Metric Bobber Project

[TKRIS]

I bought an '81 XJ 650 as a winter project.
The plan is a stripped down, flat black, billet-proof hardtail bobber.
Probably not typical Beyond style, but I thought I'd see if there was enough interest to do a build thread.

[Graham_A_M]

Im interested, Im buying a Honda Shadow 1100 complete engine, then going that route using a lot of parts available (frame, wheels, fenders, tank) towards HD builds.

Just dont have the time or the space right now.
I'd be quite interested in seeing your build.
When I was 16 I did a chopper build with my '81 CB650. (man I wish I still had pics, it was pretty bad-ass).
Not a crazy rake angle, but redid the pipes, HD sportster tank, Shaved and redid a lot of the hardware.
Man that was a fun bike, pretty much my only ride throughout highschool at Grandin. I miss it as it was awesome for long rides. My Triumph? not so much LOL.

EDIT: btw, by doing this build thread some of us may be able to chime in towards certain aspects of the build you may be having a hard time with, since some of us have experience doing a variety of different projects towards bikes.
kind of a win-win situation really.

[bjstare]

I'd be interested too, sounds cool.

On a sidetrack note Graham, I feel the long-ride pain. Last thurs I rode from Summerland BC (around penticton) to Calgary in one shot... about the first 3 hours was fun... the next 5 sucked balls.

[TKRIS]

I hear you about time.
My '56 Olds sits because anything I can do with it requires a huge time and money investment, and between a new job, a new baby, house renos, and some time spent with the wife and kids, time isn't exactly something I have a lot of these days.

I'll post some pictures. Any questions, just ask. If you see something I'm fucking up, say so.

What I started with a couple days ago:



Stripped some stuff and cut the rear frame off


Stripped the paint. Found a lot of bondo. Going to put a lot of bondo back on. I have neither the intelligence nor the patience to do body work, so I suspect this is going to end up with an embarassing amount of body filler on it.


Started filling. I'm filling the indents in the side for the Yamaha emblem as well




It's been ~3 days since i bought the bike. Too late to go back now


Now the tricky bit:
As it sits, the tank is massive, and if I leave it the way it is to hardtail it, the tank is going to crowd my junk while I ride, and I just don't think the proportions look right. I'd like to add ~5-6" of stretch to the rear. On a shafty, this is a little finnicky.
I'll have to get a sleeve made to extend the shaft and keep everything balanced. That will have to be farmed out, since I don't have the equipment nor the experience to do a good job of it.
The tough part is the swing arm.
I have 2 choices: I can extend the swing arm and use it as the lower frame of the hardtail, or I can do away with it and run an exposed shaft and full hardtail.
Because of the irregular, tapered design of the shaft housing, I'd have to hammer form a piece to splice into it b y building a buck out of wood using the contour of the existing piece. Do-able, but a time consuming pain in the ass. I'd also probably reinforce the outside with a piece of channel, because the original arm wasn't designed to handle the stress of a hardtail, let alone being stretch 6" as well.
Option 2 is to build a complete rear frame. To do this properly, I'd likely have a couple plates cut on the water jet to tie into both the spring and axle studs for strength, as well as drilling and taping into the side of the shaft housing to stop torsional force. This way is a lot more welding and fabricating.
Both options are going to require a jig, so my plan is to build a jig for the swing arm and try to stretch that. If all goes well, I'll go that route. If not, then at least I'll have a stretch swing arm that will properly locate the rear wheel/final drive so I can fab a rear frame section.





I've started painting the front wheel. Not sure how well it's going to work out, but we'll see. If it looks like shit, I'll blast it and have them powder coated. I'll probably do a think red pinstripe along the outer rim lip.


Also, lowering the front: Any suggestions (without really spending any money)? I'd like to get ~2".
I'm thinking I can probably cut about an inch out of the spacer/dampner inside the fork, then let the forks ride ~1" above the upper trees. I run the risk of bottoming out on the lower forks if I hit a big bump, but I'm thinking it would have to be a monster fucking bump for that to happen...


