Intro and Build

[CadXS]

Hey everyone, my name is Caddy and very happy to see there is finally a dedicated forum for the XS400.

I recognise a good few names from other forums already so this one is off to a good start

Like a lot of people recently I have been inspired by the Wrenchmonkee/Bratstyle builds and I'm trying my best to build my take on this theme. It's not helped by the fact I live in central London and have no garage/workshop and if I left my bike on the side of the street it would last 5 minutes. So, I have dismantled the bike and carried it upstairs to my 3rd floor flat and I am building it in my bedroom...

At the start (when I had a real house with a garage and everything...)

As you could imagine this has presented several...er...difficult situations (now single lol), but it gives me a great excuse to lay in bed a look at motorbikes on the internet.

I initially started documenting this build for The Chopper Underground 2010 BBO, but I got kicked off for being slow and not updating my build thread enough

Dismantled in my bedroom...

I've shamefully not done a lot over the summer due to work commitments but hopefully can pick up the pace a bit over this winter. What I did do this summer was buy a pretty random collection of parts from other bikes that I hope with my limited skills and tools to make fit on the XS400

I will post up some more pictures (when I sort them out) so people can see what I've done so far, what I'm thinking of doing and hopefully help me lend some clarity to the scattergun of ideas approach I seem to have taken.

All the best

Caddy

 

[Ringo]

Whatever you gotta do to make it work! I built my first bike in my kitchen. What are your plans for it?

 

[Travis]

Welcome to the site!

You don't want to rush a build anyway.. That's when you take shortcuts and things don't turn out like you had hoped they would. Keep us posted!

 

[drewpy]

hiya Cad hows things?

 

[CadXS]

hiya Cad hows things?

Hey Drewpy, glad to see you on here adding your amazing knowledge of these bikes into the mix. Are we going to see the Tracker finished this winter?

Whatever you gotta do to make it work! I built my first bike in my kitchen. What are your plans for it?

Ringo, my plans for the bike seem to be in a constant state of flux, changing from week to week as new builds I find on the internet and these type of forums inspire me in a different direction.

After some time away from bikes after my last one got stolen i stumbled across the Bratstyle website and got inspired to to build a similar bike. I couldn't wait to get the right sort of donor bike like a SR500, saw a good deal on this XS400 and jumped right in.

I bought a couple of parts, joined a couple of forums to get ideas, started planning what to do and came to the realisation that chopping more ride height from an already small bike when I'm 6'2" maybe wasn't the best idea. I've also got a dodgy back from too many snowboarding crashes so riding position is pretty important to me.

So, thought about it again and was kinda drifting towards the idea of a cafe (mainly due to the great bikes on the Do The Ton forum) but again the riding position with clip ons would put stress on my back so started thinking street tracker.

Bought a few parts to go more tracker style then came across the Wrenchmonkees website and so on..... My main problem is me and my ability to decide on something, buy a few parts and then completely change my mind

So to stop rambling on and answer your question my plans are to build a Bratsyle cafe street tracker monkee bike in my bedroom with no tools...

HELP!!!

 

[CadXS]

I've sorted out most of the pictures of what I've done so far...

Some of the tanks I've bought as I changed my mind over what to build (storing them in my bedroom gave me some crazy dreams and killer headaches)

To start things off I chopped the rear end off

New taper bearings and pressing in the cups

Cleaned up the top tree and the wheels

By this point some of the stupid ideas I'd had was to change the rear disc to drum for purely cosmetic reasons (shameful) and replace the front brake set up with an Yammie R1 caliper on a custom bracket with a 320mm Ducati disc cable operated via a Z600 rear m/c.

Trying to get some idea of stance and how it might look after getting some tyres (Dunlop K70's I think)

tbc

 

[Jack Crank]

Stoked too see how this turns out. I plan on doing something very similar with my 81 Special II due to hand problems from too many (pedal)bike crashes. I have my Buell set up with clubmans and a forward stance and my wrists kill after about 100mi or so.

How much did you drop on the K70s? I've been looking in to a pair of those. Whatcha thinking for seat and pipes?

 

[Travis]

Looking good! Seems like you're doing your build right and not half-assing anything.

What's that rusty tank in the back middle? BSA? Wanna sell it?

 

[CadXS]

What's that rusty tank in the back middle? BSA? Wanna sell it?

Hey Travis, I think the tank is from a BSA D13, I would have to dig out the paper work to be 100% sure. I would sell it, but I think the postage would be pretty expensive from the UK. PM me if you are interested.

