Japanese Bikes, Build Threads & How-To’sBuild threads, tech Q&A and conversations centered around custom-built motorcycles from the Land of the Rising Sun
Well it's been sometime since my latest update. Things are slowing down due to funds and electrical parts taking their time to arrive.
A concern that I had whilst most of the bike was together during the New Year period, was the fact that my beautiful brand new Mikes XS kicker smacked the Dunstall exhaust at the bottom of the stroke. For obvious reasons a solution needed to be found.
With my powers of research at full strength I managed to discover that the RD400E kicker had the same splined shaft mount. The most appealing aspect is that it has two bends that ensure the pedal pushes outwards during a downward kick. It should also blend in better than the straight XS650 kicker whilst in the "at rest" position. It seems to be of lighter construction yet am hopeful that it will be strong enough anyhow.
I picked RD400E kicker from Yambits.
Below are some comparison shots I'd taken this evening.
Wow, what a great build. I'm really impressed with your parts selection (and colors, too!). With regard to the rear fender, if you are worried about those holes, you might try taking them to the guy that fixed your tank up. I'm sure he could weld and grind those holes shut, lickety split! I really think you are going to have an amazing bike you can be proud of when you get it on the road.
Looks like you are somewhat of a pro photog too. I noticed what appeared to be use of off-camera flash in several of your nice shots. My wife and I are pro photogs as well. In fact, we were supposed to shoot a wedding in adelaide in March, but the airfare from the states was too much for the potential bride/groom. Good times though. nice work, champ. you deserve to go grab a few Britney Spears for all the work you've been doing on that thing.
Wow, what a great build. I'm really impressed with your parts selection (and colors, too!). With regard to the rear fender, if you are worried about those holes, you might try taking them to the guy that fixed your tank up. I'm sure he could weld and grind those holes shut, lickety split! I really think you are going to have an amazing bike you can be proud of when you get it on the road.
Thanks for the props 03ACE!
I guess I was being a sook regarding the holes that I'd made, which all in all it shouldn't be to bad to repair. Knock on wood this has been the worst of my stuff ups so far, so I really can't complain too much.
Live and learn I say!
Quote:
Originally Posted by theasphalt
Looks like you are somewhat of a pro photog too. I noticed what appeared to be use of off-camera flash in several of your nice shots. My wife and I are pro photogs as well. In fact, we were supposed to shoot a wedding in adelaide in March, but the airfare from the states was too much for the potential bride/groom. Good times though. nice work, champ. you deserve to go grab a few Britney Spears for all the work you've been doing on that thing.
G'day theasphalt.
Thanks also for the kind words!
As much as I'd love to have the skills of a pro photographer, I would more consider myself an overenthusiastic amateur.
I did use some cheapy off camera speedlights with a simple remote system for the glamour shots.
Hopefully you'll get the chance to visit Oz sometime soon anyhow!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KZloser79
gnarly scoot man! Thanks for takin us along for the ride. Can't wait to see some paint on those tins
You're welcome KZloser79, and thank you also for the great feedback!
Wednesday, 21 March 2012 - The world's most complicated "simplified wiring" system!
After way too much time away from the build, I finally got my ass into gear and knocked up my wiring harness.
As this build is absolutely from scratch, I had any number of options available for the wiring diagram.
I took it upon myself to knock out my wiring own design in CAD, prior to ordering my extensive list of parts. As usual, the devil is in the detail with plenty of forward thinking required.
My system contains seven fused relays that are operated by closing an earthed circuit via the switch assemblies. The only switch that is passing any voltage at all is the indicator. It really was my intention to minimise the risk of having any potential shorts within the system by switching the relays via an earthed signal.
I did face a particularly big challenge with where to mount the seven fused and indicator relay upon the bike. It had to be relatively easy to access the fuses, whilst being in a discreet location. After much though I decided to relocate the coil upon the forward chassis down-tubes, as shown upon the mock up pics. This left an appropriate, if not tight location for the wiring harness within the gas tank tunnel. I am hoping that I'm not asking for a bucket load of potential problems in the pursuit of outsmarting myself.