P.S. Luckily, I don't have to do this alone. Here's my helper loosening the rear brake rod for me:

[JfuckinC]

I love bobbers! bought one a while back, posted it on here. Had to sell it because switching jobs made me go 2 months without a check

Good luck man, Metric bobbers are cool.

Check these guys out, their website is down but their facebook group is up and running still! They have some good prices on handlebars, tanks, lights and have pre-made hardtails or the exact parts you'll need to piece your own together.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/TC-Bro...C/120803227798

[TKRIS]

If I decide to go with forward control, I'll get them from TC Bros.
Worked on the tank for awhile today. I hate body work. I hate bondo, and I hate sanding, and all this is is bondo and sanding...
Hopefully it's done in the next couple days.

The wheel is painted. It's not perfect, but it's looking pretty alright. Should look fine from 5' away, and I'm not exactly building a beauty queen here.

I'm trying to get the engine cleaned up enough to paint (without removing it from the bike). Degreaser, brake clean, and a tapered polishing pad on a dremel seem to work OK, but I'm burning through those polishing pads really quick. Anyone know where I can buy a shitload of them cheap, or ideas on making something that'll work? All I ever seem to see are the packages with a bunch of other shit I don't need in them.
Most of the engine will end up black. I'll tape off a few odds and ends to polish as trim. The edges of the fins will be sanded and polished after paint.
I may fill all the stamped "Yamaha" logos on the covers, but I'll need to figure out what I can use to do it. I didn't see any high temp epoxy or anything when I was at crappy tire last time. Maybe JB Weld would work? Not sure how much heat it'll handle.

Once the tank is done, I'm going to start cutting all the shit I don't need out of the wiring harness. Depending on how that goes, I may just gut the whole thing and start from scratch, but I hope to avoid that if possible.

Also, I think I'm going to try to cut the fender mounts off the front forks when I pull them off for paint. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to go about that, but it will likely be violent and stupid.

I'm going to try to get everything pretty well done before I tackle the rear so that I can focus on just that when the time comes. If it ends up being May by the time I get there, I'll forget about the stretch and just weld a couple rails on.

[Kona9]

How is this build coming along?

I have been doing my homework on a metric build. I put an offer in on a 2003 Honda Shadow 750, that I plan to mess with. Hardtail, white walls, rear fender delete or shorty, side mount plate and light. Cable clean up, Intake, 38 tooth rear sprocket, new chain, solid struts to replace the shocks, lower the front end, fab up some new pipes and wrap them.

It is red with flames now, but I am sure I want to make all the tins black of some sort. For now I will just do the hole saw mod for the extra sound out of the pipes. With the exhaust, intake, rear sprocket change, and carb work, it will easily keep up with the Harley Kids. It's more of a bar hopper than anything. I may be able to handle the hardtail ride to Bragg Creek or something, but prob not much more.

The idea is to build something retro and mean for cheap. An eye catcher to most but more so to catch the attention of the typical Harley attitude. Those guys make me laugh.

[gretz]

If you need help with any fabrication / custom components / brackets etc... shoot me a pm with what you are looking to get done and I can help you out...

[Kona9]

Originally posted by gretz
If you need help with any fabrication / custom components / brackets etc... shoot me a pm with what you are looking to get done and I can help you out...

You read my mind. PM'd

[SJW]

Grezt I may need some stuff done in the summer.

[Freeskier]

Subscribed. A bobber project is high on my list for the summer. Interested to learn about how to do it

[TKRIS]

Project is waiting right now. my garage is too cold to work out there, so I've been focusing on other projects.
I'm trying to track down some 1"OD, 1/16" wall DOM tubing for the hardtail. Everything is mocked up. I've got the pieces of the motor that aren't going to be black pulled and mostly polished. The wiring is all pulled, I just need to go through and get rid of everything I don't need. The tank is still a little rough, but I might just leave it since I hate body work and this isn't supposed to be a beauty queen.
I found a guy who makes an adapter to run a rear XJ650 rim/tire combo on the front, and it gives the muscular look I'm after, so I'm going to order that once some funds free up (if anyone has a line on a dirt cheap rim/tire, I'd love to hear about it).
I'm still undecided about controls. I'll have to wait until I get a seat in place, then I'll decide what feels best. Because I'm not stretching the shaft anymore, my seat will be partially over the rear tire, so mid controls may work fine.
Once I get a couple weeks of decent weather and a few hundrd bucks in the same place at the same time, I shouldn't have too much trouble putting everything back together.

