Ted's 2nd '82 XJ750 Maxim bobber project

Moving over from the Techical section now.. here's where I started:

http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/index...82-xj750-maxim-anyone-got-a-spare-head.47550/



Here's a quick rundown of what I've got done so far:

* Valves in spec - all 8 were too tight when I got it
* oil & filter changed
* repaired broken threads on #4 exhaust port, drilled & tapped new threads and new studs in #1 and #4
* stripped paint from all of the tins - goodbye NY Giants! this job was a bastard.. he layed it on thick!
* my dad pulled the major dents with his Spitznagel and applied the first coat of bondo. He also worked some magic on the rear fender to flatten out the recessed area from under the taillight and filled the holes.
*"bobbed" the frame - left it a little longer than my 1st. Not sure yet if I want to go with the solo seat again or try to build a custom seat with room for 2.
* Atari gone
* new risers, bars, and grips
* swapped in the XJ1100 headlight from my other bike (old bike got a new fleabay light)
* rebuilt petcock

 

Soooo now what?

* It runs good - and strong, but it's got a hanging idle (takes awhile to get back down to idle speed after high revs) so I guess I need to pull the carbs to give them a good cleaning and pass the ol' clunk test. Might wait until my pods & jets get here first so I only have to do it once.
* brakes - of course. They grab good & The PO said he replaced the rear shoes but I'll check 'em anyway and get some new lines on the way soon.
* Finish smoothing out the tins & slap on some paint. I think it's gonna be silver - maybe a satin silver, and considering some stripes or scallops.
* decide on a seat. I'm not sure yet if I want to go with a solo seat like on my first bike or try to make something a little longer and more comfy. I might take a stab at modifying the factory seat...
* figure out a taillight setup - I bought this cheap bastard from ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-...t-LED-Custom-Tail-Light-/151425037167?vxp=mtr & I'll admit for about $15 bucks I was impressed with the quality but it's poorly designed. The light shines straight down at the license plate so when it's mounted you either have the brake light shining straight down or the plate facing straight up... and the light's not bright enough. I'll probably just end up with the same set up I have on my other bike because it's cheap and effective.
* Forward controls - I think I'm gonna try to fit a set from a V-star SV650 on here... more on that later.

 

Thinking about trying to fab a seat like this one (done by the guys at bare bones rides barebonesrides.com )

 

Ugh. The Mets...good thing you took care of that.

What fleabay light are you using on the other bike? Ready to switch out my square one and I'm having trouble figuring out if I should scour for an 1100 light, or buy a new one?

Nice work by the way! I love your other bike so I'm subscribed!

 

Here's the headlight I put on my other bike:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/British-Sty...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I don't like it as much as I thought I would. It's a little smaller than the XJ1100 light and I still need to get a different set of ears for it. I bent in the factory ears a little to make it fit right and not very happy with the result. I can throw up a couple pics of it mounted up later if ya want.

 

Gotcha! It couldn't hurt, I'd like to see it.

 

looks great, next summer I need to ride to SF and meet you and see your bikes!

 

Things are starting to thaw out around here so almost time to start chipping away at this bastard again. As I mentioned in the thread for my other bike, I'm going to be putting some Suzuki Savage 650 shocks on this one within a couple days and have been ordering a few parts. Cheap stuff from e-bay of course.

It's gonna be interesting to see how some of this works out. Especially the "fender". I plan on using the bullet lights as brake lights mounted up by the fender. The license plate will be mounted down below by the axle or lower shock mount with a seperate white light.

I promise to post some real progress pics ASAP.

 

Made a fair amount of progress over the last week considering the limited amount of time my family gives me for dad stuff.. even got the carbs pulled apart & ready for cleaning. The PO wasn't lying - somebody definitely rebuilt these recently. It doesn't look too bad in there but everything was gritty & looks like the fuel enrichment circuit passages are clogged and the bowl drain screws are all completely buggered. Anybody want to extract them for me?

This is where I'm at for now. I really like this fender. Picked up the seat at the local spring swap meet for $10! It ain't brand new but couldn't pass it up for the price.

That exhaust tip is just for fun. I'm still looking at muffler options.. might try slicing the megaphone muffler that came with it into some sort of nasty slashcut sort of thing.

I love this fender.

The e-bay license plate bracket was a steal. Solid construction & works exactly as advertised.



Still need to work on rear lights & figure out a paint scheme...

 

Looking good

FU

 

Helped a buddy do brakes, ball joints, & tie rods on his pickup this weekend so didn't have much time to play with my bikes but I brought my bowls over to my dads house yesterday & he got the stuck drain screws out. Like a boss. I'm sure if I had to do it all on my own I would've mangled them so bad I would be shopping on ebay right now but my dad is the MF'ing man.



