xs650 reassembly

chicagobuild

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Folks I tore down my '81 xs650 to the frame and had a TC Bros hardtail installed.
Needless to say that was the easy part.
I'm looking for feedback on next steps after paint.
Seriously, I have no experience with this but do have the help of a community garage for any technical aspects of the reassembly.
Just trying to save some dough, I am plenty handy and have the garage and tools to do any of the easy aspects like putting engine back in place, wheels etc.

Any constructive feedback would be helpful.

Thanks,
Brian
 
Most builders assemble the bike, sort out the foot controls, rear brake, exhaust, sort out the electrics, give it a couple of rides to verify and inspect everything...........and then disassemble it for paint, powdercoat, polishing.......then final assembly with new wheel bearings and steering bearings.

What I left out was tires, chain and sprockets, front brake. fenders etc. Maybe splice together old chains and fit the rear fender at step one. Maybe do tires, new chain and sprockets, front brake and fender at final assembly.

Scott
 
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Stock kickstands are shit. Get a weld on. TC Bros has a nice one. I've also used KZ650's. I like those. Just watch the mount to frame. Might hafta make a bracket for the KZ setup. Careful and make sure your tilt/lean is right. I've fucked up and not had my kickstand right a few times and had to repaint. Mock everything up. Also wheel spacing for the hardtail. Issues always seem to come up here that scratch paint. Haha. Wheel/chain adjusters and whatnot. Again mock everything up. Disassemble and paint. Put back together in roller form. I'm in an assembly process now too. I'm doing a cafe style this time. Basically shaved and took a bunch of stock shit off. Forks rebuilt, wheels powder coated with new bearings and tires, all the other misc parts blasted and powder coated, frame painted, headlight mounted, handlebars and all the controls mounted. Getting ready to wire. Basically I'll dismantle everything to a roller so nothing gets fucked up. Two wheels on a frame. Lay my motor down on a blanket. No oil in it of course. Me and a buddy CAREFULLY lay roller around motor (no carbs) and work in motor mount and bolts. Lean it back upright. Throw the complete handle bar set up with controls back on, and then the rest. This basically has been my routine. Can't call myself a "bike builder" but I've fixed ALOT of Craigslist shit. Bought cheap, stripped down, polished, wiring, motors, etc.
 
As mrtwowheel stated, most people save paint for last. You still need to mount tank, seat, fender, head light, tailight, reg/rec, battery, tci box etc. You sadly will need to grind off spots of that beautiful new paint job in order to weld the needed mounts for the various things I just stated. After all that you will need to then repaint unfortunatley.
Im in the process of building a hardtailed xs650 as well. Im a little farther than you but if you have any questions please dont be scared to message me!
A small issue people run into with the hardtailed frames is the rear wheel spacing. After completing the welding of the cross tubes on your hardtail, the axle plates will suck together a bit if not properly braced up. The ID of the stock axle plates on your 81 is 8.5". My hardtail's axle plates sucked in an 1/8" inch. Also then throwing sprocket alignment off a tad. I grinded a bit off the left side spacer on the rear tire to shift my tire to the left a bit more to line up the sprockets, then had to grind a little off the right side spacer to make that fit a bit better.
Good luck!
 
This is where I am at. Sorry for the poor quality.
 

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