I haven't been keeping the posts up too well here, but I finally got around for an update. I had to find some place to stick the coils since the bracket had to be removed to fit the MX tank. I almost mounted them by the air boxes, but then I decided to check the Pamco ignition instructions that is getting installed. I'm glad I did because the Pamco requires a single coil with dual outputs. That changed the coils all together. I went with a Dynatek coil for a Harley because I could buy them individually and not waste a coil. The coil used the original bracket modifiied and relocated where the reserve lighting relay was. Now both tanks can be fit without interfering with the coils and it is protected from the elements. On to the muffler: I finished welding the 2 into 1 header that was reconfigured from the old MAC that came on the bike. That was a lot of fun welding the pieces together at the bends where the metal was stretched to begin with. After that was sealed up and test fit I still did not have a muffler to put on when another one of my buddies donated an aluminum can muffler from one of his projects. The bracket would not work, the pipe diameter was too large and the bend angle was wrong, but it was free and I think it will look good intalled. It should work well on the 650 too. I think it was off of an SRX600 single, but I'm not sure. I had some straight pipe that was just larger than the MAC single pipe so it was a pretty easy swap with the original muffler inlet. The bracket still needs to be positioned, but all the clearences work. Iwill need to put a turn back on the muffler tip to get the exhaust to the rear, but it is aluminum and I cannot weld that. There are a couple of buddies who can though. Rear Fender: The rear fender has had me puzzeled for quite a while now. Originally it was going to be a standard motorcross fender with a small LED brakelight, but it did not really fit with the XS rear loop. Also, there was still a problem of the license plate. Today I decided to through a bit of kawi into this hybrid and adapt the rear frame section from a defunked 1974 F11 with a bent frame. It will be an obvious Kawasaki duct bill on a Yamaha, but I really like those, it leaves plenty of tire clearance and I can get a bigger taillight further back on the bike. It also lends itself to tuck the license plate up it and give me a bit more fender. The XS rear loop woul have to come off. With the mono shock there is no need for the upper shock mounts, but I still need some strength there to support the back of the seat and the taillight, license plate, etc. The F11 tubing was about 0.020" too big to fit inside the XS tubing so I spent the next 45 minutes with a grinder and 120 grit flapper wheel trying to fit them together. I did get them to fit so there would be about 1 1/2" of lug into the XS frame. There is also a small triangular support that I used from the F11 frame that should give plenty of weight bearing support. It is just held in by the lugs right now. It still needs to be set in straight and welded in place. I mis-judged the angle on the gusset so it will take some work to get that fit prior to welding, but I'm pretty happy with it so far. Other items that got done were adding the steering stop so it works with both tanks and adding gussets to the new foot pegs.
Thanks. There were a couple guys from your thread that asked about the front end swap. I have a Z490 top tree on this one and it was a direct replacement as far as the steering stem goes, but I was going to try the whole triple tree swap from the YZ490 and report back. I did a quick comparison when I added the steering stop, but I think the YZ490 might not work on a standard XS. The stems and bearings are almost identicle, but the threads on the YZ490 stem that hold the upper bearing in place are not as high as the XS so I don't think you could get the bearing secured. I haven't tried it with new tapered bearings yet (that would be more final), but still have welding to do and blasting so I don't want to install them right now. Now, if I can get this XS to go where your XS has been I'll be a happy camper
With all the mods you're doing, it should run ring around my old beasties Tyre choice has a lot to do with dirt riding - well pretty important on the blacktop too! :eek1 So there's not enough length of thread on top of the stem of the YZ?, that's a real bummer, hoping to find a front with easy adaption onto the XS frame, still looking - might start looking @ roadbike frontend options Cheers Baza
Nice looking build SOS! I see your craftsmanship is up to the job and this will turn out as one sweet looking special. My one point of concern is how will the YZ125 frame handle the torque of the 650 motor? My guess is probably allright though some stress points may need beefing up. Did you do anything in the way of additional stiffening to the frame / engine cradle?
It is the XS650 frame, now with a touch old Kaw F11 for the rear tail section. Honestly, if were to do it again I might start with the steel YZ490 frame. It would be easier to mount the motor than reconfigure the suspension, but here I don't think I could title the ZY for the street.
It is a Sunday morning here is Toledo and I got a few hours free to come down to the shop and get some work done on the XS. It is still too early to fire up the grinder so I am prepping some parts to connect the F11 inner fender to the one I modified from the XS. The radii between the 2 inner fenders was different so I ended up fitting them separately and hopefully I'll be able to fiberglass the 2 together. Never tried it before. I have a cardboard template made up to support and shape the fiberglass. The other project for today is building a bracket to fit the F11 tailsection and hold the taillight and license plate. Just got the layout done so far. Just past 10:00AM so I think I can make some noise now
Got the tailligh and plate bracket roughed in. Added a top support to lock it in. And Finally: Had enough pictures yet?
Got started on the inner and outer fenders. I hate working with fiberglass First I had to connect the inner fender from the XS that was modified around the monoshock to the inner fender from the Kawasaki F11 that holds the duct bill. And a little support from the underside: With the inner fender shape established I could form the 1st seat pan. I am starting with the small MX tank thinking that I can use the same form and just cut it back when we put on the stock XS650 tank to make the second seat. I didn't take a picture, but I used 7mm plug wire taped around the frame to give the seat some separation and allow for upolstering. That is 4 layers on the first seat and where I left off last night. I still need to incorporate the mounting and get the rubber inserts to get the seat up off the frame a touch. It will probably need another 4 to 6 layers to make sure it is solid, but now that the form is set I can remove it and form the shorter seat for the stock tank.
This is awesome. i love what you are doing with this. one of my biggest project regrets had a similar mix and match. a dr250s frame and motor with sv650 suspension and a.gs750 tank. i had a cafe seat for it and then i just hit a brick wall. didnt wire it, didnt make mounts for things... blah. sold it. regrets. anyways, continue! Your work is bueno.
Thanks. There are certainly times when I don't want to touch it, but here as Winter is drawing to a close I definitely want to get it on the road.
I was able to separate the first seat with 4 layers of fiberglass (plain old duct tape worked well and released well). 4 layers was not going to be thick enough, but I wanted to get the shorter seat form done as I could add layers later. Here is the 1st pan for the small MX tank. I needed to do a better job forming the sides so the next layers will have to be better and I formed the tape on the frame for a better mold for the shorter pan with the XS tank. Working with the fiberglass is tough in the shop. The fumes are bad so I can only do it after we close and I usually need to get back to the family. Things were slow at home last night so I headed back to the shop to get the forms done. The form was already modified for the stock XS tank so I just had to precut the fiberglass sheeting and stage the resin. Here is the shorter form for the stock tank and the 1st pan on the bench waiting for additional layers. After 10 sheets of fiberglass: And an additional 4 sheets on the 1st pan: Everything was dry this morning and I was able to separate the second seat pan (although with 10 sheets it took some work). Both pans are plenty strong now. Tomorrow I'll get the excess cut off and shape the final pans. Then it will be adding the rubber mounts to sit on the frame and making the front and rear brackets to attach each seat.
I have been looking through the photos that I took of my custom fiberglass seat... I found some nice compressible rubber gasket material that I ran along the edges of the seat, worked great. This is the only photo I can find... it shows that gasket stuff up at the front of the seat, I ended up running it all around, for looks and function...
Sweet I like the Beemer Cafe! That compressible rubber is a great option. I am concerned about getting good support for the pans and isolating them from the frame. Hopefully the pans willget used for quite a few miles and I put some serious pressure on them Do you remember where you got it from?
