"Thor's Hammer" Australian XS650 Bobber Build

Ksboy19 said:
how is that bolt on kickstand working out? Ive been looking for an alternative to cutting one down.
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G'day Ksboy.

I've been happy with the kickstand. In fact, I've realised that the position I first bolted it on wasn't upright enough, I simply loosened it a smidge, twisted it to a better angle then tightened it back up.

My apprehension to using a weld on kickstand, is that it makes it so much harder to find the sweet spot.


xsPete said:
Steve,
I see you got the side stand form the bloke at Trojan Classics, he's no worries to deal with when I've bought stuff off him, Good value for Aus.

Have you looked at how you'll go hooking the stand out to put it down when your pipes a fully installed.
That's one of my problems at the moment, I've got Mikes 1 3/4 pipes and I'm not sure about getting to the stand. The old stand holds the pipe on that side way out wide and I can't get to to fit above the Stand bracket.

Cheers,
Pete
Click to expand...


G'day Pete.

I'm surprised how cheap Trojan is selling it! I bought mine from Steadfast Cycles in the States via their ebay store. Because I also grabbed their fender stay and foot pegs, the combined shipping made it worthwhile in the end.

In terms of hooking the stand out, I'll see how much of a pain it will be to do it by hand. I intend to wrap the pipes, so the risk of burning myself will be reduced. If it is too frustrating, I might just weld on a piece of rod that sticks out at the preferred direction and re-powder coat it.


Cheers

Steve

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com.au/
 
Wednesday, 21 March 2012 - The world's most complicated "simplified wiring" system!


After way too much time away from the build, I finally got my ass into gear and knocked up my wiring harness.

As this build is absolutely from scratch, I had any number of options available for the wiring diagram.

I took it upon myself to knock out my wiring own design in CAD, prior to ordering my extensive list of parts. As usual, the devil is in the detail with plenty of forward thinking required.

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Thors Hammer Yamaha XS650 Bobber


My system contains seven fused relays that are operated by closing an earthed circuit via the switch assemblies. The only switch that is passing any voltage at all is the indicator. It really was my intention to minimise the risk of having any potential shorts within the system by switching the relays via an earthed signal.

I did face a particularly big challenge with where to mount the seven fused and indicator relay upon the bike. It had to be relatively easy to access the fuses, whilst being in a discreet location. After much though I decided to relocate the coil upon the forward chassis down-tubes, as shown upon the mock up pics. This left an appropriate, if not tight location for the wiring harness within the gas tank tunnel. I am hoping that I'm not asking for a bucket load of potential problems in the pursuit of outsmarting myself.

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hors Hammer Yamaha XS650 Bobber


Despite my build intending to be a fair weather daily rider, an obvious problem did present itself in the form of the potential dramas I might face with keeping the relays dry and safe in the event of a sudden downpour. My solution was to insert a rubber umbrella of sorts around the electronics. Fingers crossed that this rubber cover combined with the tank above and engine just beneath will provide satisfactory protection against the elements.

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hors Hammer Yamaha XS650 Bobber

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hors Hammer Yamaha XS650 Bobber


Servicing any blown fuses is also a piece of pie even with the tank and engine in place. I really hated the thought of trying to get access to them should they be squirreled away in an electronics box that was secured too well.

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hors Hammer Yamaha XS650 Bobber

Hopefully engine heat and vibrations won't be my downfall, with using the bike once complete being a trial by fire!

I also made my own miniature battery to fit into my milk jug with A123 cells. I used these two links to help with the making of the battery which were very helpful.

http://www.scriptasylum.com/rc_speed/lipo.html and http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=599316

Right now the battery looks as ugly as all hell, however, once I get my hands on some heat-shrink that's large enough I should be able to sex it up a touch.

Here's a short clip of a guy that had built one with exactly the same setup as my battery.



The great news with my battery and wiring system, is that my first trial test of the setup went absolutely perfectly! Everything is spot on so far in operation.

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hors Hammer Yamaha XS650 Bobber


Cheers

Steve

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com.au/
 
mate its been a great build so far! ive spent the afternoon reading through it and im waiting with apprehension to see what happens when you engineer the bike.

Im in the process of considering my options with an XS bobber build using a similar setup to you but I intend to go with a big bore kit and do a bit more work to the internals but the fundamentals of my build will be the same.

Ive actually been speaking to a bloke from evolution motorsports who has actually fabbed a few hard tail bobbers in the past. I havent touched on the engineering side of things but he would be a good person to speak to for another point of view on the subject and his fab work is well priced!

ill definitely keep an eye on your progress!
 
Tuesday, 17 April 2012 - The system lives!


