80 Bobber

[crazy steve]

...I hate the fact that it doesn't match, and want laced wheels front and rear anyways....
.....and pictures of the trees/forks to see if this puzzle can be identified. Any spots in particular to take pictures of for those who could identify the parts?

You're SOL on a laced rear wheel unless you can scratch-build one; Yamaha only built one model that had a laced rear wheel that would fit, and it was a limited-production (100 total?) model that was only sold in Japan...

The front is no problem; the later 650 twin wheels will fit there.

Pics? Take close-ups of the trees, fork lowers/brakes, wheel hub rotors so we can take a shot at our 'best guesses'...

[xs11lover]

Yes, when I saw that pic of a beautiful 80 standard....my wish list yamaha.....next to rip it apart I did want to puke. I guess it's OK but why hard tail it. You just took one of the greatest road bikes ever and made it a bar hopper.
That being said, I did a bobber or two, or three my self.....but they always had shocks.

[ShootersHoliday]

Yes, when I saw that pic of a beautiful 80 standard....my wish list yamaha.....next to rip it apart I did want to puke. I guess it's OK but why hard tail it. You just took one of the greatest road bikes ever and made it a bar hopper.
That being said, I did a bobber or two, or three my self.....but they always had shocks.

Now I'm confused, I thought we decided I'm tearing apart a non-beautiful franken weirdo unsafe custom...

I hardtailed it because I like the way they look. As stated, I did the hardtail so I can always change it back if I wanted. But, i'm short, and the bike feels infintely more comfortable at this height. Couldn't have gotten it this low and retained the stock setup.

And it won't be a bar hopper, I don't really drink.... And I don't like bars. I'll be taking her on a maiden "voyage" this weekend up to Greeley (about 90 miles door to door)

[ShootersHoliday]

heres mine 1980 XS1100. ...

here's one I found on the site with laced wheels

[cywelchjr]

here's one I found on the site with laced wheels

Those are non-stock calipers (can't tell, they might be the stock rotors though) and likely 650 wheels as they came in laced form and also take the dual disks, and even used the same disks as the 11 does. The rear though, unless the guy found one of those really rare wheels from Japan, it's probably a chain drive conversion, which might be an option for you with the lowering as I'm still a little concerned about the life span of that front universal joint with the rear lowered 4 inches.

[motoman]

And it won't be a bar hopper, I don't really drink.... And I don't like bars. I'll be taking her on a maiden "voyage" this weekend up to Greeley (about 90 miles door to door)////// Then take a 'hop' over the hill to here, not far, nice morning or afternoon ride........will provide a meal, coversation and ice pacs............

[ShootersHoliday]

weekend up to Greeley (about 90 miles door to door)////// Then take a 'hop' over the hill to here, not far, nice morning or afternoon ride........will provide a meal, coversation and ice pacs............

ah, Greeley to GJ sounds fun... my aunt is outside of GrandJunction... But you're kinda the other side of the world from me at that point. I would imagine you're about 5 hours. But still, I'd be more than willing to take you up on the offer now that shes got fresh shoes.

[ShootersHoliday]

Those are non-stock calipers (can't tell, they might be the stock rotors though) and likely 650 wheels as they came in laced form and also take the dual disks, and even used the same disks as the 11 does. The rear though, unless the guy found one of those really rare wheels from Japan, it's probably a chain drive conversion, which might be an option for you with the lowering as I'm still a little concerned about the life span of that front universal joint with the rear lowered 4 inches.

Speaking of the chain drive... I found xschop does it if I'm correct. I tried searching in between actually working today, and couldn't find any sort of direct link or price/build break down.

[motoman]

Throw some shocks back on that scoot so the U-joint(which already has a few decades of use) doesn't become an issue, which BTW could be ugly for you and the bike if it failed. At 75mph slab speeds and some pretty good suspension testing dips, you may wanna re-think the back of the scoot. Either way, that could be arranged or meet you part way if your serious.

[ShootersHoliday]

The angle doesn't look too bad to me though. Do the pics make it look like its out of safe operating range?

[cywelchjr]

The angle doesn't look too bad to me though. Do the pics make it look like its out of safe operating range?

If your talking about the universal joint the 4" drop will have put it outside of the range it was designed to operate in, and will cause abnormal wear, and these universal joints are no longer available. This means if it goes out your looking for another used one, or something that might be sort of close, because there is nothing that is an exact match made anymore, so unless you happen to find an NOS one hiding somewhere you got troubles, so you don't want to put any stress on that joint you can avoid. Much better to do everything to lower the seat rather than the suspension, cause you really want to keep that joint in it's sweet spot.

[ShootersHoliday]

I'll take better pictures today. It seems fairly horizontal to the ground. I measured the "drop" more accurate today. 2.75-3" lower. I can always raise the hardtail and get a lower seat like you said. But honestly, it looks "ok". But, you guys are the experts, and if its wrong, I'll fix it.

[natemoen]

Having the u joint horizontal is just about as bad as having too steep an angle. It needs to work at a slight angle.

[CaptonZap]

Educational material

http://www.4xshaft.com/driveline101.html

[fredintoon]

Having the u joint horizontal is just about as bad as having too steep an angle. It needs to work at a slight angle.

Hi Nate,
running at an angle is bad because the U-joint is a Hooke's Joint and that ain't a constant velocity (CV joint like on your FWD car) joint.
If the drive in is at constant velocity, the drive out speeds up and slows down twice every turn.
Stick your head under a pickup truck and you see it's drive shaft has two joints so they cancel out.
Not on a bike, though. There's only one joint so the greater the angle, the more non-linear the drive.
But running it straight is bad? I don't see how.