xs650chop

day twentysix

2009-06-27T13:15:00.001-07:00

so i rode the bike around for a while pretty much everything went well, it is super fast, brakes work good minus the back brake doesnt return like i would like. oh the kick stand sucks too. then this happens...... yeah the bolts on the stator rattled loose and ran into the flywheel. yeah it pretty much destoyed everything. hmm how am i going to fix this with like t minus 5 hours????

here is the carnage, so i called around no one had a banshee stator plate... well the dealer had one for $600.... yeah right! so i hopped in the car and went to my parents house to rob one off my moms banshee, sorry mom.

after a bit of work with the mill and the tig i had it all straightened out.

here it is at like 1000 rpm.

to fix the back brake problem i built this bracket that hooks to the lever arm on the drum, from here i hooked a spring to the frame.

here we are just before we headed out to arizona for our adventure. jess, me, jeff, and jake.

i 15 on the maiden voyage!!! feels pretty good, well worth the long nights.

day 2-5

2009-06-27T12:54:00.001-07:00

so the last week and a half i have been staying until about 2am or so trying to play catch up. here is whats happens when you are half asleep trying to use an angle grinder. no fun.

here is the bike back down on the ground, i love how light & low it is i cant wait to ride it.

tank mounted.

the stupid this will not start, not even a hint of starting. straight up stone wallin me. here i am trying to ajust the timing on the cam sensor.

we even tried to bump start it...... bad idea it doesnt work, or at least i couldnt get it to hahaha

at least we had a good support crew jessica and jeffs wife nikki kept our spirits up. jess went to the mexican market and bought us some of the good sodas you know the ones with real sugar not the corn syrup trash they put in the american garbage.

here i am at like 2:30 am the day we are supposed to leave for AZ. i still cant get the bike to start, my friend james sudgested that i put my new larger jets in. i pulled the carbs and cleaned everything out turouly and installed the new jets. after installing the carbs back on sure enough the bike fired right up! it fired like second kick, i was shocked, it even ideled pretty close to where i wanted it.

day 24.

2009-06-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

i had a problem when i went to remove the exhaust from the bike after mocking it all up. i couldnt get this pipe off. this is what i did. cut the pipe in half and insert a slip joint.

i already had all the mounts and everything in place so everything had to stay in the same place so i just measued the area to be trimmed and the lenght of the slip joint subtracted the diffrence and thats how much i removed off the rear section of the pipe.

with the slip joint welded on i took a washer bent it up in the break and welded it on.

this spring will hold the pipes togeather and alwos a little bit of flex in the system this will increase the life of all the exhaust mounts too, an aded bonus.
well like all projects that come down to the wire something has to go wrong, i put the oil in the motor and this is what i have on my table a few min later. apparently that clutch pushrod seal that i installed isnt doing its job.

so the real promlem here is that it is 24hrs before we need to leave and no one that i know of in the salt lake valley has a pushrod seal for an xs. i did find an rd350 seal that has the same shaft size but the out side diameter is smaller then the xs part.

i took a chunk of aluminum and got to work making an adapter sleave.

here is the adapter after the lathe work.

i had to machine a flat on one side so that it would clear part of the casting on the block.
here it is installed in the tansmission. excuse the messy grease all over the seal, at this point i was running around like a mad man trying to get this thing togeather so i could at least ride it around the parking loit before having to ride the 750 miles to cotton wood.

day two three

2009-05-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

i recruited my dad to build the wiring harness for the bike. its getting down to the wire on getting the bike done for the smoke out so i can use all the help i can get. my dad has wired everything from little tiny prototype lights to airplanes.

here is jess displaying the tail light fender combo.

i welded some tabs on the underside of the fender to hold the wires off the tire. i used tefzel wire for these wires since they are going to take some abuse.

this shot shows the fender, sissy, and engine installed.

here is the tank in primer with the first skim coat of filler sanded, awaiting the second primer coat.

second primer coat complete.

this is the first coat of the ivory base coat.

i did two coats of base and 2 coats of clear, i cleared it so that i didn't risk harming the base when i did the masking for the graphics.

here is jessica color sanding the clear with some 1500, sorry about the pants jess. i got an added bonus of g-star denim dye on the tank.

for the graphics i masked the entire tank off with 3m blue masking tape. make sure all your tape joints are stuck down really well. run over all the surfaces with a squeegee.

for the circles i just made a compass that originated off the center of the gas cap hole. you have to use your best judgement when finalizing the lines because some of them didn't wind up exactly right visually due to the shape of the tank.

