Seat progress
OK...more progress in the boring saga of the cafe seat.
1. I got my tail light and license plate bolted to the back of the cafe seat. It looks good and works well.
2. I have the seat securely bolted to the frame. This involved drilling holes and welding nuts to the underside of the seat supports and drilling corresponding holes in the seat itself. This actually worked great -- both to hold the seat down, and to remind me of what a crappy welder I am. Luckily, the welds aren't visible and just need to tack down the nuts so I can bolt the seat on. I should remember this part of the project the next time I start dreaming about welding something structural or beautiful, though.
3. I made a pan for the seat cushion by laying fiberglass over the seat cushion area of the tail, and then trimming this fiberglass panel down. This worked great EXCEPT for the fact that I put a layer of shrinkwrap over the seat to keep the new pan from sticking to the tail. Fiberglass epoxy resin dissolves shrink wrap. I really should have used tinfoil instead. Luckily I got the new panel off after it had hardened into its final shape, but before it fully cured and became hopelessly stuck to the tail. Unfortunately, the melted shrink wrap means that I'll have to repaint the tail. No big deal, though.
The pan does securely snap over the tail section, though.
4. I took three layers of Wal Mart camping pad and glued them to my new seat pad pan with DAP Weldwood. They adhered great. I roughly cut them to shape and rode to work this morning.
The seat feels awesome, and the bike is a blast to ride again.
Now All I have to do is sand down the pad to the perfect shape, sew a seat cover for the pad, and repaint the tail. Then, I think I'll be able to FINALLY call this never ending project complete!
I'll post pictures sometime.
On a side note, I really haven't been that compelled to ride my xs400 lately. We're down to one car, which pretty much just sits at home, and I've been riding my bicycles everywhere. I have one that can take both of my kiddos and six bags of groceries, and I have another one with fat tires and fenders that's fast and unstoppable. I just haven't been able to justify taking the motorcycle, even though it will have significantly higher "pose factor" after I finish the seat.
However, for a fast blast to work on this Saturday morning, the xs400 was really great. I think having the xs400 and working on it makes me happy like having a hotrod project would...but it's a lot cheaper, easier to re-paint, and leaves enough room in my one-car garage for us to fit our car and my wife's Vespa.
1. I got my tail light and license plate bolted to the back of the cafe seat. It looks good and works well.
2. I have the seat securely bolted to the frame. This involved drilling holes and welding nuts to the underside of the seat supports and drilling corresponding holes in the seat itself. This actually worked great -- both to hold the seat down, and to remind me of what a crappy welder I am. Luckily, the welds aren't visible and just need to tack down the nuts so I can bolt the seat on. I should remember this part of the project the next time I start dreaming about welding something structural or beautiful, though.
3. I made a pan for the seat cushion by laying fiberglass over the seat cushion area of the tail, and then trimming this fiberglass panel down. This worked great EXCEPT for the fact that I put a layer of shrinkwrap over the seat to keep the new pan from sticking to the tail. Fiberglass epoxy resin dissolves shrink wrap. I really should have used tinfoil instead. Luckily I got the new panel off after it had hardened into its final shape, but before it fully cured and became hopelessly stuck to the tail. Unfortunately, the melted shrink wrap means that I'll have to repaint the tail. No big deal, though.
The pan does securely snap over the tail section, though.
4. I took three layers of Wal Mart camping pad and glued them to my new seat pad pan with DAP Weldwood. They adhered great. I roughly cut them to shape and rode to work this morning.
The seat feels awesome, and the bike is a blast to ride again.
Now All I have to do is sand down the pad to the perfect shape, sew a seat cover for the pad, and repaint the tail. Then, I think I'll be able to FINALLY call this never ending project complete!
I'll post pictures sometime.
On a side note, I really haven't been that compelled to ride my xs400 lately. We're down to one car, which pretty much just sits at home, and I've been riding my bicycles everywhere. I have one that can take both of my kiddos and six bags of groceries, and I have another one with fat tires and fenders that's fast and unstoppable. I just haven't been able to justify taking the motorcycle, even though it will have significantly higher "pose factor" after I finish the seat.
However, for a fast blast to work on this Saturday morning, the xs400 was really great. I think having the xs400 and working on it makes me happy like having a hotrod project would...but it's a lot cheaper, easier to re-paint, and leaves enough room in my one-car garage for us to fit our car and my wife's Vespa.
posted by veloandy at 9:04 AM
2 Comments:
that's pretty exciting news for you man. you'll have to make sure to post photos. i bet you'll wanna ride it a lot more when you get it done.
my clutch cable broke so i'm waiting for a new one to arrive from mikesXS.com. I can relate with the bicycle comment. I rode my fixie to work today. It was fun but I can't wait to be back on the motyorcycle.
Rest assured, I've been reducing my petrol consumption. I have a Toyota 4Runner that gets 12 MPG. I upgraded to an Outback that get's 25 and the xs400 that gets 56 on the highway. I guess I figure if you're gonna splurge on gas it might as well be on a 400cc motorcycle. It's my lesser of 3 evils. I haven't driven the 4Runner all summer.
In response to the new british style silencers i put on, i went for a ride up the canyon with a friend before the clutch cable broke on me. it seems that i'm definitely going to have to rejet the carbs. the power curve was drastically different.
it used to have a boost in the power band from about 5000 - 7500 RPM. now that is gone altogether. In fact it feels pretty even through the gamit with no spikes in power at any RPM (kind of makes me a little nervous). I've also ordered some pod filters so that will change things as well. I figured i should put on the pod filters before i rejet to avoid having to rejet twice. I'll keep you posted when i get the new parts.
Anyway, keep up the good work. It's awesome to know there are other dudes around that can get excited about our humble xs400s! (especially in a world that seems to be dominated by buy-it-don't-build-it harley riders)
i can't help but laugh when i think about those middle aged dudes seeing little japanese cafe bikes like ours and just scratching their heads in bewilderment.
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