XS750 Project, Part 22 -- It Runs, But...

w00t!!! After wrenching on the bike all winter long, I fired the bike up the other day, and it runs!!! I had to adjust the idle to keep it from dieing if I took my hand off the throttle (which is the reason for the awkward point of view in the video), but that was an easy fix. However, if it's not obvious in the video, there's still a *LOT* of work to be done before I'm ready to ride off into the sun on the cafe racer. So, having yet another beautiful weekend to pull the bike out into the driveway, I started trying to address some of the remaining issues.

First, I CANNOT get the <many, many expletives deleted> LH front brake to quit leaking. I've tried crush washers, epoxy, and I even tried solder today to keep the brake fluid from weeping around the threads of the screw that I'm using to fill the bleeder hole, but nothing works. However, I came up with an ingenious solution, I think: remove the LH brake entirely. The rear brakes work and the RH front brake isn't leaking (knock on wood!) after filling the bleeder hole with epoxy, so I removed the LH brake. I'll see if I can find someone with a TIG welder to fill the bleeder hole with aluminum, but until then, I'm going to try having only one front brake.



Next, I needed to finish up the wiring on the rear of the bike, so after pulling the LH front brake, I set out to get the tail light/brake light and turn signals wired up. Unfortunately, I discovered two problems, once the wiring was done: the turn signals don't flash, and the front turn signals wouldn't light up at all. The flashing I understand, and the solution was (well..."will be") simple. The new turn signals don't draw as much current as the old turn signals, so I need a solid-state flasher. I had already bought a flasher to use with LED-based turn signals, but it wasn't compatible with my wiring harness. I didn't feel like wiring up a new harness, so instead, I went back to Superbright LEDs and ordered a compatible (I hope...) flasher. The second problem is proving to be a little more difficult to resolve. After poking around the wiring inside the headlamp housing for a bit, I discovered that the filament on one of the turn signals had broken. Remember, these are brand new turn signals, and when I originally bought them, I tried to remove the lamp to install an LED in its place, but failed. Having nothing to lose, I tried again to remove the lamp, this time being a little more aggressive, and I was, in fact, successful. Unfortunately, my local auto parts supplier didn't have a match for the tiny little bulb that was installed in the turn signal. Fortunately, Superbright LEDs had what I think is a match, so I will be replacing the bulbs with LEDs after all. My opinions on that are somewhat mixed, though. I wanted LEDs in the first place, but sheesh...I've never even used the friggin' turn signals and I'm already replacing bulbs(!). Honestly...I'm a bit torqued over it.

I also need to finish the seat before I can ride the bike, so I set out to remedy that problem, too. Originally, I intended to build something like a flat-tracker seat, which would allow me to carry a passenger. Then, I wanted to make a fiberglass solo cowl shaped like the archetypal cafe racer "hump" which I could install when I was by myself. However, relocating the license plate and lights above the seat pan changed my plans slightly. I decided to build a very small cowl that was more or less similar to the cowl that was originally installed on the bike, and possibly make a truncated cafe racer "hump" to fit over the vestigial cowl when I'm riding solo. To make the minimalist cowl, I used the same process I used to make the side covers:

Glue blocks of foam together with spray adhesive, and test fit on the back of the seat pan. Mark the outline of the license plate and tail lights with a Sharpie.

Lay out the shape of the front of the cowl. I used the old trick of marking evenly spaced dots along the vertical edge of the foam blocks, then an equal number of evenly spaced dots across the top edge of the blocks, and finally drawing straight lines to connect the dots on the sides to the dots along the top to approximate a curve. It worked beautifully, IMHO :)

Cut and sand to shape...

...cover with blue painter's tape...

...and paste wax to act as a release agent, then glass it up. I didn't shoot a photo of the first layer of glass, but I'll try to get some shots tomorrow or Monday, when I add another couple of layers (since this hump will be acting as a back rest for the passenger, I'll be using more layers of glass than the I used on the side covers to make it stiffer and stronger).

Finally, I started going through the bike, making some of the adjustments called out in the maintenance schedule, like adjusting the clutch and clutch cable, checking and adjusting throttle cable play, adjusting the idle setting (which I believe I mentioned earlier), etc. This fixed a problem I had noticed before firing up the engine the first time: pulling the clutch lever didn't seem to fully release the transmission. I couldn't move the bike in gear, even though I was pulling on the clutch for all I was worth.