here it is after having my way with the x-acto knife. try not to press hard cause you don't want to cut the clear coat. use a brand new blade lightly.

first coat of black base.

the black base with the masking removed.

here it is after being cleared.

day 22

2009-05-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

here is a little piece of leather that i stamped out to place between the box and the frame, this will stop any sqeeks that this joint might be inclined to produce.

here is the box mounted on the frame with the highbeam and horn switches on the box.

here is my pangea emblem mounted on the lower triple clamp cover

so i wanted to utalize the choke on this bike, i am all about riding these bikes so standing around with my hand on the throttle waiting for my bike to warm up isnt an option.

i took the stock hand controll that had the choke lever built in and raan it through the band saw.

after the saw i clamped it in the lathe and gave the bottom a nice flat plane.

i had to make a short little pull cable to actuate the choke so i cut down the stock cable then took some .25 in steel rod and drilled a hole through the center.

after drilling the rod i cut it off too about .25in long, then i continued to weld the rod to the shortened cable.

here is the set up all mounted on the carbs. it is pretty discrete and really easy to get to, just the way i like it.

day twenty one

2009-05-24T11:19:00.001-07:00

here is the tank and fender with the sealer sprayed on them. ALWAYS spray your raw metal with sealer before puting any filler down. what allot of people dont understand is that when you mix up filler it causes a chemical reaction that creats heat. heat on metal will draw moistier out of the metal causing condensation to form between your metal and filler. then you get rust forming under your filler, ever wonder why those hack fill jobs always wind up with rust under the filler. well thats why.

so it only took one skim coat on this fender to get it where i wanted but if it needed more filler another coat of sealer would be needed.

here i sprayed down some primer, then misted some flat black over the top. this is called a guid coat. when you sand the fender any low spots will show up with black in them. when you can sand it and have zero black you know your part is pretty flat. (always use a block)

here is the storage box after a skim coat ready for the first coat of primer. it took a few coats to get this thing right.

here it is with primer and guide coat.

i built this profile tool by just roughly cutting the shape of the edge out of a paint stick. after cutting the stick put down some packing tape on the fender. put some body filler on the tape then smash the stick into the filler. when it is cured you can pop the stick off the fender and sand down the extra filler. now you can swipe the profile guide through some filler to create an even detail line on the fender edge.

here are the box and the fender right before i sprayed the black base coat down.

if you have the chance to use an oven it makes the painting go a little faster.

day 20

2009-05-24T11:15:00.001-07:00

after the removal of the electric starter i was left with this huge hole in the tranny.

to solve the hole issue i just went over to this engine building shop by my house and they had a steel freeze plug that fit perfectly. sorry i forgot what size it was but you can figure it out pretty quick with a pair of dial calipers. if i remember right it was a pretty round number like 1.80in

doing the engine turning on the side cover was pretty easy. i just put the roloc mandrel from my grinder into the drill press with a scotch brite pad mounted on it and that was that. i thought about drawing out a grid so they were all exactly even but after doing it i dont know if that would be very valuable.

here is the engine mounted in the frame with the side cover on display.

this phot is a little bit late but i machined these little bosses to mount the coil in the electrical box under the seat. i just drilled some holes in the box then welded around the boss.

day 19

2009-05-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

this is a shot of the axle spacer that i machined, using the mill i machined a slot to locate the chain tensioner.

here is the tank sealant kit that i ordered from the local paint shop. it comes with a surface cleaning solution, anti rust etch, and the tank sealant.
put the cleaner in the tank, i think they say to mix it at a 1:1 ratio with water. after washing it around for a few min i drained the tank and rinsed with water. after rinsing i let it dry out and the repeated with the rust etch. to speed up drying i used the shop air.

pour the sealant into the tank, tape off all holes and oil any threads that you dont want coating on. rotate the tank around for about 30min. drain the rest of the sealant back into the can. let it sit for about 96hrs before using the tank again.

day eighteen

2009-04-26T12:02:00.001-07:00

here are the parts after getting them chrome plated, $130 not to bad in my book. a little chrome goes along way in my book. i also think the some times less is more though i am not usualy huge on the idea of tons of chrome.

jocky shift lever with shift knob screwed on.

here jeff and i are going to battle with the front tire. we ended up pinching the first tube under the bead on the tire, causing a hole to form in the tube.

here is jessica cleaning the rear wheel with some scotch brite and wd-40.

