Make my bike a tough commuting machine!

Hey,

Attached is a pic of my bike as it is, a 1980 XJ650 Australian delivered. (4k1-).

Wall of text, so bold is my most pressing questions. If that's bad etiquette, let me know!

I've owned it since late December. It's got about 43,000km on the clock, but who knows if that is genuine. It's in pretty good condition. The seat must have been reco'd, and someone has sprayed some black on the pipes and redone the tank paint at some point. No real damage, and I've been riding it daily for weeks.

I want it to be a tougher looking, cafe inspired commuting machine. Or my get the hell out of town ride.

I've done nothing much to it yet, but this is the plan so far:

-Fit new ignition switch (the old one is loose, and I've already lost a key).
-New petrol cap (no..my bike isn't stolen - the key I lost was this one!)
-Valve clearances - I'm sending it to a pro for this. I'm not dealing with shims.
-The rest of a full service, I'll do
-Wrap exhaust in tan fibreglass wrap, new gaskets and collets on the aftermarket exhaust (leaking at the manifold currently).
-Fender chop! (Can anyone recommend a suitable kit?)
-Clubman bars? Or something like that. (Bar diameter? Recommendations?) - mirrors/bar ends too
-Short levers (Recommendations at all?)
-New switchblocks, gauges. I really need some recommendations for this!
-Paint it black! I'm going to sand back everything that's red, and make it matte black myself.

I want to get a seat that is flat all the way, or shorter. The way this seat steps up doesn't work for what I want. Are universal seats available?


I'd really love any input. I want to start eBay shopping

Thanks

 

i gotta say your bike looks pretty nice as is! i also understand the need to cusomtize. i'm faily new to the XJ scene but soon the veteran XJers will chime in for ya

 

To my knowledge, there are no fender chop kits. You can modify the stock rear fender, or possibly buy a trailer fender from Tractor Supply. As for the front fender chop, your best bet is to cut and grind yourself. I don't know of any aftermarket ones that will fit, but I haven't tried.

As for the bars, you will need 7/8ths diameter bars, and just know that it will mess with your cable placement/length a little. Keep that into consideration and also keep an eye on your master cylinder orientation.

No lever recommendations, as I am going through the same process, but I do know that rewiring for new guages can be a bit of a chore if wiring is not your thing.

 

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Thanks heaps already. Lots of useful info!

 

Your front wheel should be the ubiquitous 1.85" x 19" used on many other XJs, but on forks that do not have a leading axle (like most of the Maxims and 750 Secas). Maybe the 550 Maxim (or XS650/750 Standard/850 Standard) front fender might also fit and be a better candidate for chopping? Or another bike with 19" front wheel and non-leading axle? Depending on your end vision, the 650 Turbo (maybe 550 Vision too?) front fender should also be a likely candidate. Like the others, I also like your 650 Seca as-is (it is very rare in the USA) but think it would look much better if the side covers were painted the same as the other body parts.

 

I'm about to chop my fender (today!)
Iv'e bought a nasty ratty front fender from ebay, I'll drill out the spot welds that connect the hidden fork brace to the fender, and them I'm going to shape and polish a strip of alloy and rivet this to the old fork brace.
The alloy is actually the offcut of the rear fender loop I bought, so they will match.

I bought some clubmans off ebay,but because the clamp part is rather chunky, it just grazes the tank at full lock. technically for MOT, I should be able to use all the controls at full lock.. will need to get creative.
I bought switchgear and instruments from Dime City Cycles:
1.9" Chrome Mini Speedometer - (Black Face)
44-301B
1.9" Chrome Mini Tachometer w/ Black Face - (1:5 Ratio)
44-3015B
"Simple & Clean" On/Off & Starter Switch
12-0203
Black Left Side Handlebar Control Switch
12-0041B
DCC Original Aluminum CNC Bar End Mirror – (Silver)
DCC-BEMIRROR-1

These did not come with warning lights so I bought some LEDs and embedded them in a fat chunk of aluminium / made my own.
You'll have to do some wiring of course, which is waaay more of a headfuck than the valve clearances.
Seriously, the valve clearances are a doddle and there is soo much info on them. do it. go on.

I also made my own seat - cutout a metal seat pan, glued foam onto it, covered in marine vinyl.
http://exjayarrjey.tumblr.com/

 

Thanks, that is really helpful. Your instrument/warning lights look great!

Are all the XJ's a 1:5 tacho?

 

I dont know.
But I'm fairly certain the XJ650 is 5:1 tacho ratio.
Also, fender got done, needs some tweaking but:

 

So good! I don't have the equipment or skills to fabricate parts myself at the moment. I just put some clubman bars on, and I'm enjoying the stiffer steering and lower riding angle!

 

I put a master cylinder from an R1 and clutch perch/lever for a YZ short style on mine to get rid of the long funky looking levers

 

If you get on Amazon, there are a lot of bike parts to do some "window shopping" and get ideas. Search "rear motorcycle fender" a hole bunch of items come up.

 

All I did to my rear fender was take the plastic piece off, repainted what was left(keeping the plate bracket), and frenching in the rear taillight with a simple bracket. Cheap easy way to clean up the rear end plus some smaller, less alien looking turn signals.