Hardtail conversion HOW TO? DIY

[Psychedelic_Max]

Hi guys! I own a XS1100SF and I want to make a hardtail conversion. I'm a good welder but I can't find any plans or any "how to'' over the internet?

I guess some of you could help me out with this...

[fredintoon]

Hi guys! I own a XS1100SF and I want to make a hardtail conversion. I'm a good welder but I can't find any plans or any "how to'' over the internet?
I guess some of you could help me out with this...

Hi Max and welcome,
first let me say that anyone who removes a bike's rear suspension has to really put style above comfort.
That said, just get the sawzall and start hacking.
Most of you masochists simply cut away the rear frame and solid-strut the swingarm up to whatever minimal extension that supports the seat and rear fender.
But to my mind, doing that makes a short-arsed rear frame that don't quite look right.
What I reckon is, you don't need the swingarm at all.
Run your 4 new rigid frame tubes back to give a mebbe 4" longer wheel base. You will build the rigid frame so it grabs the rear wheel just like the swingarm used to. Make an eye on the brake side to support the axle and brake plate. Make a plate identical to the swingarm end plate where it bolts to the rear drive unit and weld that onto the frame's drive side to hang the rear drive unit onto.
Now you need to cut the driveshaft in half and weld an extension tube in the middle so it's also 4" longer.
Get it chromed and run it in the open like a 1930's BMW.
Get a big ol' tractor-style solo seat and suspend it on a 1/4-elliptic leafspring. Your choice of rear fender and lights.
OK, it'll still destroy your spine to ride it but at least it'll look nice.

[T99Ford]

quote: but at least it'll look nice.

Fred: Is that a positive, nice thing that you just said about a hardtail?? You are not gonna get soft on us now, are you?

[Pat Kelly]

Quickest and easiest way to hard-tail the bike would be to remove the shocks and replace them with the desired length solid strut(s).

[joceiphus]

Google "shops chops"

[jmnjrpa]

Save yourself

some time and money. Bend over and have some sadistic A$$hole hit you in the butt with a 3 pound hammer. Sorry, couldn't resist. Seriously I know a guy that lost several teeth and part of his tongue to a pothole and another at age 45 can only walk a block all due to hardtails. I know this won't detour you but forewarned is forearmed. As for your question -google "hardtail motorcycle". I found a number of good builders sites there.

[81xsproject]

The solid strut is a great idea. It makes the height adjustable if you should want to alter it AND it doesn't DESTROY another XS. I will never understand the desire to downgrade technology and performance.

[fredintoon]

You must suffer to be beautiful

quote: but at least it'll look nice.
Fred: Is that a positive, nice thing that you just said about a hardtail?? You are not gonna get soft on us now, are you?

Hi '71,
hardtails are uncomfortable to ride and anyone who converts his suspended bike into one and keeps using it as a daily rider and especially as a long distance rider is a fool and a masochist.
That said, hardtails do make nice artwork if they are done right. And if you keep the thing just for an ornament and for displaying at bike shows you needn't ever put gas or oil in it and it won't be a fire hazard or mark the living room rug.

[Lunatic]

Funny

So, all of you that post anti-rigid, anti chopper comments. How many of you have ever actually ridden a rigid framed bike?
Sure is a lot of bile and hate towrds how other folks choose to ride. Thats unfortunate. Heck, I have several friends who compete in long distance riding evetns on rigids. To each their own.
Back the question at hand.
Hack the rear half of the frame off, leaving behind the drive shaft housing. Then weld in the down tubes to create a nice rigid back half for your frame. Other upside to this is that it requres no retitlng of the bike.

[fredintoon]

Me, for a start.

So, all of you that post anti-rigid, anti chopper comments. How many of you have ever actually ridden a rigid framed bike?

