Another xj650 bobber build

Well after using these forums for some guidance, ideas and of course some problem solving, here's to show some progress for my build. Its a '82 XJ650 I got for a few hundred bucks from a friend of mine that built my motor on my gsxr750. So when I received it the motor was freshened up and everything checked and was in good running order. So yay for not having that headache.





As soon as I got the bike to my garage and went to start it, the starter..well just kept on cranking and cranking (even with the key was out). With some checking, seemed the circuit was staying closed because of a 20+ year old solenoid. So that's when the stripping starting and the wiring harness came out completely to get redone.

The goal for this is pretty simple. Have a bike that's dependable, starts and stops(as in brakes). To be simplified to just run the engine and head/tail light. No turn signals or anything like that. Only gauge will be the speedometer.

I wanted to hard tail it..but was thinking of ....do I really want to have a nice sunday ride on something so uncomfortable (or more uncomfortable). So I got a set of shocks off of a 2000 (I believe it was) Suzuki savage. Which gave it a nice 2" (ish) drop. Which lead to a quick taking an inch out of the stock kickstand and welding that up and throwing some black paint on there.

Got rid of the awful stock bars for a nice set of drag bars. A new throttle assemble (minus all the built in wiring) went on the new bars.





I received a decent solo seat off eBay for cheap...which of course lead to the mounting studs to fit no where at all. I hacked off the back ones and welded in a little bracket the back of the seat will rest on to lift the back a little just so its not completely on the frame ( I'm 6'2" so this is mostly just for my comfort) and I thought it would look terrible with a springer seat on there. So chopped out the stock center tube and added in new rear and front mounts. Which I don't really like this idea so it will be changed along with most likely a fresh seat to start fresh.... eventually.






I'm keeping this budget at $1000 or less. Which right now at approximately $850 bucks and a couple cases of beer and a few hours a week of my time (along with some buddies of course!). So with that being said I'm using the tank that came on it which had a few dents and what not.
Pulled them out as best as I could and some sanding, a little bondo (well quite a bit actually -_- ) and some more sanding that will be ready for paint. Still have yet to decide on what to paint it. I like the idea of matte red. Just so its not flat black like everyone else. (no offense. That was my original plan).



Today my 4-1 exhaust will be in. I'm a terrible electrician and quite frankly just don't want to deal with it.
-So I placed my order with Sparck Moto for one of his simple wiring harnesses.[http://www.sparckmoto.com/Harnesses] (which wont be in till about the 2nd week into March).
-I need to pick up paint yet for the tank.
-Want to make a new battery tray to slim down behind the covers.
-Need to make a bracket to hold the ignition switch and start button that will be hidden under the seat(ish) area.
-paint the now ground up frame
-my new head light that came with the bike got damaged laying around.. so need a new head light that will mount off the forks to hide some of the cables a little and brake line.
-and thats about it off the top of my head with out looking at it. I'm sure a few little things.

All in all this is a fun little project and this is something for my buddies and I to just kind of hangout and work on over this winter...which I bought the bike about 2 months ago..where it sat for the last month..waited like 2 weeks for some parts and spent probably the last 2 weeks hacking and welding stuff laying around the garage to make it work. I'm hoping to have everything buttoned up by the time the wiring harness comes in. Ill update some more as I go along. Any input is appreciated =]

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Well just got back from working a little on the bike.
Did some more sanding and put some flat black on the tank to get a feel for low spots and what not. As im particularly not any good at painting and to save some time I threw the tank in my trunk and ill have the painter at my work do what he can and lay down primer.
I got the exhaust fitted. Absolutely hate the look of it. So im going to make my own. I'll still use the headers. Im thinking of getting a section that will be to slip on, then will be basically two 90s welded up to that. The last 90 will be cut up for a "tear drop" look. So should be pretty cool...for the idea in my head anyway ha.
Got the back half of the frame painted up. But obviously most of it will be ground off again for the caps or whatever i decide to do to cover up the back.
While i was taking off the the suspension and some brackets i noticed how much i hate my license plate mount. (i used a seat bracket that i basically bent up to fit. )

So i just simply took some flat bar laying around, drilled holes to mount to license plate holder and a hole for wiring to go through.