Better add this one in for the car guys. Dad's '65 GTO (built not bought) . It has a 428 with 3 2-barrels. He's also got 3 Harleys in the garage so it he just loves helping me work on my crappy little rice-burners.



New hex-head drain screws just arrived from Chacal yesterday, too so it's time for me to go to church!

 

Nice-looking fender, has good lines to match the bike.

I think user Robert (who hasn't been around for a while) also has a '65 GTO.

Your bike has more carbs than his car does, though.............

 

Verry slow progress. Wife and kids are keeping me pretty busy but I've been chipping away at the carbs.

Bowls, hats, and rack are clean and fuel enrichment passages are clear. Waiting for warmer evenings to bang out the rest. I'd probably be done by now if it weren't for fishing and golf getting in the way.

These allen head bowl drain screws from Chacal sure are purty though!

 

This bike will be for sale soon too as soon as it's reasonably "finished". It's close - just need to mount the rear fender and taillights, do a little wiring, and slap some paint on it. I had some fancy paint schemes in mind but with limited time and budget I think I'll just paint it black, blue, or dark silver and send it down the road.

The carbs are done and the bike runs great. No more hanging idle but I still need to perform a running sych after it's put together enough that I can get in a good enough warm-up ride.

Shaved the lower mounting tabs off of the rear fender and tins are just about ready for paint.

Still working on ideas for a seat and rear fender mount/frame bracket. I still have the little black solo seat pictured above but I'm thinking about fabbing something more cafe'-style that will cover the frame better.
Still need to grind off a bunch of the old tabs, center stand bracket, etc. and shoot some black on the frame.

It's gonna be a shame to get rid of this without getting much of a chance to ride it but that's the way the cookie crumbles. It's been a fun project.

 

Making progress... sprayed the body parts Sunday night with some John Deere Blitz black. I really like the color but it came out just a little splotchy on the tank. I think the cans just had crappy nozzles because I couldn't get any kind of consistent spray pattern. I'll probably end up re-spraying it next spring but it's good enough for now. Might be starting to look a little too much like my first bike though.

Got most of the frame cleaned up too just need to smooth out a couple spots, spend about an hour masking, and squirt some paint on it.



Still need to wire up the license plate light & taillights, mount the muffler, and build a new seat bracket then I'm ready to ride! Hoping I can get all of that done in time to go for a ride this weekend but we'll see...

 

Rear fender is goldilocks, exactly the right line for the bike.

 

It's alive! Got it all together and went for a spin the other night. Runs pretty well under throttle but has a hanging idle and I had to keep blipping the throttle to stop it from sputtering out. I'm hoping a running vacuum synch will take care of that but we'll see. Hopefully I'll get to do that tomorrow night.

MAN do I miss the forward controls. The seat actually sits about 2 inches further forward than my last bike too so it feels a little cramped in the saddle.

Made the bonehead mistake of leaving the fuel tank open and unprotected for the last year or so while I was working up to painting it so it got a little rusty inside. 3 words: Apple Cider Vinegar. Saw a youtube vid that said it worked so I tried it out. 2 gallons for 8 bucks at Walmart. Filled the tank and let it sit for about 20 hours (sloshed it around every once in a while when I walked by it) and boom! Came out pretty clean. The hard part was getting all the junk out without messing up my fresh paint but the vinegar didn't harm the paint at all. It was just a PITA. I siphoned most of it out then flipped it upside down and sloshed the rest out. I ended up getting the last little bit by duct taping some fuel line to the end of my shop vac (and taping a section of coat hanger to the tube so it would stay straight). Sounds kinda funny but worked great. Should've taken an after pic before I filled it up but I think you can see the results pretty well here.

Before:



After (not pefect but it's waaaay better!):



I'll be rebuilding my taillight brackets to bring them in a little closer to the frame but love the way they look. Also still planning on adding some charcoal grey SS-style racing stripes and need to adjust that rear fender just a touch to get it perfectly centered on the tire. Need to bring that muffler in a little tighter too & maybe a little upswept but hey - at least it's on there!

 

bike is looking nice. I originally wanted to do a bobber, still do!have you thought about going with gen 1 vmax or harley slash cut tail pipes? it would look badass

 

I love that fender. Where'd you find it?

 

I love it too. I got it from ebay. It was only about $35 shipped - you can get it cheaper from China but I only by from US sellers. The main drawback is that it's plastic, not metal but it's fairly sturdy. I also had to shave the mounting ears off of the sides (see pic above) to get the clean look. It was kind of a challenge to keep a smooth line across the bottom but I think it turned out pretty good.