day 17

2009-04-26T11:57:00.001-07:00

day six teen

2009-04-26T11:52:00.001-07:00

here are the triple clamps all broken down, painted and ready for assembly

when installing the risers make sure to use loc tite on all the fasteners and i am even going a step further and safe-T-wireing them since i would rather my bars didnt rattle off.

cut off a piece of wire the is 2.5 times longer then the distance between bolts. feed the wire through and around the shaft of the bolt ensuring that the loop is tightening the bolt if the bolt comes loose.

use your wire plires to twist the wire to 8-10 twists per inch. feed the wire through the next bolt in the tightening direction.
twist the remaining wire to the same 8-10twists per inch spec as before.

here is how you should bend the wire so that you do not stab your fingers later on down the road.

here is the triple clamps and bars all mounted up togeather.

day fifteen

2009-04-20T20:46:00.000-07:00

here is the frame all finish welded, ground, sanded, and drilled. after pulling the bike down on to the ground and sitting on it i tor it all down and did all the final changes that neede to be made.(sorry about the lack of pics during that stage my camera hit the deck and exploded)
here is the frame in the paint booth after being returned from the sand blaster.

laying down a few coats of sealer will give your paint a good foundation to build on.

here is the first coat of dupont chroma base black.

here is the house of kolor dry metal flake being added into the dupont chroma clear.

when spraying the gold/clear make sure to do long strokes with your gun to ensure even flake distribution ( notice how the axel plates are dark, this area will need more attention to build up the gold flake)

here is a close up of the final product.

day 14

2009-04-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

i machined a pair of bungs for mounting the fender to the sissy bar out of some 5/8 in round stock. i thought it would look cool to run some wingnuts jose de miguel style.

i broke our tubing bender the other day so now i am left doing these bends like a savage.

here are the fender struts tacked togeather on the bike. i feel it works allot better by just building the fender struts and sissy bar on the bike rather then on the bench, this way you know what your getting and that everything is going to line up exactly where you want it.

here it is again fully welded with the tail light in place.

here is the beginning of the sissy bar. i drew out what i was looking for on graph paper to make sure i was going to have enough room for the tail light to clear. on the drawing i also ploted out the location of the upper fender strut bosses, from there i drew out the bend on the sissy bar. after establishing the shape i wanted i started bending the stock and compairing it with the drawing untill everything matched.

here i am compairing each part to make sure they are all running at the same angle. always remeber to tack your parts in place, measure, adjust, measure, adjust, maybe cut and retack, measure one last time, .....then finish weld it.
here it is mounted on the bike, all squared up and finish welded .

here is a shot of the rear brake cable retainer i made, i just machined a counterbored boss on the lathe and cut a slot in the side for the cable to slip in to. make sure to do some really sturdy welds on this since its what makes the brakes work.

close up.

this phot kinda sucks but what this pic is showing is a lever stop that keeps the clutch (and brake) levers from flipping backward.

day13

2009-04-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

for the back panel of the storage box i need a panel with a slight crown in both directions, an english wheel would make quick work of this but unfortunatly i dont have one...yet! so until then this is how you can do it. cut a rectangle roughly to your desired size, i usualy over size it slightly that way you can trim it to fit perfectly. take your mallet and start lightly pounding out a line through the center of your panel. after you get a slight crown in your panel start working from the center outward in a spiral motion.

clamp a dolly in the vise and start out using a soft hammer (i usualy use a dead blow hammer) by using a soft heavy hammer you can move your metal with out causing it to stretch, this will allow you to smooth out your panel which at this point probably looks like a bag of wall nuts. when your panel is relativly smooth you can switch to a flat faced body hammer. using the body hammer you can strike the edges of your panel against the dolly and this will cause the panel to stretch out causing a crown in the panel.

tig the panel into the box making sure to get good penatration on your welds. you are going to be filing most of the weld off so if you have to sacrafice a perfect looking weld for one with solid penatration focus on the penatration.

repeat the earlyer steps to build your bottom panel on your box.

here i am using a body file to bring the welds to a nice finish. i usualy grind the welds down a bit with a grinder then do the finish work with the body file. remember though your dealing with .032 al so dont grind to far.

so here is how it came out, its not perfect but after a little hammer and dolly work it will probably straighten out pretty well. if not i can always put a little mud on it i suppose.
here it is mocked up on the frame. now to figure out how to mount it to the frame.....

