I can fit an Oil cooler!

whilst perusing the xs400.de forum, there is a member on there  who has fitted an oil cooler from an XJ600 bike along with the adaptor plate.

A racer had also manufactured an adaptor plate, the rest is easy to make up.

Any way, I have an xs1100 oil cooler and an xj600 adaptor plate. I am going to get a friend to make another extension to this, as the later xj one i have will foul the frame rails. I can then use the cartridge filter that comes with these bikes.
I have made a little mount using thin wall channel and a litle welding, then I have fixed this to the bike.

Battery location and the Tank

I intend to put the battery under the rear seat but there is'nt much room in there. I want to keep everything hidden and just show off the frame.
A friend of mine work for analarm company and managed to get me a 2.2amp alram battery for free. so I'm running with that and insulating it with dense foam.

with the battery bought, I made a cradle out of thin wall angled steel

made a buck of the tank I want, with a cardboard template made so the underside clears the ATE mastercylinder.
the tank is hand made in Cornwall from guy's details I seen on ebay.
here is the tank at the makers!

looking great!
got the tank delivered and can't wait to fit it. Its scary as I hope I had done the correct measurements and the builder has interpreted them correctly..

eureka it fits, just got to smooth it down and paint

I fitted the tank by using 3 mounting points; 2 at the front externally and one at the rear all using rubber bobbins

I think it looks cool, it had to be high to clear the master cylinder, need to think of a colour scheme to reduce the size even more. God knows how much fuel it holds, talking of fuel I also lined the tank with red tank liner from tank care products on recommendation from the builder.

more on lamps

Changed my mind again!

saw a Davida ad with a triumph flattracker with a number board and a built in lamp. I want one of those!!!!


So i gets a bit of alloy and have a play around

the bit sticking up is going, just wanted to see what i'tll look like (easier to cut off than add on)

I think I'll make a switch panel and get an old type mechanical switch, Bingo I've found a NOS WW2 electrical switch for an aircraft!

got a VW relay to actuate the high/low beam and have sourced micro switches from Maplins and used a brake banjo with a bleed nipple (thrown away and drilled out) to mount the switch as a lever mounting bolt.

mounted on the handlebars

just need to figure a way to pull over a rubber hood to protect the switch button!

Ignition switch and oil gauge

Thought about where I'm going to place the marine ignition switch I bought.

Now I've decided to junk the electric starter which creates a handy space in there, battery or switch?

the battery will be subject to too much vibration so i've decided to put the switch gubbins in there with the key sticking out the left side of the bike.


I'll need to have a flat surface so that the key body can be mounted, I have a friend off the Yamaha Owners club turn me a small ally cylinder fixed within the cut hole, this will make more sense in pictures;

have gutted the starter motor and modded that so i can fit the marine ignition switch inside along with connections

Tyres arrived and looking at lamps

yea, got the tyres and inner tubes and fitted then meself. I think it looks really cool.

those carbs were giving cheek, so i got 135 mains for them and the damn thing fires up nicley, although it got hot really quickly so I might have to get larger jets.

fitted these lamps today.

I'm going to use a hidden switch to activate them using a VW headlamp dimmer relay

they look OK, but I might still change my mind

I arc welded the 8mm brackets for padock stand bobbins
will finish when dry build complete

exhaust gets it and found a brake solution

Cut and welded a Motad exhaust as it was too long/quiet and i wanted to install mounts for a paddock stand.
Got a friend to cut 8mm plate and welded them to the area i need the bobbins to screw in to!

Also temporary fitted the rear wheel to see what it looked like

As I'm keeping the bars clean I will mount the horn push inside the bar end and fit an ATE BMW master cylinder, so I figure I will need a bespoke tank making now, jeeze this getting expensive!

I got the bore re-honed from western rebores and got a seal kit from Motobins.

managed to get NOS carbs from a dohc xs400 and I made new brackets as these were too narrow. I'm thinking of using an XJ600 swing arm which will need to be cut narrower to fit and have sourced new needle bearings to suit xs400 shaft,

biggest job will be the tank methinks, although sometimes to little jobs become HUGE ones!!

Wheels

I needed wires! After getting them for my resto, I thought it would be great to have them for the tracker. The current alloys are so heavy, all that unsprung weight etc. this would affect handling!

They are damn expendive wires, first I had to find the hubs (xs250) these are rare as most peeps of the day wanted the new alloys! I managed to get a set and even manged to get a set of spokes free off ebay as the seller didn't have these down on his data base, happy days!!

This time I wanted to lace them myself and get Bill the wheel to true them up!
first I got alloy rims off ebay and get them satin black powder coated (triple-S, Bingley)

and got on youtube to work out how to lace the front and rear wheels on me kitchen table!

Turned out really well! I also wanted that race look so invested in wiring pliers so i can wire up the bolts for the disk brake. Another ebay purchase

now to get tyres, tubes for the wheels. After scouring the internet and catalogues I got chen shin tyres from Wyldes of Leeds via mail order. 3:50 for front and 4:00 for rear.

How it started

finally managed to complete an xs400 restoration and had a left over frame and some others bits and pieces.

So I thought I'd do something to get my creative jucies going, this is how i tackled it

tried a small speedo and the standard bars looked ok, bought tomaselli levers, I wanted a clean look on the bars! first problem, hydraulic brakes. I need a solution to keep those bars clear!

managed to buy a tank, seat and side panels from a defunct project in Leeds

didn't like the tank, too big, so bought a DT125 tank and looks better, fitted custom forks which are longer and fitted longer rear shocks bought from stafford bike show last year. Bought 2 ally ignition coils and remounted them.

even found on ebay a stainless hand made fork brace