Motorcycle Project
This is my custom motorcycle web page.
Updated: 11/08/2006
This is a custom motorcycle I am building from the basic frame of a Yamaha Virago 1100. This web page will be updated as each phase of the project is complete. If you have any questions, comments, learn to do it, or would be interested in having some work done please e-mail me at; bjornwoodpile@hotmail.com.
© 2001-2006 James Secord – All Rights Reserved
Pictures:
Here
is my first motorcycle custom. I've been riding a 1985 xv700 Yamaha Virago
for ten years now. I figured it was time to use my metalworking experience
to make some desired changes to my beloved bike.
My
700cc bike has great take off and a respectable top end (115MPH) however bikes
are like computers. Someday your going to just want to go faster than you can.
I could have purchased a GXR sport bike from a friend if all I wanted was faster.
However, I’m just not a sport bike guy. Never felt comfortable on any one of
those machines. Impressive as they are I feel I need to be in the heads
up position of a cruiser. Cool is doing what you want and really not caring
what others think. This bike is going to be my kind of cool!
My
idea with this project is to start with a gem in the rough and use my metalworking
skills to bring My vision of the perfect bike to life. I want the go to increase
at the same rate as the whoa. I want the image to be one like the old days and
invoke a sense of the future. I want low and long without compromising stability.
I want form to compliment function. I want this bike to be a labor
of love. A motorcycle can be an expression of who you are or who you think
you are. Either way if it makes you happy ride with it!
I've decided to keep my 1985 xv700 in one piece and continue to ride her while
building what has come to be known as Frankenbike. Besides a friend just wrecked
his 1986 xv1100 Yamaha virago. Low side accident damaged both sides. I got a
real good deal. Puke green "custom" paint job and everything. I couldn't
start with more of a gem in the rough!
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One
of the things I've always disliked about the Viragos was the rear drum brake.
I never felt I had enough stopping power. The front brake carries most of the
braking power however I wanted to have a big anchor on the rear tire for when
I need it!
My
problem is this model virago is a shaft drive and changing out the drum brake
for a disk brake creates an overwhelming list of problems. Drum is mechanical
and disk is hydraulic is just the beginning of this logistics nightmare. Without
a custom rim being made I wasn't sure this was even possible. I don't have a
"monster" budget for this project and Im pretty sure I wont be receiving
any "FREEBIES" either. Love that show!
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The
solution came by chance or Devine intervention either way it came. At the DMV
I started to talk bikes with some guy and he said he had some fantastic wonderful
out of this world bike that just needed a battery and it would run forever.
Well that's how I remember it! Anyway I went to see this amazing bike. It was
a 1978 XS1100 Yamaha, arguably the fastest bike of its day. This bike was a
four cylinder cruiser that had seen its last good day long before I found it.
This bike was shaft drive like My XV1100 and made by the same manufacturer.
In addition to this when the saddle boxes(so popular in the seventies) came
off a 12 inch disk brake came into view. I almost yelled $100 I'll take
it. Now I had brought along an expert on bike restoration an he jumped in and
said "piece of crap walk away". My Idea was buy the bike take what
I want and sell whatever is salvageable on e-bay. Over the next few weeks
I parted out the XS1100 and made all my money back on e-bay. Using the rear
rim proved to be a bit more tricky.
Chain drive would have been so much easier to change over. If it was too short
just add a link, too long cut a link-easy. When dealing with a drive shaft that
has interlacing gears you need to have the proper length and no interference
from the housing. Long story of head scratching short. I had a local machinist
cut me a custom billet spacer for the drive side and used 16 gauge chrome pipe
to stretch the other side of the swing arm about 3/4 of an inch. With that I
had the beginnings of my dream bike.
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Ok, at this stage of the jigsaw puzzle it has become apparent that I’ve been building the bike I dreamt about when I was 8 years old. In that dream, I ride around with the super friends fighting crime. When you look at the pictures you will see what I'm talking about. Holy crap it looks like a super heroes bike. I'm going to need to get a cape and utility belt before riding this in public!