Oh, yeah...one last issue. The starter button is 100% inop. I don't know if I really care, however, since I'd already considered removing the starter entirely. It's extra weight and necessitates a larger, more powerful (read: heavier) battery. On the flip side, it must have taken me 15 to 20 minutes to get it started the first time, lol. It's been better since then, but still nowhere near as easy to start as the push-button V-Strom :D For now, I'll probably ignore the problem with the starter button, but leave the starter motor in place. If I find that kick-starting the bike all the time is no big deal, I may look into pulling the starter and putting in a smaller battery next winter. If I'm fed up with kick-starting the bike this summer, on the other hand, I'll troubleshoot the starter button and leave the starter motor in place.

All in all, it was a good day, and I'm getting ever closer to taking the bike out for a spin. Man, I can't wait!

XS750 Project, Part 21 -- 90 Per Cent Done, 90 Per Cent to Go

Before I bought my first motorcycle, I was into airplanes. I earned my private pilot's license in 1991, then spent the next several years pining for an airplane of my own. However, I really couldn't manage to get terribly excited over most of the small, single-engine "General Aviation" airplanes available at the time. What I really longed for was one of the kit planes that were just beginning to take the aviation world by storm. I ended up buying plans for two airplanes, a fiberglass Dragonfly and a tube-and-fabric Sonerai II. I eventually even started cutting out wing ribs for the Sonerai before deciding that metal work was not really my thing. Anyway, after years of pouring through the latest edition of Kitplanes magazine, I learned that airplane homebuilders had a saying: "90% done, 90% to go," meaning that, after the airplane was almost completely built -- looking like it was ready to fly any day -- the builders often discovered that the last ten per cent of the work left on the airplane easily took as long, if not longer, than assembling the raw foam, fiberglass, steel tube, aluminum angle, or wooden frame had taken. Making something that resembled an airplane was often much easier, and much more immediately rewarding, than the detail work of fleshing out the airplane and installing all of the interior systems.


I think I have reached the "90% done, 90% to go," milestone on the XS750 project. It now looks like a bike. The exhaust has been reconnected,


...the seat pan and tail light mounts have been fabricated and painted, the electrical system has been mostly reconnected, the battery box has been reinstalled,


...the frame and fuel tank have been painted, carbs have been reinstalled, fuel and vacuum lines have been reattached, throttle and clutch cables are reconnected,


the headlight bucket and turn signals are reattached and wired up. In fact, it was close enough to being done that yesterday, I reconnected the freshly charged battery and had planned to fire up the bike just to let the engine run for a bit.

Nada.

When I turned the ignition key, there were no lights on the instrument panel at all, nor did pressing the starter button elicit any motion in the engine. As far as I could tell, there were no electrons flowing in the electrical system whatsoever, not even the click of a relay.

At this point, it looks like motorcycle, but the list of details left on the punch-list is daunting. The front brakes still don't work (I think the E-bay FZR750 master cylinder isn't working properly, so a replacement from Mike's XS is on the way). I still have to replace the exhaust gaskets (I couldn't remove them while the engine was cold; I intend to try again after running the engine to see if the heat will make the exhaust flanges expand enough to slip the gaskets out). I still need to connect the crankcase breather filter and route the breather line somewhere.


I also need to wire up the tail lights, brake lights and rear turn signals, as well as pad and upholster the seat. Once all of that is done, there is also the periodic maintenance that may or may not be due (engine oil change, final drive oil change, spark plug replacement, etc.), but that I intend to complete, just to be sure that the required maintenance is up to date.

Oh, yeah...and get the electrical system working. Without spark, none of the rest of the work matters. A cafe racer is nothing more than a steel and rubber sculpture if the engine doesn't run. I suspect that for the next several days, I'll be spending some quality time in the garage with a multimeter and test probe trying to trace down the point where the electrons are going AWOL.

Should be fun!

XS750 Project -- Part 20: It's a Roller!!!

There is a quote attributed to Thomas Edison that I really like: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that do not work. Taking a cue from Edison, I seem to have found 10,000 or so ideas, while converting an XS750 to a cafe racer, that do not work.


