Wayn's xs650n#1...

[Prof]

Wayne has been chasing this bike for ten years and finally scored it off his mate. He's taken it for a quick squirt up the street and it runs fine. He brought it up for some suggestions on how to tidy a few things up most notably the electrics box. He's taken it home now to pull apart and have the frame sandblasted, so we can see it there are any cracks. Then back here for a few modifications to improve its lines and provide passenger accommodation.







A photo of his mate when it was first built in early 80's... apparently a really nice bike to ride and it got a lot of miles put into it. Rear tyre by the way is a 135x15 as used commonly on the front on Volksies at that time...

[Neo Dutch]

Neat. Throw some struts and a spindly springer on that thing and call it done.

[neale]

"Then back here for a few modifications to improve its lines and provide passenger accommodation."

Personally I think the lines look pretty damn nice the way they are, it's a nice machine that I'd be happy to have as is.

FWIW

Neale

[Bacca]

A nice peace of history just as is, very cool

[Prof]

Improving lines... One inch tube was joined to 1 1/8" tube and this has to be tidied up so the join is not noticeable, Electrics box sticks out like a sore thumb. Angled tube below it will be replaced with tube at a better angle and a new electrics box added.

Plus... Battery removal, inspection is a day job and will be fixed up. A couple of essential pieces of tube to be put in plus some crush tubes as a couple of mounting bolts are squashing things. With suspension the rear guard sits up at an aggravating angle. It is also too short for SA and too short for passenger seating...

A narrow springer would look great and has been discussed, but cost the earth even if I was too make one.

Overall I agree that the bike looks really good... a genuine late seventies digger, however his wife is keen to pillion and they want to do longer trips so pillion seating and also a higher set of bars are a necessity.

Will hopefully not only be safer and more user friendly but also look great once it is redone. He will keep the same colour which I think is also appropriate.

[Prof]

Wayne cruised up on Saturday for a couple of hours work on his xs digger. He'd gotten the bike pulled apart in a day and tells me had a ball doing it. Then off the the sandblasters to see what lay under the paint and bog. No cracks are in evidence which is good news. He brought it back up here as a basic roller with the engine in it.

First step was a set of 10.5" after market shocks which he things are bang on... slim and low...


He spent the next few hours fashioning some small gussets to tidy up and strengthen the steering head which has the head stem butt welded to the down tubes with bronze. Surprising that it has held, but the bike has had a lot of miles put on it so it is obviously ok. However as a precaution, we are adding in a small gusset to tie backbone and down tubes to the steering head. We want to keep the neat classic open look of the 70's gooseneck frame.


He'll be back here Wednesday night for a bit more work. We'll get the front end gussets tacked in and look at making up a top engine mount and I hope to convince him to add a gusset it low down on the down tubes as well... then we'll put in a crosspiece/rear guard mount by the rear shocker top mounts.

[tigerbob]

Man, this thing looks fantastic! I wouldn't go changing any of the lines although I can understand your concern re: bracing.

The old 15" Michelin tyres were on just about anything that required a 15" tyre back then. I don't remeber them being too good for grip though...

I'm looking forward to seeing this one progress!

[Prof]

At this stage of his thinking, only change to actual lines of the bike will be moving the guard rearwards and dropping it at the back, and adding a small sissy bar and back pad with longer seat for his wife.

I remember 15 inchers were very common chopper rear wheels in early seventies as for a while there 16" rims were not easy to get... once the chopper craze caught on then new chromed rims became the norm... Adelaide Wheel & Rim did great business... When I called them abut ten years ago, didn't even know about them! I got onto one of the older blokes who used to work there and he said the machinery they had used was sold off to scrap in mid eighties. Fortunately now 16" rims are easily imported and available.