Cut and bent a tab in a vise, drilled a hole in that.. welded it up, ground down the welds so its smooth and threw some black paint on there...


not bad for 10 minutes and using the trusty "eye-crometer" haha.


dont mind the washers as spacers...I need to find a shorter bolt and i need to cut the top flat so theres not that weird step up on the license plate side. But not bad. Im happy..its simple.

Here you can see this actually moved it out a little further and up so you can see the tail light better then before i think.



And a few more pics from today..




Heres a little better shot of my handle bars. I need shorter cables and want to run a single front brake line. I read on here you can use a seca throttle cable that is like 47in total length or something like that. So need to do some eBaying for a few small things. Also i think i want to change out the master cylinder and find a smaller clutch perch to clean that up a bit. Didnt get around to the battery box..im thinking about going with pods...my step-dads neighbor builds race bikes...i think he could get it tuned pretty well for me some im going to talk with him and see what he thinks.

Ive learned its great to know people!!

Im waiting on my paint to come in
waiting on headlight and bracket to come in..
Put a bid on a speedo on ebay...I think i will make a bracket that mounts to the stock ignition location and have the speedo close to the handle bars. So off to eBay!!
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Some progress of the tank. Really turning out great I think for what it was.
Apparently we have some paint here (at my work) that is left over from some work for the military they did. Paint says its olive drab. After a quick google search that's basically the color I bought. So sucks I had already bought the paint but im sure I can find some other use for it. Anyway, heres how the tanks looking. That should be done by tomorrow, maybe even today!










Still needs wet sanding and another coat of primer.

Yesterday I went in the garage to get some measurements for the exhaust and went over a few things. Well I realized I ordered the wrong length brake line for the front. So I have to get another one about a foot shorter. -_- I think I misread my own hand writing ha. oh well.
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here's how the bike is looking with everything sitting on it basically.
- I'm still waiting on the wiring harness to come in
- make the exhaust
- make battery box
- make the ignition switch - start button bracket
are the biggest items to do.

basically everything will be getting torn down a bit to finish up painting and try to clean up everything.

the clutch perch I ordered off a 50cc pit bike broke. -_- I was trying to widen the area the cable slides through (because the diameter of the cable is bigger then a xr50 obviously) and I broke it. ha oh well. But here are pics of how everything is looking right now.















I cant wait to get this thing finally done. My other bikes need work and ive been spending my free time on this -_-

 

Im having a hard time with resizing since im on my work computer...but hopefully the links work??

 

welcome and sweet bike!

if you copy and paste bb code, the pics will show in the post. most of your pics come up marked as private.

CN

 

Got it thanks!!!
Of course because of the weather going on around the country my exhaust is set to be in tomorrow. So this weekend I want to get that on finish up the tank and get that painted. And maybe just mount the old light for now..the broke part is outside trim is oval instead of a nice circle. But anyways. i'll update this as I go along.

 

Looking good man! I'm looking forward to your progess pics!

I'm getting the itch to put a different color on mine, too.

...googling "Sparack Moto simple wiring harnesses" 8)

 

Thanks !
and heres the link http://www.sparckmoto.com/Harnesses
I realized I spelled it wrong.

 

Got my exhaust in finally. This weekend I will get that fitted and finish up the tank. A few minutes ago I ordered some red oxide III primer for the tank. I like the idea of leaving the tank like that. I got the paint from a Army Jeep Parts website that a friend of mine doing a Honda build got his paint from and his looks pretty sweet. So ill try this out. Worst case I just paint over it. But well see how it looks. I also ordered a new black housing headlight and fork mounts. Im hoping to have this thing all back together and finished up mid march.

 

Oh and that exhaust isn't bad for $100 off eBay !

 

does anyone have any ideas for the back of the bike where I cut after the shock mounts? Its either weld some caps in. or...well that's all I got..i was thinking about building a little grab bar kind of that follows the lines of the seat...but where I cut the rear section off wouldn't really work for that...hmm

 

Brake lights?

 

The license plate bracket is the tail light and brake light. I like the look of that because its like your looking at a double barrel shot gun! ha but open frame like that would be terrible since moisture could easily get down the frame.

 

Just got a email that my paint is back ordered 4 weeks. Swapping the order for WW2 Army paint code 319. Basically a flat green closer to grey...if that makes sense. I think it will be interesting.