With the swing arm stretched and the drive shaft correctly aligned it was time to really start building. The rear fender was hand hammered out of a sheet of steel. I wanted to have the rear fender close to the tire. So I made the fender and swing arm into a single piece by welding the fender directly to the swing arm. This makes removing the rear tire, a real chore. I used a layer of carpet as a spacer to make sure it didn’t contact the tire and this also takes into consideration tire stretch. Took several hours to get the curve right. More time to build the bracing for the rear shock (off of a ninja) The flares on the side of the fender were shaped to take a pair of 1949 Dodge Coronet turn signals. I found these on ebay and they’ll be perfect. The head light bucket is off a 1938 Chevy coupe. As you can see its “super-hero” BIG. I love it! Flash Gordon comes to mind. Maybe the next bike will be Ming the Merciless’ bike. Do you know what they say about men with a big light bucket?. They say hey what a great place to cram all the electronics! The bucket is big enough to accommodate the battery as well! Battery is going on the frame though in a custom made box. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
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I got rid of the stock handle bars and put clip-on bars off of my friends wrecked GXR. That wreck almost killed him and his wife. I used several parts off that bike. Problem was the GXR was torn in half and mangled really bad. So it was quite amazing that these handle bars survived the wreck. These bars have lowered the profile of the bike substantially. I wanted the bars to be low like a super-bike but high enough to still allow me to be heads-up. I test fitted these several times and feel they’re at the perfect height for me and my wants.
I used the local muffler shop to bend some 40mm pipe and then constructed a single carb manifold. Getting rid of the dual carb set-up clears out a lot of crap a bike just doesn’t need. My ham-hock hands can now get in to make adjustments and no bolt is difficult to get at! Before it would take over an hour to get the carbs off. Now it takes 5 minutes (the way it should be!). I then put a 40mm flat slide carb on the manifold. Flat slide carbs have the second fastest response time, second only to fuel injection. I wanted this bike to be at least as fast as it was off the line before the modifications. With a flat slide 40mm it will be anything but a slug.
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At this point I fired it up and holy crap was it scary. The jet was way rich and I had blue flames shooting everywhere. Ran kinda like a pro-drag bike, flames and all.! Also, the return spring I put on the carb was way too weak. I rolled on the throttle and HOLY CRAP! It was scary. The slide just stayed up under vacuum and just fed the beast pure gas. I got the attention of all my neighbors and my wife even poked her head out to see if I was ok. With all my shop related accidents, her concern was justified. Anyway, leaner jet and monster strong return spring before I try that again.
The bars lowered the bike. The rear fender lowered the bike. The long turn signal housings make the bike look far longer than it truly is. Kinda like vertical stripes making a tall man look like a tower. With a single shock attached to the swing arm the bike looks like its leaner and meaner. Another design feature I incorporated in the rear fender is a frenched-in license holder. I just love how the classic Hispanic lead sleds look. Classic low-riders are cool to the bone. The next addition was to re-do the pipes.
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The exhaust system on the stock bike was mangled in its accident. So besides being heavy, rusted, damaged, and unoriginal I just didn’t like it. I did however like the cannon look given by an aluminum super-bike exhaust. Instead of putting the exhaust up high like on a sport bike, I dropped them down low. I placed them inside the 45 degree V as not to drag when I cut canyons. I found a pair of Vance & Hines cans. At first I was only going to use one of the pipes. I tend to prefer single exhaust. It looks cleaner and there is less places for you to burn your leg. After several test fits, I realized the visual impact was lopsided. These cans are huge and it would look far cleaner with one on each side that a single one on one side. With that all decided, I then needed to figure out where to put them. As usual the bike told me where. Down low, above the 45 degree angle, and out as far as the engine is wide. The idea is to make them fit the complete package rather than attaching them where its easiest.
