Kaff's XBR (now sold to.... "don't worry, I've got this covered!" - ylisuuta

[guest1796]

Hi again,

Short update as promised 

Front fork re-assembled with new oil and dust seals. No damages found what so ever and eveything seems to work fine in there.



New tank sits now quite nicely and only small things to do with it. Tank cap found from local Harley store and fueltap is from KTM.
Wheels arrived today and now the look is more rough, I think.


Currently I am working with the seat. Need to find correct shape. Not sure if I will use old ducktale and re-design it... already bought peace of leather for the seat.
Not sure yet where I hould put license plate. It can act like rear fender or other option is to put it on the side, but then I will need separate fender... hmm.


Engine is still un-touched, but will propably open it partly soon.
Kaff's muffler will most propably stay even if the original plan was to use side muffler.

[guest1130]

Man I'm glad I sold this bike to you! It's nice knowing that it's in good hands, and I love the direction you're taking it to!

You probably noticed while taking the muffler out, that there is a detachable damper-pipe within the muffler (just pull it out after taking the muffler off of the header). We put it there to reduce some of the harshness from the sound of the open muffler, but it's still pretty loud..

[guest1796]

Hi again...

Thank's Kaff. As I mentioned earlier, it is quite nice to work with the project where all dirty works are already done 
I already found damper pipe which migt me good to leave there because of the sound. It is definately loud enough even if it is intalled 

Updates:
Tank is now in right place and mounting is also there. Still thinking about paintjob... it is fully original 197x Kawasaki KH125 tank with exellent painting. From my perspective it would feel like crime to spoil it. We'll see what kind intentity crisis it will cause if there is Kawasaki mark in the tank 
Propably it will not start with that tank 

Yesterday also started to modify seat etc. back of the bike. I noticed that small angle grinder is the best tool to shape the seat.



Old duck tale will get a new shape and will be builded as a part of the seat. It is still too high in the picture, but it will gile you some king of idea what is happening.



About handlebar and footpegs: I turned cafe racer clipons upside down and mounted those to the top end of the fork pipes. Drilling holes to the upper yoke for risers is not an option because it is way too thin for it. Riding position is now really good and relax.. no need to move foodpegs... at least for now.

[guest1130]

About handlebar and footpegs: I turned cafe racer clipons upside down and mounted those to the top end of the fork pipes. Drilling holes to the upper yoke for risers is not an option because it is way too thin for it.

Another tip: Those Tomaselli clip-ons came with extra angle pieces, which you'll find from the spare parts bin I sent you . When installed, those will give you extra options on the height and angle of the handlebars.

[guest1796]

Whow! This is a very nice tip, thx.
I found extra peces from the box you sent. I actually tried to separate clip-ons earlier to change angle, but it was jammed too tightly. So... I need to use more force for it 

[guest564]

The linkage that I made was rather crude, just made from bits that were lying around, I made some hanger plates from ally and used ally pegs with the one on the left hand side turned down for the linkage to pivot on.







I don't recall what bike the splined part come from - it may have been an old CB900 linkage. The part the rubber fits on is an old SS50 rocker shaft, the rest was old bits of tube. The threaded parts came from some old rearsets. If you're keeping the stock footrests then you would need a different pivot. It may give you some ideas for something nicer looking anyway.

[guest1796]

Hi again,

Thx Rhinoman for the pictures. I need to make proper, a bit longer, test run to figure out more about riding position. And yeah... already driven about 1km with it

What has been done during cuple of days:
- valves are now tuned. Exhaust valves was too tight and that was most propably reason why warm startup was a little bit hard.
- Duck tale and seat modified. Undertow manufactured from 2,5mm aluminium as well as license plate holder. Duck tale Filled with urethane foam.
- New rear blinkers intalled and new rear wires without any abico connectors.

Today seat cover will be installed and small tuning with the tank. After that we are ready for longer test run 

[guest1154]

Looks great.

[guest1796]

Ok... now it is done so far. The first a little bit longer trip done and damn this bike is fun to ride 
I really like the look of the bike and it was quite funny how much attention this bike caused during the trip. Few prople even come and ask what is this awesome machine 

It might be that footpegs need to be relocated but first I would like to ride with it a little bit more.
One question: I do not know jetting of the bike, but Kaff told me that nothing has been done after open pipe and air filter change. Any succestions, what main and iddle jet I should put there?

[guest1130]

^Any progress on this?

I'm still waiting for my new bike, so my season hasn't even started yet.

[guest1796]

No progress except driving
Actually handlebar is now much better with extra angle pieces Kaff mentioned (not in the picture).
I need to do somethig for echaust.. it is too loud especially when output pipe is not in the back of the bike.
Most propably I will try to find XR600 exhaust and modify that one... we'll see. Electric start need to be fixed with new battery of course, beause my wife can not start the bike with kickstart.
Clutch is slippering a little... maby I need to change plates at some point... wheeling is not possible at this moment 

[guest1130]

^
I serviced the clutch not long before I put it to the garage last season and fitted heavy duty springs to help with the slipping. All the plates were within specs too.

[guest564]

I used to have to replace clutches quite often, a modified XBR engine can have a lot more torque than stock. What oil are you using? is it a motorcycle oil? some car oils will cause problems with the clutch.

[guest1796]

And story will continue for this awesome bike 

Bike is now back in Estonia (yes.. it come to finland from Estonia).
Famous RR driver Sami Penna bought the bike from me and took it to Pärnu.
Sami is nowadays teaching RR driving and working with his new project Motoranch.

http://www.pennaracing.com/
http://www.motoranch.ee/