Yamaha XS400 Budget Project

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Savantjk

Street Tracker
I already posted in the ace cafe about purchasing the bike for $250. I've decided to build it after a more solo brat bike style. So far I've shed about 15lbs off the bike and have gutted the internals. Going for a see through look minus battery. Fabbed a little tray to hold the relays and fusebox under the seat and keep them hidden. Cut the frame behind the rear shocks and will have a rear loop welded on soon enough. Aftermarket specific parts are extremely limited. At the moment I have a flat seat pan with a 1" lip and full radius back in the works to have a bench style solo seat mounted on. I've been looking for headers, but it seems to be either stock or a MAC system which has mixed reviews.. not crazy about the look either. So I'm going to wrap or spray the headers (they aren't looking so great these days) and I've got a set of emgo shorty's lined up to keep it all low profile (except the sound!).

Here's the bike waiting for air filters and a battery.

moto_0782.jpg
 
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sweatmachine

sweatmachine

moped
Cool project!

My $0.02:

Shorten the forks, lose the front fender, lose the headlight ears, spraybomb the wheels, mini-gauges, etc.

I like Craigore's Firestone suggestion.
 
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C

Craigore

TT Racer
sweatmachine said:
My $0.02:

Shorten the forks, lose the front fender, lose the headlight ears, spraybomb the wheels, mini-gauges, etc.

I like Craigore's Firestone suggestion.
Click to expand...

I was trying to fit them on my Bonneville but I don't want to switch to an 18" rear wheel so I'm just going to fit them to my RD350 project and make a bratstyle bike out of it.
 
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Savantjk

Street Tracker
Sweat and Craigore, great minds think alike! I either want the Firestones or some beefy looking tires like the Shinko's that Nohawk has. The wheels are going to my powdercoater after I figure out a cost/style compromise with the tire situation. Front fender will either be cut down to a small hugger or I'll just cut the brace out if I can.

I despise the headlight ears on this bike. Any suggestions for a clean bottom mount? I've gotta get rid of those turn signals off the headlight too. Those things must weigh a pound each. It's insane. The gauges don't even work.. so bye bye. Probably just put a bicycle speedo on since I'm not really worried about mileage at this point. Speedo says 6k, but there's no speedo cable either.

I'm ordering some low profile mx bars, emgo shorties, and uni pods tomorrow. All for $80 with free shipping! Legit site too, I ordered my last set of pod filters from them for cheap. That will put my total investment up to $330 so far.

Any objections to using a sport bike master cylinder? The one on the bike has seen better days and it runs 7/8" bars. Seems like I could give it more juice.
 
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sweatmachine

sweatmachine

moped
I put an sv650s master cylinder on my friend's KZ550. It worked very well. The lever was incredibly firm.

As for the headlight brackets, my suggestion would be to get a 5-3/4" sidemount headlight off ebay and some chrome exhaust P-clamps and make your own brackets. I did that on my Bonnie (and my friend's KZ550) and it came out very clean. You'll need to find P-clamps close to the size of your fork diameter. For the Bonnie, the forks are 41mm so 1-5/8" clamps worked perfectly. (1.625" = 41.275mm)

P-clamp ($5) in vice:

53-4headlight008.jpg


Bang bang bang with deadblow hammer:

53-4headlight009.jpg


cut/drill/trim:

53-4headlight024.jpg


mounted with headlight:

53-4headlight058.jpg


Painted black, with Trailtech Vapor gauge installed:

vapormounted.jpg
 
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Savantjk

Street Tracker
Thanks for the idea, Sweat! Dropped the bike 2" down the forks. No bottoming out or rub when working them over. Fender isn't cut yet, just floating for the pic. Took the center stand off to toss. I'm all about weight reduction on this one. Exhaust is off to. Bonehead PO thought it would be a good idea to weld at every seam. PITA to remove.

I'm about to start the breakdown to get the frame blasted and coated. God help me. Never completely broke a bike down to frame or worked with the internals before.

moto_0789.jpg
 
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Savantjk

Street Tracker
I ordered a set yesterday! $19 a piece with free shipping.. ended up getting the shorties, 2 uni pod filters, and a set of bars for $82 shipped.

Just noticed there is a hole and dent in the header right before the weld for the can.. So I'll either have to get replacement headers or have some seriously short exhaust! I'm leaning toward the short exhaust. Its a 1 seater any way.
 
S

Savantjk

Street Tracker
Bullitt said:
Looking forward to following your progress.
Click to expand...

Should be a fun little gig! I thought the bike was pretty ugly to start off but it ran and was $250 haha

Pulled the swing arm and stripped the tank today for blasting and powdercoat. Ordered a 5 3/4" sidemount headlight from ebay as Sweat recommended for $39 shipped. So far I'm about $406 in. Goal is to come out with a full functioning bike for under a grand. So far I believe I'm on the right track!
 
S

Savantjk

Street Tracker
Seat pan is done. Waiting for additional pics but it's built to spec. Full arc at the back to keep things nice and rounded, 1" lip around the base to hide the frame rails.
xs400pan.jpg
 
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Savantjk

Street Tracker
Working R6 master cylinder and reservoir on way.. $35 bucks. No too bad. It's like waiting for Christmas with these parts coming in.
 
Sal Paradise

Sal Paradise

Hooligan
I know ... buying parts off the 'net is effing great. Soo much better than the old days when we had to actually drive down to a MC shop and beg them to order parts, then drive back the next week. Those then you usually had to buy new stuff unless they had the exact bike parts in the back yard and there was almost no guidance on what worked with what. Much better now and really great to see bikes like this 'saved from the junkyard"

My own little $200 junk yard refuge has been the perfect little runabout for the past 3 years and 4,000 miles. Adopt a junker today!!
 
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Savantjk

Street Tracker
I let my girlfriend choose the color. Tank is being powdercoated a light blue/green. Sometimes it looks seafoam green, other robin's egg blue.. I don't know. Should continue the old school vibe I'm going with so I don't think she did too bad haha

Guys, opinions?
color-1.jpg
 
S

Savantjk

Street Tracker
Bullitt said:
copper/bronze color or gold metal-flake
Click to expand...

Since i'm essentially building it as a spare bike for her to ride I'm trying her color.... if it's too gay and I'm ashamed to ride it, I'll fix that. No sense in building a bike I dig the styling of but hate the color.
 
sweatmachine

sweatmachine

moped
I agree on the Copper color. The green? Not so much :(

But, if there's enough black and/or silver to tone down the green, it could look cool.
 
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