Despite my build intending to be a fair weather daily rider, an obvious problem did present itself in the form of the potential dramas I might face with keeping the relays dry and safe in the event of a sudden downpour. My solution was to insert a rubber umbrella of sorts around the electronics. Fingers crossed that this rubber cover combined with the tank above and engine just beneath will provide satisfactory protection against the elements.
Servicing any blown fuses is also a piece of pie even with the tank and engine in place. I really hated the thought of trying to get access to them should they be squirreled away in an electronics box that was secured too well.
Hopefully engine heat and vibrations won't be my downfall, with using the bike once complete being a trial by fire!
I also made my own miniature battery to fit into my milk jug with A123 cells. I used these two links to help with the making of the battery which were very helpful.
Right now the battery looks as ugly as all hell, however, once I get my hands on some heat-shrink that's large enough I should be able to sex it up a touch.
Here's a short clip of a guy that had built one with exactly the same setup as my battery.
The great news with my battery and wiring system, is that my first trial test of the setup went absolutely perfectly! Everything is spot on so far in operation.
If your using wire nuts for connecting wires you could be in a world of hurt down the road....solder and shrink wrap should be the way to go.
G'day mate.
Yes I agree about the wire nuts, with my doing something more safe once the bike is ready to rock and roll. I'll see if I can get my hands on a larger BP connector or a cable joiner with protective sheath.
The wire nuts are currently in place throughout the mock up stage to make connecting and disconnecting the battery quick and easy.
After having to put the build on hold for way too long, I finally had the opportunity to order some engine parts from MikesXS and made some inquiries into purchasing some headers.
With all of the positive talk about Gordon Scott Engineering on the XS650 boards that I visit, the choice was obvious. I wanted to deal with a professional outfit that were XS650 friendly, as well as eliminate the need to disassemble and re-assemble the bike to get it in and out of the second story apartment to get pipes made by a local shop. My time and effort would have been much more than the great deal I received.
As it turned out Scott actually already had a product that was close to what I required.I did however feel that they were not going to be a straight fitment, which lead me to take some shots and measurements which I sent with a quote request.
As it turned out Scott was very quick to respond to my inquiry, and very helpful when it came to pricing up my custom headers.
Here's some pics of my measurement technique, which called for the nearest broom handle to be shoved into the muffler. I chose this novel approach as I suspected it would be the best way to visualize what I required with my header design.
Well it's been sometime since my latest update. Things are slowing down due to funds and electrical parts taking their time to arrive.
A concern that I had whilst most of the bike was together during the New Year period, was the fact that my beautiful brand new Mikes XS kicker smacked the Dunstall exhaust at the bottom of the stroke. For obvious reasons a solution needed to be found.
With my powers of research at full strength I managed to discover that the RD400E kicker had the same splined shaft mount. The most appealing aspect is that it has two bends that ensure the pedal pushes outwards during a downward kick. It should also blend in better than the straight XS650 kicker whilst in the "at rest" position. It seems to be of lighter construction yet am hopeful that it will be strong enough anyhow.
I picked RD400E kicker from Yambits.
Below are some comparison shots I'd taken this evening.
Your build is looking great! Would you mind doing a favor for me? Measure the spline shaft on your XS so I can see if one of these will work on my bike. My kicker is shot and it'd be nice to grab one of those RD kickers for it.
fantastic job , i want to ask you how you can use just one ignition coil because i want to do the same thing on my 400 xs chopper but everybody say me that i must use 2 coil and it's was impossible to use one.?.
A couple of days ago, the package that I was really looking forward to finally made it into my hot little hands.
The custom bent exhaust headers from Gordon Scott Engineering had arrived and looked amazing. The best thing about them was that they fit perfectly, straight away, with absolutely no modifications required.
Scott did a brilliant job of turning my pictures and measurements into reality. He was so easy to deal with and a genuinely great asset to the XS650 community.
After much farting around I finally made the effort to add a chain guard to the bike.
With very strict Australian laws, I simply had no choice but to utilise one. My greatest concern was that it needed to be a neat and tidy guard that when added to the bike looked stock.
I purchased a Royal Enfield repro guard from India as my starting point as it was a clean and simple design that was long enough to do the trick. I removed the old tabs, remounted one and made a fresh one for a mount to the left side engine cover.
I'm pretty happy with the results, with it sitting well and mounted as solid as a rock.
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