First Build - Here we go...

[RemBrent]

Hey all. Pleasure to be here.

I joined XS650.com a few months back when I was doing some research, trying to decide what platform I wanted to build a custom bike on. I have been driving dirt bikes and my dad's cruiser since I was a teenager, but I've never owned one of my own. Young guy, no money, you know the drill. I could never justify the cost of a new bike when we have such a short riding season up in Alberta, and to be honest, I never really went for the new and shiny. I always wanted my own ride. But I wanted to customize it the way I wanted it

I definitely got the bug from my dad. He is a farmer who spends his spare time restoring Model As, Ts and old tractors. Here is some of the stuff he has done...

Needless to say, he's my go-to-guy for building, fabbing and anything else that is a little beyond me. I can't stress how much he's helping me with my build.

Anyway, after managing to save some dough the first thing I did was post an ad in the XS650.com classified forum looking for a project. Not two days later I made contact with forum member "realgone" who, besides being a hell of a fellow, lives only five minutes from me. He had exactly what I was looking for, a 1980 xs stripped down, but complete, and with the engine in great condition. This was especially fortunate because XS650s are actually a lot rarer up here then they are south of the border. Plus, they are so popular for choppers that they are constantly snatched up by the local bike shops to hoard for parts and their own builds. XS650.com definitely saved me the trouble of hunting on Craigslist or Kijiji for months just to find a piece of crap.

First thing I did was focus on rebuilding the engine, which really didn't need all that much work. It was pretty clean with low miles, it had just been sitting for a while. A minor honing, a couple new pistons/rings and a few other pieces and she was back in spec and ready to go. I upgraded to a PAMCO and have just ordered a PMA from Hugh to finish of the upgrades. I considered doing the rephase but couldn't justify the expense at the moment. Plus, I want to get this thing on the road for Spring so I can ride it over the summer before tearing back into it again next winter. Maybe I'll revisit the upgrade down the road.

After getting the engine all back together I brought the pieces back to my dad's shop and we started on putting pieces back together...

I did some minor frame grinding, removing some stuff I won't be needing (like side panel mounts) painting as I went along to keep the metal protected. Down the road I'll strip and paint it all properly, but my first goal is get it together and road-worthy for spring.

We fabbed up a set of drag bars out of some ⅞" tubing. I like them a lot better then the stocks. We made them over-long, but I'll cut them down later when I get my new controls. I also fabbed a new coil mount for the PAMCO ultimate ignition and got that all installed.

Next step, I think, is to figure out some wiring. I plan on running batteryless and I got some neat ideas for how I'm going to handle the wiring which came from reading ideas from lots of other folks on the forum. I can't really take any credit for most of what the bike will be cause I got pretty much all of them from you guys. Thanks for being amazing sources of wisdom and inspiration!

I think I'm keeping the stock tank for now, just to get on the road and insured faster. I'll be keeping my eye out over the summer for a replacement, though I am not sure what it will be yet. We'll see what fun things I find at swap meets.

This won't be a quick build, but that's fine. I want this bike to ride it, so my major work will wait till the off-season. I'm so stoked to finally be doing this!

 

[RemBrent]

Back to back updates! I had just finished this work last night and wanted to share it with you guys.

I first got this idea from osteoderm's build thread, right near the start, when he was toying around with building a capacitor-cage in the space where the starter would go. I thought it was a brilliant idea since the space and the mounts would be right there, ready to go.

Unlike osteoderm, I decided to just use the old starter housing to save me having to try and source another replacement tube. Plus the starter housing is rugged as hell. Maybe even a little too rugged, since removing the starter is supposed to be a weight savings. But this is the quicker, easier way I found to do this. If I'm so inclined, I might find something to replace it with down the road.

I had a second parts-motor that I picked up from a local guy, so I had a seized up starter ready to donate to the cause. I stripped it all down (had a few seized bits that needed to be drilled out) and washed all the lubricants and gunk out.

I had ordered a SPARX capacitor off ebay and just got it in. I knew I wanted to be able to swap out the capacitor in case it ever goes bad or needs maintenance, so I did not want to make anything cemented in place that could not come apart again. Plus, I wanted to have room for airflow and shock absorbtion. Luckilly, the spring that comes attached to the Sparx served the latter perfectly.

I bent the end of the spring slightly so that it would fit in the space when bolted down without resting on any of the walls (and defeating much of the shock absorption). I also widened the hole slightly to take the big-ass bolt that I had handy. I used the terminal hole that already exists where the battery used to connect to the starter since it was close to one end of the housing. Once I got the spring loop bent just right and the thing bolted down, the whole thing sat in there with just enough room to spare for the wiring.

I'm not a fan of how the bolt head looks, but it won't take much to find a rounded-head replacement sometime when next hit up the hardware store.

After making sure it was down tight (I used a nylon locking nut to help keep things together) I started running my wires. The four holes that surround the housing used to hold the magnets in place and now are perfect to run the wires through. I soldered up some femal-spade ends to the wires (not just crimped, I didn't want to take chances anything will vibrate apart down there) and then heat-shrunk each end. Part of what I have to be careful for is the possibility of the terminal ends grounding-out if they happen to jar up against the starter wall. I will be wrapping them up with E-tape as a last precaution before installing the whole thing.

I also got some nice-looking nylon harness sleeving from a local electronics store. I wrapped up my three wires (two positives and one ground) in the sleeve and fished the whole thing through one of the magnet holes. I chose the one closest to the bolt because that will be my "down" side. It looks really good. In the future I might drill out that hole and put a rubber grommet in it to be extra sure it won't cut into the wire. As it is, the nylon sleeve seems to do a good job. I will watch it to see how it weathers over time.

Because of how the capacitor fits into the tube, I decided to flip it around when I reinstalled the aluminum end caps. This meant I had to grind down the edge on one side of the tube since they are designed to fit on one side. There was also a key & grove I had to get rid off in order to fit the cap on backwards.

Thinking ahead, also shaved down the cap that fits up against the motor, so that it would not interfere with the plug I will eventually put in the starter-hole. There are also a lot of little holes in the tube that should be plugged to keep any road-crap/water out of there. I'm still debating if I should leave one drain-hole for airflow and drainage or if I should just seal it up. What are your thoughts?

All in all, I think it looks not to bad. It's basically a fake-starter instead of a fake oil tank to hide some of the electronics. There isn't much room left for any kind of other wiring, so I will still have to put that elsewhere on the bike, but I like the idea of using this area instead of somewhere under the seat for everything.

Either way, it's an interesting experiment. I'm pretty confident it will stand up to vibes. I'm more worried about moisture and crap getting in there at this point. Maybe it I will just seal it up.

 

[tonyc]

You will need to put more holes in the starter case for cooling of the capcitor. The disapate heat,