Building a Cafe! First Build! Advice Welcomed!

[colehooey]

So here is the deal, I am building an XS650 Cafe Racer. What I have right now is a fully working, mostly stock, 81 XS650, an extra XS650 frame, and an extra engine (all wonderfully given to me by my father who has a knack for amassing ridiculous amounts of motorcycle parts).

My plan is this:
- detab, strip, and paint frame
- rebuild engine
- I want to then use the parts from my stock 650 to build the rest of the Cafe

My big question is this, what order is the best way to assemble the bag and go through all of this?

Any advice welcome, even if it's not directly answering the above question!

 

[Okie]

Where are you from? What do you do for a living? What interested you in XS650's? The guys here like a little bit of intoduction for your first post. Welcome.

 

[colehooey]

Of course! I'm 23 and from Fargo, ND and I work for a company that does in home assistance for people with disabilities. Also going to college. I was given a 650 from my dad and realized there was a huge custom world that I wanted to dive into. Since I've always loved cafe racers, I thought I'd might as well build one!

 

[azman857]

Yes please tell us about yourself and pics of your ride/pile of parts/project.
If I was in your position, I'd get at least one frame rideable and ride it while building the cafe. If that's not practical, use the best parts. Sell the surplus to fund the project. Dual front disc and disc rear brakes. 18" rear wheel, 19" front Spoke wheels are more popular. I prefer mags myself. Bars: clubmans, clip on or dragbars. Bar end mirrors.
What am I doing? Look over the pics here, Do the Ton.com XS650 garage. Develop a dream and go for it!

 

[XSLeo]

I would use the frame that has the title.
Leo

 

[gggGary]

get a bike running and learn how stuff works then change a bit at a time. Figure out if one of the two bikes has a good engine and forget the rebuild for a long time. Title(s)? Don't know how hard N dak is on them. Enjoy riding in the summer, wrench in the winter. What year is the extra frame.

 

[colehooey]

Here are some pics of the build:

Pre-detabbed frame:

Detabbed frame:

Tank I'm using:

 

[dwyatt]

I'm anxious to she how she looks with that tank, I almost went with it too.

 

[xander18]

I'm in the process of detabbing my frame. How did you do yours? I'm just using a 4.5" grinder, lopping with a cutting wheel and I plan on grinding it down later.

 

[C-Los SD]

Don't you a grinder...get flap wheels instead. It will leave a nice smooth surface. Start with 80 grit and feather it with 120.

 

[colehooey]

I started with a cutting wheel, ground down the big chunks with a grinding wheel and then sanded it down with a sanding wheel.

 

[twinsarehot]

Are you making performance modifications? Is this going to be a race bike?...if so go to caferacer.net and introduce yourself. Also follow dwyatt's thread and bug him, his bike is pretty sweet race bike.

If you want to use it as a road bike that looks like a cafe,
-lose as much weight as you can on the 650...start with a glass seat.
-get adjustable clip-on's, opt out of the clubmans, they are uncomfortable; esp if you use stock foot positioning.
-get rear sets and figure out how to mount them. Riding positioning is extremely important if you want to ride longer than 30 minutes at a time.
-if you have a 16 inch rear wheel, get rid of it.

keep it simple and lightweight (which isn't easy).

 

[colehooey]

What are some good rear wheels to use?

 

[twinsarehot]

easiest thing to do would be to find a working 18 inch from another xs650. I'm sure there are some others that work.

 

[dwyatt]

I laced up 18" wheels front and back. Easy to do, scam some 18" rims off eBay or new from Mikes, stock spokes from one of the XS650 models with 18" rear, XS-360 front spokes, just have to use a drill to "adjust" the angle slightly. Trueing is about a 3 beer process for each wheel.

 

[colehooey]

Can an XS650 front wheel be used as the rear wheel?

 

[xander18]

Yes, Omar's sells a kit and I've heard you can do it on your own if you have access to a lathe. I would imagine that to do it as nice as Omar's you'd need a mill too, or at least a drill press.

 

[colehooey]

Thanks!

A few new pics:

The tank mocked up on frame.

The foam mold just about ready for fiberglass.

 

[AussieHard]

The tank will sit lower than your seat. If you want the flush line from seat to tank base you may need to make the fibre glass hang down in a bit of a skirt.

Posted via Mobile

 

[colehooey]

Aussie, that's intentional actually. The height of the mold is so when I lay the fiberglass over and remove the mold, the edge's will hang over the frame and I can trim to where I want it.