How much did you drop on the K70s? I've been looking in to a pair of those. Whatcha thinking for seat and pipes?

Jack, I double checked the tyres and they are K82's not K70's. They were £55 (~$85) each fitted which I think is an ok price here in the UK, not sure about in US.

Pipes, I'm thinking of some kind of 2 into 1 system probably with a cocktail shaker type muffler. I'm scratching my head about the seat at the moment. I've done some more changes to the frame and cut out a seat pan but I'm not sure, I need to think about it some more. I will post up some pictures of the changes and you can tell me what you think Jack.

 

[Jack Crank]

So being pretty new to the whole moto world, what's the pros/cons of the K82 and the K70? They're both fine looking shoes but which will hold me to the road better?

 

[CadXS]

So being pretty new to the whole moto world, what's the pros/cons of the K82 and the K70? They're both fine looking shoes but which will hold me to the road better?

Not sure mate really. I think I got the K82's because I could get them in the size I wanted from a shop in London and get them fitted. I know the K82 has a replica TT100 tread pattern, that became the first to lap the Isle of Man TT circuit at over 100 mph on a production motorcycle.

 

[CadXS]

After pissing around with the frame and wheels I had a bit of a go at the engine. Not even sure it needed me to take it to bits but I'd never had a look in a motorcycle engine and I was nosey...
Before

After cleaning

I'm kinda liking the dull cleaned up metal look. I'm not much of a chrome fan, more of a fan of the raw steel Shinya Kimura style (if it's possible to imagine a Shinya style XS400)

 

[Travis]

Looks good! What did you do to get them clean?

 

[CadXS]

Looks good! What did you do to get them clean?

Travis, I used this stuff called Swarfega Metal Cleaner & Restorer. The active ingrediant is citric acid I think and I just dumped the stuff in some hot water and let it soak. I quick run over with a wire brush in the dremmel for the stubborn stuff and that was it.

I wanted to make some changes to the frame and was struggling to find somebody to do the welding in London (15 million people, nobody willing to weld mc frames ). Ended up wrapping up the frame and jumping on a train with it and travelling about 120 miles back to my home town to borrow a friends mig.

All wrapped up for the journey...

No mandrel to make 180 degree bends so made two 90's...

Not tried any welding in many years...it shows...

Cross brace

Trying to hide how poor the welds were with some grinding...

Back in my bedroom with some weld cleaning still to do and with some longer Hagon shocks from a Z1000 fitted...

tbc

 

[hardtailed77]

Now THAT is dedication right there!! Traveling on a train with your frame in tow! I can't help but have to ask what kind of looks you recieved. lol If I would have done that, I have an odd feeling that someone would have called the police, thinking I had a bomb inside or something! lol The bike is turning out great, keep up the awesome work!

 

[cturek]

This is a great project. Keep the pictures coming!!

 

[drewpy]

those welds look good now that they are cleaned up!

I'm using arc welding with a machine I bought in 1980! heavy as F*ck and you can't see the numbers any more so I just get a feel for the welding.

what are you going to paint the frame with?

 

[CadXS]

Now THAT is dedication right there!! Traveling on a train with your frame in tow! I can't help but have to ask what kind of looks you recieved. lol If I would have done that, I have an odd feeling that someone would have called the police, thinking I had a bomb inside or something! lol The bike is turning out great, keep up the awesome work!

Yeah mate I did get a few strange looks. Not too bad on the train, I could stick it in the luggage rack, but got a few comments on the Underground getting to the train station.

what are you going to paint the frame with?

Drewpy, a friend of mine swears by the one coat Rustoleum Colour Combi paints. He's painted several frames and wheels with this stuff and loves it. You can get it in rattle cans now so I might give it a go. Spraying is going to be a problem, don't think I should try it in my bedroom. This may drive me down the PC route

 

[CadXS]

I decided I needed a tray for the electrics so tried making a template out of cardboard...

Found somebody on ebay who fabricated it for me pretty cheap and I also sent him a pattern for a seat pan and he cut that out as well. The seat pan may need a bit of adjustment (due to my crappy measurements) but I'm well happy with them both and saved me from getting metal filings in my bed...again...

I need to figure out how to fit the seat pan to the frame and I need to weld some tabs for fitting the electric try and rear fender, but the frames not a million miles off paint. This all may need another train ride...oh well

 

[hardtailed77]

Great work! That electrics tray turned out really good. I like the fact that its really slim, it will hide well under there.