i am going to mount the coil in this box so i thought it would be cool to run the coil wires out the side through some swedged holes. i also was planning on mounting the reg/rec in the bottom of the box so i swedged these holes on the bottom to draw the heat from the reg/rec out of the box. since then i relocated the reg/rec to the down tubes on the frame, i just didnt want to risk over heating it.
here i just took a piece of 1 in X 1/8 in steel strap cut it to match the width and angle of the down tubes. mark the bolt hole locations with a transfer punch.

drill and tap the holes to 1/4 - 20, remember to use cutting fluid so you dont break your tap.

this mini mag digital protractor has saved me a bunch of times. i usually eyeball where i want the bracket to fit, tack one side, then you can bend that tack to get the bracket to sit level.
here it is all mounted up. seems to fit pretty well and now i dont have to worry about it overheating.
i had a hard time figuring out where to put the huge capacitor that i am running ( this capacitor stabilizes the energy flow to the lights and horn). i finally came up with this bracket that will go on the back bone under the tank.

pretty basic i think you guys can figure this one out by now.

tack it, level it, tack it, finish weld it and your done.

here is the pattern i made for the storage box mounts. i always make patterns for anything i do with sheet metal, that way it goes smooth the first time. this is actualy a swedish fish box haha! give me a break thats all i had laying around.

a little 18g steel and a sharpie, i just use a transfer punch to mark the hole locations that way you dont have to try to cut holes in your pattern. you might want to use dotted lines on your bend lines too, trust me if you get going fast on the band saw you might forget what lines to cut and what lines to bend.

drill 1/8 in holes on your folded corners that way you dont get bunching of the metal in the corners. i also always drill all my holes while it is still in pattern mode.

here they are all folded welded and filed, i swedged the holes for a little extra umph. the mounting hoes are getting rubber soft mounts thats why they are so large.

here they are welded to the frame with the rubber mounts installed.

day 12

2009-02-28T10:31:00.001-08:00

i just wasn't feeling right about how the exhaust was looking, it was too understated so i decided to add to it, this is what i came up with. i am liking this allot better now, it doesn't get over powered so much by the battery box i am building under the seat. speaking of that... here is a rough cardboard pattern that i whipped up to simulate the profile of the box.
this shot shows the pattern lay ed out on the .040 al sheet. the space in the middle of the traced pattern lines is the material needed for the bend radius on the front of the box. to get that number i knew i was gonna bend it over a piece of 1.125in tube so i found the circumference of the tube then divided it buy 3.
i radiused the edges of the box the same way i did on the saddle bag using a hammer and dolly clamped in a vise. stay tuned for more.

day eleven

2009-02-17T21:45:00.000-08:00

i decided that sisnce i am going to be riding this bike i want to have a saddlebag on one side. i did some sketches the made a pattern. i traced the pattern to this sheet of .040 al, then i added 3/4in around the outside to allow for my radiused corners that i am going to do on this box.

here i am test fitting the side panel to the frame making sure i have proper clearance all the way around.
i just used a scrap of 1 1/8in tube as a dolly to hammer the edge over. having a tight radius bend in the dolly makes the corneres on the pattern bend nicely.
here it is all radiused. if you work your bends slowly as you more around the part you will end up with out wrinkled corners like you would if you were to hammer each area to its full arc before moving forward.

on the second side i desided to try starting out my bend with a flanging tool(aka cresent wrench) this helped allot to define the edgeand keep my flange height more consistant. i use this method all the time.
i am going to jazz this bag up a bit with a grid pattern of swedged holes like the ones i did on the plate mount. here i am laying out where they are going to end up. i center drilled them with a 1/8in pilot. i will wait untill the box is hammer and dollied after welding to swedge the holes. straightening the box with a bunch of swedged holes would make for a tricky job so i will treat the holes once the box is square.
cleaco your part down flat and scribe and cut an even line around the edge so that your part has an even flange height. this will make the center strip easyer to cut and hopefully make your box have a better chance of ending up square.
tack all around the box before doing any final welds, if you can do any hammer and dolly work before sewing the box up.
when your done welding do any hammer and dolly work you need to to straighten out any warpage due to welding, then you can use a grinder and a body file to take the welds down.

here it is sitting on the bike, next up building the top for the box and choosing a latch.

day ten?