First, the awesome fuel filters I picked up at O'Reilly's auto don't fit between the fuel petcocks and the fuel manifold on the carbs. The outlet on the petcocks points towards the center of the bike, and therefore, the length of the fuel filters means that fuel will have to flow upwards to the carbs. Since the carbs are gravity fed, I'm not convinced that the fuel will actually make it to the carbs, especially when the tank is nearly empty. Consequently, I removed the filters and ran the fuel lines directly to the carbs. The petcocks already have fine mesh screens over the inlets. Yamaha obviously thought that would be enough filtration, so I'll go with their design.


Second, once I installed the rear wheel, I found that the tail light/brake light/turn signal/license plate hangar rubs on the tire. As I was fabricating the part, I was concerned about clearance, and now that the rear tire is reinstalled, it looks like my concerns were well founded. Even with no load on the shocks, the license plate touches the rear tire. I'll have to find a way to point the plate upwards, rather than hanging it underneath the seat. On a positive note, I salvaged a thicker metal strip from the OEM license plate hangar that should work better for securing the tail lights. The tail light bracket I fabricated was a little flimsy; the OEM piece is much beefier. However, I'll have to ream the mounting holes a little bit to get the 10mm bolts on the turn signals to fit.


Third, after priming the fiberglass side panels, I sprayed them with several coats of Duplicolor "Stainless Steel" paint, then tried to put a layer of Duplicolor "Shadow" paint to match the effect I intend for the gas tank. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the Stainless Steel and Shadow paints are compatible. When I applied the Shadow paint over the Stainless Steel paint, the Shadow paint spotted, looking like snakeskin or fish scales. It could be a cool effect, if that's what I wanted, but...well...that isn't what I wanted ;) I ended up covering over the Shadow paint with more Stainless Steel, but that was a mistake, too. Today or tomorrow, I'll fix it properly by sanding off everything down to the primer and starting over.


And, of course, I have already written about my attempts to fabricate a gasket for the fuel tank filler opening...


...the front brake issues...


...the Emgo pod filters, and...


...the "Angel Eyes" turn signal/brake lights.

It can be frustrating to waste money on parts that you end up not using, not mention the hours (and hours...) spent fabricating pieces only to find out that your idea won't work, and you'll have to start all over again. However, that's just part of the process, and honestly, part of the fun. In fact, it's such a time-honored tradition, that engineers (the professional kind, not just us back-yard mechanics!) came up with a term for it:

Iteration.

And despite the setbacks, I have made some real, definitive, measureable progress on the bike over the Memorial Day weekend. As shown in the photo at the top of this blog entry, the XS750 is now a roller! After painting the frame this weekend, I reached a point where I could start putting pieces back ON the bike, instead of just taking pieces off. I installed the rear wheel, the rear brake, the electrical box...

...and the rear "fender," which made me very happy. Finally, it's starting to look like a motorcycle again instead of a collection of dusty scrap cluttering up my garage :) The best part is, now that I'm starting to see my vision materialize, I'm getting stoked to finish up the project! I want to have it ready to run in...25 days?...something like that, anyway. Last week, I wasn't certain I would make my deadline, but now, I think that maybe I can :)

Wish me luck!

XS750 Project, Part 19 -- Some Welding and More Fiberglass Work

Just a quick update, tonight. My MIG welder arrived yesterday, and after a few practice welds, I decided to try to weld the cross-brace on the frame:

I obviously need practice, but it will do for now (and yes, I used the angle grinder to clean it up a little lot). Another photo:


I also tried to revisit the RTV silicone fuel cap gasket. I think we can add this...:


...to the list of ideas that seemed better in my head than they were in reality. Not sure what I'll try next.

Finally, I am trying to finish up the fiberglass side panels, so tonight, I mixed up another batch of polyester resin and got to work patching up areas that were a little thin from sanding, where the fiberglass didn't follow compound curves quite as well as I had hoped, and where air bubbles had left voids:


Unfortunately, my baseboard heaters were leaking, so I had to turn off the heat to my garage last weekend. I haven't fixed the heat yet, but c'mon, it's the middle of May, so it should be warm enough anyway...right?

Yeah, no. When I left for work this morning, it was 31 degrees (F), and snowing!!!. To get the garage warm enough for the polyester resin to cure, I brought a couple of 500W halogen lights over near my work bench. I'd rather have the baseboard heat, but these will do for now.

