Trash

[sgallaty]

Back in the day, I used to travel all over southeastern Michigan buying up incredibly decrepit Honda CB750's. It was just my thing (tm). I had a garage full of parts, and I used to invite my buddies over and give them beers and if they could build something they had balls enough to ride, they could keep it.

That was a pretty good time, but when I got the urge again after so many years to get back on two wheels where I belong, the bike that inspired me was a fairly modestly bobbed xs650. I was going to a garage sale, and happened to glance across the street and realized that the dude's bike really looked pretty much like the bikes my friends rode back when.

Figured I should probably get to know this guy, because he was someone I was supposed to know.

He explained what the bikes were, why he liked them, and what his build was called. He also explained that he had a few extras in his backyard that he'd bought to build and steal parts off of.

I went back there and we shook hands and drank a beer and I helped him push home the bones of my new bike. I call her 'trash.'

I'd pretty much deliberately chosen the worst bike of the lot because I wanted to bring something back from the dead. I didn't want to buy a nice bike that someone might enjoy riding as-is, and then be a dick and cut it up. That just felt wrong to me, so I've taken a bike that looked like it rolled in mud, has a siezed engine and missing half the guts and I am going to make it into something else.

Not sure what yet, but something.

 

[sgallaty]

I think this is going to be an iterative process. The first frame I build up is going to be a modestly bobbed setup - I don't have a title for this one, so if a titled frame falls in my hands I'll make a rideable bike out of it and then work on this or something else, or I'll cut this frame up to make an engine stand out of, or I won't. Who knows.

Immediate plans are to get a smooth sided tank, lay down a strip of duct tape on it and media blast it, leaving me with a racing stripe of old nasty paint, then clearcoat it. saw someone else did that and loved the crap out of it.

cut off the back loop, move to a saddle.

drop the back with some nighster shocks or honda 10" shocks.

drop the forks 2-3"

move to clip-ons or fab something. Might cut the bars I have, hack up a top triple to make some clip on bars with. I despise the feeling of rubber mounted handlebars. Makes me feel shaky and weird.

get a set of mags painted or powdered coach black (60% gloss black) with a set of nice fat metzlers on them.

rearsets, proably.

I already have my pipes and they are perfect. A nasty ass pair of the ugliest welded straight pipes intended to go into some harley slip ons. I may jam something in there to soften the blow, but I'll wrap them in red fiberglass and that'll be that.

 

[angus67]

not half as bad as some that have passed thru here.
Hmmmm... re-wire.............new tank.............carbs.................new bearings,chain, re-bore.................done. wont be shiny, but reading about your good ole days tels me you aint into shiny.
Stick around, these engines are easy, and if those rags have been inthe carb spigots since the carbs came off, and the motor turns over, you might get lucky, and have a runner. what u pay?

 

[sgallaty]

engine is siezed at the moment but I'm to understand it wasn't when it was parked, so I'm hoping it's a mild sieze. funny even saying that right? I have bought a bike that I took off the head and it had a 1/4 inch of solid rust in it.

I paid 200, no title. not too worried about that, really.

No, not much into shiny.

 

[angus67]

go here for solid bushings for your bars. this guy knows his stuff.
http://hughshandbuilt.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-product-solid-xs650-riser-bushings.html
go here for pipes.

http://mysite.verizon.net/reszw9bp/

 

[angus67]

shoot a load of penetrant in the spark plug holes, ad let it set for a few days, then just rest your foot on the kicker. dont pull the clutch in, but try it in neutral, jack up rear if needed. just rest foot on kicker, then just increase force untill it goes. after it goes, pull the engine out, take the head off, see if the barrels are smooth. Might just need a stone ran thru it. or, there might be a reason it was a parts bike. i was told mine ran too.

 

[sgallaty]

which penetrant would you use? I'm partial to MMO, and pb blaster but probably MMO for this particular job.

Oh, I have very low expectations. I turned down a very generous offer for a decent looking motor, so, we'll see what I find.

That's a nice piston you have half of there.

 

[angus67]

use both. gotta drain it, and peek inside anyway. the cam chain tensioners are notorious for falling apart.
new cam chain and chain giudes are cheep insurance anytime you takethe top off.
go here for cheap parts-
http://www.mikesxs.net/products-26.html#products
go here for good parts-
http://www.650central.com/

 

[angus67]

have you taken off the lower left round cover? do you have a stator/rotor in there? my rotor was missing.
looks like a older model, consider pamco pete's basic ignition system. its a set and forget 3 wire hook up. I fiddled with a 71 for days with the kicker crippling me, backfiring, them, recieved a basic pamco, within half hour, she purred like a kitten.

http://www.yamahaxs650.com/

 

[angus67]

also, if you do plan on lowering the front, dont just slide the forks up thru the trees. do it right, and use the search function for lowered forks.
All of that should get your juices flowing, so I will say good night. I will follow your build, we like lots of pictures, because as bigjimmy13 would say-"pics or it didn't happen".
see ya

 

[sgallaty]

Why do I feel like I got caught red handed? Yes I was going to slide the tubes down 2 inches. As cheap as free. Probably drop a 3" section of PVC tubing on top of the spring to up the preload depending on how crappy the springs are.

in my mind's eye I imagine cutting a top triple clamp, welding a couple of sections of 7/8ths onto them and making redneck clipons.

don't laugh, they work just as well as the fancy-crap billet ones.

