XS, panel, whatever.

Haven't updated for crap in a while.

Long story short I wound up piecutting and bending the stock rails. Didn't like it or the seat position, so I completely cut the seat rails out and further lowered the existing uprights another half inch or so. Then I bent up some drop seat tubes using the HF 'Kinker' and some 7/8" .125" wall DOM tubing. Kinker works great once modified. Fabricated a new set of followers rather than the cheap crap rollers they include. Tweaked the dies a bit...and the damn thing bends without kinking. Tight too. I can get 90 degrees out of it without issue. Past 90 as well with a bit of finesse. Can't beat it for the price.

Anyway. Skipping around a touch here's a couple pictures.




rails cut out. welding rod bend up to mock up my new seat tubes.

Bent up and burned in the first seat rail. The 'spacer' is slugged, rosette and butt welded. Strength won't be an issue. The rails are fish mouthed and welded to the 'spacer' and fully welded to the back bone of the frame.



Then bent up and burned in the other rail. They look 'off' as the frame is asymmetrical... next time I'll just build my own damn shock mounts & supports, but this is the easy way out and it actually doesn't look too bad. Once everything gets molded in and I weld in some dimple died plates...should be slick.

bends done with the kinker. Note.. the distinct lack of kink.





One of my welds. I just quick dressed 'em with a roloc. once the fab is done it'll be sand blasted and I'll mold everything in so it doesn't have to be pretty pretty...but they aren't too bad anyway.

Got the one mid control mounted up. More comfortable than it looks. honestly. Plus my ass will be a solid inch or so up higher once I get the seat pan on and padded. I ain't worried about. Bent up half a handle bar with the scrap I had laying around. Was originally plannning on a 10.25" set of mini's... decided on a set of 8.5" tall instead.

Oh. and the LS2 got stabbed in the panel truck. Gotta replace the front body mounts on that, then finish up some other little things and then all the metal work is done and it's just a matter of finishing up the bitch. Definitely be a nice truck once she's all done.



Also cut apart and re-did the hood, just because. GTO tach pod stayed. Hood scoop shrunk and became *very* '67 427 Corvette-esque.

XS650 shit

As it sounds. Got around to getting XS pictures off the camera. Outdated as I now have the seat rails cut out, bent up new tubes for a drop seat and got that in, but... whatever. Shows the direction it's going.

Tomorrow if I have motivation I'll make the call on whether or not I'll run the frisco'd sporty or a standard sporty. If I go standard I'll fab up some quickie bungs and weld those into the frame after cutting out and welding in the new gussets as the stock one is horrid. Shock mounts also been moved an inch lower. And it'll be getting cut off and a new one welded up 1" back on the swingarm. Again. Saves me from buying either a cheap (overpriced) lowering kit or running a set of shorties. Goal is to have less than $700 into the pig. So far I'm at... $165. So.. I've got a crap ton of space left. Which covers steel stock for the pipes, the gasket kit on the way to rebuild the motor. Steel stock if I feel like being unlazy and fabricating my own internal throttle. New tires. set of used 34mm slider carbs. Whatever.

Also this isn't the tank being used. It's a junker I keep floating around I flaked as a demo a while back. Comes in handy. Real handy. I still might say F it and section the sporty tank I've got floating around for this bastard. That or at the least fill the center filler and move it to the upper right side of the tank. *shrug* depends on how bored / drunk I get tomorrow.

Forks have been final thrown together now. Wound up pulling another quarter inch out of the springs, making it a 1 3/4" drop spring with a 2" spacer I turned up. Sits nice. With no spring in the legs I can compress the legs fully and I still have a ~2" air gap between the lower tree and top o the tire. Works for me.

Got a chunk of 7/8" tubing coming to bend up a set of my own mini-apes. They'll be just as wide as my mid controls and sit at 11.25" tall. Just to be able to say I've got 11.25" apes and mind F people, because I'm nice like that. Or I still might say F it and run a 1" bar... but that'd require buying new controls..and I'm cheap. And lazy as I already have a couple sets of 7/8" controls kicking around. This is the 'shit bike' afterall. I haven't decided yet..but I'm leaning towards 7/8" and the junk ruber isolated stock risers. Again. They're cheap. I'm lazy. They work. So screw it.