Hi Lunatic,
for a decade after first getting a bike licence all I could afford to ride was pre-war rigid-framed bikes, BSAs, Nortons, Velocettes. So I know all about riding those spinewreckers.
I had to build my first suspended rear frame bike by chopping up a rigid-frame Velocette to add a cheap copy of a McCandless swingarm conversion to it. So I also know how to convert a potential priceless antique into something of far less worth. But at least my chopping was to make a machine more rideable, not less so.
BTW, the summer before last I had the privilege of riding an ex WW2 16H Norton for sixty miles or so, my first ride on a rigid in many years.
Oh the Nostalgia!
Oh the whap-whap-whap of a 500cc sidevalve single!
Oh my aching back!

[XSokieSPECIAL]

Hi '71,
hardtails are uncomfortable to ride and anyone who converts his suspended bike into one and keeps using it as a daily rider and especially as a long distance rider is a fool and a masochist.
That said, hardtails do make nice artwork if they are done right. And if you keep the thing just for an ornament and for displaying at bike shows you needn't ever put gas or oil in it and it won't be a fire hazard or mark the living room rug.

So, all of you that post anti-rigid, anti chopper comments. How many of you have ever actually ridden a rigid framed bike?
Sure is a lot of bile and hate towrds how other folks choose to ride. Thats unfortunate. Heck, I have several friends who compete in long distance riding evetns on rigids. To each their own.
Back the question at hand.
Hack the rear half of the frame off, leaving behind the drive shaft housing. Then weld in the down tubes to create a nice rigid back half for your frame. Other upside to this is that it requres no retitlng of the bike.

Hi Lunatic,
for a decade after first getting a bike licence all I could afford to ride was pre-war rigid-framed bikes, BSAs, Nortons, Velocettes. So I know all about riding those spinewreckers.
I had to build my first suspended rear frame bike by chopping up a rigid-frame Velocette to add a cheap copy of a McCandless swingarm conversion to it. So I also know how to convert a potential priceless antique into something of far less worth. But at least my chopping was to make a machine more rideable, not less so.
BTW, the summer before last I had the privilege of riding an ex WW2 16H Norton for sixty miles or so, my first ride on a rigid in many years.
Oh the Nostalgia!
Oh the whap-whap-whap of a 500cc sidevalve single!
Oh my aching back!

Lunatic you don't stand a chance!

[TDodge7]

i own 2 hard tails ....actual hard tails , not sprung bikes that have been butchered into half ass hard tails .the hard tails i have hardly ever get ridden for a reason THEY SUCK TO RIDE . the xs wasn't built to be a hard tail , the lines are wrong , the shape of the frame is wrong (especially if you try to stick one of those sprung chopper seats ontop of the wide flat frame like people do .....ehhhhh ugly) why downgrade your bike to ATTEMPT to gain a look that you'll never be able to pull off correctly since it was designed to use shocks . keep the shocks and enjoy a nice ride , trust me dude . and sorry if my comments rub you the wrong way , hard tailing sprung bikes just gets to me , just like when you see some joker stick a 3 foot extended swingarm on his sport bike THAT HE DOESN'T DRAG RACE , i see these idiots all the time , creeping slowly around on ramps because their stupid bike doesn't handle anymore .

[joceiphus]

I have strong opinions about how bikes should look or handle and whatnot.
But I also like to keep in mind that; what someone else does to their own bike is none of my ****in business!

[81xsproject]

Always trying to look on the plus side...

The ONLY good thing I will muster to say on this issue is that every time someone decides to ruin an XS by chopping it, mine becomes more rare.

TDodge nailed it on the head. I think custom built, hard tail choppers are beautiful works of mechanical art. The XS will NEVER look like one of those bikes primarily because of the very wide nature of the amazing, XS power plant. Custom builds that look good are long and narrow. That's why there are V-twins.

The more depressing, opposing reality to my 'positive' statement is that the already relatively low number of XS11's is the primary reason we don't have the aftermarket replacement/performance part support that bikes like the XS650, GS, and KZ are afforded.

[fredintoon]

Better the miffed rider than the grieving widow.

- - - But I also like to keep in mind that; what someone else does to their own bike is none of my ****in business!

Hi Joe,
thing is, if ever one of those chopped machines comes to grief due to it's having been made less rideable by it's rider and you are the person who has to take the bad news to his family, it rapidly becomes your ****in' business, don't it?