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XJ 650 4k0 - cafeish build

Discussion in 'XJ Modifications' started by sanin360, Nov 2, 2017.

  1. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    Well here goes nothing:

    I planned on doing this from the very get go, but back then I didn't have a proper ''media equipment'' (a working cell phone camera) to be able to keep you up to date.

    Basically I have decided to share with you my project build that was a bit spontaneous. At start, I planned on keeping it stock as much as possible because I wanted this motorbike since... a long time. However, later on the road when I bought the bike and started to work on it (with the help of you guys) I figured out that so many things needed to be repaired/replaced, that - I might as well try to make something a bit different. The project has been on its way for a while now, but as a student i haven't got too much time on my hands so it's going rather slow... Here are the result so far. I will make sure and update you guys on what has been done along the way.

    Here is a picture of the bike when i got it: received_10209523817206588.jpeg

    And after giving it some EC:
    received_10209688811411340.jpeg
     
  2. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    So first things first, I had to get the bike going and for that, I had to:
    1. Use a working battery (I know - I used a car battery, but at that time, I was still hesitant on buying anything for the bike until I prove it is not toast...)
    2. Check the spark
    3. Change fuel - if you don't know how long it was inthere
    4. Clean the carbs - again, they may look clean but they are all gummed up inside
    5. Check the compression
    6. Inspect clearances and change shims if need be
    7. Change the oil - inspect the oil you've drained out
    8. Pray to the old and new gods to get the thing is running

    Here is an advice for ''newbies'' like myself that plan on embarking on a journey like I was:
    If you are buying a bike for yourself and you wish to restore/customize it, be ready to spend a dime or 2 on it, yes you can do it on the cheap, but it’s like this – you get what you pay for. If you intend to ride it one day, not just show of with it - buy a bike that at least cranks, preferable after a couple of cranks is actually starts! If you have the option of checking the vehicles past – do it. Trust me on this one – it will save you a bunch of money and time.
     
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  3. MattiThundrrr

    MattiThundrrr Not a guru

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    Black was not available in North America... That's a pretty cool scheme. Looks better than the red n white we got in Canada, perhaps better than silver n blue...
     
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  4. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    So, when I got the bike running with the help of this splendid forum I started to inspect the bike further.
    I found out that:
    Both mufflers were rusted badly on the inner surface that faces the wheel - cannot be seen until you take the muffler off. One had a 5 cm gaping hole, the other had a crack on almost the entire circumference at the joint with the collector (again, the visible part did not show the crack).

    In addition, the collector was completely rusted; it had holes in the body which were man made (previous owner drilled the holes, I guess for the sound??), the joints with the head pipes were all but intact.

    The cylinder head was cracked but I did not notice the crack because it was under a layer of grease and dirt – I still have not addressed this issue. And of course - IF you don’t clean your bolt holes and threads and IF YOU DON’T USE A TORQUE WRENCH you’re bound to strip some threads, which can be a big problem if those threads are in places where you don’t have a lot of options to repair them with helicoil or some other technique.

    Custom wiring in a smaller extent, but still a pain in the bum...

    old collector.JPG The collector... IMG_20171102_144641.jpg The smaller hole in the muffler.... etc...
     
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  5. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    First of all i decided on removing everything from the bike coould inspect the entire thing, head to toes. received_10209594862742682.jpeg

    After i got every thing out of the way i decided on shortening the rear end and adding a loop and in the mean time i also took the gas tank to be repaired since it had 2 huge dents.. received_10211028477742161.jpeg

    And the welded loop: received_10211028478142171.jpeg , the loop was cutom made since it's a bit unorthodox in it size, the tubing is 2mm thick and 2,54 cm in diameter, the loop inner diameter is 18 cm.
     
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  6. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    After the loop was fitted, I went about making a seat for the bike.
    During my long and tiresome search, I found out that 3 mm aluminium should be enough to withstand my weight since there is a cross bar right underneath the sitting area. Since I live in a small city, finding a small sheet of aluminium of that thickness is near impossible i had to resort to drastic measures - my boss (where i work during college) had an old signboard, which was yellow and had the restaurant’s name on it but it was thick enough for me to try it.

    I measured the width and length needed to make the seat panel. I drew it on the sheet and started to cut. I got the aluminium flat rectangle plate and now it came to bending.