Just picked up this frame (has a title), these shocks and this rear fender. Never seen that particular fender before but it's just perfect for what I am going for. Just the right mix of functional and rough.

I also get a drum swing with it - gives me some freedom to decide mags or spokes.

 

[dmasters458]

got any of those 750 parts lying around?

 

[sgallaty]

Left them behind when I left michigan, long ago.

My last riding bike popped a chain which whipped a hole in the crankcase so I let one of my buddies have it for parts when I left for California.

Funny story -I worked on my first bike for 3 months trying to get it running. dialed everything in static, cleaned carbs, did everything by the numbers and it was just nothing. no go. Found out the aftermarket Capacitive discharge ignition was dead. ripped that out, put in points, and now it sputtered. ran only when choked and then only until 2k rpm and then sputtered. never backfired.

I knew the valves and timing and spark was good which left the carbs. Found a set of dry but unknown carbs from a fresh wreck and swapped them (no easy feat btw on the 750..)

kicked it over twice and a cough... a sputter. I was like.. man, more of the same... then for laughs kicked it over one more time and it roared up so hard that I almost fell off the bike because I was leaning on the kickstarter.

all I had for pipes was the 4-1... when I turned the throttle all I could hear was roaring and ringing of my ears but man that was beautiful music.

 

[dmasters458]

This guy saw my buddy and I wrenching outside our house and saw we had some vintage stuff. He stopped in and was like "Hey you interested in any cb 750 stuff or Suzuki X6 stuff?" and we went there to get it only to find out that this dude was a serious vintage racer who was just trying to let loose projects he would never get to. He had a couple bsa cafe racers, a honda 360 racer, a basket case parilla racer, etc. He have me three basket case 73 cb 750s all in good shape, one of the motors had the cases split and bead blasted. It looks new. I currently have a 72 xs650 tracker project up on the bench so I am gonna just squirrel away the 750 stuff but ultimately I am gonna build a really fast street legal bike to raise hell with here in buffalo, cuz the tracker might not be enough! but I got no paperwork for any of the cbs so i am always looking for other parts or frames with titles.

 

[sgallaty]

Scored some dual calipers for the front from an xs750, going to go pick them up in the next couple of days and rebuild/repaint them.

The color scheme of the bike is going to be an industrial red and natural metal, so what I'll do with the calipers is clean the caliper bracket and blast / paint the black caliper reddish orange front and back.

The valve cover will be that same orangeish-red industrial machinery color as well. The aesthetic I'm after is rugged and well done mechanics and rough finish. Steel braided brakelines, solid and sturdy look but without a lot of chrome.

 

[sgallaty]

Just got her into the garage to start the takedown. Didn't get her to free up but... not surprised now.

Good news and bad news. I drained the crankcase oil and it looked like it was old oil. I'd say probably 10k+ miles on it. Didn't smell bad though, not burned - was a nice color but dirty, no water residue, no foam - best and most amazing thing... no metal shavings to speak of, and very little plastic from the tensioner. Lots of crap and gunk from the oil, but nothing bad.

It's worth mentioning that I started with a big adjustable crescent wrench on the oil drain plugs and got nowhere. Moved to the big socket wrench and made no progress, finally to the breaker bar and hammer and had to double check myself twice to make sure I wasn't tightening the thing. Finally tap tap whack snap, it popped loose - but I couldn't have told you how much torque was on that nut... pretty crazy.

So, I can pretty much be sure I've got most of a working bottom end.

I took off the alternator cover though and it's a totally different story. No idea wtf is going on here, but the stator cover is totally corroded as if it was exposed and there appears to be a significant amount of foreign material inside the cover.

What am I looking at here? Flood damage? Anyone want to take a guess?

 

[sgallaty]

Just took off the clutch side and everything there is beautiful. Plates are probably stuck but I'll cure that by whacking on the clutch actuator gently with a rubber hammer.

The sieze has to be in the top end, because I've got normal play in the crank. No rotational play (which is good.. =)


There's not even any metal under the starter gear grinder. I need to get this engine out and take a look at the top end now and figure out why she's stuck.

 

[azman857]

Anyone else see the front sprocket!! Holy smokes what nubs! As for the rest, I vote High Humidity damage.

 

[DogBunny]

If the bike was stored in the open, and if there was no left side-cover gasket, then rain seeped in to the alternator area every time it rained, and then got trapped in there -- it would have a hard time evaporating out. Aluminum will oxidize like crazy in those conditions. That is what that white fluffy stuff is, aluminum oxide. Stator and rotor may or may not be bad, but nothing there that will stop your project.

This, on the other hand is hurricane Katrina flood damage.

Yeah, hard to tell, but it is an XS650.

 

[DogBunny]

Funny thing about those nubs. I'm the person that sgallaty bought the bike from. I had several to choose from, but I thought that the reason sgallaty chose that one was because the speedometer only read 7,600. Hard to believe the sprocket could get ground down so far in only 7,600 miles. Maybe the chain was never, ever tightened?