XS400 brat build

[bugn8r]

I have just bought these two bikes on Trademe for $440.
Plan to do them up Brat style one after the other. I'm in Wellington atm but I'll go pick them up when I'm back down in Christchurch and hopefully I picked up some decent bikes. Posts will be slow as with my first build (still unfinished haha) but I'll slowly get there. Plan to use one of them next year in Wellington.

Anyway here are some pictures... The last picture is of a stock XS400 I photoshopped, hopefully will look similar (different tank).

Anyone know of any cheap tyres I can chuck on? Really after some big baloony ones, just don't have the money for the firestone's


feel free to add suggestions and does anyone know where I could get a full carb kit??

[GrayWolf]

I have just bought these two bikes on Trademe for $440.

Anyway here are some pictures... The last picture is of a stock XS400 I photoshopped, hopefully will look similar (different tank).


The one major way they'll look different to the stocker is the special's had the fins rounded off to resemble the brit bikes of the period. They rattle, vibrate a bit, and sound like a bucket of bolts,,,, if they dont?? Hmmmm. otherwise great wee bikes, had one on loan, pre the XJ650 maxim....

[ducatilover]

Looking forward to this build!
They ran BS34SS carbs didn't they? Same as XS650, Suzuki LS400/650 and GN250/400s, should all have the same float bowls, gaskets, needle/seat.
You can modify Keihin needle/seats to fit them.
Mukini and Keihin jets can be swapped over too.If you can get the carb I.D, or take a pic with measurements I may be able to find a kit for them

[The Lone Rider]

They ran BS34SS carbs didn't they? Same as XS650, Suzuki LS400/650 and GN250/400s, should all have the same float bowls, gaskets, needle/seat.


You're like a carb guru.

I still need a pilot screw thing for my last build, but fucked if I know what size or other details!

[carburator]

Barstard...

I was eyeing up those to bikes but the freight was going to be a killer so...
Bags first in line if you want to part with bits as I have a XS250/400 build on the go..
now with Lams the way it is the 400 will be good for the missues or just to go to work on.

I like them better than a SR's so yes I will be watching this one...:msn-wink:

[The Lone Rider]

Barstard...

I was eyeing up those to bikes :

I can relate. I've only ONCE managed to score a bike for under $500 but frequently run into or talk to people who seem to keep finding them for that cheap!

[ducatilover]

You're like a carb guru.

I still need a pilot screw thing for my last build, but fucked if I know what size or other details!
PM me bike details, will see what I can find, or just post a pic of carbs :niceone:

[blackdog]

I have just bought these two bikes on Trademe for $440.
Plan to do them up Brat style one after the other.
Anyone know of any cheap tyres I can chuck on? Really after some big baloony ones, just don't have the money for the firestone's


feel free to add suggestions and does anyone know where I could get a full carb kit??

I am buying a pallet of piss when I see pictures of these two finished bikes. Two dozen if I see pictures of just one.

[bugn8r]

Nothing wrong with plans man, ever heard of a project bike?

[Road kill]

www.mikesxs.net/

They can't help you,nobody can.

[bugn8r]

Picked them up yesterday afternoon, really happy with the bikes, black one goes but not well so first thing will be cleaning and rebuilding those carbs. Here are some pictures.

I decided to get rid of the special but unsure if I'll sell it as one lot or piece by piece.

[neels]

The black one almost looks too tidy to pull to bits, just as well they were never anything special from new.

I had an old XS360 for a while, initally I thought there was something wrong with the thing it sounded so terrible when idling, turns out they just made them that way....

[carburator]

Picked them up yesterday afternoon, really happy with the bikes, black one goes but not well so first thing will be cleaning and rebuilding those carbs. Here are some pictures.

I decided to get rid of the special but unsure if I'll sell it as one lot or piece by piece.

give me about two weeks then i might take the special off your hands..
i could do with some spare parts.

[ducatilover]

Please put an FJ1200 motor in one of them

[bugn8r]

So I started on the bike today, cut the rear of the frame off ready for a hoop to be welded in and started to make a seat base, all electrics will be bolted to the bottom of the seat base and then I'll make a plastic cover for them. Picked up a headlight for $75, really happy with it, I thought it was plastic but pleasantly surprised to find it was metal and made very well. I modified a bracket it had to fit the headlight and plugged that in, all works. Tomorrow I'll attempt to simplify the wiring at the front, get rid of all the big clips etc. I also dropped the forks a bit (just pust through the trees) it sits a lot better I reckon.

Here are some pics...

[cave weta]

You will be needing one of of those fancy Shorai Batteries from EdBear. they are tiny and can be mounted any way you like. Also they are 4 times the power of lead -acid!

[Subike]

have a look at my XS1100 for a few ideas,
There are a heap of things you can do without spending a lot of coin.

[bugn8r]

Awesome bike man, thanks for the pictures. Mine will be that clean one day hopefully! I think my favourite part about your bike is the motor, it looks so good. I was looking at doing my motor like that but unsure, you have definitely given me some inspiration!