 

What was it originally for? I'd love to see if i could pick one up.

 

It's sold as a sportster fender. Here you go - 28 bucks:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1994-2003-H...BLK-/261361939509?hash=item3cda62b435&vxp=mtr

 

Done deal. Going up for sale today. Asking $1500.

Pics don't look much different than the last couple sets I guess. Only recent/final updates are:

Moved brake lights closer to frame
Bullet frame plugs are mounted in with set screws threaded into the inside of the frame
Muffler mounted & upswept
Pinstripes on tank & fender
Carbs cleaned again (polished slides & bores to get rid of hanging idle)

 

Wow, unless there is something really wrong in the mechanicals or performance, that sounds way too cheap! Very nice looking bike, good luck with the sale.

 

Thanks chacal - definitely means a lot coming from you. I will admit it's not quite as clean as these pictures make it look but it's close. I tend to be very nit picky and there are things that I see wrong with it that most people probably wouldn't notice. Mechanically sound though. You might be right about the price being a little low but I think it's fair. That's what I sold my other bike for (only took 2 days) & it's not exactly the best time of year to sell a bike here in South Dakota since riding season is almost over.

 

Very nice, I really like this one. I've noticed with XJ bobbers is they either look really good or kind of odd.

 

Thanks, & I couldn't agree more man. There's some really awkward looking bobbers out there. Not just XJ's either - people do weird shit to all sorts of old metric bikes. The square-ish rear fenders & seat springs up on top of the frame when it's not a true hardtail are the ones that really get me.

 

Bike is SOLD!

 

Looks deadly man. Thx for the detailed updates.

 

I'm with you, way too cheap!
I'm going to sell my 81 Midnight Maxim shortly on Cycle Trader. I pulled my NADA and KBB value, I really can't say I agree with the value. Come on, <$1000 bucks for an XJ650LH in good condition, they gotta be kidding. Go buy a nice 650cc bike for less than a $1000! Why are they so discounted, I'd think they would be worth $2000-2500 in good shape. Is it me or does it seem like our bikes are underpriced!?

 

I have an 82 xj750 maxim. I'm looking to replace the grips. Do you know if they are 1" or 7/8". Thanks. I'm a noob.

 

7/8"

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-...ash=item3a9e937993:g:EioAAOSw-nZTqkkF&vxp=mtr

 

Love the looks of that bike.... I have a spare Kawasaki KZ750 (1982)., I think I will get that same rear fender and try something as you have done... It already have 4-1 headers, so a stock job is outa the question. Gun black is my choice as well. I would like a front fender as I live on the West coast in Vancouver BC. So the first sign of rain and i would be in a steam with the water/headers. What is the size/width of the solo seat you put on? Is it a production solo seat or did you make it? I would like a bit wider I think... Gaiters on the front forks...

And on the Yammi.... I would have replaced those weird shaped triangle side covers with a cover that actually covered... lol. I saw a couple bikes with custom metal sidecovers made from small gauge Stainless expanded diamond shaped metal. Looked great painted black. http://www.metalsdepot.com/products/stainless2.phtml?page=expanded&LimAcc= &aident=

 

When you cut the frame I see you have chrome bullet shaped plugs .
Where did you get them and what are they ?

 

I have been looking at a lot of 83 bobbers and this is by far one of the best

 

Ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sea-Dog-286...-Chrome-7-8-/390386935176?hash=item5ae4dfe588

Didn't realize it until just now when I went back to find the link for you but it's actually an end cap for a boat rail. Stainless steel - works great. They fit just a little loose in the frame tube so I drilled a little hole on the inside edge of the tube, tapped some threads, and used a couple of little allen-head set screws to secure them in place.

 

I agree the factory side covers look a little odd with the solo seat. I thought about the expanded metal option too. I've seen it done well once and seen it get pretty ugly more often than not so I steered away from it. My original plan when I was going to keep the bike was to clean up the wiring and hide the electronics right under the seat, then get the smallest battery possible to stuff in close to the starter and leave the middle of the frame wide open. Kind of like this one but with a much smaller battery (I love this bike):

 

When I last saw an expanded metal side cover the chap who did it spent the time required to give it a curve that fitted the bike well. He also rolled the edged over to give it a "floating mount", sorta like the original had. No noticeable means of attachment as he used rubber grommets and a pin welded to the frame. So the side covers could pop on and off as the originals sorta did. All in all he said it took him a few tries and a few hours of pounding with a shaped wood in a sand pit to get the right shape. A very well done job in my opinion. I am going to attempt the same.

Add gaiters to any project... I love and use gaiters in all my builds... Even the stock rebuilds I do.

Gaiters (with proper clips) can be had cheaply here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181779574426