delmsie Posted October 18, 2012 Posted October 18, 2012 I set off to buy a scooter 12 months ago and came home with a new XVS Classic 650. Amazing what some great service at a dealer to do for you. Then I discover that there were plenty of other interesting styles of bike out there that got me salivating. I am more a cruiser that a racer type of guy. With that in mind I have kept my eye open for a suitable donor bike for a project. One popped up several week ago a few hours out of town. It took a couple of weeks to arrange the trip to look at the bike and I liked what I saw had potential and bingo offer accepted and I got to drag home my donor bike. The Virago 1100 had sat somewhat exposed to the elements for the last 2 to 3 years apparently. It was pretty grotty lots of surface rust and 2 flat tyres the front was split form being so flat. So she was a big gamble for me. It wasn't till after I had the bike home I discover that this model doesn't have a normal style frame and the motor is suspended. My heart sunk a lot. Jumping back on to Google and Youtube I found a few images of successful projects and got a excited about the project again. Today I'll have to call day 1. Now I am more at home with a bicycle than a motorcycle. My mechanical knowledge and aptitude is about zero. But I do have a few friends who are a font of knowledge to tap into. I spent the last few days of pumping them for info and securing a workshop manual for the bike. So armed with my new found knowledge and a battered book I had a crack at resurrecting the bike. I drained the fuel from the tank and carby's,popped off the air filter, dropped and replaced the oil. Squirted some oil into the pots. (squirted WD40 in a few days earlier too) Tossed the battery its cactus and wired it up to my car and turned it over a few times. So far so good. Put in some fresh fuel (stolen from my lawn mower) 2 new spark plugs then shot some "Start Ya Bastard"(yes that's it's real name) in its lungs hit the switch and after a cough and a splutter she roared back to life. A little happy dance followed believe me. Then lots of call to thank the mates. Now secure in the knowledge that it's a goer I'll have to find a space to work on her. The immediate plan is to clean it up and get a roadworthy certificate and registration. Then I'll pull it down and start the renovations. I think it will be easier to appease the powers that be that way. The bike will be a BOB of some kind or some weird genetic freak. I have assembled ideas from a multitude of bikes and will try to blend them into this bike. So It may be acceptable or absolute garbage only time will tell. But at least it goes.Sounds okay too! I'll formulate the ideas for the project and post them here soon. Plus I think I'll also post the costings of everything and a total so far. That could be interesting or depressing seeing where the money goes.
Sacha Posted October 18, 2012 Posted October 18, 2012 Nice one. Looking forward to watching the transformation.
Noise Posted October 18, 2012 Posted October 18, 2012 Great start to the thread mate! i too am sitting back waiting for the next part of the project! I shall give you an idea of what i paid so far for my Bob (In pounds sterlin) Bike = £3000 Seat = £500 New Carbs = £150 Rear fender = £45 Rear Light = £35 Handle bars = £85 Grips = £35 Ram air filters on carbs = £30 New main jets = £6 Split Harley fuel tanks = £100 Stainless steel nuts bolts and washers = £70 Paint and materials = £40-£50 (guessing) Braided fuel lines = £40 Exhaust wrap = £40 Exhausts = £120 Total = £1286 in after market stuff. But i have a lot more to go. so your prob looking at a good few grand in one of these builds.........................so my tip to you is hide all recipts from the wife!!!
Campaman Posted October 19, 2012 Posted October 19, 2012 That doesn't look too bad considering you say its been exposed to the elements for 2-3 years, if that was in the UK it would be a wreck.
delmsie Posted October 19, 2012 Author Posted October 19, 2012 Yes Campaman I think I got lucky. The receipts are in the bin Noise. Did this nonsense with a bicycle I got for $5.00 and nearly $2000.00 later it was finished. Nice bike though. Cost so far Motorbike $500.00 (I got lucky) About 321 pound Oil,plugs and filters $ 53.00 Incidentals to the job. New tools and odds and ends needed to do the work. $229.60 most of which will be around for years to come. All up so far $782.60 or 504 GBP Uploaded with ImageShack.us Meanwhile this is the daily ride.
Toutsuite Posted October 20, 2012 Posted October 20, 2012 Noise, you paid way too much for that bike (about £700 too much), and waaaayyy waaaay too much for that paddle you call a seat! I know it's not your thang, but a plush mustang seat (including pillion) only costs about £400 ferchrissakes!
Noise Posted October 20, 2012 Posted October 20, 2012 Ha ha, I new I paid too much for the bike, but hey ho it was the bike I wanted n excitement got the better of me. Ha ha. The ass pad of mine was actually £450 then £50 import charges lol. But its worth it!!! Lol
delmsie Posted October 21, 2012 Author Posted October 21, 2012 Tried to remove a small dent from the tank using an idea I saw on YouTube. Hot air gun then cool with a can of compressed air. Spent nearly 2 hours running all over town to find a can of compressed air. Wow $15.90 for a can of nothing really. It's twice as expensive as WD40 and made by them as well. Okay fast forward it was a fun experiment and as I expected it failed. I reckon the tank is a bit thick for this method. PS don't touch the frost to see how cold it is it's really cold. My finger is still sore. Total so far $798.20
Noise Posted October 21, 2012 Posted October 21, 2012 If its just a round dent with out a crease in it, rub over it with soapy water then stick a toilet plunger on it, take the fuel cap off and then you should be able to pull the dent out. Ive done this on two dents on my car. May take a few tries to get the pressure right.