2009-02-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

in this section i am building a license plate mount that attaches to the rear axle. its layed out on .080 6061 al sheet. the axle hole is 20mm .
here it is with all three holes drilled and the sides folded up. i used a small pan brake to bend the sides up. make sure to allow for your bend radius
i built this swedging die that you clamp down on the sheet metal to give it extra strength and cut weight.
here is the mount all welded togeather for the plate backer i used .032 al to cut weight since its not really structural. i will be selling these in the pangea speed store soon, feel free to email me and i will whip one up for you if your interested.

day nine

2009-02-02T20:07:00.001-08:00

here is the pile of tubing i recived in the mail, you can get mandrel bent tubing for pretty cheep off of ebay.
i had to machine off about .050 off of the i.d. of the exhaust clamps to allow for the larger tube dia.
here is a shot of the lathe doing its thing. i just ran a boaring bar back and forth a few times and it did the trick.
i had an idea of how i wanted the exhaust to run but wasnt set in stone on anything. its alway nice on a setup like this where you have really loose requirements that you have to meet.
here are the first few bends all layed out. when i was doing my aprenticeship a guy named gary kendall showed me a trick that really helps out allot when working with tube. when laying out a cut fold a piece of paper in half and wrap it around the tube and make sure that the paper lines up even on both sides then mark it with a sharpie. what this does is makes sure that your keeping a straight line around the tube and if your working on a bent tube it helps to reduce the chance of "cheating the bend". allot of people like to substitute tape for the paper but tape is designed to bend around a corner so it doesnt always give you a straight line.
here the pipes are tacked togeather and seam to be fitting up well.
this is basicly how the tips are going to sit i am going to extend them a little bit to clear the frame but you get the idea.

another shot.

day eight!!!

2009-01-31T10:02:00.001-08:00

my friend jason hooked me up with this paughco mustang tank. the tank sat really high on the backbone and was at a really steep angle, so i decided to cut out the tunnel and drop the tank down a bit. i also opted to do a frisco style petcock that way i get the most mileage out of the fuel in the tank

in this pic the new tunnel is all welded in, you can see by the discolorization from the welder that i welded the tunnel in with 3/4 in welds. you want to weld with short cool welds and jump around all over the tank or you are going to wind up with a warped tank.

so here all the welds have been ground and i have the frisco style petcock bung welded in. when weldinging in the petcock bung i used sil-bronz rod so that it flows in the gaps better making for a better seal and lower heat to reduce the possability of melting the 1/4 npt threads in the bung. i machined some blind 5/16 x 18 bungs that i welded in the tunnel for mounting the tank to the back bone.

here is my good friend jeff hepworth drilling the holes in the backbone to mount the tank bungs. jeff whipped up som bungs by taking some 5/8 4130 tubing and welding on caps he cut out of 1/8 in strap with a 3/8 in hole drilled in the center these will get welded into the backbone and the fasteners will hide in the bung and retain the tank.

this is how it looks with the holes drilled and deburred.

jeff and i bolted the backbone bungs to the tank then dropped the tank on the bike. after making sure the tank is sitting on straight i placed a few sturdy tacks on the mounting bungs. remove the tanks making sure not to bump your parts out of alignment and weld it up solid

day seven

2009-01-27T22:23:00.001-08:00

for the seat i took a piece of cardboard and made this template i test fit it a bunch of times and bend it into the arc i thought i wanted to end up with.

when i got my pattern close to what i was looking for i drew a centerline down the cardboard and cut the pattern in two halves. when i had my half pattern i then layed it on this piece of scrap 1/8 in steel, my scrap was painted already so i scribed a centerline and placed the half patern on the centerline. scribe the pattern then flip the pattern to the opposing side making for a symetrical seat pan. i would go back over your scribed lines with a french curve and circle template to make sure everything gets cut out smoothly.
here the seat sits on the frame in mockup mode, i dont have a slip roller so i bent the shape into this by hand. first i clamped the pan in the vise at the back of the seat and slowly bent a very slight arc, then i released the vise and slipped the pan down about 3/4in and repeated the bending motion, i did this about 5 more times to create the front to back bend. for the bend on the sides what i did was clamped the pan on the centerline in the vice, then i got a large cresent wrench and clamped it down on the side. with it as deep in the throught as possible i slightly bend the pan in the desired direction then move lateraly about 3/4in work slow and you will end up with smooth bends.

here it is witht he spring mounts welded to the frame and the springs bolted to the seat pan. i ended up tacking the bolts to the pan so that after upholstery you wont have to use a screw driver to tighten the fastener.

this bike is going to be running a jockey shift so here is what i whideled up, i just cut off the stock foot shift and used the splined boss to attatch too.
here is the first test run, the riding position is actualy really comfortable, i was originaly planning on running some drag bars but these stockers are kinda growing on me so i think i am going to roll with these. i cut 1.25in off each side to get a little skinnyer look.

