Intro and 1980 XS Build. Brown Bomber.

You have a very good skill set and attitude there. I am ex Rolls Royce and you would have fit in well!

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You have a very good skill set and attitude there. I am ex Rolls Royce and you would have fit in well!

Click to expand...

Thanks so much!


Rezsst thanks for sharing, I've heard of Brenner tank, they're actually currently hiring a bunch of guys.

I'd like to make it out that way someday and do some sledding up in the mountains. I can't get enough of riding back country up in the U.P., but the mountains would just be amazing.



Anyways, back on track.

I just got the mail and my bearings for the shifter and brake came in. They are needle bearings and they will replace the brass bushings I made for smoother action. I got them from BOCA Bearings, they carry nearly any size you can think of.

Those look sweet man.Nice lookin'. I know BOCA bearings well,We used them in our RC trucks back in the day.

Got a little done today, kinda at a stand still right now. I'm waiting on parts to come in.

Some rear axle spacers fresh off the lathe.



Here's how it sits right now. I chopped out the top motor mount and coil brackets. Much Cleaner look IMO. I will be making a new sleeker mount.

Got the new shock and brake stay since it was cheaper and faster to buy the parts from mcmaster.

Looks great Man!
You got something to be proud of
is that a La Rosa seat I see?
damn comfortable seat
someone told me it has that stripper look.
Keep up the good work

Thanks!

Yeah it's a La Rosa. Definitely a comfortable seat, the mounting bracketry is a little cheesy so i remade my own. I wanted a lower profile seat, but i put a lot of miles on my bikes and wanted something comfortable so i opted for this one.

Damn, very impressive! I really like the progress on the bike, not to mention all the work looks grade A. I'm glad to see another member from Wisconsin, cant wait to see how everything turns out.

Got a full days progress done today.

Check it out.

Re made seat mount. Machined out a hinge that will be welded to the frame.







Notched out to match up with the frame.











Axle spacers installed.







Had to cut out and move the cross brace back so the shock would clear through the whole stroke.







Getting ready to chop the tank up.





Oppps, no going back now





As can be seen in the last pic and this one, I did not take a straight slice off the sides of the tank. I took a rounded cut instead. I wanted to sides of the tank to still be somewhat rounded going from front to back rather than straight lined. This also makes it more difficult as can be seen here because when you swap the sides they are no where near lining up. I tacked, heat, massaged, then repeat until she fit in there nicely. You can also use an english wheel to slowly reverse the crown .










It needs some more clean up yet, and I have a few lows to fill in, but it turned out pretty nice.

Damn I wish I had the balls to cut up a perfectly good tank! Looks good man!

Lol yeah it doesn't feel right, but i didn't want the look of a purchased tank. Just take your time and it will turn out fine.

Your aesthetic is paralleled by your fabrication skills, a rare combination. Thanks for the detailed pictures of the rear fender, and your tank work is impressive.

In fact, I was thinking of trying to dish a tank using a rounded mallet (and probably a pound of bondo, but now I may venture into the cut/weld/grind realm. Then again, I'm better with a hammer than with a welder!

thanks!

The rounded mallet does work, just a lot more work to smooth out and prep for paint. If I were to try it I would definitely use heat while pounding it. You're right though, it would probably take quite a bit of bondo to smooth everything out.

The cut,weld, grind method works good, if you have access to a half way decent way to cut it and a decent welder. The better the cut, the better fit you'll have, which means the better weld you will get, which means the easier the clean up. lol.

I actually TIG welded one side of my tank and MIG the other side. IMO MIG worked better. The TIG worked great, however, if you cut it with a plasma cutter you really need to clean up the cut edge good. Otherwise it really makes TIG welding a pain. The plasma edge causes a lot of porosity if not cleaned up. I cleaned mine really well and still ended up with some porosity which I had to re weld and re grind a few times.

With mig it doesn't really matter. The metal is so thin that it basically just melts it together and I didn't have any porosity issues. When you MIG it, you basically just lay a line of tacks. Trying to lay a bead just blows right though. This tank was like 20 or 22ga, which most are, but if I were to build a tank it'd be 18-16ga.

You also need to be super careful when grinding. It's way to easy to see a low spot and just go after it with the grinder. You're better off filling it back in and re-grinding. You can get yourself in trouble fast and grind away too much.

It's mostly done now, I want to leak test it yet to make sure there's no pin holes that I missed. Then it's onto body filler and all that funn jazz.

Good work maas562! Mighty fine. Your bike is looking sweet man.

Thanks John

Got the head back, the newly cut seats look great.
Put it all together it has plenty of compression now. Also got the pamco on.
Waiting on the carbs to come back from Rick at Oldskoolcarbs so I can get it fired up.






I feel that the exhaust is a main focal point on any bike which is why I built this one the way I did. I can not stand the look of the stock ram horns and drag pipes aren't my thing. I like pipes that twist, cross, bend, and loop. The kind that you have to take a second look at just to grasp what's going on. These aren't the craziest in the world but I think they definitely compliment the bike very well.
They are 304 Stainless and will be getting ceramic coated. I never liked the look of exhaust wrap.
And yes I am able to get the pipes on the way they sit. I wanted a crazy/different looking exhaust but also wanted them to be solid one piece. So I built them and kept making sure I could remove them as I went. The shorter pipe comes off easily, the other one I need to remove the rear wheel, chain, left engine cover, and front motor mount. It can then be snaked out.

Wicked exhaust maas562! Good work man. I'll have to see what those look like on your bike.

Thanks!

Here's some from earlier.



One crosses below the carbs and the other below the shock/seat.