delmsie Posted October 21, 2012 Author Posted October 21, 2012 Why not. I'll give that a try too. I also saw one lad poke in a flexicuff. (Blood pressure monitor) into the tank and inflate that to give pressure from the inside. If all else fails there is always good old bog and sandpaper. I checked out those Acewell instruments and I think that they will be the go. Not too expensive and everything is there. Did you have much trouble doing the install of it. Does the Taco work okay with the twin motor? I have looked at so many bike and got so many ideas jumping around in my head it's nuts. But at the end of the day I think I'll keep it all pretty simple. That said I hope it doesn't come back and bite me.
dt502001 Posted October 21, 2012 Posted October 21, 2012 To get the dent out remove the petcock and seal with a blankin plate make a rubberstoper to fit in the filler hole fill with 20-30psi of air heat with torch around the dent working towards the center it will pop out perfect. u tube how to remove a dent from a exhaust pipe same principal. Just another food for thought,in the past I took a picture of the profile of the bike and traced out the basic shape of the bike then photo copied it a bunch of times. Then with the photo copy i could draw in,or remove what i wanted and get a feel/look at what I was thinking of doing.I think in the end it saved me time
delmsie Posted October 21, 2012 Author Posted October 21, 2012 Nice tips both of those. I'll give the photocopy method a shot over the next week or so. It's got to be better to have some sort of plan than just attack it adhoc.
delmsie Posted October 25, 2012 Author Posted October 25, 2012 I cut up a picture of the bike, removing the bits I didn't want. Bars,gauges , rear fender and cut the seat in down to an ideal size and it looks better already. I removed the front wheel tonight to have the tire removed (it's cactus). Before the new tire is fitted I'll clean and paint the rim. I imagine that this will be the easiest way to do this minus brake discs and other bits and pieces to get in the road. Looks like I'll polish the smooth parts of the rim and paint the rougher as they would be a shocker to polish.
Noise Posted October 25, 2012 Posted October 25, 2012 Make sure your use Etch primer before you paint, standard primer wont work as well. Slap some pictures up too.
delmsie Posted October 29, 2012 Author Posted October 29, 2012 Oh fun times. Made headway on the front wheel all ready to paint and masked up. Got excited about the way the bike was balancing nicely on some bricks and the centre stand and decided to attack the rear as well. Checked out a few YouTube clips "removing the real wheel" etc. Okay a 6 minute job for them so I figure a hour for me. Wrong. Steadily making some headway and I can't get the axle out as the exhaust is in the way. <a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/197/img0546u.jpg/" target="_blank"><img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img197/5083/img0546u.th.jpg" border="0"/></a> <a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/811/img0544db.jpg/" target="_blank"><img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img811/5038/img0544db.th.jpg" border="0"/></a> Grrrrrr no mention of that anywhere. I consult the workshop book on exhaust removal and it looks to me like the centre stand will be in the road when its down. So I even try jacking the exhaust up with a floorjack. Nope it doesn't move but not the bike is balance on one leg of the centre stand and a brick under the motor. It is about at this time I decide that it is time like this why the angle grinder way invented. So in a fit of frustration the exhaust way cut away a bit to allow the axle out. More than one way to skin a cat. I also discovered in this whole process the wheel bearings are dead and rest brakes are in need of replacing. So I will be smart and get them replaced at the shop when they fit the new tyres. Direct costs $736.46 Incidentals $251.85 total = $988.31
dt502001 Posted October 29, 2012 Posted October 29, 2012 Changing the brakes is a fairly straight foward job,as are the wheel bearings.Taking the wheels in for the tire to be changed will be way cheaper than taking in the whole bike.
delmsie Posted November 18, 2012 Author Posted November 18, 2012 Finally an update. New front and rear tires and battery fitted. What blew my mind was that the bike started brilliantly with the new battery. Better than it did from the car battery directly wired to the cables. I decided to spend some time and give it a cosmetic clean up. I used some flash proprietary cleaners and a mop spun by a drill. The results were okay but tedious. I later tried some fine pumice and a wet rag. The difference was amazing the pumice cut through surface rust and other gunge simply and easily. The bike now looked not to shabby anymore. I decided to push my luck and booked it in for a Safety Certificate to find out what work it needed done to it so I could register it. Blow me down 1 split pin was all I needed. It is now registered and I have done a few hundred K's on her. The motor is brilliant and aside from some noises from the front discs (I think) I am impressed. After riding it for a few days and then jumping back on my XVS 650 the comparison is interesting. The 650 has a much nicer feel it. The difference in the handlebars I believe account for this. the 1100 is much more powerful (funny that) as way smoother in acceleration. The clutch and gear changing on the 1100 are pretty hard in comparison. I must add I really do like the toe and heel shifter on the 650. New bars,indicators,tail light and fender are on order. I'll have a crack at fabricating my own saddle after I sort the fender out. Pretty pleased with the outcome thus far. Direct costs $1160.41 Incidentals $304.75 Total $1465.16 on the road. I'll add in the extra parts once they arrive.
Sacha Posted November 18, 2012 Posted November 18, 2012 Fantastic! Let's see some pics when you get a chance. (or are there already pics in the gallery?)
Noise Posted November 19, 2012 Posted November 19, 2012 Congratulations mate! glad to hear that she is on the road! but as Sacha has already said. WE WANT PICTURES TOO!
delmsie Posted November 22, 2012 Author Posted November 22, 2012 Okay I'll get some pics up over the weekend. She is pretty ordinary but mobile at the moment. New bits and pieces have arrived this week so the rough pull down and assembly will have to start soon. I'd better clear a space on the verandah to do this. But this bike sure is thirsty 137k to a full tank. Mind you I don'y think anyone has paid any attention to it for years.
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