How did you do the motor? Just mask off certain areas when painting?

[Subike]

Awesome bike man, thanks for the pictures. Mine will be that clean one day hopefully! I think my favourite part about your bike is the motor, it looks so good. I was looking at doing my motor like that but unsure, you have definitely given me some inspiration!

How did you do the motor? Just mask off certain areas when painting?



the motor?.
I made sure it was perfectly clean,
Hung it up out side in a lean to shed.
Made sure I had plugged the inlet and exhaust ports with cloth plugs.
wrapped wiring loom in a piece of plastic garden hose.
Made sure there were no holes anywhere allowing access to the internals, like the clutch cable entry point.

Scrubbed it with hard bristle brush and kero first. To get rid of 90% of the built up dirt
Then dried that off with an air gun, ensuring I got into every crevice., wear a mask doing this, shit flies every where.
I then went over it again with yuck off , a degreasant. cheap stuff from the ware house.
Again blew this off with an air gun. max pressure.
Then using a Air Painting gun, and a mixture of petrol and kero, went over the motor again, saturating it , again blew this off with an aair gun.

Took engine inside, hung from foor of workshop. sprayed it all over with enamel thinners. Blew this off, covered it, and left it 2 days.

I waited for a really warm evening, and then painted the engine with 3 cans of high temp engine enamel , very liberally coating everything.
gave it three good coats, waiting till the paint was tacky dry between coats. Rigged a dust cover over it. ( used an old bird cage)
Left it hanging for a week.

I had ordered S/S bolts sets for the entire engine, from an American dealer who will supply you exactly what you need.
I systematically went over the whole motor and replace every visible bolt, etc, with S/S bolts.
I was very careful to slowly undo each bolt, to stop ripping the surrounding paint.
I used a drop of lock-tight, or anitseize on each bolt, depending upon its application.

For the cooling fins, a cork sanding block and 180 grit wet/dry paper was all that was need to do the first clean.
For the final clean 250 grit, gave a desired Finnish. take your time, and a good job will the result.

When fitting back into the frame, I wrapped the frame in some thin rubber that i got from work to avoid scratching.
Post office bubble bags work good too.

Once the bike was back together and running, I bought it just up to temp, about 5 min at idle, then let it cool to cold over night,
Did this three times, to "cure" the paint, not curing the paint can cause it to flake after time or blister and look horrid

Hope this is a help for anyone reading this.

The important things, being very very clean, and take your time. be aware of the ambient temperature of your workshop/shed.

[ducatilover]

That's basically how I did mine, except I pulled some of my covers off (polished).
265618265619
I cleaned my motor with kero and a tooth brush :sweatdrop then wiped it all down with thinners and then a few coats of VHT engine black.
The end result isn't too bad265616265617

[bugn8r]

Thanks guys, both motors look awesome.
I have just put a bunch of parts up on Trademe http://www.trademe.co.nz/MyTradeMe/Sell/Current.aspx?source=sidebar
I will also be listing the 400 Special but message me if you want the bike or any parts off it, it will need to be gone before or on the 14th.

Also does anyone know of any tanks that fit on the XS frame? It's hard because it's quite wide so the bottom of the tank needs to be wide enough to fit over the frame. I tried to put on the tank from the CB250T I have, looked a million times better I reckon, it just isn't wide enough to fit over the frame at the back.

[bugn8r]

if that link doesn't work try this one, http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=489097498
and just look at my other listings.

[bugn8r]

Just to give you an idea...

[ducatilover]

Hammer the inside of the tank to get it to fit? It looks awesome

What size are the wheels and how many liters is the tank? If you were in my area I'd buy that rolling chassis, it's begging for a big fat air cooled 4 :D

[bugn8r]

Both bikes have 18" fronts, the sport has an 18" rear as well but the special has a 16" rear.
Yea I'd like too, the tunnel is wide enough though, it's just too thin right at the back where the mounting point is, the frame is just quite wide.

[ducatilover]

Are they shaft drive? I like them wheels, if it's chain drive I'll keep an eye out for a set

Hammer and a dolly (not your sisters one...) and it'll fit...either that or you'll have a rooted tank.
That original tank looks okay, but the Honda one is properly cool.

This is giving me very bad ideas.

[carburator]

Im certainly interested in the special, only problem for me is your in christchurch and im just outside jaffa land

certainly after front and rear wheels, axle bolts and brake assembly.
rear swing arm
triple tree

what state are the front forks in?

what options are there for shipping? a semi complete bike around?
sorry if it sounds a noob question im moving house in a week and currently
running about like a mad barstard for work.. ( brain fried tonight )

I don't want to cherry pick parts if its easier for you to sell the complete bike.
and at the price for the complete bike im not complaining either.

[bugn8r]

Sorry mate, bidding has already started. If you can find someone to hold onto it in Christchurch or send it for you please bid.

Thanks
James

[carburator]

Sorry mate, bidding has already started. If you can find someone to hold onto it in Christchurch or send it for you please bid.

