My 82 XJ650 RJ Cafe project

Sorry these pics are a bit fuzzy.
doing the paint and upholstery next week.
Also adding an oil cooler and spin on filter adapter.
I haven't had this much fun since the hogs ate my baby brother.
The hardest part has been doing the work to not only coincide with days off, but keeping the thing road worthy, that is, I ride it to work everyday. So if I chop on the frame, the welding has to be done before my next work day.

 

Looking good what mufflers are you useing?
Al

 

NICE!!!

skillet

 

These mufflers were on the bike when I got it last year. I think they came off an 1100(?)They are shot though. I am thinking some shortys off of a Sportster might be nice.

 

The paint and upholstery SHOULD be finished next week, but as I am doing it myself, well, ya never know. Taking 5 days off work to do it, so, that'll help.

 

Nice work, love the tail section. I just cant see myself paying $130-$150 for a tail section. I am still in that planning process, meaning getting around purchasing one from ebay but creating my own, if you know what I mean.

Great work!

 

I do know what you mean. I got this one for $120. It was as long as my original seat. My guts hurt a bit when I took a hack saw to it to shorten it.

 

got the paint on it last week along with the oil cooler and new mufflers.
Thanks to Chacal (Len) for his tech support and AndreasWeiss (a member here) for the cooler. Mufflers are from Low Brow Customs. Cheap and not too loud (hahaha!)
Hammered out the side mount for the plate and tail light one morning before breakfast. Solid. Kept the original tail light as an homage of sorts.

 

Nicely done! Glad to see another shafty cafe on here. Reminds me a lot of mine:



Are those the factory side covers, modded? I couldn't find anything close, so I custom made mine. The rear seat is hand-fabbed, too.

 

What are those rear sets? I'd love a set of those on my project.

 

Do you mind posting a pic of how you mounted your cooler? Thanks!

 

First off, this is the wrong cooler, just so you know. My bad. But not wanting to search for the correct one, I decided to make it work and it does work just fine.

the top post just fit in there...the wiring is in the way a bit. 10 points for persistence.

This one hangs about 2 inches lower than the stock one and the hole widths are different. So I made a plate that mounted in the original holes, and drilled holes for the cooler to mount to in the plate.

From the back you can see the lower part of the new mount.
The cooling lines fit just fine and tucked in between the 2 and 3 head pipes.
hope this helps.

 

Yeah. Factory side covers hacksawed..
they are left wide open front and back. It is temporary.
Nice work on your bike there.
didn't have the shop space to mod my own seat pan. I have the metal laying about in my kitchen though. Somewhere under the dishes and other bike parts.

 

That's perfect thanks! Ingenious job, might have to pull something off similar myself.

 

looks fantastic!

 

Thanks.
(good looking Triumph build, BTW)

 

Thank YOU! I appreciate the comments. Years ago when I first started riding, I had a chance on a super clean old school seca and
Didn't get it. I've wanted one since! Got the two maxims now so I'm close! I'm looking to put a seca tank on the one as part of my build, but someday amigo....

 

quick question. how do you get your clip ons to not hit the tank when turning the forks. Its seems like a tight fit lol

 

clip-ons are pretty adjustable amigo, I'd think that you just swing them out a bit?

 

i understand that but i want to make sure that they would be like a v or straight rather than a reverse v. get what i'm saying

okay =--->=
okay =----l=
bad =---<=


thats my motorcycle keyboard drawings lol

 

hahah I gotcha, great motorcycle drawings btw!

 

where did you get your clip ons and what mm are they

 

they have about a 12 degree down angle and I put them where they were comfy for my reach. I replaced my old fork stop with one I modified and welded in.
I got the clip ons from AirTech.
http://www.airtech-streamlining.com/ they are 36mm forks and these guys helped me make sure of the size before selling them to me. They used the fork seal size as a reference.

This brings me full circle now.
I was concerned about messing with this pretty much bone stock bike.
It ran great and looked good. Well engineered.
As one begins to modify nearly any aspect of the machine, they will find themselves having to go all of the way or not at all.
just sayin.

