Nothing XS. First Build. Lots of Pics.

I have always wanted to build a custom bike someday. Well, someday is today. As soon as I saw the Brat Kit by Monstercraftsman I knew that had to be it. I bought a good condition '81 about a month ago and have been documenting progress. This is my first build so I want/need the criticism.



She rode good.



I just recently moved from Iowa to Texas. I had never seen these signs before. The resemblance is uncanny. Had to get a picture.



I think the Buell is getting jealous of all the attention I'm giving the XS.



The diss-assembly happened quickly. It was at this point I started questioning the sanity of what I was attempting. Surely it will never run again.





Playing pretend.





Irreversible improvements began happening at this point.



Brat Kit poised and ready in the background.





More pretend. Using bungees to hold the frame together to get a feel for stance.



Engine fell out...



I used the "Lay the bike on it's side and take the motormounts off then stand the frame back up" method.



Cleaned up a lot of the garbage on the frame and welded the Brat Kit on.



Mower shed? Nah. Paint booth. Just bombing with flat black to keep the rust at bay for now.



Back on her feet. I think she looks pretty good naked.



P-Nut and Pods. How original.



Mocked up the rear fender. Not loving it at this point. Too visually heavy. Perhaps a different build?







Decided I would wait for bars and headlight before I made any rash decisions about the fender.





Mocking up some cables to see what routing is going to look like. Damn that fender is big.



Got a headlight mounted.



Starting to look like a bike again.



Decided I had better cut the fender in half.





I have no idea what I'm doing.



After about 1,000 tack welds and two hours of grinding/sanding on the fender, I'm extremely surprised how smooth I got it. No bondo for this bike.



Every bike has a good angle, I think this is mine.



As she sits today.



Things left to do:
Controls
Mount fender
Pamco PMA CAP Wires

I would appreciate some input. Good or bad. More pictures and updates to come as they happen.

Looking good! I'm thinking lowering the suspension would really finish it off

Well done, I like it. Lower it an inch or so in the rear, or extend the chrome exhaust straightout to parallel the ground and fill in the area in front of the rear wheel...easy for me to say LOL.

Will/did you mount the rear fender to the swingarm?

Buzzhead8189, welcome to the forum, and good work already. How's that engine running?

Anlaf

The plan is to mount the fender to the swingarm. I just haven't gotten around to it yet and I haven't come up with a method I'm in love with yet. The suspension does need to come down some. I have the rear preload maxed out at the moment to give me some working room with the fender. I put 2" bushings in the front forks to lower it, might need 3". The engine did run great....

It's lookin' good.

Keep the pics coming.

Anlaf

looking at that rear fender, if you had a second one you could probably use the 2 to make a fuller fender that looks kind of like a tail dragger. The pic in my head looks real good with the brat kit and a tail dragger. May be the route I take on a future build??????

I really like most of it, but I gotta say that fender just doesn't fit with what you are building there...in my opinion, it belongs on a different bike.

Soliddrummer said:

I really like most of it, but I gotta say that fender just doesn't fit with what you are building there...in my opinion, it belongs on a different bike.

Click to expand...

Have to agree with this. That looks like it belongs on a bagger/indian/hondashadow

Not on a stripped down custom XS.

With that being said I also agree with the drop the rear an inch input. That and weld some shorty or taper tip mufflers on the end (trust me they don't quiet it down any, they just refine the sound a bit so its not so eardrum burstingly annoying ha)

You weren't kidding on that sign...i'm pretty sure that's a drawing of an 80's xs650! lol

Looking good though!

P.S. What is your oil filter mod? I like that concept alot!

Also...clever title lol "Nothing Excess" (unless i'm the one being clever here and it wasn't intended) ha

You could bury a taillight under that fender 'flip-up'.

When you're done, find that sign and repaint it to resemble yer brat...

I got the fender mounted tonight. Decided to go frame mounted, instead of swing-arm mounted, and also give it lots more flip. You haters are just going to have to hate, cuz I like it.

JP50515 - I don't know much of anything about the spin-on-filter mod. That was done by the previous owner. I'm not a huge fan of the way it looks. There is a billet aluminum adapter bolted to the inside of the cover. Looks to be professionally made.

"Nothing XS" was indeed intended to be clever. I thought that was mandatory for build thread names? I also feel it captures the theme I am going for.

TwoManyXS1Bs - I have been toying with the idea of hiding a light in the flip. See if I can come up with something that looks like it was meant to be there. I LOVE the idea of modifying that street sign to look like a chopper/brat/bobber. Those signs are prevalent where I live.

I'm probably going to build a proper exhaust for it. It'll be good experience for me.

Looks like I can safely lower the front and rear an inch and not have any clearance issues. I'll probably ride it a couple times before I make any serious moves there.

On to the pics.

There's some info on LED taillights here, starting at post #91, interesting version in post #108?

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24563

I say ditch that fender!

I like the finish you have on the engine and paintwork. You've got a certain style with the fender. Looks good.

Anlaf

I'm feeling the fender. Going for the jap look looks to me like. IMO it needs a frisco mounted tank to complete it.

As far as doing a light set up like this:

TwoManyXS1Bs said:

There's some info on LED taillights here, starting at post #91, interesting version in post #108?

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24563

Click to expand...

I suggest this:


You can buy them in red and I believe they are about 5 1/4" once you remove the stainless bezel? I have some at home and can check that... They are running light only but all that takes is 2 diodes and a resistor for less than 5 bucks at Radio Shack, putting total cost at around 15 bones.

Thanks for the light ideas folks.

Dieselchanic - I was thinking the same thing about a frisco tank. I feel like the fender and the bars go with a frisco tank and the p-nut tank goes with drag bars and a low profile fender. I don't really see myself going with a frisco tank at this point, but who knows. I do like the bars and fender a lot. I also like the tank a lot, but it is kinda starting to be the odd man out.

Nice clean build... but going with the wild fender you need a frisco / sportster tank and a wild paint job to match.... Flake, candies and so on.
I also think the seat needs to clear the fender a bit more if its not a huge job.
Clean build HUGE potential! keep us posted

Cheers
Lester

Alrighty, long time no post. Business sent me away for a month so progress has been slow.

Needed an upper motor mount and hated the stock neck gussets so I mocked up some ideas with cardboard. Decided to try and do the top motor mount like I have never seen before.





Finished products. I used quarter inch plate for the upper motor mount. It bolts to a tab on the frame.



Then i decided I couldn't stand looking at the frame triangle under the seat, so I hacked it out. Time will tell if that was a terrible idea or not. Also decided I would try and make a set of pipes. Figured at worst it would be a good learning experience.









The pipes came out to 33" and 39" inches long. Form over function I guess. Making these was way more difficult and time consuming than I imagined. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out.





Got a Hughes PMA and Pamco installed and she runs again! But not worth a crap on stock jetting. I went up one size in the pilot jets today and that helped a bunch. I will need to go one or two bigger with the mains as well. I intend on posting a video clip in the nearish future.

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Definetly needs frisco mounted tank. Sorry the whole.bike has awful lines and looks pieced together... flow.

Nah man its not bad. A different fender and exhaust tubes running right next to each other would really make it look better