under engine
OK thats what I have parts for(Thanks Len) but I'm three weeks behind schedule because of wifey's car.
I'll try to get some pics in the next week.
See ya,
James

 

That is one slick ride my friend... That color on the frame is great.

 

It looks great!!! an idea for the pass seat, it probably sounds better in my head but what if you hinged it to be a back rest when nobody was on it?

Shaun

 

Thanks for the idea xj650ss I'll have to look that one over. I'll try to get some pics up here of what I'm working on for the seat.
James

 

that's nice, not my style but nice
one thing i noticed right away was one of those "fish tail" exhaust tips would look just right on there
i think that's what their called

 

its pretty,
2 things though... I would use the indents in the fender where it attaches to the forks as the brace for the rear fender.

and then, you could get the conversion kit to put a rear rim on the front and pur the same fender on the front... I think that would look cool, but i definately like it, nice paint and engine

 

Schooter,
I changed the rear fender last season after the first new tire change. that story is posted earlier in this thred
Now your idea for the front is pure genious 8O it will have to wait until next winter though or the next time I paint it. That color is really hard for me to match. Have you seen that done before? If so were could I see a pic of it.
Thanks,
James

 

Great build.....these bikes make nice little bobbers.

 

if you're asking about the rear tire conversion kit, yes, it's been done once that I've seen- street brawler did it here:
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=23003.html

 

Schooter AWSOME thanks for the link

James

 

just ordered this http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MOR-25900/
helps seal piston rings making more hp we ran these on all our mudrunners also helps keep seals from leaking.
MORE HP YEA MAN!!! 8)
James

 

interesting... will it affect the clutch at all? because we have wet clutches..

 

Nope it only makes vacuum in the crank case the check valve keeps any exhaust presure from entering the case.

 

Lowlifexj,

What kind of fenders are those? After market? I would really like to add a more covered fender to the back of my xj650. The bike is absolutely awesome.

 

Bat Bike

 

Thanks for the nice comments the front fender is a steel one I bought off ebay its for a custom harley I think. The rear fender is from a honda saber front its plastic. I have moved the bracket to set in the fork recesses and cut the rear down.
-James

 

Sweet lookin' ride there lowlife! Don't know how I didn't catch this thread before! 8O Now that I know you have the skillz we're gonna have to schedule a play-date so you can come over here and get me re-motivated on my xj project LOL I've got it down to finishing the clutch cable, plumbing the brakes, getting my exhaust made, making and mounting forward controls, paint and assembly....or we can just say scr3w it ! and I'll jump on my Ace and we can ride lol

Very nice nice job though. The lines flow well and I'm surprised how the tail doesn't look like it was just chopped off. It looks like a design feature....very nice!!

 

Re: check out my custom xj650 j maxim. 2010 update

Hi all,

Well I got it running again after the winter teardown this week.
Here's the list of stuff done for this year.
-rebuit forks (yamaha oem seals only way to go)
-new rotor
-new brake pads
-new front tire
-sandblast and repaint exhaust
-add scavenging tube to header collecter
-shim valves
-replace valve cover bolt "doughnuts"
-clean and rebench sync carbs
-inner tube job on intake boots
-new intake gaskets
-new stainless bolts for intake boots
-replace rear brake pedal arm with longer one for more leverage
-replace headlight with halogen one
-touch up paint on wheels and frame
-replace shocks with new progessive ones from a nightster

Things to do yet
-vacuum sync carbs
-hook up scavenging tube to crank case vent
-the two up seat is not very high on my list

Well that's all for now the bike runs awsome right now 1k idle to wot with no blips or hesitation I cann't wait to get it out on the road for some hot laps around town.

_James

 

very nice!

 

overall looks pretty good, except that rear fender looks way out of place.

 

BUMP

Why? because i like it!
see pics on first page

 

thanks AngryGnome! i should really post a new pic of the redone rear fender.Its a little shorter now :lol:
On my last ride the starter started grinding when i would try to start the engine. It sounds like the starter gear is not fully engaging. i think i'll pull the starter off and see how bad its chewed up.
Oh yea by the way the scavenging tube idea didn't work i don't think these little engines make enough exhaust flow.