Winter biking blues
It's been a brutal winter. I've lived here for six years, and I've never seen it like this. Piles of snow that stick around and slowly become dirtier and dirtier snirt. The temperatures are pretty warm - for the planet Mars.
I can ride my bicycle the six miles to work in 40 degree weather in shorts, a T-shirt, and a windbreaker with no gloves and still get sweaty. If I ride my motorcycle to work in 40-degree weather in thick jeans, boots, a sweater, leather jacket, scarf, full-face helmet, and super-warm ski gloves, I am numb with the cold and have blurred vision by the time I arrive.
It has felt warm when a day's highs reach the 40s this winter. There haven't been many mornings where the temperature has even been close to 40 and there hasn't been ice all over the roads.
So, except for a weekend blast to a gas station to top up the tank, mix in some fuel stabilizer, and burn out the gas in the carbs, my motorcycle has been sitting dormant.
For a while I was thinking that it would be cool to make my motorcycle more cafe-racer-esque - replace the pegs with rearsets, replace the tear-drop tank with one that was more loaf-like, and put a sleeker seat on it. I got a tank from something like an RD400 from a guy in Denver from craigslist for $20.
I had to pound dents in the frame tunnel to clear the coils for it to fit, but once it was mounted it looked kind of lame. I don't know if I'll end up actually using it.
I also got some rearsets from a Maxim/Seca that should work for $20, on Ebay:
I haven't made up mounting brackets for them, but it doesn't seem like it would be very hard. I think it would be fun to try these out sometime. They're not very extreme. I'm not sure when I'll get motivated to actually do it, though.
I can ride my bicycle the six miles to work in 40 degree weather in shorts, a T-shirt, and a windbreaker with no gloves and still get sweaty. If I ride my motorcycle to work in 40-degree weather in thick jeans, boots, a sweater, leather jacket, scarf, full-face helmet, and super-warm ski gloves, I am numb with the cold and have blurred vision by the time I arrive.
It has felt warm when a day's highs reach the 40s this winter. There haven't been many mornings where the temperature has even been close to 40 and there hasn't been ice all over the roads.
So, except for a weekend blast to a gas station to top up the tank, mix in some fuel stabilizer, and burn out the gas in the carbs, my motorcycle has been sitting dormant.
For a while I was thinking that it would be cool to make my motorcycle more cafe-racer-esque - replace the pegs with rearsets, replace the tear-drop tank with one that was more loaf-like, and put a sleeker seat on it. I got a tank from something like an RD400 from a guy in Denver from craigslist for $20.
I had to pound dents in the frame tunnel to clear the coils for it to fit, but once it was mounted it looked kind of lame. I don't know if I'll end up actually using it.
I also got some rearsets from a Maxim/Seca that should work for $20, on Ebay:
I haven't made up mounting brackets for them, but it doesn't seem like it would be very hard. I think it would be fun to try these out sometime. They're not very extreme. I'm not sure when I'll get motivated to actually do it, though.
posted by veloandy at 1:26 PM
2 Comments:
Hey, I'm enjoying reading up on your posts! I'm fixing up a 77 XS400 and have found your troubleshooting helpful. I like the look of your bike too! I'm curious, What kind of seat did you put on it?
Hey Scott,
Thanks!
That loaf tank ended up not looking so good...it's a lot smaller than a good looking cafe-esque tank should be.
So, I still have the stock "XS400Special" tank and seat on it.
I was thinking it would be cool to make a cafe-racer seat. I made a profile template out of wood and collected some big blocks of styrofoam in order to make a plug to make the seat.
However, I haven't gotten around to actually constructing the plug or seat, and I'm currently just storing them in my shed.
I'll totally post info about the seat process if I get around to doing it. I was planning on building the plug as described here, and creating a fiberglass copy as described here.
Best Regards,
-Andy
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