Got the frame cut up today. Was pretty quick and easy with a sawzall. Test fit the new hard tail for giggles. Will now need to spend lots of time grinding down whats left of what I cut off, as well as brackets no longer needed.

Also took some time to keg my brews. First up was a Breakfast Stout which is incredible straight from the carboy. Second (in the back) was a Dortmunder Export, a hoppier, higher alc% light lager. The body is very light and watery, but oh well that's the way I made it. Didn't check the style guidelines which shows that it should have a medium body.

We got back from Disney on Saturday and had a great week. Now I have 2 days off to work on the bike before going back to work Tuesday!

Yesterday I built a platform to mount the bike to make working on it super easy. When I was trying to get it started the first time it was awful sitting on the floor looking up and under trying to gap the points. Before I start, I did not come up with what I built, I wish I did - but no I did not. I got the idea online from the link below. Found it one day randomly searching motorcycle stuff.

http://www.bbcracing.com/old/box/

It started as two 3/4" 4'x8' sheets of plywood, and asked the guy at Lowes to rip em both down the middle lengthwise. Then one of those 2'x8' pieces were cut in half, then a half into halves giving me the following:

3 - 2'x8'
1 - 2'x4'
2 - 2'x2'

I then cut 3/4"x12" slots 3" from the ends of all sheets. 2 long sides got a slit almost in the middle; I lined it up to be center to the motor. Also won't be able to see it but the top piece has a strip of 3/4" on each end to keep it from sliding off.

I'm not going to talk about what it took to get the bike up there.... so lets just pretend that I just picked it up and placed it there. 

Oh and to those curious about battery powered circular saws - I bought a Ryobi 18V combo kit from Home Depot not long ago to build the keezer (kegerator/freezer). I cut almost all 12 slits on 1 fully charged battery while also using that battery on the drill for the ends of all 12 slits. the battery died while cutting the 12th slit and finished it up with a freshly charged battery. (Cutting the oak I used on the keezer was a different story...)

Here's my progress for today. Got it all stripped down and ready for a quick wash.

And how it looks after some Purple Power and a scrub brush. (minus side cover)

The hardtail was finally delivered on Thursday. 

I spent most of the day off clearing out the garage getting ready for this project to go full steam. After it was ready I put on the new ignition points and the engine fired right up. I let the engine get hot, adjusted the idle screws and shut it down. I spent the rest of the night stripping down most of the bike starting with the birds nest of wiring inside the headlight bucket.

Then moved down to the chain guard and pulling out the old chain that was bound inside the side cover. Really needs to be cleaned in there. Battery box also came out.

Here's how the bike looked at the end of the night.

Here's the video I took this morning. It is idling pretty high because the choke is on, and at the end of the video I move to the other side of the bike, turn off the choke, and it dies shortly after. I guess it's not getting enough fuel with out the choke a.k.a. "starter" on. That opens a large fuel port on the engine side of the butterfly valve. The carb rebuild kit might help here with new jets or I just need to readjust the mix screw on each carb.

After that I took a few things off; sissy bar and rear blinkers, also had a foot rest/brush guard/I-don't-know-what on the front which I removed too.  I was going to put the chain back on, but found out the last owner cut a link! I hope that if I can get that link out and the chain back together it isn't too short. I don't want to buy a new chain because when the rear hardtail goes on it is extended 4" - a new OEM length chain will be too short for that, and the extended chain I will need later would be too long to ride it now.

Oh - and still no hardtail yet.... thanks USPS.... ;)

Just got a video of it running. Was planning on putting the chain back on but found that the previous owner cut the chain. So I'm probably going to have to pop out the cut link and try to reconnect it, although it's starting to look like I wont get to ride it till it's done....

Video and some new pics will be up later. Time for bed, work at 3pm.

SHE RUNS!!! - kinda... got it to idle for a minute or so, even warmed up enough to respond to blipping the throttle! I set it down on the kick stand to grab the phone to take some video - and it died. I think the battery got too low to build a strong enough spark so I couldn't get it back up again. I have new points in the mail as well as rebuild kits for the carbs. That should help a ton until its ready for upgrades in the future.

The hardtail was supposed to be here Monday but didn't show up. Hopefully USPS bring it today.

While browsing the forums as usual, I came across someone selling the hardtail kit that I was planning to buy next month but this one was $65 cheaper! So I reluctantly had to buy it... will be delivered Monday.

I think this will be my favorite part of the whole bike! I picked up a brass kick start pedal usually found on Harley's. Gonna take some fabricating to get it to fit the Yamaha but I ain't scurred.

OK - decided I needed some of my inspirational bikes on here to give you, someone, anyone, (no one?) an idea of what I'm going for here. (Hope no one minds...)

Post 1 - continued:

I found on xs650.com that a 21" Suzuki dirtbike front rim will fit on a spoked yamaha hub. Both have 36 spokes, similar pattern (I guess...). So I picked one up on eBay cheap from a 2000 Suzuki RM250.

After about an hour! I got all the spoke out nicely and now I have my new rim ready to go.

Also found an XS front hub to go with it and all I need are a set of spokes from mikesXS or Buchanan spokes. Stay tuned for more excitement.

My 1979 Yamaha XS650.

I never post anything on forums about what I do or how to do it so I decided this would be a great way to document all that I do on this bike... as long as I can keep myself diligent about updating it. So here's the story:

I started thinking about wanting a project to get me through the winter, and a project car just wasn't going to happen. I then realized what better way to do that then a bike. So I jumped on the computer and after about 5 minutes of googling vintage bikes and Harley's, I learned all about what it means to chop and what a bobber is. First I came across a Honda Shadow chopper project and I was sold! So after a week of stalking craigslist like it was my job, I found what was advertised as a 1984 Yamaha XS650. I emailed the seller to find out that I was second in line for this bike and had to anxiously wait a few days before buyer#1 backed out.

I make an hour drive out to Ohio to check this thing out. Doesn't run, pictures are pretty rusty, but only had 5k miles and was cheap! Cheap was key, so I went for it. The seller was even going to drive it home for me for the cost of gas money.

Now we got it back home and my next goal is to get her running. The seller I bought it from said the original owner drove it to work everyday and one day it just didn't run so he sold it. After lifting the seat and pointing to the fuse panel, he said "well I think the problem is in there". Of the 4 fuses on there, they all had rotten fuse holders and 2 even had rotted off. I set down the first night to get acquainted with the bike, lifted the fuse panel and found the battery box FULL. It would seem that mice had made themselves nice and cozy inside the rubber housing that used to hold the battery.

So that's all cleaned out, I need to throw in a battery and do a temporary fix to the fuses just to see if it will fire up. I want to make sure it runs as-is before the chopping starts. That's all for right now. Coming next is my progress on the new spoked front wheel.