81 xj650 rat/survival/bobber project

So this is my frist xj bike, other xj is a lifted jeep cherokee. I picked up this bike for 500$ from a guy around the corner. couldnt pass the deal up as it ran pretty well when i got it. it has around 20k on the clock and from what i can tell its only been dropped once on its right side! haha.

this is how i got it. it had hollowed out jardine 4-2 pipes (no baffles) which were very loud, and came with no seat!



shorly made a getto seat for it, and found out that not only was the airbox missing a huge chuck of plastic, but 3 out of the 4 carb boots were hard as rocks and unable to slip over the carbs, so lost the stock airbox and put PODs on it...



now i know that on this forum everyone says putting pods on is like sticking your 11th finger in a meat grinder.... but from what i can tell, the bike runs great with them on now. granted i did order a dynojet stage 1&3 jet kit, i will be stripping the bike totally down and rebuilding just about everything this winter. however for now, it runs and im riding it this season.

after that, rode it, and rode it...



1980 honda cb650, and my 81 xj650

both of my xjs



got tired of the nice shiney chrome exhaust, pulled it off for fun one day...



then got tired of that and started making stuff











exhaust was made out of 1-1/4 in. EMT from lowes, an angle grinder, and good ol fashoned flux core.

after a while i got sick of all that excess baggage in the back....time for a tummy tuck!











didnt have much of a choice of tailights at the local autozone, soon i will either make some, or buy some on ebay.



also cleaned up and painted the pipes with 900 deg. VHT black caliper paint, 1200 deg header paint on the...well headers...



then remembered i had to be kinda legal...





how she sits now. also put in a new H4 conversion lens and a 55 watt hid motorcycle kit from DDm tuning.



then a ride!





so now i think im gonna take a small break. my jeep beckons me as the rear is blown....

the bike i think is gonna get a solo seat soon. and im going to make real side covers for it. also thinking about relocating the battery in farther where the airbox is and making a small compartment to carry small things in under the seat.

i also bought black drag bars for it, but they dont fit. the MC is too long. what do you guys do when you swap over to drag bars? i would also like to delete the starter button and kill switch on the right, and get a small m-x style throttle, as well as a low profile turn signal/high-low and horn switch on the left. does anyone have anyplace to get these things? and what do you think about dual sport type tires? mainly for the look as this bike is strictly for fun. im not a serious sport rider as i feel i would get carried away and eventually would try being one with a tree.... so i dont get too carried away with street performance as i learned to ride on mainly enduro bikes.

p.s.... are those Koni shocks on the rear factory? or did some P.O. stick them on there?

any and all opinions are welcome!

 

Nice bike!

Just a note, have you done the brakes and valve shims?

- But I really like what you have done with it, i would save the old exhaust though, looked sharp, but your homemade one looks stealth! well done.

- How do you like the ddm kit? have some in my car, have thought about putting one in the bike. What color bumb did you go with? Where did you mount the ballast? Did you run another wiring harness?


Theres another member on here with a jeep as well, i'm sure he'll see your thread and chime in, haha

 

I know I'm not the only other member here with a Jeep XJ as well as a yamaha XJ. :lol:

Nice looking bike.

31's on the other xj?

 

Haven't touched the valve shims yet. It runs good now so I'm saving some stuff for the tear down in winter. The brakes are being addressed shortly. New sintered shoes/pads on the way. Yea old exhaust is staying with me just incase I get bored of this haha. Yea I like the new exhaust.

The ddm kit is awesome. My other buddie has them in is can o tuna and he's got the 6000k, I've got the 8000k. The best thing is the new lense. It really distributes the light well. The ballest hides under the steering neck. There's a nice little cut out almost made for it. I made a harness as the one ddm gives you has about 1000 too many wires.