Here's a video showing the system in action, utilising my home built lipo battery pack located within the milk urn.

It should have enough juice to not only run all of the accessories, yet be powerful enough to run the starter as well.

The bike will be using a Pamco electronic ignition and Hugh's Handbuilt PMA charging system.


Cheers

Steve

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com.au/
 
Hi steve shes looking good.
whats the MAH is your battery?
It looks like a 4 cell you made.
the lipos that i use in my r/c aircraft are 3.9 volts per cell. and a 3 cell full charge is 12.6 volts. they are strong for sure. but you can kill them by draining them to low of a voltage.
What is the voltage of the cells in your battery?
 
G'day mate.

Here are the batteries that I used.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=6444

http://www.a123systems.com/products-cells-26650-cylindrical-cell.htm

There are four x 3.3 volt cells for a total of 13.2 volts and 2500mAh.

Interestingly at full charge the battery measures 16.3 volts.

From research the battery should be capable of 70amps (continuous), 120amps (10 seconds) and up to 230 amps (2-3 second burst).


Cheers

Steve

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com.au/
 
Last edited:
I might suggest that you fab a metal mounting bracket for the Ultimate coil for heat dissipation, but you have probably already thought of that and you just tie wrapped the coil as shown for mock up purposes?

My other perennial suggestion is that you leave the stock rotor installed on the engine for the first start to set the timing, then transfer the timing marks to the PMA housing after you install it.
 
inmotionphotog said:
G'day mate.

Here are the batteries that I used.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=6444

http://www.a123systems.com/products-cells-26650-cylindrical-cell.htm

There are four x 3.3 volt cells for a total of 13.2 volts and 2500mAh.

Interestingly at full charge the battery measures 16.3 volts.

From research the battery should be capable of 70amps (continuous), 120amps (10 seconds) and up to 230 amps (2-3 second burst).


Cheers

Steve a

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com.au/
Click to expand...
GDay Steve
oh yes the 123 battery is a much safer than the lipos that i was talkin about.
they are the next type that i'm goin to use in my aircraft.I hope you have good luck with them,Ed
 
Monday, 15 October 2012 - Clean sweep!


After having to put the build on hold for way too long, I finally had the opportunity to order some engine parts from MikesXS and made some inquiries into purchasing some headers.

With all of the positive talk about Gordon Scott Engineering on the XS650 boards that I visit, the choice was obvious. I wanted to deal with a professional outfit that were XS650 friendly, as well as eliminate the need to disassemble and re-assemble the bike to get it in and out of the second story apartment to get pipes made by a local shop. My time and effort would have been much more than the great deal I received.

As it turned out Scott actually already had a product that was close to what I required.I did however feel that they were not going to be a straight fitment, which lead me to take some shots and measurements which I sent with a quote request.

As it turned out Scott was very quick to respond to my inquiry, and very helpful when it came to pricing up my custom headers.

Here's some pics of my measurement technique, which called for the nearest broom handle to be shoved into the muffler. I chose this novel approach as I suspected it would be the best way to visualize what I required with my header design.


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Cheers

Steve

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com.au/
 
Wednesday, 24 October 2012 - Heading in the right direction!


After a couple of emails checking on some measurements, Scott at Gordon Scott Engineering has already completed my custom headers!

He sent through some teaser pics prior to shipping. So far they certainly look the goods!

Hopefully they'll fit right up without too much fiddling around.


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Cheers

Steve

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com.au/
 
Wednesday, 14 November 2012 - What a breeze!

A couple of days ago, the package that I was really looking forward to finally made it into my hot little hands.

The custom bent exhaust headers from Gordon Scott Engineering had arrived and looked amazing. The best thing about them was that they fit perfectly, straight away, with absolutely no modifications required.


Scott did a brilliant job of turning my pictures and measurements into reality. He was so easy to deal with and a genuinely great asset to the XS650 community.

Thanks Scott!


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Untitled_HDR2 b by inmotionphotography, on Flickr

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Cheers

Steve

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com.au/
 
Wednesday, 21 November 2012 - Feeling Guarded!

After much farting around I finally made the effort to add a chain guard to the bike.

With very strict Australian laws, I simply had no choice but to utilise one. My greatest concern was that it needed to be a neat and tidy guard that when added to the bike looked stock.

I purchased a Royal Enfield repro guard from India as my starting point as it was a clean and simple design that was long enough to do the trick. I removed the old tabs, remounted one and made a fresh one for a mount to the left side engine cover.

I'm pretty happy with the results, with it sitting well and mounted as solid as a rock.


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Cheers

Steve

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com.au/
 

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