The 520 Chain Cafe

XS650 project

The plan for the upholstery was to learn to use a sewing machine and do a nice cover for the seat over the winter, but that didn't happen. At this point I'm just wanting to ride it, so it is just going to be a quick vinyl wrap job.

I'm using short aluminum pop rivets with washers to secure the vinyl.

These work great with the fiberglass pan.

I cut and sewed the corners by hand.

It is a bit crude, but it is a place to sit.

I think is is going to be fairly comfortable. For sure I'll do a better cover next winter, but this will do for now.

The front fender is off for another coat of paint. I've got install the petcock and some other small things and it'll be ready for a test ride. I was concerned about the area where the tank and seat base meet, but shimmed the rear tank mount and I'm happy with it.

XS650 project

I painted the new front fender semi-gloss black and wanted to see how it looked with the rest of the bodywork, and couldn't be happier with it. I'll hopefully get the seat upholstery finished this weekend.

Goodyear

This flew near my house today, porpoising up and down. Pretty neat.

XS650 project

Moving on to the sheet metal, I decided not to use the fender I had on the bike during mock-up. It is a Suzuki T250 fender that I'd modified and used on my SR500 for awhile. I like it, but it is just too full of a fender for this bike.

Here is more of what I want, on an XS650 from a show earlier this year. I wanted to make the front a little longer to add clamps for the brake lines, but this is pretty much the look I'm after.

I dug through some fenders I had, and I'm going to use this Suzuki GS850G fender. This is from a GS I had, which I'd put an SR500 fender on, so I knew the mountings were fairly close to the Yamaha. I test fit it and put some masking tape where the brake lines run so I'd leave the front long enough.

One nice thing about this fender is it has fairly sturdy bracing, unlike the T250 fender, which should help handling a bit.

Here is a quick way to get the first rough cut fairly close. Cut a piece of paper the same width as the fender.

Fold it in half.

Cut the folded paper to the rough shape of the desired fender cut.

Unfold and tape it in place.

Use some spray paint as a marker.

Do the same for the other end, and ready to cut.

Here is the rough cut.

I put it in place without bolts and pushed it against the tire, then put some masking tape across the top of the fork mounts.

Then lifted it up to where the bolt holes line up, and you can see the clearance. It could go a bit lower, but looks good to me right here.

Here is how close the fork and fender mounts are. I just drilled the fender holes out a little bigger to fit it.

I drilled holes to use some small cable clamps for the brake lines. These are just so they won't rub.

Next is to remove the paint with Rust-Oleum aircraft stripper.

Then I filed the cuts smoother, and it is ready to sandblast and paint.

XS650 project

These insulated clamps can be bought in the electrical department at most hardware stores, and work great for securing braided brake lines.

I'm using Valvoline synthetic brake fluid. The front brakes bled easily, and I think everything there will work great.

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The turn signals didn't work, so I switched from the stock three prong flasher to a regular automotive 552 two prong part. On an old Yamaha you want to use the brown and brown/white wires. The brown wire is switched power, and the brown/white sends power from the flasher to the left handlebar switch. The remaining wire isn't used. After switching they worked fine.

A popular mod on the XS650, I'm using a power brake one way valve for crankcase ventilation.

An engine displaces the same volume below the piston as above. As the pistons come down, it can pressurize the inside of the engine. With this valve it lets any pressure out, but closes to not let anything in on the pistons upstroke, in theory creating a slight vacuum, which should minimize any pressure on the next downstroke.

It connects to the head breather port with 1/2" hose, and then 3/8" hose exit.

The crankcase breather housings changed over the years of XS650 production. Early bikes used both ports. The '75 originally had one port capped and one going to the front sprocket area. Later bikes just had one port.

The mirrors are ebay cheapies that I've used on a couple of other bikes and really like them. I got these from seller power.freaks1 for $14.50 with free shipping, so crazy cheap price, but nice mirrors.

I've had a pair of these type mirrors on my Sportster for several years. Since it has 1" bars I used some old pieces of inner tube to shim them to fit. I found that handlebar vibration was greatly reduced after installing the mirrors, and also the mirror images are completely clear, so I'm doing it on the XS also even though it has 7/8" bars. I cut some small pieces of old inner tube.

Then the inner tube rubber goes into the bar and the outer sleeve tapped into place.

And then the mirrors installed.

I'd figured that I might need to lengthen the side stand in mock-up, but decided to wait until further along so I'd know exactly where the ride height would be. It only needed about 3/8", so I'm just welding a pad on the bottom. I found a piece of scrap steel just right.

Welded and some shaping.

Painted and back on the bike.

I needed to make the shift rod for my home made rearsets, so here is what I came up with. I found some 1/2" scrap steel tubing. After cutting to length I notched the ends of the tubing, and ground the corners off of a couple 6mm nuts so they just fit inside.

Next the nuts are put in place. The bolt is to both install them, and make sure that the nut spacing is good, basically you want the bolt to turn freely through both nuts.