[Kona9]

I am looking forward to the progress of your build. I just picked up my bike yesterday and can't wait to start on it.(I will make my own thread and stop hijacking yours.) Now I can only hope for as many Chinooks as possible as I will be doing most of my work in my backyard.

More pics as you go would be awesome!

[TKRIS]

Originally posted by gretz
If you need help with any fabrication / custom components / brackets etc... shoot me a pm with what you are looking to get done and I can help you out...

I may take you up on this.
I'd imagine autocad drawings would be fine?
What equipment do you have access to, and what kind of materials can you handle?

[TKRIS]

I have too many fucking projects...

I got my garage cleaned up for spring time and got back to work on my bike. I've painted the engine and transmission black, and I've got most of the pieces that aren't black polished. I did my damnedest to save my valve covers, but they're too discolored and ugly to polish them. I'm going to see about having them powder coated chrome, which I know doesn't look like real chrome, but it should look similar to the rest of the polished aluminum pieces on the bike.
I'm keeping the front rim/tire, and I'm not lowering the front. I don't want to fuck with the handling any more than I have to.
The wiring is all pulled out of the bike and I'll either cut everything I don't need, or just scratch build a new harness. I only need to run an electric start, headlight, and tail light. I'm hoping to find a mini battery that'll handle my lowered electrical needs and take up less room. Suggestions? I was thinking any 12V ~12aH should be sufficient, but I'm not sure on that.

I'm going to pick up the DOM tubing for the hardtail and handle bars today, so hopefully I'll have that done in the next week or two.
The bad news is that I was hoping to use a friend's hydraulic mandrel tubing bender, but it's been sold, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. I could simple make relief cuts, bend and reweld, but I'm not sure how safe that is. That said, I ended up having to use 1/8" wall DOM tubing instead of 1/16" wall, so I should have plenty of strength to spare. I'd appreciate thoughts on this though.

Next on the "to do" list is to pull the forks and replace the oil seals, and paint the lower forks. I've decided to leave the fender tabs on in case I ever want to run a fender again.

I'll post picture if anyone is interested.

[TKRIS]

Main hardtail struts are done. I used a bushings and tuner grommets to attach the drive side to the cast aluminum gear cover. I think it looks pretty good. Just need to cut and weld some crossmembers and weld up the swingarm pivot.
I need a get a seat hinge so that I can locate and fab crossmembers and a rear tank mount.
One of my forks is fucked. The spring cap is seized, and I can't get the fucking thing out. I'm going to scrounge up some new ones in the next week or so. May try to find the complete front end off an xj750 so I can run dual disks, but only if I can get it cheap.
Anyone know what kind if hassle I'm going to be in for when I try to register and insure this thing?

[Freeskier]

Any pics of the hardtail conversion? We have a very similar bike that we're talking about using. Also a shaft drive so seeing what you did to convert it would be awesome.

[TKRIS]

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.
Real life has been getting in the way of me getting anything done in the garage, but hopefully I'll get in there again in the next day or two.

I bought a heavy duty hinge to use for the solo seat. I may try something a little more unique for a seat though...

[Freeskier]

We have an '83 virago as a donor bike. Found this picture that we're gonna use as a rough guide. None of us have any experience modifying bikes, so trying to keep it simple and fun.

[TKRIS]

Looks pretty similar.
I wouldn't use square tubing myself. If I'm going to be going 120kmh with my balls 3" from the spinning tire, I'll stick with round DOM.
The important point is how the hardtail connects to the gear drive housing.
Not only are you not going to be able to weld to it ( mine is cast aluminum), but you really want to have something that can be unbolted so that you can service the gears if required.