Back to form and function basics. It must perform good before you can consider if it looks good. If not, your gonna be tooling around on the coolest looking bike, with the handling characteristics of a shopping cart. Long rake jobs come to mind. If I put the pipes lower they would drag when I cut a corner hard. Further back would decrease the stability of the connecting arms, leading to fatigue and possibly a dropped muffler. Closer in would put unnecessary heat on the tire. Further away from the tire would look too wide and not match the profile set by the line of the engine. Long story short, it took longer to figure out where they go than actually attaching them! The local muffler shop (Lakeside Muffler) bent all the pipe I needed. All three times! It took a few tries to get it right! I'm happy with this stage 3 and looking forward to stage 4.
Stage 4 includes brake spacers to
put on six piston Tokeco calipers on the front tire. Rear caliper will be added.
A steering dampener will be added off of a 2003 1300cc hayabusa super-bike.
Maybe even start on a tank!
Hope your enjoying this process. I know I'm having a blast.
My bike has had a long time under the blue tarp. I didn’t forget about her I just got busy with a lot of other projects. I’m back on the job! Check out the new pictures.
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I had a real big push to get a lot done. I needed to see progress and that involved a lot of hours and quite a bit of effort. The tank is shaped and it defies description. You will simply have to see the pictures to understand what it looks like. My buddies have said it kind of looks like a Cylon Raider from the front. A few have said it looks like the Leviathan Ship from Farscape from the top. Anyway this is my first tank. It’s the shape that was in my head.
The tank and the seat frame are all one piece of metal. . The idea of a seamless line through the tank and seat has been one of the biggest components I wanted to see in this bike. This makes the line on the bike flow in an organic manner. The mono form also makes for one cool visual impact. I tried to incorporate several subtle shapes in the construction. The seat pan is where John of Cox computer services decided to put some of the electronics. I mounted the key in the seat and then John made it all work as advertised. Electrical stuff is half science and half voodoo. John has been fundamental in the electrical stuff on this bike.
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All the recent work that’s gotten done on the bike has come at a price. I have had to drop my idea of the 6 piston front calipers and I also gave up my idea of using a GXR rear caliper. Both ideas were more problematic than my current skill level could safely build. Its fundamental to work within your skill level.
The speedometer has been mounted. I was able to maintain the original rubber mounts and managed to salvage some good bulbs to light it up. A custom bracket needed to be fabricated and it took a bit of trial and error to get the speedometer mounted just right. The stock housing was used and I think it looks good.
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The headlight bucket is mounted and the new headlight and headlight bezel have been fit to the housing. That was a chore! The headlight bucket is off a 38 Chevy and the headlight and bezel are off a new after market street fighter set up. I just got lucky! The diameter is a perfect match and together the two halves look like they were designed together. Now for the cool thing associated with this mounting. The bracket I used to mount the headlight is actually a BMX gooseneck. In my youth the coolest of kids had these goosenecks on their bikes. I had an Orange Huffy with a banana seat then a mountain bike with enough gears that I could deliver my paper route. I always liked the BMX bikes I just never had one of my own. Now I have a gooseneck! Cool! I showed this to my good friend Mike and his response was “never show me this again”. He really didn’t like it. Well the moral of the story is cool is in the eye of the beholder. Everyone with an opinion of their own will have an idea of what’s cool. I think its cool! And that’s all that matters.
Taillights are mounted! The taillights were probably the hardest aspect to get right. I wanted the top of the lights to be horizontal and they needed to be evenly spaced as well. They also needed to be at the same height and finally they needed to be set parallel. I made several refits and had several fits in the process. The bike was not set on a totally level surface when I first started to do the mounting. So when they were flat and plumb they were in fact off by enough that it was obviously wrong when the bike was on totally level ground. Then I had one too far back and that needed to be fixed. Then they weren’t parallel so I needed to move the one that had been looking perfect. Then they both needed to be tweaked just a bit to make them look right.
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I have developed a remarkable fear of electricity, well the wires and magical boxes the wires go into, and that’s what I fear! Electricity is one part science, one part voodoo, and 100% confusing to me. Luckily, John is one part scientist one part witch doctor and 100% committed to doing everything electrical on this bike. The wiring harness has been completely torn apart and is currently being rerouted and rolled into a new configuration by my witch doctor.
© 2001-2006 James Secord – All Rights Reserved