Back From The Dead
- 15
I bought this bike after a few hacks had there go at “chopperizing” it… Didn’t go so well…
Brought it home and started knocking bondo off the frame. Oh man! These guys loved bondo! Well they needed it to cover up the hideousness they tried to pass off as welds. The stays on the hard tail were threaded at the ends(i’m all for saving coin and making do with what you have but I mean come on boys!)… the rear wheel sat in the frame about 1/2″ out of level… It was a mess.
So the frame was basically scrap. I kept the head tube and a few of the pieces with motor mount bosses on them and went to town fabbing a new frame. This is my first bike build, but it just so happens that i’m a journeyman pressure welder so that gives me an adavantage over most other first timers when it comes to metal fab. All said and done it is stretched around 4 inches, I think. It’s the same wheelbase as a good friends ’70 Triumph with a 4″stretch on it so it’ll be around there. Lowered… uhhh, about as low as it sits in the pics…
It’s a ’71 so it’s got the 256 motor in it. Roughly 667cc I belive. It’s running a 0.75mm overbore piston kit, and the head is ported and polished by me(I’ve ported a bunch of modern 4-valve 450cc MX heads so this was a nice change with the huge ports and valves). It’s being fed through two Mikuni 38mm flat-slide carbs of a SRX snowmobile. I built the intakes out of MX exhaust headers. Will be running a Mity Max so it won’t need a big ugly battery box/!FAKE!(not so cool imo) oil bag thinger. And an electronic ignition of course…
Front forks and trees are adapted from an early seventies CB550. I had to replaces the stem in the triple clamps to accept the Yamaha bearing kit. This fork has a much shorter offset in the triple clamps than a factory Yamaha does. So it should wake up the handling a bit with the back end being stretched. The 19″ front wheel/brakes are off the the CB as well. Lever/mastercylinder is from a Yamaha Craptor 350 ATV. Rear wheel is a 16″ and I don’t know what it’s from but I like it.
Seat is a blem from Rich Phillips leather on Ebay (nicest seats around). Fender was from Ebay as well.
The bike isn’t quite finished and obviously not painted… don’t know what i’m doing there yet. I will post updates.
I’m not using the purple tank. Definitely going with the vintage Wassell thats mocked on it in the other pics.
Eric Nelson
How are you running the mity max, what alternator are you going to use?
What the hell is a MIGHTY MAX and where do you find info on one?
MITY MAX, its a regulator rectifier/capacitor combo unit. Used to help run bikes without a battery. You need a permanent magnet style alternator to use one though…
http://www.britcycle.com/products/332powerunits.htm (scroll down)
A Mity Max is like a capacitor that stores a small charge- I have one on my Triumph. You can’t use one on an XS unless you get a single phase alternator conversion- the stock triple phase requires a battery to run. Some guys figured how to do a Banshee Mag swap but there is also a bolt on conversion out there. I think it comes with a small capacitor so a Mity Max wouldn’t be needed.
Yeah I hadn’t reaearched the compatability with the XS. I have one(Mity Max) on my Triumph though. I hate batteries. Didn’t know I have to change the alternator. XS’s are stupid. Any more info on this alternator swap?
Hey man, I knew I seen that bike before, its in your ad posted locally (edmonton). I’m currently building an XS, I think a buddy of mine is getting you to hardtail his frame?
Anyways, sweet chop!
Also, 650central.com sells SPARX permanent magnet alternator w/ solid state reg.rect available in single phase and three phase. The single phase should be what your looking for to run the MITY MAX.
Awesome dude. Thanks for the info. Yeah i’ll be doing your buddies frame next week here. Got any pics of your project?
looking good can’t wait to see her finished
No pics uploaded yet, bikes still in pieces. Ardcore Choppers is building me a frame, trying to get the motor done along with all of the small things for now.
WOW cool set up,Oh yea I like the build and lookin forward to completion.
It seems the British site has a unit for the 3 phase alt wouldn’t this work? Or doe’s one still need to change the alt. because it’s not a permanet alternater?
Hope Mr.Eletrical xs Guru is reading
What British site are you refering to kenb? That would be bad ass if it worked.
Britsh cycle supply and yea I’am not sure about the working thing, it sounds like I’am confused once again, looking for the easyer softer way out. And it seems the cure or part of is the perment magnet alternater. Any way there is alot of products on this site, worth looking at??? I thought so. Best of adventures, let me know if some thing works out,ok.kenbourgo@hotmail.com
I installed a mighty max on a 1972 , 750 Norton. It worked great but my headlight always went rather dim anytime I stopped. I also got it at British cycle. They are located in CAnada but I believe they have a shop in the US. Here is their web site.
http://www.britcycle.com/
Forgot to mention ….I believe they also have weld on hardtails…haven’t been on the web site in a while but check them out they got some good stuff.