Going Racing

[The Prophet of Doom]

I haven't ridden on it yet, but I do think a new spring will be in order.  Its a common upgrade for the Kawasaki Versys where it's mounted upside down. 

[Rikugun]

Only issue seems to be that it seems it will sit right where the axle needs to come out  dropping the exhaust to remove the rear wheel would be an enormous PITA

Could you remove the lower shock pin allowing the wheel to drop just a bit? A board under the centerstand would allow it to drop further yet. Removing the muffler attachment bolt might allow enough flex to help too. Not ideal I know, but better than removing parts of the exhaust.  :(  :)

[The Prophet of Doom]

Good suggestion Rik - It's more than just a bit.  From my quick mockup the axle is about bang in the middle of the muffler.  It's a BIG muffler, so there might not be enough travel even if I pull the shock pin, but regardless it looks cool so I'm sticking with it.

Did some work today on the headlight ears - I cut these out ages ago but practicing with Oxy Acetylene welding gave less than satisfactory results due to lack of skill - especially with dissimilar thicknesses.  I'm enrolled at the local high school after 3pm programme which gives me 2 hours a week access to their metal shoppe including an AC/DC TIG.  This is my second time ever on TIG and my first time with Alloy.  I think it went OK considering.

Plan is to powder these Chrysler Hemi Orange which is the main colour theme for the bike other than black and bare metal

[dingleberry]

Bloody hell, "The Prophet" strikes again. That looks shithot to my inexperienced eye. I hope my 2nd ever tig weld looks half that good. Maybe you can train me when I get mine, not far away now.
It would seem that orange is the new black lately!

[Rikugun]

The welds look very good especially considering your experience.  :) Welding is a great tool to have in your arsenal and great idea enrolling in the class.

[Re-Vision]

I used to tell my daughters that they ought to take typing and welding classes, one of them did. Wish I had.     BDC

[fret not]

It's not too late to learn a new skill.  You could take a class too.

[The Prophet of Doom]

I've got some new fork inners coming.  I ordered them a bit longer than stock so they should work better with the clip-ons very kindly given to me by Shep1

Here's a quick fit-up to see what it will look like

[The Prophet of Doom]

I stripped my spare forks and sent the lowers off for powder
While I'm waiting for the inners I thought I'd have a look at the switchgear...

I think I mentioned elsewhere that I'd imported a Motogadget m-unit to handle all the fusing, and relay duties (all solid state) as part of my re-wire.  It also provides some groovy features like RFID locking, movement alarm, indicator fading, brake light pulsing.

The Motogadget m-unit switches low control voltages to ground - which is the exact opposite of Yamaha stock.  Not much to see but here is the LH cluster re-wired to switch to ground.  I'm using Motogadget m-button so I have a single cable heading back to the m-unit in the tail.   I managed to fit the m-button inside the switch housing (top left in pic) and add a hazard function.  The High/Low button was a SPST so I used two IN4004 Diodes to ground both turn left and right at the same time.

Some of the switches have been re-purposed to enable full m-unit functionality which you only get if you have a push button for lights.
Left Hand
               Horn=Horn
               Turn=Turn
               High/Low beam = Hazard On/Off
               Flash to Pass = Flash to Pass / High Low Beam / Lights On & Off
Right Hand
               Kill=Kill
               Lights Off/Park/On = Angel Eyes On, Eyes & Gauge Lights On
               Start=Start
               
I still have to find places for the dash config and m-unit config buttons, and install a new indicator switch.

[edit]  Also decided to swap the starter and horn around so if some thief finds my RFID fob, they will press "start" and get a 139db blast on the horn

[The Prophet of Doom]

So the new inners arrived.  I'd ordered inners from MikesXS for a 35mm XS650 + 2" They were half the price of anywhere else.
I'd checked the diam, & length, and that the bottom bolts and bushes were the same.  It never occurred to me that they would have a different ID so the XZ inners won't fit inside.  Theres $200 down the drain.  It's hard to do some of this stuff when it's all via email and on-line catalogs  :-(

Let me know if you have an XS and want some +2" inners - going cheap.

[Rikugun]

What are "inners"? Damping rods? Stanchions?

Did you get +2" XS stanchions and now the XZ damping rods won't fit? If so, can you use XS damping rods instead? I'd bet the thread for the attachment bolt is the same on both.

[The Prophet of Doom]

I should have said fork tubes or stanchions, the term inner comes from the Yamaha parts list, but everyone else calls them other things. 
Yes, I could try XS dampers, but I'd also need caps, spacers, possibly springs (I haven't measured) etc - basically an entire XS transplant.  Easier to just get some new tubes.

[iain]

Would those fork inners be any good for beating naughty children
:police: :police: :police:

Iain
NZ

[The Prophet of Doom]

I thought about that when the neighbours started up this morning at 8:00am
The trouble with them is they are not thin enough - they are unlikely to draw blood - the sign of a thoroughly good thrashing.

[fret not]

PoD, are the contacting surfaces of the XZ parts to big or too small in size to fit the new fork stanchions?  I'm wondering if a bushing/spacer or some machining might remedy the situation.

[The Prophet of Doom]

Unfortunately the ID of the XS stanchions is smaller than the XZ, so my bits won't fit down the hole.

[fret not]

Maybe you have access to a lathe to make round parts smaller.  Or maybe that would be a bad idea.

[Re-Vision]

Make the hole bigger.    BDC

[The Prophet of Doom]

It would need specialist tools to cut 2mm off the entire ID.
I suppose I could lathe down the damper rod, but lathing the springs smaller would be disastrous.  They don't fit either.

*Sigh*
Nothing for it but to order some new tubes I think.

[Re-Vision]

PODna,

It would need specialist tools to cut 2mm off the entire ID.
I suppose I could lathe down the damper rod, but lathing the springs smaller would be disastrous.  They don't fit either.

*Sigh*
Nothing for it but to order some new tubes I think.

Anything I might have or could pickup here to keep your project moving?    BDC