The jeep has got a 6 inch lift, front has a 4 link long arm kit, all custom axle mounts, rear is locked and has discs brakes, bilstein shocks all around and 33 inch wrangler duratracs. Also has the sye kit from ironrock offroad, I'm on cherokeeforum also. Lol

Thanks for the replys

 

nice xj's!

i too am a jeep/maxim owner.

 

Maybe we need a XJ/XJ club!

 

I think that's a great idea!

 

Here's my pair. The bike is before I did my custom work. The other XJ is still the same. 6.5" frankenlift on 33x12.50R15's.

 

sexy rig. im to cheap to buy a bumper, and to cheap to buy plastic fender flares haha. and because i seem to turn my vehicles into toys, and drive a lot for my job, i had to buy a daily driver. which happens to be a 1990 vw jetta gl, lowered on FK coilovers, and totally custom wrapped recaro seats/door cards.

and this seems to keep happening when i drive the jeep...



so second vehicle was needed.

i have yet to get a picture of all 3. but the jetta gets 30 mpg to my jeeps 10/11. and is much cooler cause it still has carpet, and much quieter cause it has dynomat....and carpet. haha.

so now if anybody has a vw...

 

clean jetta

iwin had the other xj i was thinking of, lol

 

mine's 4.5" on 33's. still short arms unfortunately.

 

forum jacking here haha. i did a 4 link heim joint long arm and love them. beefy as hell. solid 1-3/4 lowers and solid 1-1/4 uppers.

 

any opinions on a decent MC that will work with drag bars? and what do you guys think about making a chain link shift lever and brake lever? cheezy or cool looking? i have some decent size chain where i can just weld the links together to make some stuff.

 

I got the bumper from Nate's 4x4. I caught it on sale. I think it was about $300. Someday it'll get a winch.

How would you work the pivot points on the chain levers?

 

Well id cross that bridge when I get there haha. I was just brainstorming. I would prolly take a visit to the junkyard and grab some levers....cut them up and make something fit the standard clamp spline attachment guy thing... I was thinking about making rearsets or foreward controls as well...depending on the way the bike feels when i get the seat/handlebar setup... possibly. Just so many different directions and ideas. I feel like a kid with a giant white paper and a brand new box of 101 crayola crayons...and lots of candy...

 

I did forwards. There's another guy on here who did rearsets and is switching the rear brake to hydraluic.

 

if i was to switch the rear brake to hydraulic i would also convert to a rear disc setup.... theres no real point to go hydraulic without discs in my opinion... i know you wouldnt have to adjust it every thousand miles....but is that really that tough? screw it in a couple times, and its good to go. maybe ill do a slightly more rear mid control... who knows. all this talkin is gonna start hurting my bank account even more. im now thinking virago hubs with 17 inch front and rear spoked wheels....

 

well i got some new stuff for the bike. its moving pretty slow but im slowly stockpiling stuff for winter time. i got 83 xj750 front forks and brake rotors.





i also bought a 5\8 bore nissin master cylinder and put it on and that allowed the drag bars and new end mirror to go on. i lowered the headlight gettoish for now....new mounts are gonna have to be made for it.







then went on a good all day ride up river road (deleware river) to easton then to straudsburg, pa. deleware water gap...

 

well the plan for the winter didnt actually happen. unforeseen family circumstances sort of got in the way. either way, just got the dynojet kit installed. had to order a set of new...old carbs on ebay though. found out that who ever previously owned this bike, had the carbs apart. replaced two floats. and snapped a float post. so they epoxied it. and some genious used epoxy or rtv on the bowl gaskets. so not only were the carbs filthy, but also one of them was broken. either way, boy what a difference the dynojet kit made. drilled out the slide holes, throttle response is incredible. no more lean pops on deceleration too. idles nice and the idle drops right down on revs in nuetural. and the power.....so much more power. the thing just runs and sounds so much healthier. love it. good job dynojet! also made a battery box. no pics of it yet. but its a box.....that holds a battery. welded it up with 14 gague sheet metal.