1982 XJ650 stock to bobber project - on a budget

I've always built custom street rods and show trucks, and wanted to give the bike thing a try. I got my first bike (07 Honda Shadow Spirit C2) last summer and fell in love with riding. Now for the past few months I have wanted to do my own metric chopped bobber. I started looking on ebay, craigslist, forums, etc. to find a good platform to work with at a low cost. I'm looking to do this on a budget only because I have too many other automotive projects taking up funds as it is.

I felt lucky when I found an 82 Yamaha 650 Maxim locally on craigslist for $250. The owner claimed it ran, but when I went to pick it up, it only cranked with spark. It hadnt been ran in 10 months so the carbs were obviously gummed up. Since the bike was complete with just under 24k miles, I figured it was a deal. And if I couldnt get it to run, no big loss.

Here's what it looked like when I picked it up. I only snapped this one pic before I started tearing it down (regretted this later).

 

good deal for 250 looks like its in good shape

 

As soon as I got home, I started to tear the bike down. Within an hour, I was left with what you see here and a few boxes of parts.

I also pulled the carbs off for disassembly, rebuilding, and cleaning.

Here are some tenative plans. If anyone has any suggestions or tips along the way, they would be appreciated.
-hard tail frame
-drop rear 6 or 7 inches, stock front ride height
-make new handle bars
-keep stock tank, exhaust, fenders, forks, headlight, wheels and tires
-may or may not keep guages??????
-solo seat
-pod air filters
-stock exhaust with baffles cut out.... maybe???
-plain jane handle bar grips
-no turn signals
-new tail light
-semi flat black paint
-....that's about it for now

 

A few views from the front showing the stance of the frame, ignoring the handlebars

 

If anyone needs any parts, let me know. I still have the seat, rear shocks, and tail light assembly

 

That's a cool seat for a cheap bike!!

Someone should grab that up!

(or you could e-bay it and make back half the cost of the bike)

Lookin forward to the build.
A few chops floating around. Looking forward to another person's view of what a cool maxim bobber should be.

 

I cut the rear frame rails today. I also drained the oil and got a little on the floor. Seems the sparks from the plasma cutter ignited the oil on the floor. That kind of surpised me, lol. Thank goodness I had a fire extinquisher handy.



Also, when going this low in the rear on a shaft drive; the flange between the output shaft of the transmission and the driveshaft hits on the driveshaft housing. I carefully trimmed this back with a dremel tool. I only needed a few millimeters of additional clearance.



I also shortened the kick stand. The completely removed the other kick stand and bracketry to increase ground clearance. I still have to weld the spring tab back on and get a shorter spring from the hardware store. (the bottom of the kick stand looks pretty grimy after sitting in the oil dry and oil after I cleaned the garage up a bit)



I'll be doing the new frame rails tomorrow.

 

looking pretty good keep the pics going

 

Watch your shaft angle.

 

Gas in the tranny perhaps??

 

What was the regret you mentioned in the very first post? Was it that you only took one pic of the beginning spot?

 

Yeah I think that's what he was saying Timetonut.

 

PM'ed you

 

Odd coincidence...

I also saw this bike on Craigslist... I had setup an appointment with the guy to see it, from what he said, you showed up and left about 5 minutes before I did. Though he did claim it ran, but I was skeptical!!! I think you got quite the deal man!

 

So, you CAN cut the side stand and re-weld it? I need to shorten mine JUUUUST a tad and that would be my preferred method.

I could scour ebay for a spare kick stand to experiment on, I suppose.

 

I cut and rewelded mine. Works great.

 

Kevinelevin
I think the shaft angle should be ok, I have rode it last weekend without any problems....the progress I am showing in this thread is pretty far behind... by about a week ...I have got quite a bit more done from what you see here.

Hillsy
Yes, there was gas in the tranny. One of the carbs leaked all the gas out of the tank, into the combustion chamber of it's cylinder, and past the compression and oil rings. The bike had been sitting for a while. That explained why the gas tank was dry and the crankcase was WAY overfilled (and the no start problem). I have rebuilt the carbs since that time to resolve the problem. Luckily, I never tried to run it with all that gas in the oil. That's how the oil on the floor ignited so easily from the sparks. That incident was a little scary.


Timetonut
Yes, I regretted not taking more before pics. That picture was actually taken by the previous owner. Before I bought the bike, I knew what I wanted to do. My anxious hands picked up tools before they picked up my camera.


MrShake
Sorry to tell you, I beat you to the bike. I saw it on craigslist just after he posted it. I called the owner (joe) immediatly and set up a time right to pick it up. He said it was listed for less than an hour before I called him. He had it listed for 300, but told me if I took it then, he would take 250. I didnt even have to haggle him down on the price, he did it for me, lol. I'll let you ride it when I'm done if that would make you feel a little better Sorry


Willierides
Yes, you can reweld the kick stand all you want. I took about 2 inches out of this one

Everyone else
I will post more pics and narration when I get off work tonight

 

I picked up some 1" OD round tubing for the frame rails at Morris Tick Steel. I wanted to keep the front section of the frame intact so I didnt alter the geometry at the motor mounts. This will also leave room for pod filters. After the frame rails were in, I cut off the stock rear tank mount, as it will be relocated on the new frame rails. I added a cross member in front of the rear tire for strength. It will also serve as the rear solo seat spring mounts in the future












I first mocked up then mounted the stock rear fender. I also welded all the holes and smoothed it out a bit. It's not perfect yet, but close. I went through the carbs and put them back in place also. As you can also see, the rear tank mount is in place.






Those handle bars have got to go!!!!

 

I'm just a little baffled as to why you would weld the new frame parts directly to the right side of the swing arm, and just make a bold-on end for the left. Why not just have welded both sides, or just bolted both sides?

Aside from that, it looks exactly what I want to accomplish in the future for my 650. I commend you on your efforts.

 

I wasnt sure how I was going to do this from the get go either. I would have prefered to do this project on a chain driven bike to make it easier to weld both sides (because of the swingarm design). I would prefer to weld both sides, rather than bolting.

Because of the shaft drive on the left side, I was very limited to the area that I could weld the steel frame rail to. The way I saw it, the best point was at the bolted location. I also kept it bolted so I could still remove the rear wheel and gear.

I guess I could have bolted the right side also, but I wanted to have the attachment point as close to the rear axle as possible. This will help overcome the upward forces on the frame rails. And I like the look of having it welded more anyways.

I also welded the swingarm to the frame at it's pivot points. This was done to reinforce the swingarm to the frame - keep it all in place with a heavy rider over 'less than smooth' terrain. You can see in this picture where I welded the swingarm to the frame. I used some 3/8" wide 1/4" thick steel cut in 2 inch lengths to close up the gap. I bent them at a radius to fit directly in this gap, then welded up both sides.

Once I welded the pivot points, I was ready to cut out the stock cross member to make room for the battery box. The welded swingarm to the frame acts as a lateral crossmember. Before I cut out the stock crossmember, I also had to change the mounting point for the rear brake switch. It is originally mounted to the stock crossmember.

I made the battery box from 1 1/2 angle. I'm going to make an aluminum tie down strap later.

I also failed to mention that I used part of the stock rear plastic fender as a mud guard, as you can kind of see in the picture. I had to trim it down quite a bit to fit.