original config (goofy bars, pansy yellow paint job, etc.)
i painted the tank, side covers, and emblems using spray paint and clearcoat (not too shabby, huh?)
then i put on clubman handlebars to give it that dropped/tucked look
and recently i put on bar-end mirrors and a cafe style seat with custom recessed taillight. the seat lets me slide back and get a more tucked/aggressive riding stance.
in addition, i moved the front forks up higher in the clamps which brought the front end down a little and helped to level out the top line of the bike.
the XS has run pretty good ever since i bought it and all-in-all i have had a blast with this bike. it sure is nice to have a fill-up at the pump come in at around ten dollars too!
11 comments:
Those photos of you bent over makes me want to get "tucked/aggressive" too!
P.S. no "hard" feelings about that last comment. It was just a friendly "rub" about you not "posting" enough.
P.P.S I was going to say "cumment" but that would have been too much. "Butt" now I've said it anyway.
i didn't take offense to it... Honestly. Thanks for these comments though. I just realized that comments are the reason we blog. We like to stay in touch with our friends even if it's over insignificant little things that are going on in our lives. Yay for blogs!
And Yay! for the sound of crickets as you drove off into the distance.
But what if someone would have stolen your camera when you drove off?
$500 bucks huh? Makes me feel kinda silly for paying $1,000 for my scoot...
A bike is on my agenda...sometime in the not-to-distant future.
Sweet to hang out w/ you this weekend. It should happen more often.
looks fun. was fun. nice seat.
ol' dust,
nice cafe seat! I recently picked up an '81 xs400 special (also my first bike). Next I'll probably get some rearset pegs and the drop handle bars (w/ some sweet bar end mirrors). I'll eventually start thinking about a new seat. The one you've got is great! Where'd it come from?
Yeah, my bike is a un-manly dark burgandy or purple, so I know how you feel. I'll probably wait till I change the seat before I repaint, though. All in all, great job with your bike!
How did you get that seat mounted? I'm thinking about doing the same seat mod to my 82 xs400 heritage special.
Good job on the bike. Looks awesome!
David,
Thanks for the comments. I bought my seat from mikesxs.com. It was 200.00 bucks which is pretty pricey but i plan to sell my stock seat on ebay for around half that much (hopefully) so it made it easier for me to stomach the price. Mikes XS mostly sells XS650 stuff but luckily lots of the parts also work on the XS400 too. The same seat is also available from a seller on ebay but he's asking 250.00 ish. Not a difficult choice on where to buy. I actually just bought some british style silencers from Mikes XS too but I haven't put them on the bike yet. I'll try and post with pictures when i get them on the bike.
Topher,
Since the seat is technically for an earlier year XS650 I had to do a far amount of cutting/welding on the frame to make it work. I ended up getting some steel cabinet hinges from Lowe's and took them apart (using just one side of the hinge). I welded them to the right frame rail and it worked pretty well. The cafe seat comes with the other side of the hinge as well as the pins. On the other side, the seat doesn't actually latch down, it just has a bracket with a hole in it. I just put a winged bolt through the hole in the bracket and then screw it into a hole i drilled into the frame. (Hard to explain) I had to cut off the rubber dampened turn signal mounts and then just remounted the turn signals by drilling holes directly through the top frame rails in the rear. It vibrates a lot and i've had the turn signals vibrate loose and end up dangling a few times during long rides. Keep that in mind while you fab yours up and try to learn from my mistakes. Hahaha. Good luck with yours. I'd really like to hear about the process when you get around to it. Also check out xs400.blogspot.com where another guy is modding his xs400 to be a cafe racer as well.
Do you still have this XS? I'm trying to make my bike a little more cafe looking on my older '77 XS400 and I am very interested in doing the same thing with the seat you did.
I'm not sure about your model, but my seat latch is on the right side of the bike. Does this seat you purchased from Mike's XS have it on the right or left. And is the seat you got the "Sport/Cafe style seat to fit 1974-79 "Standard" models."?
Also, if you have time, do you think you can take pictures of what the underside of the seat looks like when on the bike as well as where you attached it on the frame? I know yours doesn't latch right, but I'm just interested to see anything you can show me.
yes, this seat is the sport/cafe style for 74-79. the seat latch on the seat is on the left side with hinges on the right side. My frame didn't have hinges so I had to tack weld some to my frame (on the right side). I ended up disassembling some steel cabinet hinges that I bought from home depot and then welding them to the frame.
Also note that the sport seat DOES NOT come with the taillight recessed. That was a custom job I did and I had to cut a hole in the back of the seat using a dremel cutoff disc. I then reupholstered and fabbed a bracket to mount a simple trailer brake light in the hole that I got at auto zone for about 10 bucks.
I hope this helps you with your project. Good Luck!
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