My XS11 Project - Juggernaut

[MrFreeze5]

I pulled the engine from the donor bike and finally got it out of my Jeep. Ill start stripping electrical this weekend or next week from the donor. That engine is a beast!

[subike]

This is great seeing a project like this .
I like the fact that you are experimenting with this, as it takes the hard work out of guessing what to use for us others who dont have the time or space.
looking forward to seeing the end result for sure.
It gives me the urge to start on my third bike, an XS trike. some of your ideas are veri inspiring

[MrFreeze5]

The engine is now in the kitchen where it will remain while I work on it. After getting the engine out of the truck and into the house I have been able to determine a few things. When I bought the parts bike for this engine I was told that it had been rebuilt and not paid for. The bike sat for a while at the shop then ended up at the salvage yard. It hasnt been registered since 04 so I was a little concerned. After getting the engine out, I noticed that the cylinders are not original. The engine is in great shape, no leaks, just a little dirty on the bottom. The spark plugs are damn near new and the engine turns over smoothly. To top it off, my buddy has a tiny flexible scope and I stuck it in the spark plug holes to check the cylinders and the bores are clean with a good crosshatch and the pistons have only a light coating of carbon, not a spot of rust or corrosion that I can see. And there is just a tiny bit of surface corrosion at the intake ports on the outside of the head. All in all, I think I can trust the innards of this engine since I dont really have the space, time, or budget to tear into this engine, especially if it doesnt need it. These engines are pretty damn burly, so I am going to put a little faith into it.

Once the buildoff is over I will very likely start devising a hopped up engine for it, but the goal is to have a running and rideable bike by the deadline.

[xschop]

Hey Freeze, First off...Cool build there.
I do have a question that maybe Math can also answer...Does the driveshaft on the FJ arm angle out at the rear? I was always curious how Math put the larger rear tire on because the XS11 U-joint and shaft at the straight back direction only allows for a skinny 140 (150 if inner swingarm is ground out near the tire wall)
I never bothered asking him before, But when I looked into doing this arm upgrade before, I came up with a drawing of a piece that could possibly bolt right on to the XS frame and clear the U-joint. I'll see if I can find it.IIRC I would have had to weld 2 stop tabs on the left frame upright and call it a day.

BTW is the Honda tapered bearing a go?

[xschop]

found her

The tabs on the left frame tube would just keep the 3/4" thick steel tube from rotating and hitting the u-joint and would bolt right on using the stock 17mm pivot bolts. What is the FJ swingarm pivot bolt O.D.? I never checked, but if it is 25mm or larger, then this design would work....and save alot of fabbing

[MrFreeze5]

Hey Freeze, First off...Cool build there.
I do have a question that maybe Math can also answer...Does the driveshaft on the FJ arm angle out at the rear? I was always curious how Math put the larger rear tire on because the XS11 U-joint and shaft at the straight back direction only allows for a skinny 140 (150 if inner swingarm is ground out near the tire wall)
I never bothered asking him before, But when I looked into doing this arm upgrade before, I came up with a drawing of a piece that could possibly bolt right on to the XS frame and clear the U-joint. I'll see if I can find it.IIRC I would have had to weld 2 stop tabs on the left frame upright and call it a day.

BTW is the Honda tapered bearing a go?

The middle drive has to be spaced outward about 30mm IIRC to line up properly. Its looking like it will be a close fit to the frame, but I dont think it will take much work to make it clear the frame in the end. There really isnt any room to add anything to the frame, the ujoint is so close.

I ended up ordering a custom SV650 bearing from Zoran. I still havent received the one from Honda yet, but Ill probably return it when I do.

[MrFreeze5]

While I am waiting on the steel I bought for the swingarm pivot and subframe to come in, I am looking ahead in this build. I have already decided on running a Dekelvic 7" round light up front, but I have been pondering the rest of the body. I had already decided on a Ducati 996/998 tail and am sticking with that. I wanted something that would be kinda sporty and cafe looking, but not too sporty or modern looking. I really like the color that the tank I bought is painted. Its kinda of a greenish blue metallic depending on the lighting and angle, but I didnt want to paint the whole bike, so I wanted something that would work with the color. So Ive decided to skin the bike in carbon fiber and keep the tank as is. I think the grey of the CF and the green./blue of the tank will compliment each other nicely. What I have been pondering is the front fairing though. Since this will be my highway bike, I wanted something up front, but dont want a full tour fairing or windshield. I was considering a cafe fairing, but the one I like looks really cheap in person and isnt availabe in CF. While I was shopping for a CF Ducati biposto tail, I ran across some CF fairings for the Monster, and think I have my solution. This is my planned fairing and windscreen now to fit around my 7" headlight. I think it will fit nicely and will match the rest of the bodywork well. Opinions?

[xschop]

two opinions.....

1) BAD
2) ASS
Hey Freeze, you have good vision. That will be a very unique bike and most importantly an XS at heart....kudos
BTW if that is a true 30x47 taper, I will take it off your hands. I get emails from time to time for that bearing and would rather that someone could get them off the shelf anyway. Keep the pics coming...Chop

[MrFreeze5]

Zoran does the same thing you do for the bearing and grinds it down a mm, but his bearings are only $45 shipped, so i went that route. He lists them for a SV650. I actually found them ltrough a link in your thread on CF about the custom bearings. The honda bearing came in and I returned it, I didnt break the plastic on it, but it was a bit big.