 

But maybe I should just remove the license plate brake and go with them...hm Oh and your bike is awesome by the way!

 

Maybe you could weld plates recessed into the tube, just enough that you don't see it unless it's 6 inches from your face, then it'd be sealed and you could paint it.

Also, I think most state's DOTs require the brake lights to be either centered relative to the bike as a whole, or balanced i.e. two on either side. I think most cops wouldn't bother you about it, but "most" isn't 100%, and it only takes one to pull you over and give you a ticket. Just my line of reasoning.

Thanks! I've got a long way to go for all the stuff I have in my head, but I'm pleased with what's done thus far.

 

hm didn't think to really put plates in the inside. wouldn't look that bad with a nice TIG job on that would look pretty darn good.
While I do understand the legal concerns, its not exactly a high item for me to worry about. Just because where I live I wont really be hassled about it, and this isn't a primary bike to ride around for me anyway. I guess that's something I would "cross that bridge when the time comes".

And cant wait to see what else you do to it!

 

...not sure what the inside tube diameter is, but for a quick, finished look you could put a set of "bar end" weights in there sealed with a dab of silicone to keep the moisture out. Just thinking outside the box.
Here's a link to a bunch of images, you could put any of them in to suit your liking.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=bar+ends ... 64&bih=896

 

hm thats not a bad idea. thanks!

 

Well just got back from working a little on the bike.
Did some more sanding and put some flat black on the tank to get a feel for low spots and what not. As im particularly not any good at painting and to save some time I threw the tank in my trunk and ill have the painter at my work do what he can and lay down primer.
I got the exhaust fitted. Absolutely hate the look of it. So im going to make my own. I'll still use the headers. Im thinking of getting a section that will be to slip on, then will be basically two 90s welded up to that. The last 90 will be cut up for a "tear drop" look. So should be pretty cool...for the idea in my head anyway ha.
Got the back half of the frame painted up. But obviously most of it will be ground off again for the caps or whatever i decide to do to cover up the back.
While i was taking off the the suspension and some brackets i noticed how much i hate my license plate mount. (i used a seat bracket that i basically bent up to fit. )

So i just simply took some flat bar laying around, drilled holes to mount to license plate holder and a hole for wiring to go through.


Cut and bent a tab in a vise, drilled a hole in that.. welded it up, ground down the welds so its smooth and threw some black paint on there...


not bad for 10 minutes and using the trusty "eye-crometer" haha.


dont mind the washers as spacers...I need to find a shorter bolt and i need to cut the top flat so theres not that weird step up on the license plate side. But not bad. Im happy..its simple.

Here you can see this actually moved it out a little further and up so you can see the tail light better then before i think.



And a few more pics from today..




Heres a little better shot of my handle bars. I need shorter cables and want to run a single front brake line. I read on here you can use a seca throttle cable that is like 47in total length or something like that. So need to do some eBaying for a few small things. Also i think i want to change out the master cylinder and find a smaller clutch perch to clean that up a bit. Didnt get around to the battery box..im thinking about going with pods...my step-dads neighbor builds race bikes...i think he could get it tuned pretty well for me some im going to talk with him and see what he thinks.

Ive learned its great to know people!!

Im waiting on my paint to come in
waiting on headlight and bracket to come in..
Put a bid on a speedo on ebay...I think i will make a bracket that mounts to the stock ignition location and have the speedo close to the handle bars. So off to eBay!!

 

Just ordered master cylinder off a 550.
clutch perch off a xr50 dirtbike.
new clutch and throttle cables off a xj550(should work alright guess ill find out).
Guy on eBay accepted my offer on a speedo.
And got a new brake line to delete the elbow. Should clean up the front quite a bit. Im excited. Guess ill be waiting a bit now for more parts to come in..I think im like right at my budget of $1000... so hopefully I can stay off eBay haha. oh well. ill update once I get some more done!

 

I received my headlight in the mail and got paint in. I took my tank into work to have our painter take a look at it. Just walked back there he's sanding it down and giving his professional touch and should be primed today. Tomorrow im picking up material for the exhaust. So hopefully this weekend everything should be basically done besides waiting on my wiring harness to come in.