THANK YOU, and nearly finished bike!

UPDATE: Yes, the bike is for sale. PM me with offers if you are interested!





Hi Folks! I wanted to take a second to THANK everyone for their wisdom, knowledge and suggestions over the past few months. My bike started life as a rebuilt 1981 XJ650 with 16,000 miles on it. As soon as I got it, I knew it was going to undergo a transformation. From the beginning I had a good idea of what I wanted to do to this bike to give it a more timeless appearance, and de-80's it. We had a rainy spring and early summer here in Central New York, and that gave some good quality time to work on this project. I could not have accomplished this without the help of everyone on this forum! You guys rock!



The paint job, while hard to see in the pics, is a fine metallic flake applied over the white. It shimmers in the sunlight, and I applied 3 coats of clear over top. The frame has been cleaned up and re-sprayed where needed. The wheels and muffler have also had a color change to a high-heat metallic charcoal.



Every bulb on the bike is now LED, which was a bit of a pain. I added a few additional lights to help increase awareness and illumination.




The graphics were all done by me on my vinyl cutter. The exhaust tubes were all wrapped in a gray-ish pipe wrap. What an itchy job!

While it may not appeal to everyone, I did a full color RGBW LED underglow package for at night. It can be controlled by one of two remote controls, as well as a phone app.



The whole rear portion of the bike has been re-styled. I chopped off about 10 inches, added some spikes and a rear fender, made and welded in new seat mounts and installed a comfortable solo seat that has nice proportions.



The whole engine has been thoroughly steam cleaned, steel wool-ed, and some accent areas were painted suitably matching colors.





My apologies in that the one piece NOT shown on the bike in these pictures, is the mesh panel that sits under the seat, covering many of the unsightly wires occupying that space.

The bike fires up instantly, rides great, and as of Friday is now on the road. I drove it to work today, and it catches many a glance going down the street.

As I have said from day-one, I am not a motorcycle rider. If I put 20 miles on this bike this year, that will be a lot. My entire goal was to get a project bike, fix it up, and make it look like new in a totally different style. While the end result is not perfect, I have certainly achieved that goal, and I would LOVE to do it again with a different bike and a different style.

If anyone is interested in owning this bike, send me a message. Otherwise, I am going to ride it now and then and enjoy a job well done.

 

Yes that is a nice looking bike and you can do some painting and detailing. I normally am not into these type of changes but that is a nice looking bike. Good luck trying to sell her and safe riding. Love the headlight, got the same thing on my BMW conversion.

 

Hey Timbox! Thanks for the comment. I thought it was striking when I was coming up with the idea - much more-so than the reds and blacks that everyone likes to do to these bikes. It is fun to ride, so I am enjoying it!!

-Dave