XS400 Hardtail Part III

Time to update on the XS Rebuild. I have finished the hardtail, painted, attached the rear fender, sissy bar and Xian seat. Then I decided to use an old 2 into 1 muffler I got a while ago. So I built my own pipes to connect to it. I wanted something a little special so I did one pipe straight across and made the other shoot straight down and loop around the first one. I think it looks pretty cool. I am undecided whether to wrap with tape or powdercoat. I know if I powdercoat it will show all the imperfections but that has never bothered me before and they do this pretty cool chrome powder that looks real good.

New "Motorcycle" in the stable

Got this from a yard sale this Sunday for $5. I have a snowthrower that is about 5 years old with a 5hp Tecumseh that will fit perfectly, even has electric start. I will update when I swap it over. From what I found it's a Minico. The pic below is an old ad of theirs, it has all the same sprocket, drum brakes front and rear, handle bars, seat support and light support. Mine doesn't have the swing arm but that might have been an upgraded model.

Happy Birthday To Me

Today is my birthday so I figured I would post up a nice rear I found the other day.

Inspiration

This is one bagger I would proudly ride the shit out of, I hope you agree.

My Nephew's $150 Bike

So he came to me a couple weeks ago and asked if I would help find him his 1st bike. I asked what style he wanted and of course he said what any 18 YO would, " I want a Ninja". After me telling him there is no friggin' way he was getting that as his 1st bike, not to mention he only had about $200 to spend and can't get one for under $800, he agreed to whatever I could find. I posted a wanted on Craigslist for a bike and I had $100-150 to spend. Seven people offered me bikes from on-off road to this little gem we bought. It's a 1984 Honda Nighthawk 550 and has been in a garage for the last 15 years. The guy said they stopped riding when they had kids.
Got it to the garage cleaned the carbs, gas tank and plugs. Poured gas in it, stole a battery from another bike and changed the oil. Hit it with starting fluid and BAM it's a runner. Well not quite it still needs a clutch lever and front caliper. But here it is, the seat is off but in great condition, not bad for $150.

Not My Garage But......

This is where I spent my last two nights. A friend of mine Rick has a very nice bone stock (believe me I tried to talk him into chopping something) 1981 CB650. His head gasket sprung a leak so he bought a gasket kit and we replaced them all while we were in there. Put it back together tonight and he took it for a spin around the block, no leaks that we can see so far so keep your fingers crossed. Here's a pic of it with the engine out and one of it put back together.

New Tires And A Rim On The Sporty

Almost time for an inspection sticker and the tires on the Sporty were pretty much treadless. I bought a Fatboy solid rim and two tires at a swap meet in April so I finally got them on with the help of Mike and Ande. I think the bike looks killer with the solid rim and white wall. Now all I need is a 21" spoked rim for my front tire and it will be the way I want it.

Inspiration

Every now and then we need a little inspiration to keep choppin'. I have been looking at pics all day after working on the bikes till 12am last night to keep me going and here is one I really like.

Nice Rear

I wanted to update but I haven't been in the garage all week so here's a nice ass for you.

Nice Bike

This is another bike on TCU's biker build off 2010. It's been done by Beaker a biker from the great white north (Canada). It's a 1977 Yamaha XS400 that he bratted out. Great job Beaker. Here's a link to the build, it's 24 pages long, 22 of them are just people joking around and 2 are the actual build. HAHAHAHA
BBO2010

XS400 Hardtail Part II

So I bought these kits off a guy on Ebay for 3 of my bikes. I got a quantity deal and saved on shipping. They are broke down kits you make fit whatever you have for a bike. Here is a pic of the axle plates on and with the top rails.

Then I cut the bottom rails to fit and it started looking like a hardtail.

I still have to finish welding and add some gussets to support the rails where they meet the original frame. But I really wanted to see what it's going to look like with the seat, fender and sissybar so I mocked it up for this pic. (the blanket under the seat is there to put it about where it should sit)

Nice Rear

Thought I would add some skin to the blog and seeing as I am an ass man that's the skin that I'll put up so here it is.

My Helmet Fetish

I have always had a thing for old 3/4 style helmets, kinda weird seeing as how I hate to wear them and live in a "free" state so I don't unless I cross the border to go to a strip club. Thanks to Craigslist I am able to find them pretty cheap or free. My wife and myself have been practicing relining them and either waxing or painting them. This one was done for a guy on TCU who wanted one of my helmets, a Speedway 3/4 dated 1969. The interior was N-ass-ty, we gutted and relined it with a nice cotton fabric then cleaned buffed and waxed the top, it was as smooth as a baby's bottom.


This is one I did just to do, it's hanging in the rafters right now and too small for my big melon. I sprayed it flat black, laced it and a racing stripe down the center, and of course my wife and me relined it.


And lastly for today anyway as I have about 10 more helmets to be done. Here is my personal one. I had Hell Mutt's do the relining (Billy and Rachel are awesome to work with) and Nate from Ardcore Choppers did the pinstriping (great job thanks Nate). I picked the helmet up as NOS of Ebay with the liner falling out of it for $50, so I have $185 total with shipping into it not bad for a custom helmet.

Hardtailing The Yamaha XS400

I have this XS400 I got about 5 years ago for $125 out of a barn. I bought it because my wife said she wanted to start riding her own bike and it was the perfect starter bike. It hadn't run in 10 years but I had it going in about 20 minutes. She cleaned it up and drove it for the better part of 2 years. Then she got her VStar 650 and the XS became choppin' material. Here is a before pic of it.

I cut the shocks down, trimmed the tail section, cut and wrapped the pipes, trailer fender, sporty tank, T.C. Bros. forward controls, fork gators (not shown), Z bars and a nice steel seat with Mexican blanket "padding". And it's been this way for about 2 1/2 years.

Well it's time for a change again, it's on the table with the back half cut off and I am building a hardtail for it. I will update pics as soon as I get some batteries in the camera, so stay tuned.

As I Said It's Not All Motorcycles

My 1995 Dakota started running like crap on Tuesday night while on the highway. It wouldn't go over 25-30 MPH so I breakdown laned it for 5 miles till I could exit the took backroads home the other 15 miles. I did some searching and asking on my boards and got some good info. The other day I had the time to work on it and found it was the catalytic converter was plugged. This is a pic of me the first night checking the plugs/wires/cap and rotor. I figured I would eliminate the easy stuff first.