If I can motivate myself to clear the snow off the patio early enough so it melts in the sun and dries up, and can then motivate myself once again to haul parts up from the basement and outside, Ill get started on cleaning up my frame. I need to knock off the rear seat tubes, the shock studs, and lots of little tabs and brackets and stuff.

I bought me a cheap little welder after Xmas at HF so I can do work at home now. Its only a cheapie 110v wire feed, but my house is old and cant handle anything more. Hell, this might pop a breaker. But it will serve the purpose of letting me tack and do small jobs at home. Then I can just take them to the shop and run the nice pretty beads where it matters with the TIG.

[MrFreeze5]

Ive been talking with my machinist a lot lately and he is just getting to work on my parts. He is making a hydraulic slave cylinder mount for the Juggy and my FZR hybrid Lilith. We have started discussing my triple tree now too and will probably get started in 2 or 3 weeks. Id love to be able to get custom matching triples, but I dont need a new lower triple and this is a budget build on a deadline, so it will have to wait, but he is going to make me a custom upper triple tree. First, I dont want the clip-on bar clamps on the Busa triple since I am using fat dirt bars. I am having him machine in mounting bosses for risers and will probably go with either a 1" or 2" riser. But what will be cool about the upper triple is that I am having him make it so that the forks can be dropped down lower, about 1-1.5", than the stem nut to add a little height back to the bike. The forks are so short, it should put it in a better position. Plus I am not ready for full custom exhaust yet that clears the ground because its so low. I was surprised to see the Busa forks even next to the R1 forks I have, its about 1.5" shorter. He will also make the triple thicker top to bottom at the stem nut so i dont need to run a separate spacer on the stem to take up the difference on the XS. Another cool thing about getting the triple made is that now my entire front end is silver. Everything is bare machined aluminum and will look great when its all put together and compliment the engine nicely I think.

Im still debating exactly what size rise bars and risers to use. I am building this bike to be my highway cruiser, so comfort is important. I will also put on some highway pegs, so I need the bars to be comfortable if I am in a relaxed position. Having not owned a complete XS11 before I started building is making some aspects difficult since I dont have an original comparison, but starting with a new bike like this from scratch is the kind of challenge I really enjoy, so I will figure it out.

[xschop]

The shorter forks of the Busa and the Rake of the XS11 head make for quick street steering and the set-up is so much more stable at high speeds. The lower position also makes the heavy XS easier to move around in the garage.
IDK what kind of bearing Zoran starts with, but if it's not SKF or Timken to begin with, the Chinese metals and manufacturing being used in most non-branded rollers are shady at best.
I made a set of billet fork Extenders (up to 3" IIRC) but liked the quick steering of the Busa trees and forks alone on the 11... These had an area machined inside for the Busa fork rebound/dampening adjusters even....
http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...t=S5000462.jpg

[MrFreeze5]

I thought about some fork extenders after seeing a thread on another forum, but they were so expensive and I would only want to run them if I had clip on clamps to go around the joint, but I dont want to add that much to it. I dont have a set of XS forks, but from what Ive seen the Busa forks are about 3" or 3.5" shorter, I cant remember. I do want to lower the bike a bit, but not too much. And this triple will give me some wiggle room for adjustment too. I dont want the front end too twitchy, and super sharp handling isnt the first priority, comfort and stability are. Ive got my FZR if I need super handling. Plus this bike is a beast, its so heavy. I want it to be manageable at both low and high speeds. Now whether or not my setup will get me the desired results, we shall see, but thats what I am hoping to get out of it. EVERYTHING about the suspension is being changed. So regardless of how I set it up, its gonna take all sorts of fine tuning to get sorted out.

the bearing has not come in yet, but he was highly recommended online with good reviews on his work. I cant tell from the pic what kind of bearing it is. I usually try to stick with good bearings, so I hope its not crap. But at worst, it should get me a complete bike, and if it needs to be addressed later, I will.




Hey, can you make middle drive spacers? I thought I saw something about them in one of youre pre-chaindrive threads. I need to get the ball rolling on the middle drive machining I need to get done. I am afraid the new input shaft is going to be the hardest part to have made, and most expensive.

[xschop]

middle drive spacer

I can make one. How thick do you need it? I am starting on a couple of chaindrives this weekend and will look over the programming of my CNC for those dims. I have seen the one attemp on the UK site, but wouldn't personally do that unless the factory MD centering ring was incorporated for concentricity of the MD shaft input splines....ESPECIALLY if you don't want to ruin your 1-off extended shaft.... The spacer is not the difficulty in the swap that you are doing but you need a custom shaft like MathH did. Have you found a shop that will make you one, and at what extension length are you going for?
And I'm sure you already know that the extension needs to be right in between the input splines and the inner bearing circlip.

[MrFreeze5]

I can make one. How thick do you need it? That's not the difficulty in the swap that you are doing but you need a custom shaft like MathH did. Have you found a shop that will make you one, and at what extension length are you going for?
And I'm sure you already know that the extension needs to be right in between the input splines and the inner bearing circlip.

Yeah, thats what I meant, the new shaft would be tricky, not the spacer. Ive got a few options, but I havent gone to talk to them yet. I have a few friends in the 4x4 machining and mfg industry. They make custom splined shafts all the time and might be able to help me out, otherwise I have a few backups in mind, but no one specific in mind at the moment. The extension/spacer should be 30mm IIRC. Its the same setup as mathh and Im using his build for reference for this part.

[xschop]

If you can find a cost effective solution to the shaft extension, you will be over the hump on this swap.
Do you have pics, links to Math H's spacer?