XS750 Restoration, Part 18 -- Stripping in the Driveway

One of the milestones on my project plan that must be completed before most of the other milestones can be met is stripping the gas tank. I've been at work on that particular milestone for months now, and to tell the truth, I'm really getting tired of looking at an ALMOST stripped gas tank every time I walk out into the garage :) So, having some extra time today, I dragged the tank out into the driveway, and starting stripping (paint, that is). I bought some chemical stripper and a "toothbrush" (well, it looks like one, anyway) with steel bristles at O'Reilley's the other day, so I liberally covered the gas tank with the stripper, let it sit for 15 minutes or so, then started scrubbing on the tank with the brush. I made some progress, but not as much as I expected. I applied more stripper, let it sit, and scrubbed again.

And again...

And yet again.

I was making progress, but after what I had read on-line about the stuff I bought, I was honestly kind of disappointed with the chemical stripper. It just didn't seem to be dissolving the paint very well.

That's when I noticed that the can I bought said, "Adhesive and Decal Remover" (facepalm). The cans look identical, and they are made by the same company, but this was not what I needed. I wiped as much of the stuff off of the tank as I could, and tried pouring some MEK that I had from another project a few years back on the gas tank. It worked about as well as the decal and adhesive remover. I grabbed my cordless drill and wire wheel, and started scrubbing at the tank. I made some progress, but by the time I had drained both batteries, I still had a lot of old paint left on the tank. Finally, I decided to do it right, so I went back into town and bought the right stuff to use on my tank, and what a difference THAT made! The chemical stripper and wire "toothbrush" cleaned almost all of the paint off of the tank in about an hour. There are still a few places inside the "tunnel" and in crevices around the gas cap hinge and lock where I still have a bit of paint to clean out, but the tank is easily 90+% done, now.

I also made some progress on the license plate, tail light and turn signal hangar, which I fabricated from two pieces of mild steel sheet. To make the part, I started by tracing a license plate onto the steel sheet. Then, I traced the outline of the taillight above the license plate. Next, I measured a one inch high by...ummm...eleven inches, I think?...strip of steel, and added a tab, seven inches wide and about three inches high, to mount the completed hangar onto the seat pan. I cut the pieces out of the steel sheet with my angle grinder (quickly becoming one of my favorite tools!), marked the holes to mount the license plate, and drilled the bolt holes. I bent all the pieces to shape over a 1x1 block of wood, and this is the result. I'm reasonably happy with it, although I think I might need to add some gussets on the tabs that hold the turn signals. The steel is thin enough that those tabs bend pretty easily.

Edit: Don't try what I describe next!!! It doesn't work, and the RTV will plug up the vent in the fuel cap, which will cause your engine to die on you due to fuel starvation!

Emboldened by my success with the license plate/tail light hangar, and still really needing a gasket to seal between the gas cap and the gas tank filler opening, I decided to try to form a gasket out of RTV silicone. I've looked on-line, and the gas cap gaskets are not available as a stand-alone item; you can only get one if you buy the entire gas cap. I mean, how hard could it be...right?

So, I cut a plastic shopping bag into a a flat sheet of plastic, folded it until it was just a bit larger than the filler opening in the gas tank, duct taped it over the filler opening, squirted a huge glob of silicone onto the plastic, carefully placed the gas cap onto the blob of silicone, duct taped it in place and let it sit overnight. I checked it the next day after work...but it wasn't fully cured yet, so I put the cap back in place and gave it a couple more days...

Each step of the process...:

...and the final result: Ugh...that looks like crap! I think the steel cap would seal better than that, lol! I might try again, using considerably less silicone, or I might just go to Alaska Rubber and see if they have a sheet of rubber that I could cut to fit. We'll see.

While I was at O'Reilley's buying decal remover (sigh...), I found a couple of very nice looking chrome-and-glass fuel filters. I connected the filters up to the 5/16" fuel line I bought the other day, and connected the other end of the fuel line up to the fuel petcocks. I then used the old 1/4" braided steel fuel lines I bought last fall to connect the vacuum input on the petcocks. Looks pretty sharp; can't wait to get the tank painted and reinstalled on the bike so I can hook the lines up to the carbs!

And that's the progress on the XS750 cafe racer project tonight. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to revisit the front brakes and can start getting the frame and the tank painted so I can start putting pieces back together soon! 'Til then, keep the rubber side down!

Excellent Post on Cornering and Body Position

Found this post on cornering and body position on G+ today. IMHO, the author is exactly right: if you find yourself fighting "survival reactions" when riding, you probably have your body position on the bike all screwed up to begin with. BTDT, and fortunately, the only damage was to my pride :)

XS750 Restoration Project, Part 17 -- Progress!