    How to bend sheet metal/aluminium in a straight line without a metal brake or vise: You need a flat chisel, a small hammer, 2 boards.
    1. Draw the lines where the bends need to be - take in account the thickness of the sheet

    2. Take the flat chisel and place it on the line where you plan to bend the sheet. Gently hit it with a hammer, just so it leaves an impression (you don't need much force - it's aluminium for crying out loud), place the chisel on the same drawn line just next to the impression you made before and make one more impression, continue doing so until you've reached the end.

    3. When you finish making the impressions the sheet will bend a bit on its own - in a straight-line if you were accurate with the impressions. Place the sheet on a board and put the other board over the sheet (a sandwich if you may). Align the end of the top board with the line, which you drew, and ''chiselled''. Step on the board so you fixate everything and just slowly bend the sheet upwards with your hands (grab the sheet close to the bending line, so you do not warp it at the free end), it will bend easily.

    received_10211028478382177.jpeg received_1754348851260269.jpeg
     
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  7. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    The seat continues:

    In the meantime, I decided that I want my seat panel to fit the curve on the tanks end so i decided to shape it - with a small 250g locksmith hammer and some good old elbow grease.
    I placed a thick sweater in a bag and wrapped it up tight. I placed my bent up seat panel on the bag and started bashing it with that small, locksmith hammer. This way when I hit the panel, it caved in a bit since the material underneath the panel was soft enough for it cave in on a small area but it still gave enough support on the larger surface area for the sheet to keep a straight profile where it wasn't hit by the hammer.

    zic, oblika.png received_10211028478462179.jpeg Lter on i got refined a bit more, but this is how it turned out.
     
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  8. OleDirtyDoc

    OleDirtyDoc New Member

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    looking good so far:)
     
  9. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    And some more, getting the rear shape and the fixation mechanism - i used m6 NUTSERTS: Slika0179.jpg Slika0193.jpg
     
  10. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    After the base was built, I went searching for a proper foam for the seat... It was quite a task, it needs to be dense enough, it has to be shapable but on the other side it needs to be durable to withstand all the abuse from my bodyweight. After some phone calls i found it.
    IMG_20171218_182907.jpg

    Fast forward and here it is on the bike shaped as i wanted it:
    Slika0196.jpg Slika0198.jpg

    To shape it I first drew a side view outline and cut it to that shape, than i started to form it. For shaping the foam I used: coarse sandpaper on a homemade sanding block (made it from a piece of wood and some good rough sanding paper) and an angle grinder with a coarse sandpaper disc (works wonders for fast sheding of exces material). To glue the foam to the base i used the yellow glue that leather workers use to glue pieces of leather together.

    Next thing in line was to upholster it, since i'm way ahead on my project then i am with this post i don't have all the detailed pictures of every process + I kinda wrecked my old phone which had most of the photos...

    I skeched the shape, decided on a color and tried to make it as sloce as possible to the idea, here is how it turned out:
    IMG_20171218_181610.jpg IMG_20171218_181615.jpg IMG_20171218_181622.jpg IMG_20171020_113811.jpg
    If you look carefully, you'll see extra 3 holes - those are for air to excape and reenter the foam when it's compressed.
     
  11. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    On the previous post you might have seen a homemade license plate bracket. I made it using a pipe, 12mm diameter with 1 mm thick walls. I bent it home using nothing but sand, duct tape and some imagination. to fasten it i made triangle shaped washers, which i placed on the bolts, where the axle bolt goes and the lower eye of the rear shock goes.
    The backplate was made out of 0,75 mm thick sheet mteal, shaped with an angle grinder. nosilec 2.png nosilec 3.jpg nosilec 4.png
     
  12. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    Next on the menue was the front end. Since i'm making a cafeISH bike i decided on using clip ons. Non chineseum clip on bars with 36 mm diameter are quite difficult to source out if you don't plan on spending 150€+. But i got lucky and found a pair of used MAGURA clip ons for a fraction of the price. IMG_20171218_182128.jpg

    At this point i was so far in that i decided to customize my dashboard aswell, at first i made a bracket for only the tacho and bolted it in the place where the ignition switch was, IMG_20171102_144750.jpg IMG_20171102_144741.jpg and it looked OK IMG_20171020_152007_BURST001_COVER.jpg , but I couldn't get rid of the idea that i'll have to go without warning lights and without the Revcounter.

