Philbeys Yamaha Xs650 Custom Motorbike

[philbey]

Cheers benzo.

 

Yeh, I'd be tentative about welding the actual hardtail on myself until I've had more practice. I'm getting better but still every now and then I just stuff it completely.

 

Just want to get it on the road and start cruising around! I'm hoping if I get her going then some of my mates will catch the disease. As one dude said "the sickness spreads like a zombie virus"

[Chobis]

Holy crap! I hadn't looked at this thread in ages. This bike looks freakin wicked. Right on the money and those pegs are a perfect addition.

 

Love how you're already talking about the "next bike" too. Classic.

 

Good to meet ya the other day mate..... keep up the work on this bike. Once it's on the road you just need to find a pub that has a record player so you can do time trials to a set place and back before the song finishes. :)

[philbey]

Looks even better now since I shifted the seat. I'll be rolling over to the shed to do some more work tonight, like mounting those pegs and a bit more remedial work on my new fender. I'll take the camera and make sure I snap a couple of shots before dark hits.

 

There's a story behind buying another project bike as well - wont say too much; "Cross Border build-off" as a bit of a teaser.

[philbey]

Alrighty, a couple more pics. The shifting of the seat is very subtle but as soon as I did it it looked instantly better. It's come back about 60mm and down slightly, it sits a bit flatter and the riding position is much better. I've made some dirty brackets to test try some pegs which I should have done before I put the seat on.

 

Note the wags in the background....

 

 

This is with the ribbed ducktail fender sitting on the back wheel as well, and a nice sun flare effect. Accidentally saved over this pic in a lower res so I lost the clean, noise free pic I took which is a bummer.

 

Edited December 9, 2009 by philbey

[drc_ke20]

how`s the bike going?what stage you in now?just curious and i like your bikes too!

[philbey]

Hey man, not much visually better from the pics just above. I hand fabbed some mount plates for my second set of pegs last night, I'll get some pics through shortly. Just sketched up what I wanted on some 6mm Flat stock and carved away with the Angle Grinder. It's amazing what you can do with a bit of forethought.

 

Next step is to cut and shut that rear fender to shorten it and get rid of the nasty dented bits. I've already welded up the holes in it and I need to file finish them. There's some other bits that need beating out too, so I'll take a trip to the tool shop for some dollies and gear. I've got some stainless flat to fab up a couple of brackets to hold the fender in place and the beginnings of a sissy bar out of some 10mm rod.

 

In the next couple of weeks, I want to get stuck right into modifying the tank; nothing too serious (in chopped bike terms), just filling in the square section over the backbone and making up the frame mounts. Also I'll weld in some bungs for a tube sight gauge.

 

Square bit to fill in on tank:

 

Sight Gauge kit:

Edited December 15, 2009 by philbey

[philbey]

More progress, though not as much as I'd like. Got stuck into the 911 rather than the bike but here's some bits and pieces:

 

Made some plates to mount up the new (old) pegs. Not bad but after I did it I discovered how someone chopped up factory peg mounts to use in the same manner and I think I prefer it... Damn. These will do for now, I'll radius the corners and chamfer everything and get them powdercoated.

 

Here's my fender. You can see the holes I've been patching up. The block of wood is to guide my way as I CUT THIS BABY!

 

And here some tape for final cuts before welding it up:

 

I cut out about 3 inches of fender that was dented to shit, and I'll weld it together again. The final product will be about the right length so all's well. Started welding back together. Still getting the hang of HF tig welding:

 

Made a mount for my brake lever:

 

And a brake stay tab for the rear drum:

 

Check my how to on the metal fab work HERE on the chopcult. I'm really getting into this make-your-own bits do, good fun and pretty rewarding when you get it right.

 

It's amazing what you can make with a bit of careful though and an angle grinder!

Edited January 6, 2010 by philbey

[philbey]

More goodies arrived yesterday from the US - a dummy oil tank kit (to house my Electrickery), some fuel hose and a throttle, pics to come.

[philbey]

just bought some of these

 

 

from this guy:

 

Anyone who can pull that sort of jump with no rear suspension deserves my business.

 

[Taz_Rx]

One of my mates just bought an old XS650 to convert to a hardtail. Showed him your projects thread and he said he wants to do pretty much exactly the same thing.

His has been bored and stroked to something stupid like 780cc now though!!

[philbey]

awesome Taz, hit me up with some pics of his build! There's bugger all dudes doing this in Australia. Doing it well at least, there's plenty of poxy chops out there (IMHO).

 

unless he's going to fab his hardtail himself, point him in the direction of Twig from slicendicekustoms.

 

http://slicendicekustoms.blogspot.com/

 

He's building some cool stuff and does hardtail kits for XS650's, I'll definitely use him next build. Might get him to shave a couple of fork tubes for me as well.

[Taz_Rx]

Just getting stripped down at the moment so not too much has happened. The bike actually used to be his dad's then he sold it like 10-15 years ago. My mate has now just bought it back off the guy who bought it off his dad. Engine has only done 4 hours since the full rebuild and CC increase...... probably cause its too damn hard to start with the kick starter! haha

 

I showed him the hardtail you got from the states and he said "Yeah I was going to get one of those".

[philbey]

Yeh, by all means the TC hardtail is a good unit, I was impressed at the build quality and fit. Next time I'd go with the slicendice so I can support the local industry. He's the only bloke I know of running a dedicated chop shop like this in Aus, unlike in the US where these guys are everywhere.

 

I've got a couple of motors so I'll build this one and the plan is to piece together a big bore kit and some 34mm slide carbies and build a firebreather down the track!

[RA28GT]

man i wish i had the skill to be able to build something like this. I need to learn how to weld!

 

Looking REAL GOOD. very cool indeed.

[philbey]

Cheers. I've lapsed a little with this, been doing work on the 911, but once I get back from Vic next weekend I've really got no excuse not to get in and make serious headway.

 

Really only need to get some Axle spacers turned up and It's all there.....