After getting enough work done on the V-Strom to make it rideable -- I still need to install the new air filter, and the front wheel is still leaking air :( -- I have returned to working on the Yamaha.

The first thing I did is create a project plan to help keep me organized while trying to decide what needs to be done next. Not exciting, but I think it will help prevent putting sub-assemblies together only to find that I have to take it apart again to complete another step.

Next, I decided that I am probably not going to be able to build the hoop for the rear sub-frame with the tools and skills I currently possess, and I have completely struck out at finding someone locally who can do it for me. Dime City Cycles sells a completed hoop as well as an entire rail, but...$$$. They look like quality parts and I don't mean to knock the guys at DCC -- they are true craftsmen, in every sense of the word. However, I just can't see spending $70 on a single curved piece of steel tubing, nor can I afford $249 for the entire seat rail. Consequently, I took an extra piece of 7/8 inch tubing and used a 1 inch hole saw in my drill press to cut the ends to fit the sub-frame rails on the bike. By careful measuring -- and a lot of luck -- I managed to get it almost exactly the right width between the rails. Now, I need to buy some oxygen and acetylene from the local welding supply store so I can fire up my torch (which I've owned since nineteen-ninety-something and have never, ever used) to weld the cross-brace in place. Either that, or I can buy an arc welder from Lowe's or Home Depot, since that should be about the same amount of money as the welding gas, and is (arguably) better for welding steel tubing.

On top of that, I have revisited the fiberglass side covers I started making back in December. The surfaces were not nearly as smooth as I envisioned, so I spent a couple of hours with some 80-grit sandpaper, grinding down the high spots. Of course, as often happens when working with fiberglass, the tops of some of the low spots were lower than the bottom of some of the high spots, lol, so I ended up sanding all the way through the glass in places. That's okay, though -- these are not load-bearing parts, so discontinuity in the glass is acceptable, in this case. After getting the parts reasonably smooth, I cut another layer of glass, laid it over the parts, and wet it out thoroughly with more resin. I then used a cheap paint brush to work the resin into the weave, making sure there were no voids or air pockets (or at least trying to, anyway...), and let the resin cure. The corners are proving to be a bit tricky, so I ended up mixing up another batch of resin, shredding some scraps of glass cloth into the resin, and stirring to make a thick, sticky, goopy mess, which I applied liberally to the inside of the corners to stiffen them up and fill in the voids. Some time in the next week, I'll be sanding the high points where the glass creased instead of conforming to the intended curvature of the corners. It'll probably take a little more resin inside the corners, and maybe another ply or two of patches over the corners, as well as a lot of TLC with the sandpaper, before the corners are good enough for me to call them done :) After that, I'll prime and paint the covers to match what I intend for the rest of the bike. I'm thinking Duplicolor stainless steel with a coat or two of blackout shadow paint I have for the tanks...should look killer with the black frame, engine and handlebars!

Last, I finallydecided to stop procrastinating on the seat pan. I'm still concerned about putting a fiberglass seat pan over the battery, considering some of the stories I've read concerning charging problems on older motorcycles. Fiberglass can burn, steel doesn't. Consequently, I bought a sheet of mild steel from Lowe's, cut to approximately the same size as the seat rails on my bike, and started hitting it with a hammer until it looked about right. No, really -- that's exactly how I did it :) I laid the steel over the existing sub-frame, marked an outline with a Sharpie, redrew the outline about 1 inch wider, cut the marked line with my angle grinder, and beat it to conform to the shape of the sub frame. All things considered, I'm very, very happy with how it is turning out.


Once I was pretty happy with the shape of the seat pan, I started laying out and cutting foam for the seat padding. A little spray adhesive to hold the various pieces together, and it was starting to look pretty good:


I still need to take a file to the seat pan and smooth out all of the rough edges. The cut-outs for the shocks and other miscellaneous frame protrusions are pretty rough, and will develop stress cracks if I don't clean them up a bit. Then, I'll need to drill the pan for the lacing to sew the vinyl in place. I'm concerned that the sharp edges in the steel pan will abrade any kind of textile thread -- even kevlar, if I could find it -- so I think I will probably end up lacing the vinyl down with steel wire, then covering that with some rubber trim, glued in place. <shrug> I'll figure something out :)