    Sooooooo i decided to spend (again) and i bought a ACEWELL 2853 tacho. It was used but in superb condition + the gentleman selling it was super kind and gave me a an extra discount since he didn't need it anymore. IMG_20171121_234639.jpg IMG_20171121_234645.jpg .

    Ok so now we got:
    - new handlebars
    - new light bracket
    - all in one tacho

    What do we need? Nothing, but if you are like me, and once you let your imagination take over you decide that you need a custom triple tree clamp that will go with the new tacho, right?
     
  13. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    I couldn't find any analog clamps, that i could just swap and a custom triple tree clamp on sites like ''Dime City Cycles'' costs a bunch and I can't afford one, and as a student i'm working a lot to pay for all my expences soooo the only logical thing was to make one my self, RIGHT?

    I couldn't find any technical drawings or SW files for the xj 650 seca triple tree clamp, sooooo i had to make everything, from the drawing to the finished product..... At that time i didn't know how to use SW or autocad or any of those engeneering programs (I study medicine...). I taught my self how to use SW in a day or 2 and everything was set. I had to mesure everything and do it so, that everything would be almost perfect. I managed to do so somehow using a basic calliper and a few other things, here it is: IMG_20171030_085037_001_COVER.jpg , it's just a sketch, and in SW: clamp.png

    I went and bought a 7075 avigrade aluminium block, 30 mm thick and took it to my friends uncle, who by any chance owns a CNC machine. I gave him the block and the SW file which he converted to god knows which format and he let te machine do the work. received_2023555654557306.png received_2023689921210546.png
    And the final product: IMG_20171218_181908.jpg IMG_20171218_182116.jpg

    Now I just need to cut up the clamps, make holes, thread them and VOILA it's done.
     
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  14. MattiThundrrr

    MattiThundrrr Not a guru

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    Nice work!
     
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  15. kosel

    kosel Active Member Premium Member

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    Impressive set of skills.
     
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  16. chacal

    chacal Moderator Moderator Supporting Vendor Premium Member

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    I want you around when the bombs start flying.....
     
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  17. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    Wasn't sure if the coment was sarcastic or genuine :D It doesn't sound like much, bending steel pipes, but the first time I did it, I just went for it, and the walls didn't bend in an arc but rather folded on them selves, so i figured it would be easyer if the pipe would be solid as if it was a rod, that way it wouldn't fold - tried it out it worked :)

    Ok, since the order of the posts isn't complitely in a chronologicl order some might have noticed that in some pictures in my previous posts you can see things i did to the bike, before I made the actual post, thats because some items were being made at the same time or i had an ''engineering crysis'' at certain points while doing a certain piece.

    One thing i did in the meentime was - I stripped the tank of all the color and took it to a shop to prime it, just so it wouldn't rust. The primer (epoxy they call it here) is mat-green in color but i cinda like it this way :D IMG_20171101_164926.jpg IMG_20171101_155238.jpg
     
  18. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    Next on the list: REAR LIGHT and turn signals.,

    Here where I live, we need to have E marks on our lights + there's a bunch of other regulations which in some cases are there to prevent accidents because of missuse of items but others are there just so the birocrats could waste our time and money since for every little thing you do on the bike you need a bunch of papers and what not just for it to be street legal and the E marks on lenses are one of those things...


    So the turn signals are LED and are generic as they get (don't judge), but I like them + they didn't brake the bank. I bought some adapters from E-bay for a couple of bucks (from china - It's a piece of steel powdercoated and has 2 holes, so no harm in that, right?). I might make my own brackets, that will be welded to the frame, but for now it's as it is.


    I wanted the rear light to be streamline as possible, since the led stip lights that are bendable don't have an E mark, I wouldn't be able to ride the motorcycle in Europe... So i decided to go with a small led light. I found one from HIGHSIDER, looks nice, has an aluminium housing and look sturdy. I tried it out, it might be small but it's bright.
    10035483_880_DET04_17.JPG And here it is on the frame before the seat was done: Slika0186.jpg , but fter i finished the seat, i din't like it so much, since it was sticking out way too much, light 1.jpg . So I taight about it - why not integrate it intoo the frame? But the problem is, i allready welded the loop ontoo the frame, it doesn't have any holes + the litght is not round with straight top and bottom edges but is rather elipsoid so i tried on a pipe with the same diameter - it want horribly wrong, it was a comlete mess but i figured that having that extra bit of motivation ''nothing can go wrong or else...'' might do the trick, so i went for it... I masured everything, sketched it on the frame, drilled a couple of 8 mm holes and used a angle grinder to connect them, then with a hand file i stared to shape the hole - took me 4 hours to shape the damn hole just so the ligh would fit in - like a glove!! We wend from this light 2.jpg to this IMG_20171023_175416.jpg IMG_20171023_175425.jpg IMG_20171218_182139.jpg .