 

I was gonna suggest the airtech. I'd thought about buying from them as well. I'm going all in, so I don't mind. Did you mount yours under the clamp? THat's what I was thinking of doing, then just filing down the mounts on the top of the clamp so that it's all flat. I've got that extra on the parts bike in case I mess it up, etc.

 

Ahhhh, I see....

Thanks. Seat pan wasn't too hard to do. It was the rear cowl that took work. It was a Harley fender that a friend gave me. I split it down the middle, added ~5 inches in the middle, and finished her off. None of it was welded. It was all done through stainless rivets and JB Weld. Came out better than I had planned.

The rear sets were custom made by a fellow Do The Ton forum member. He was selling them with linkage for about $110 shipped. Excellent craftsmanship on his part.

 

RoadRash, that is really some excellent work on the tail. Love seeing the genius expressed by folks that really want to do something...and then do it.

 

I went onto the website and was wondering if this was the exhaust you have on your bike? Also does this provide any performance or is it for looks?

Here's the link
http://www.lowbrowcustoms.com/index.php ... tail&p=793

 

silver dollar...
yeah. those are the ones.
I was amazed at how quiet they were. they give the 650 a throaty almost crotch rocket sound, but with a low note in there that isn't bad.
of course i started it up with no exhaust on there to hear it...not nice. no character...just loud.
these little muffs also allow you to take the baffle out if you want.

 

Thank you. Your bike is certainly no slouch! I really dig what you did with it.

 

Cool, so the application of the muffler is simply to bolt on? If so that great!

Is the muffler for sound only or does it provide a proformance accept to bikes?

 

SiverDollar, I just noticed the part of your post where you asked about performance. Got the expected initial bog just at acceleration from a stop followed by what seems to be a noticeable increase in horsepower. Getting the little "pop - pop" on deceleration as well, but nothing terrible.
To be fair, the carbs will have to be cleaned this fall along with a valve adjustment. I have some leaks at the intake manifold boot as well to deal with.

I was lucky I think. I removed the mufflers and the pipe ends were between 1 1/2 and 1 3/4 inch. So using some 20 gauge aluminum cut into strips, I bent them around a 2" pipe for shims ans used the 1 3/4 inch end of the muffler. Snugged it into place with a regular muffler clamp. The support braces bolted up to the frame with some very bad bending on my part. I will need to revisit this :lol:

 

Yeah. Mounted under the clamp. Lowered the front about an 1 1/2 at the tree so the fork tubes stick up above the clamp. I was thinking about grinding off the original mount but am concerned about weakening the top tree. Those little suckers get hollow pretty close to the top. I can live with just capping them off rather than stressing it too much. Anyone else dealt with this?

 

thanks amigo, I appreciate the info

 

silverdollar, one more thing...I have NOT removed the collector from the exhaust. That is the unit that all of the header pipes collect into with 2 coming out for each side. I was not ready to deal with jetting or anything right now and I figured it would be quieter that way too. I figured right ... so far. Hahaha!

 

SecaSuca, I still keep mine header pipe collect with 2 coming out of each side. Thanks for reminding me. I paint my BBQ flat black paint a while ago and have not put them back together yet.

I was wondering if I could have someone weld one shut and have a pipe coming out of the right side header and install a muffler? What do you think or you think I would have to remove that header and purchase a 4 in 1 exhaust with the pipe coming out of the right side?

Everyones opinion is welcome.

 

Such a well executed build. I really like it.

Do you, or anyone else know is your size bike the ony one that came with that shaped tank? I've seen secas with knee dents but yours seams a bit different? Also, the tank seams to raise up higher at the seat end. Basically, I want that exact tank

 

This Bike Is SICK!!! Makes me wanna buy another XJ 8)

 

The sweetest thing about this tank is that it is 5+ gallons large!

Maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong, but the 82 650 Seca (non turbo) with this shape tank. I believe there was an 81 model that was released in the UK and maybe Canada first.

Here is an excellent article from MotorCycle Classics magazine regarding the history of this model:

http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/motor ... -seca.aspx

 

I am not sure about that. Could get some weird feedback from that configuration. Maybe not direct enough, y'know?

 

Awesome!