[Tex]

At the risk of showing my age yet again, back in "the day" this style of bike was known as a "Northern California (NorCal)/San Francisco/Arlen Ness" look, compared to the "Southern California (SoCal)/Los Angeles" style with extended forks, apes or pull backs, high tank etc. They were 2 very distinctive and separate styles. Most of the NorCal bikes that I remember were long, low,single seaters with an elongated small capacity fuel tank. Most were powered by Sportster motors. Most were single seater or maybe a small pussy pad on the rear guard, with goose neck frame. There were not too many of this style in Australia, so this bike is a rare treasure.
Attached are good examples of the two distinctive styles.
_________
Tex

[Prof]

A mate who worked for Arlen Ness for a while, tells the story of him and a bunch of the Ness guys going for a Saturday ride and Cory surprising them with his very hot sportster digger for its first outing... He blew them all into the weeds... and some of them had shovels with the works.

According to him, their favourite sport was to pull onto the Freeway and then go hell for leather for the next off ramp, first on the ramp being the winner of course... the low and very light framed hotted up sporty digger with its quick revving motor was the bees knees for this application... and the Ness's went into full bore production with this money making fashion.

I am actually lucky enough to have the tiller bars off the digger he built at Arlen's and brought back to Aus... a bit of a 70's treasure along with a Posa injector, a Finch Pawn Lite, genuine early Anderson pegs, a Drag Specialties box taillight and a cat faced taillight which I have also picked up so far, along the way.

[neale]

That blue digger with the extensive gold leaf (I'm sure most of us have seen the colour pictures of the bike on the left in Tex's post back in the day) was something I lusted after in my teens, I think it was one of the prime drivers to get me hooked on Chops and similar bikes (Probably why I still favour the long and low look I s'pose).

FWIW

Neale

[neale]

That blue digger with the extensive gold leaf (I'm sure most of us have seen the colour pictures of the bike on the left in Tex's post back in the day) was something I lusted after in my teens, I think it was one of the prime drivers to get me hooked on Chops and similar bikes (Probably why I still favour the long and low look I s'pose).

FWIW

Neale

Sorry, I was getting my diggers mixed up, this was the blue and gold leaf one I was thinking of.

[layz]

Thanks for your input guys. Didn't know it was called a digger and am even more keen to keep it in its original style.

[Prof]

Wayne came back for some more work on his digger a few days ago.

Our next job is the back end. the shocker mounts are badly bent in at shocker holes and a bit thin, so we decide to strengthen the tab of each mount. First I use heat and a small Jemmy to get the mounts back into shape. then Wayne makes a cardboard pattern and then cuts out a couple of new pieces from 3mm plate.


Strengthening plates are welded in and tidied with the grinder. Now for guard position...


The new shockers we have installed can be easily measured for full compression. This we do and Wayne makes up a simple strut to simulate full compression, so we can work out guard and cross member positions. We tape three rubber blocks to the top of the tyre. When the guard is rested on these we are guaranteed clearance on full compression (that spoon drain you didn't see!).


The guard as originally mounted sits up at the rear like Jacky and needs to be brought down. Problem is that guard curvature is too large and it will need to be wedged, pulled in to a smaller radius and reglassed. However we can still work out the location of our crossmember/guard mount


Cross member welded in. Note that wheel is in full forward position...


Wayne is going to take home the guard and get instructions from a fibreglassing firm nearby and re radius the guard at home. He makes up a pattern of the wheel arc so he can shape the guard to match...


For interest we measure up the front end... 40 degree rake and 440 from axle to centre of steering head.


The steering head has been brazed to the front downtubes and I feel I'd like to see some extra strength in this area via a gusset that ties the backbone, steering head and downtubes together. To do this a small filler will also be welded into the top of the down tubes to weld the gusset to. Wayne spent an hour or so making up different shaped cardboard gusset patterns and painting them grey to see what looked best. this is the one he chose, but we will reduce its width at the front by 5mm.


I just called him and the guard has been glassed to the new shape and he will be back on Saturday for another stint, which will include new rear guard mounts.

[layz]

Gday back to the shed over the week end .the diggers coming along well .Most of the structural work is near finished .going to extend the swingarm 2 inches so the missus can have some room down back .
Started working on the brackets for the back guard ,im no fabricator but enjoying having a crack at it .Its really cool to be able to learn new skills and work on your bike under the guidance with somebody that knows his *#@**. thanks