    And when they are turend on:
    IMG_20171023_175735.jpg .
     
  19. chacal

    chacal Moderator Moderator Supporting Vendor Premium Member

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    Genuine!
     
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  20. sanin360

    sanin360 Member

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    Side panels and the front fender:

    Front fender is the original one, just shortened - nothing impressive there, you can see it on the pictures with the tank recolored.


    Side panels:

    First, I wanted to go with the original plastics, but they are super bulky and they protrude sideway too much, since the seat is narrower than the original one.... Plus the right one was broken, I could have tried to plastic-weld it, but i decided to make my own side panels as well (you can see a pattern here - every time I plan on doing something simple, I overcomplicate it....).
    I saw a few posts with panels made from a single sheet of aluminium or some sheet metal. I got my hands on one more plate of aluminium, 3 mm in thickens and it was brand new! I measured stuff and drew them on a cardboard piece and I cut it out, it looked fine so I went for it. I transferred the sketch onto the sheet and I cut it out using and angle grinder (terrible for cutting sheet aluminium). IMG_20171024_175606.jpg IMG_20171101_160858.jpg .



    It looks OK, but it does not look ''grate''. I taught a bit about it and I went for the ''I have too much time on my hands so lets overthink it'' option - pressed, perforated sheet metal panels :D How did I plan on doing it? I was going to build a mold press with scrap wood, a wooden board, couple of 12 mm bolts I had lying around and a bunch of time.
    All I have from power tools are the tools every household has: a drill, an angle grinder, a welder, a 2 stone grinder and that's it... No tools for cutting wood, so as broke as I was at that time, I went to the home depot and I bought a hand saw since I didn't have one. A small Japanese hand saw ideal for making small straight cuts, not ideal for anything else, but hey, it was 3 euros and stubborn as I am, I was determined to make it work (somehow). I also bought a perforated sheet of metal 1 mm in thickens and the cheapest 18 mm thick wooden board. Why the wood? I was going to make a press mold out of the wooden boards, the base boards I already had from an old cupboard top and I needed the solid wood for the mold pieces.

    I used the cardboard templet from before to draw the female and male mold parts. I got the rough shapes out with the hand saw and using an old impact screwdriver (I pretended that it was an impact) as a chisel, and I got the round shapes using the angle grinder and metal files. The male mold had to be a bit smaller than the female one, because the metal would shear without a gap - and we don't want that + I added a chamfer on the male mold to get the shape I wanted. Making a single shape hole in wood is easy (you just need 2 boards and make half of each hole in each one) but trying to make a negative that's 3 mm smaller all around? Hard as frig... But If you have time and the patience, you can do it....close enough.
    IMG_20171103_121804.jpg IMG_20171103_122124.jpg

    I don't have a press at home, orrrr a 20 ton jack lift, but I have big screws which could be utilised. I drilled some holes in it, used double-sided sticky tape to glue the molds to their respective base plates, and I made side rails so the top and bottom base plates with molds would fit ''perfectly'' on top of each other. I placed the sheet meal on top of the male piece and I dropped the female piece on top of it with the sheet in-between. I tightened the screws in a cross patern and voila, I got this out:

    IMG_20171103_193916.jpg . 3D shape, not perfect, but nothing a couple of whacks with a locksmiths hammer couldn't fix :) I cut the shape out with a 20 mm edge arround the shape, and I bent the edge downwards. This way i could try it out on the bike. And here it is:
    IMG_20171107_112051.jpg

    So i liked the shape, but it looked unfinished, it was missing something but I couldn't put my finger on what was missing... A couple of days ago I figgured it out - It needed a frame arround it so here it is with the frame (I cut a 30 mm wide and 90 cm long band out of a 1 mm thich sheat metal plate and i wraped it arround). And i made the other side aswell.
    IMG_20171218_182319.jpg IMG_20171218_182310.jpg .

    NEXT TIME: how to fixate the pieces onto the frame, for now they are in there only because of the tight fit....
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2017
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