day six

2009-01-27T22:05:00.001-08:00

on the chain stays you are going to want to make some solid slugs and rosete weld them in the joint where the chain stay hooks to the original lower frame rail.

here the new hard tail section is getting welded on, make sure to jump around allowing the heat to disapate so you reduce warpage of the frame.

in this shot i have the frame welded and am starting to think about where i want to put my tank and rear fender. i am actualy just going to use the stock front fender with a few modifications.

i am planning on ditching the tach, ignition switch, turnsignal indicators etc. so here is a mount i have come up with to locate the speedo. it is made out of .090 6061 aluminum sheet.

here it is cut out prior to bending it, i placed a slight bend in the mount to kick the speedo up so that it is easyer to read, maybe 30 degrees or so.

here it is mounted on the bars.

day five.

2009-01-27T18:27:00.001-08:00

here i am building a mounting jig to locate the pangea speed axle plates on my table. i have measured out the axle height on the centerline of the axle and the center of the slot. i also spaced the plates to accept the hub with out needing to machine new spacers. i tacked the entire jig before welding anything fully to reduce warpage of the jig.

this is what the jig looks like when its fastened to the table. i marked the centerling of the jig and measured 100 times to make sure its was square.

grind off all the extra metal from where the previous frame points had connected. i used a big 3in grinder to knock them down then 24g, 50g, scotch brite roloc discs and a single cut file tofinish the areas.

this is just a basic tube bender that can be purchased at harbor freight. i measured the bend angles with an angle finder then bent the tubes as close as possible to where i needed them to be.

figure out your seat stay width based on your measurment you used for your axle plate location. (make sure your chain and sprocket are going to clear the seat stay)

figuring out how to cutout the slot for the axle plate was a bit of a trick. what i did was clamp the bent portion of the tube in a vice with 2x4's the 2x4's allow the tube to sit in the vice square. once you have the tube squared up you and use a block on the side of the tube to measure off to determine the centerline of the tube. this all might sound like a big hassle but it really helps you get the relationship between the axle plate slot and the bend clocked in the propper relationship.

here are the seat stays resting roughly in there new place called home. always make sure to test fit stuff you can really avoid some head aches that way.

another test fit with the slots and tube caps welded on, for the tube caps i just used some 1/8 in strap, cut it with a band saw, weld, and grind her smooth

another view of the tube end test fit.

day four

2009-01-25T11:50:00.001-08:00

after determining the desired ground clearance i came up with this jig that will hold the frame at that height, this willbe welded to the frame and screwed on to the table top. if you have a metal table just tack some posts to the table and that will do

draw a centerline down the middle of your table the find the center of your jig and mark it with a sharpie. slide the stand under the bike and make sure the bike is centered over the jig. at this point come up with some way to lock the front wheel in place centered on the table.

make sure you have everything square and straight then tack the frame to the jig. make sure you do some pretty hefty tacks because you are going to be joncing, hammering, beating on the bike and you dont want it to move.

day three

2009-01-25T11:02:00.000-08:00

here is a shot of the bike getting stripped down, i am going to leave the engine in so that when i cut the frame the engine mounts wont move anywhere. i am also leaving the front end on the bike to aid in keeping everything straight and square.

in this shot i have the bike up on my bike table, at this point i went through and documented all the dimensions ie: wheel base, axle height, ground clearance, handlebar height. i just have the bike sitting on blocks right now since i have yet to determine exactly what my ideal ground clearance is

right here i am starting to cut the rear section of the frame off keep in mind if you have the engine removed at this point you need to build a jig to keep all the frame tubes in location or as soon as you start cutting you run the risk of warping and twisting resulting in allot of head aches down the road.

cut the frame long so that you can later scribe and grind your tubes nice and square that way everything will fit up right. i using a jig saw with a fine tooth blade, if you have a tight area a cut off wheel works well too.

this is what it looks like with the rear section of the frame cut off, as you can see i still just have it sitting on the wood blocks at this point i will start making decisions about how i want the bike to sit when its all finished.

day two

2009-01-25T10:54:00.000-08:00

i got bored after riding it around stock for a few days so i flipped the bars upside down and slapped together some drop struts for the rear. the struts lowered the rear 3in and allowed me to see how the bike was going to ride as a hard tail.

day one..

2009-01-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

so here is a photo of my latest purchase. i picked up this 83 xs650 about a month ago i just couldnt resist buying it, i got it for $600 with only 7,XXX original miles. she seems to run great, pulls pretty hard actualy for a 650. so i am going to build her up into a little bobber and will be documenting the process on this blog.