Kutay
XS400 Member
I think I will post how the build of my bike is going here. so i cant rack down any info in the future and hopefully some things are helpful for some people.
so far:
I bought a working xs400 in shambles. The frame was brown, the rear was chopped off, no seat, sketchy wiring, no blinkers. The bike had to be rebuilt. Being a student and having a small room i thought this was a great idea.
Here is the bike when i first bough it with ziptied janky seat on it
I had to learn to weld, because why not.
First i stripped everything down and put all the screws into a single bag like a genius. That made me loose track of every single on of them and treat every threaded hole as just a hole with no corresponding screw in the future.
Here is the bike striped down with sketchy welds behind my room.
Some of ym bad welds for the hoop as well. I was getting hopeless with the welding. I used fluxcore welding and there wasnt much info online about parameters and the hoop I ordered didnt have the right dimensions. I didnt want to wait anymore. So i just went for it. Being flux core you cannot do multiple passes and i burnt through much of the thin material.
Here is the bad weld for the hoop, my thinking was, i wont sit on this part of the bike so it can be bad.
then I focused on studying and not failing university courses. Meant 4 years of nothing on the bike. Just wheels, fork, tank, engine was installed. This year I had some time and money so i started on it again. Previously I had made a electronics tray and ziptied it on, someone stole it and my foot pegs. I had to get it done again, it was expensive and lots off effort to find a private laser cutter to get the tray cut for me so i could bend and weld it. It is done now, and the tray fits in beautifully. Also started my motorbike license, small detail. Joining the uni workshop was a blessing. They have all the tools and i dont need to move my bed and wardrobe to work on the bike each time.
First i wanted to start by making a seat pan. Seeing people do it online it seemed simple enough. It was, but you need to think about whats going to happen in the following 5 steps. I didnt. I spent 6 hours one night and layered a seat a cowl in one go. The mistakes i made were
- Making the cowl and the seat in one piece
- Not ensuring a flat surface on the seat
This meant i couldn't have a plate to wrap the leather around and glue foam onto. Because the cowl was connected tot eh seat i couldn't just wrap around leather over the whole thing. I cut it but then i also realized the gap i left for electronics was too big. Rather than spending couple days dreadfully bodging it together, i am going to redo the seat, this time with a plan
.
There is a long list of things to do step by step right now. What i learnt so far is, have a plan. Dont just do it and figure it out on the way. And what i haven't learnt yet is where to find a shifter since my broke.
Next i will be making a pin and arms and alignment pins for the seat pan i will make and also a foam mold for the seat cowl.
so far:
I bought a working xs400 in shambles. The frame was brown, the rear was chopped off, no seat, sketchy wiring, no blinkers. The bike had to be rebuilt. Being a student and having a small room i thought this was a great idea.
Here is the bike when i first bough it with ziptied janky seat on it
I had to learn to weld, because why not.
First i stripped everything down and put all the screws into a single bag like a genius. That made me loose track of every single on of them and treat every threaded hole as just a hole with no corresponding screw in the future.
Here is the bike striped down with sketchy welds behind my room.
Some of ym bad welds for the hoop as well. I was getting hopeless with the welding. I used fluxcore welding and there wasnt much info online about parameters and the hoop I ordered didnt have the right dimensions. I didnt want to wait anymore. So i just went for it. Being flux core you cannot do multiple passes and i burnt through much of the thin material.
Here is the bad weld for the hoop, my thinking was, i wont sit on this part of the bike so it can be bad.
then I focused on studying and not failing university courses. Meant 4 years of nothing on the bike. Just wheels, fork, tank, engine was installed. This year I had some time and money so i started on it again. Previously I had made a electronics tray and ziptied it on, someone stole it and my foot pegs. I had to get it done again, it was expensive and lots off effort to find a private laser cutter to get the tray cut for me so i could bend and weld it. It is done now, and the tray fits in beautifully. Also started my motorbike license, small detail. Joining the uni workshop was a blessing. They have all the tools and i dont need to move my bed and wardrobe to work on the bike each time.
First i wanted to start by making a seat pan. Seeing people do it online it seemed simple enough. It was, but you need to think about whats going to happen in the following 5 steps. I didnt. I spent 6 hours one night and layered a seat a cowl in one go. The mistakes i made were
- Making the cowl and the seat in one piece
- Not ensuring a flat surface on the seat
This meant i couldn't have a plate to wrap the leather around and glue foam onto. Because the cowl was connected tot eh seat i couldn't just wrap around leather over the whole thing. I cut it but then i also realized the gap i left for electronics was too big. Rather than spending couple days dreadfully bodging it together, i am going to redo the seat, this time with a plan
. There is a long list of things to do step by step right now. What i learnt so far is, have a plan. Dont just do it and figure it out on the way. And what i haven't learnt yet is where to find a shifter since my broke.
Next i will be making a pin and arms and alignment pins for the seat pan i will make and also a foam mold for the seat cowl.
