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Build Thread...Special to Cafe Bike
- Thread starter MaxPete
- Start date
Yes Pete, if you can find a way to use rubber mounting, it will make the bike much more comfortable to ride.
Looks like a nice January day in Windsor, Pete. You have to love it when there is no snow. Of course Windsor is farther south than northern California.
Here in Calgary we have a Chinook happening, and its about +5 C, with +7 C coming in a few days. Lots of snow but its melting quickly.
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It is actually supposed to hit +10C on Tuesday or Wednesday this week...amazing after moving here from Ottawa where it was seldom above -10 from December to March.
Looks like you're off to a great start there Pete. I can't wait to see it start coming together.
Pete, you're sure not alone, computer skills, teach me today, I'll forget tomorrow.
Scott
Scott
Dear all:
Today on my way back from Toronto I picked up my XS750 fuel tank from my friend who has the tank-tumbling rig. He had it running on the machine for three solid days and he told me that he actually emptied its load of gravel and water twice. The first session yielded a whole bunch of brown YUK that looked like chocolate milk. The second load came out much clearer and, it now is nice shiny clean and has been fogged with WD40 ready for the transplant to the 650 frame.
I took a video of the tank on the tumbler which I will post as soon as I can down load it from my phone.
Cheers,
Pete
Today on my way back from Toronto I picked up my XS750 fuel tank from my friend who has the tank-tumbling rig. He had it running on the machine for three solid days and he told me that he actually emptied its load of gravel and water twice. The first session yielded a whole bunch of brown YUK that looked like chocolate milk. The second load came out much clearer and, it now is nice shiny clean and has been fogged with WD40 ready for the transplant to the 650 frame.
I took a video of the tank on the tumbler which I will post as soon as I can down load it from my phone.
Cheers,
Pete
Pete, I've been offline for a few days; glad to reconnect and check out your cool build thread. Looking forward to seeing what you found in a cafe seat, and also a photo of that tank tumbler.
About 6 months ago I fitted a cafe seat to my '76; actually, no fitting needed, as it is a made-to-fit the stock mounts. Found it on EBay.
About 6 months ago I fitted a cafe seat to my '76; actually, no fitting needed, as it is a made-to-fit the stock mounts. Found it on EBay.
Looks nice! I thinks that is the one that Mikes sells.
Pete
Pete
Ok , the danged pictures finally came down from my phone.
Pete
That tank tumbler is a cool gadget.
Reminds me of my first Orbitron ride.
(***Harr-up-puke***)
Reminds me of my first Orbitron ride.
(***Harr-up-puke***)
Not really. There are a couple of in-progress pics floating around here. I have the exact same tank you do but I have not installed it yet because I like riding it
and I need to figure out what seat I want, whether to keep the rear fender, rear light, etc. I need to finish the cop bike and then get my GPz road worthy for the Spring. Then the 650 goes up on the stand. Here are a couple of before and somewhat current pics:
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Starting to look really nice Jim - snazzy Mustang too!
Pete
Pete
I think the seat on Yamadude`s bike is a seat from Daytrader on ebay. Direct bolt on available for Standard and Special models. Around the $200 figure with $59 shipping. These are made in Vietnam. The site is in San Jose CA but shipping is from Vietnam. I was going to order one of these last night but they cant ship until the 1`st of March. Looks like a nice seat and looks good on the bike too. He says they`ll make any color combo. I think a black hump with dark grey pleats would work for me. I don`t think Mikes offers one for the Standard anymore just Specials. Good to see one actually on a bike before I order.
OK All: Here is the latest instalment on the Special to Cafe build.
I have finally figured out how to shorten the video I shot so that it is smaller than 49 MB (yeah, I know - every 13 year old kid in Pakistan knows how to do that....) - now I will have to figure out how to post the shortened video of the tank tumbler to YouTube (yeah....I know....). The machine doesn't revolve very fast - and so the action is pretty gentle. One CVMG member tells me that he uses roofing nails when he does this job because the sharp ends on the nails help bust-up any rust or other nasties in the bowels of the tank.
The only other work I've done was to give a good spray of WD40 into the tank and then I fitted my shiny new fuel filler cap to the cleaned-up XS750 tank (MikesXS / XSDirect p/n 20-0033) to seal the tank until I can get the mounting arrangements worked out and the tank painted. I just left the little sealing plates from the tumbler operation on the petcock holes - but, as mentioned, I do have the new petcocks (MikesXS / XSDirect p/n 20-0019).
Cheers,
Pete
I have finally figured out how to shorten the video I shot so that it is smaller than 49 MB (yeah, I know - every 13 year old kid in Pakistan knows how to do that....) - now I will have to figure out how to post the shortened video of the tank tumbler to YouTube (yeah....I know....). The machine doesn't revolve very fast - and so the action is pretty gentle. One CVMG member tells me that he uses roofing nails when he does this job because the sharp ends on the nails help bust-up any rust or other nasties in the bowels of the tank.
The only other work I've done was to give a good spray of WD40 into the tank and then I fitted my shiny new fuel filler cap to the cleaned-up XS750 tank (MikesXS / XSDirect p/n 20-0033) to seal the tank until I can get the mounting arrangements worked out and the tank painted. I just left the little sealing plates from the tumbler operation on the petcock holes - but, as mentioned, I do have the new petcocks (MikesXS / XSDirect p/n 20-0019).
Cheers,
Pete
Alright Pete! Things are moving, that is a super clever machine your friend built.
That gas tank reminds me of my old bike. I had the red and silver '78 when it was new.
That gas tank reminds me of my old bike. I had the red and silver '78 when it was new.
You are correct, Halfmile. It takes a few weeks because they build them one at a time, "to order." The build quality is excellent, material is excellent, price very good. Fitment very good. Took me 20 minutes to mount, as there was one small glitch.
I love the tank tumbler.
I always found the XS750 intriguing and appealing back in the day. I liked the overall size, flat seat and good seating position, the cast wheels, disc brakes and shaft drive. My local Yamaha dealer wasn't the greatest unfortunately, and so I bought a '79 Suzuki GS850G - on which I mounted a Hannigan Sport-Tourer fairing and lowers plus soft bags - and it also turned out to be a superb bike for long distance touring.
Wow that Suzuki was a nice se up. Betcha wish you still had that. Those GS series were just superb bikes back then. Still are , in my book.
They really were. I'm not a hater of any brand but I must say, having ridden Hondas of my own ('75 CB360T and my current ST1300A) plus tons of other folk's bikes from dirts to Gold Wings; a couple of my own Yamaha's ('75 XS650B and my current '76 XS650C) plus lots of other's bikes from dirts to an XS1100 (holy cow - heavy but with guts to burn), a couple of other guy's Kawasakis (a '77 KZ650 - which was very nice and a '71 500 Mach III H1 triple two stroke - absolutely nutty - truly an uncivilised motorcycle); and several Suzukis (the GS850G and a GT550 two stroke, which was neat) - I found the Suzuki GS bikes to be the best built and overall most balanced designs of the day. In my experience, they were dead-nuts reliable, inexpensive to own and service, smooth, quiet, fast and the key thing was that they all handled as well or better than any of the others. All of the other bikes seemed to have at least one vice or another - but none of the Suzukis did, at least as far as anyone could tell. The styling was a bit bland - but they were good bikes. My 850 was the first year and it had a kick starter as well as the electric - but I don't think that I ever actually used the kicker in nearly 180,000 km. I also never did any engine work at all except oil changes and valve adjustments - and those seemed to stop after about 30,000 km.
