t8erbug
XS400 Enthusiast
T8erbug's XS400 Brat/Scrambler
I joined a while back but now I actually have some stuff to post ha. My uncle gave me his 1980 XS400 Special that he bought new so she's a legit one-owner. It's got about 19K miles. He gave it to me with new paint on the body work, new badges, and the carbs apart in boxes. I was in a "cut it up cuz it's easy" stage and immediately began cutting (mostly unbolting) all of the stuff off I didn't want, namely, the rear end. I have been building a GS750 cafe racer for about 4 years now and was just tired of building, fabbing, machining every single piece for it hence the cut up stage. I wanted something simple and I wanted to ride... This bike finally stole my attention because I'd been itching to ride so bad. I've got 5 bikes and all of them are in the project stage aka unrideable. This one was the closest to being a runner so I thought I'd give the carbs a good clean and reassembly to see if it'd run. It does! I figure this bike would make a great brat/around town/dirt-road-to-fly-fishing-spot bike and a build like that is something I can turn around quick with only minor mods. I liked the idea of a brattier type project because it's relatively simple compared to the in-depth cafe racer build with all kinds of swap this and swap that's, fab fab fab, machine this, make that, weld, blah blah. Brats aren't necessarily about how fast they can go around a track, and I like that. I like the drum brake in the rear and the old simple stuff that make it what it already is. I also like that they almost look better dirty and with knobby tires.
So, I want this bike to be fun and easy. My goal is to keep the engine/carbs pretty much stock and use as much of the base bike as possible, or in other words simply modifying stock parts if I don't like them the way they are. I'd like to extend the stock swingarm about an 1"-1.5", raise the rear end just a skosh with some longer shocks, hoop the tail of the frame, build a custom seat pan/seat, and then I'm sure there will be some odds and ends (possibly exhaust). I've already got a set of some 60/40 road/dirt tires coming, 4-blade fuse box, new chain, new oil filter bolt (Uncle John must not have had metric wrenches to perform a proper oil change and rounded off the head
). The one thing I would like to swap is the 16" rear wheel for an 18"er. That 16" is a pain in the butt to find a semi-matching tire for! My uncle didn't have the petcock for the tank so I used one off an old XS650 tank I had lying around. It leaked so I put new o-rings in it and it works like a charm now. Even the vacuum line works! All I had to do was reroute the fuel line. I opted for an inline filter since the tank hasn't had fuel in it for years it's definitely going to need to be cleaned often for the first little while.
That said I have a mint "Special" seat available with brand new upholstery (it's so new it hasn't even been stapled to the seatpan yet), and many parts off the rear end. I'll get some pics up of the spare parts soon. For now I'll post some pics of the bike in its current condition. If you don't see parts on the bike, that means they're available to you! Feel free to PM me.
Here are 4/5 of the projects (not current)
Tires both off and ready for the new ones to get here! (and yes, I'll be hitting the rim edges with the fine grit before I install) I'll also probably PC the rims later this winter.
O and here's the pain in my butt 4yr old project, my love, the GS750. It's almost done. I should have it ready to ride shortly after getting the XS400 back on the road. Next spring is going to be awesome
I joined a while back but now I actually have some stuff to post ha. My uncle gave me his 1980 XS400 Special that he bought new so she's a legit one-owner. It's got about 19K miles. He gave it to me with new paint on the body work, new badges, and the carbs apart in boxes. I was in a "cut it up cuz it's easy" stage and immediately began cutting (mostly unbolting) all of the stuff off I didn't want, namely, the rear end. I have been building a GS750 cafe racer for about 4 years now and was just tired of building, fabbing, machining every single piece for it hence the cut up stage. I wanted something simple and I wanted to ride... This bike finally stole my attention because I'd been itching to ride so bad. I've got 5 bikes and all of them are in the project stage aka unrideable. This one was the closest to being a runner so I thought I'd give the carbs a good clean and reassembly to see if it'd run. It does! I figure this bike would make a great brat/around town/dirt-road-to-fly-fishing-spot bike and a build like that is something I can turn around quick with only minor mods. I liked the idea of a brattier type project because it's relatively simple compared to the in-depth cafe racer build with all kinds of swap this and swap that's, fab fab fab, machine this, make that, weld, blah blah. Brats aren't necessarily about how fast they can go around a track, and I like that. I like the drum brake in the rear and the old simple stuff that make it what it already is. I also like that they almost look better dirty and with knobby tires.
So, I want this bike to be fun and easy. My goal is to keep the engine/carbs pretty much stock and use as much of the base bike as possible, or in other words simply modifying stock parts if I don't like them the way they are. I'd like to extend the stock swingarm about an 1"-1.5", raise the rear end just a skosh with some longer shocks, hoop the tail of the frame, build a custom seat pan/seat, and then I'm sure there will be some odds and ends (possibly exhaust). I've already got a set of some 60/40 road/dirt tires coming, 4-blade fuse box, new chain, new oil filter bolt (Uncle John must not have had metric wrenches to perform a proper oil change and rounded off the head
). The one thing I would like to swap is the 16" rear wheel for an 18"er. That 16" is a pain in the butt to find a semi-matching tire for! My uncle didn't have the petcock for the tank so I used one off an old XS650 tank I had lying around. It leaked so I put new o-rings in it and it works like a charm now. Even the vacuum line works! All I had to do was reroute the fuel line. I opted for an inline filter since the tank hasn't had fuel in it for years it's definitely going to need to be cleaned often for the first little while. That said I have a mint "Special" seat available with brand new upholstery (it's so new it hasn't even been stapled to the seatpan yet), and many parts off the rear end. I'll get some pics up of the spare parts soon. For now I'll post some pics of the bike in its current condition. If you don't see parts on the bike, that means they're available to you! Feel free to PM me.
Here are 4/5 of the projects (not current)
Tires both off and ready for the new ones to get here! (and yes, I'll be hitting the rim edges with the fine grit before I install) I'll also probably PC the rims later this winter.
O and here's the pain in my butt 4yr old project, my love, the GS750. It's almost done. I should have it ready to ride shortly after getting the XS400 back on the road. Next spring is going to be awesome
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If I turf it out in a dirt field I'll let you know and you'll definitely have the last laugh. I'm not too proud to post pics of the carnage if it happens haha
I machined 4 at work today so if anyone needs one shoot me a PM.