Thanks
James

Im getting a couple of quotes for a door to door ( ship my trademe ) and mainfreight..
Also i have a furnature removal company thats been doing a lot of akl to chc and back
of late..

[bugn8r]

Yea that's sweet man

[bugn8r]

Hi all, just came back to Christchurch for the weekend from uni for a family thing in Timaru so I thought I'd paint the wheels, I also ordered some fork boots off trademe for $25 so I decided to fit those as well. It is all looking pretty good I reckon. I'm back up to Wellington tomorrow but I reckon I'll pretty much have the bike finished after next holidays in a few weeks time.

Things to do/get:
Speedo, a small one off ebay with idiot lights included
Flat bars
Air filters
Get frame hoop welded up
make seat (all electrics under seat)
buy small battery (will probably leave this till last as quite expensive however I have a very good offer from Edbear)
clean up all electrics up front

I reckon I'll drop the forks about 2" so I don't have to have them popping through the trees. Plus I really want a square XS400 tank, were they ever sold in NZ or did we just get the sloped ones? I tried the CB tank the other day but I decided it's too much effort to get it to fit.

I also really want to do a brake upgrade (more for cosmetics) with a 320mm upfront, I'll probably only do this after I get the bike up and running.

Any ideas on why the indicators aren't flashing? They turn on but just stay a solid amber. They did flash before a started to play around with things :facepalm:

Really am loving the black look, I reckon I'll go black everything except motor and tank. Tank will be cream and not too sure on motor yet.

Anyway here are some pics....

[ducatilover]

Excellent stuff :D
Why not make/buy an A123 cell battery? Small, relatively cheap and good.

[bugn8r]

Yea I have been looking at those as well, found some cheap ones overseas but I was warned on another site that if you don't get good cells they won't last long. Do you run them? Did you make your own? I'd love to make one but I might just end up buying one if I can get it on the cheap. Also are you running electric start? I want to keep both starting options on my bike

[ducatilover]

I'll be running a 4 cell unit on the GN soon, if it works I'll make an 8 cell for the 600.
You can make a good one for around the $100nz mark from what I can tell, if you're resourceful
I do have a kick start DR250 bottom end I've been thinking about using though :innocent:

[bugn8r]

Tell me how it works out for you, could be keen

[neels]

Plus I really want a square XS400 tank, were they ever sold in NZ or did we just get the sloped ones?Yep they do exist, I had a XS360 with a square tank a few years ago, and got some bits for it off an XS400 being wrecked that had the same tank as well. Probably be getting pretty hard to find a good one now, the tank on my bike had a leak that needed sealing, I looked at the one on the other bike but it was worse....

[bugn8r]

Do you still have any contact details for the parts bike? I could be interested
cheers

[neels]

No sorry, it was a while back now and that bit of paper has long since been chucked out.

[bugn8r]

Been a while since an update but I have been back in Christchurch for a week and played around a bit with the bike.
I have now had it running for all of 10 seconds but it seems to be a fuel problem so it shouldn't be too hard to sort out (I haven't really looked into it).

Went into my old school, I still have mates there, and made some handle bars (saves me spending $40 on trademe). What do you guys reckon for the bars? The ones on at the moment are just a straight pipe (they will be bent) but I like the flat 'drag bar' look so just 20 degree bends I reckon. I also bent some pipe for a tail hoop, next job is to go get it welded (might go back to school hah) I also got some ply just to make a seat base.

My main job at the moment is getting a tank sorted, I really didn't like the original and it was proving too hard to get one of the square ones so I bought four tanks off a guy on trademe for $10 each and went to work. My two favourites (photos below) are off a Suzuki A50/100 and a Yamaha RD200. The RD200 tank (orange one) is shaped so nicely but will be a lot more work to mak it fit ( I have already cut big chunks out of the underside of it to get it to sit over the frame (stupid tripple backbone). I also like the Suzuki tank as it is really different to what you normally see.

The RD tank ha given my my colour scheme, I am keeping the bike all black and chrome but the tank/tail/front guard will all be that awesome flaky orange, I do like those original decals as well!

Oh and new headlight, I prefer this one to the old one.

Anyway here are a couple of shots I just took...

[ducatilover]

Flat bars rock!
That RD tank looks wicked, but so does the Zook one. What were the other two tanks?

[bugn8r]

Kawasaki A7/A1 and a Suzuki B120, neither come even close to fitting or look that good. I'm still unsure on the RD tank, I think it looks the best but it will be a lot more work to make it fit, the A50 tank on the other hand looks pretty awesome and won't take too much work to make it fit so I think we have a winner, plus it's in really good nick, doesn't even look like there's any rust inside. Plus I love how it comes so far forward around the neck :yes:

Here's the pic off trademe...

[The Lone Rider]

Bars are just a straight piece of tube?

[bugn8r]

for now, when I'm back in Christchurch they will be bent, no one is riding the bike atm haha so just trying things