Finaly, after some troubles and hazzles I become a member of this interesting forum and I can start my buildthread here about my, for now, for me, quite ugly GSX 400
I don't want to offend anybody that likes the appearance of it, I simply just don't.
My journey with this bike began when I was out with a couple of friends photographing them riding their bikes and suddenly I realized that I myself could take this on in my garage. Seeing my friends riding these bikes made it quite easy to fall into the trap.
Actually when I started out looking for a bike I first had to research wikipedia to find out what kind of bike I needed to start choping, the (again for me) ugly bikes that I saw was surprising, but in a good way since they are fairly easy to come by.
After a while of trying to get my hands on an XS650 I gave up and bought a GSX400 instead since the price difference was 3800$ against the cheaper 650$ that I coughed up to get my bike.
When I got it home it looked like this.
As I'll get rid of alot of things, including the airbox and changing the exhaust I started preparing to rejet the carburators, so I tore these down to the bare bones.
Sadly us swedes don't have access to much chemicals so I'll see later on how I'll go about cleaning them up, but something needs to be done here to get them spotless, maybe I'll even buy an ultrasound cleaner just to get it done properly...
As I'll cut down the subframe and hardtail it I figured I needed to build a jig to keep the geometry of the axles. So I bought the material for that and started fetching the old welding skills I never got in school 9 years ago.
After welding the front and rear axle on to the jigg I mounted the bike and it was sitting solid as a rock, even better than I dared to hope!
I welded on some towers for the engine mounts aswell and then cut down the frame. Now the sub frame and the swing is out of there and I can start imagining the final outcome of the new frame for real.
To keep the right angle of the rear plates holding the rear axle I actually welded them onto the jigg. Later I'll weld the new frame on to the cleaned plates and can cut them of the jigg again.
I started cleaning the rear plates and will later have to fill the lower space with a thick plate that I can weld on there and form like I need it.
So now I'm waiting to get help from a guy in my town that will bend the new tubes that will go on my rear frame and until then I will clean up the metal further and prepare for the rest of the frame. Hopefully I'll get the new frame built so that I can mount the tires and roll the bike down in the cellar before the snow comes, I want to get my car into the garage during the winter. Don't worry though, as the snow falls I'll have plenty to do with all the engine parts, so I know exactly what to do with all the enormous free time that I have xD
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