1976 Yamaha XS500 #7 Cafe Racer

FOR SALE...

Lucky #7 in Cafe Racer Mag

I got a lot of catching up to do on this blog. Soon I'll have a bunch of updates on new projects and old ones as well.

Anyway, in issue 17, page 43 of Cafe Racer magazine there it is: Lucky #7. No real write up but a nice pic. That's so fucking cool and it makes up for the crazy adventure it was just to get there!

And the caption! That's what I'm talking about!

List of work done on the XS500 "#7" and a bunch of pics

what it started as

same bike?

Frame: Stripped down and all unwanted tabs removed and smoothed down. The angled down tubes from the rear shocks, to the bottom frame where cut out to open up the rear wheel area, and to make room for the R-1 rear sets. Tubing from a kz twin where welded into the frame, from the shocks to the cross brace on back of the frame. 1/4 inch steel brackets where welded in to mount the rear sets. Then welded a 16 gauge flat steel across the top of frame to close off under the seat. To act as a hidden fender and also mount all the electric. Then frame along with swing arm where powder coated in gloss black.

Wheels: Rims and rotors where drilled out with 1/2 holes & powder coated sun yellow and wrapped in new Bridgestone Spitfires. 110/90/19 front. 120/90/18 rear.

Tank: Stripped down and painted rustoleum sun yellow. Relined inside and carbon fiber Yamaha decals added to accent the rear cafe seat. The gas cap was wet sanded down for an aluminum look.

Cafe seat: The seat works as the same as the stock bike. The original seat pan was cut down and the one off fiberglass seat was molded to the seat pan. It was finished with a 3-m dinoc carbon fiber wrap. The custom seat pan has 1'' foam and covered in flat black vinyl. Tunnels where made under the seat to the lighting so nothing is hanging underneath seat when opened. A quick release plug disconnects the wires from the seat for easy removal of the seat. 2 hinge pins and disconnect plug and seat comes off. Finished off with #7 European style racing plates Decals with the 7 cut out to show the carbon fiber behind it.

Front # plate: A three piece 3 plate was made to match the 7's on the seat out of 16 gauge steel.

Front end: Stock forks and triples. The top triple tree was grinded down and reshaped to accommodate the new Woodstock clip-ons, Emgo throttle. All controls and levers are from a R-1. Mini brake reservoir. New N.O.S tachometer with high beam indicator was mounted center with aluminum brackets. Fork legs painted satin black and have new oil seals. The stock fender mount was used as a fender brace. Whatever was not new was stripped and painted. Triple trees-satin black. Head light ears gloss black, to break up the parts. The head light bucket is from a 76 honda cb 360. Bar end mirrors are aluminum to bring in the aluminum on the exhaust.

Engine: new stator and generator installed. The engine has a little over 20,000 miles on it, the previous owner was a kawasaki mechanic and it runs without any issues. The engine was wet sanded starting with 400 grit to 2000 and polished. the fins on the head were painted with 2,000 degree engine paint. oil breather that matches the filter pods.

Carbs: Rebuilt by a professional in N.C. Then jetted - just the main jets where changed. It is well mannered at low r.p.m. but once it hits around 6 grand it opens up and screams.

Exhaust: Custom made using the stock headers welded to an aftermarket pipe. Name unknown. Then baffle cut down to half and painted with 2000 degree aluminum engine paint to protect it from rust then wrapped with header wrap. The header wrap was stitched up at the joint where the headers meet the pipe and at the starting and end point, to help keep it from fraying faster. And a custom aluminum bracket was bent up and polished to mount pipe.

Lighting and electric: The rear lights are all L.E.D. The headlight is a H-4 bulb with the blinkers "L.E.D." are integrated in the headlight for a clean look. l.E.D. flasher. New starter solenoid, batt, N.O.S. coils, condenser and points. The electric harness "which is all color coded" is custom made and ran thru a fuse box that breaks up all the lighting and ignition system. So you do not lose all lighting if fuse goes. Front lighting on one fuse. blinkers on another. rear running light. and brake lights all separate. The main key is hidden under the seat to give a more clean look. main power from the ignition switch is ran thru the kill switch enabling to kill all power to bike. and if unattended switch the key off and no one knows how to turn it on. seat latch and wheel lock both work. The electric box is rubber mounted to the top frame plate under the seat.

Other new parts: Both brake lines, clutch and throttle cables, zinc o-ring chain, side mount license plate, Wanzig R-1 rear sets, Woodcraft clip-ons, Bridgestone Spitfires, All Balls wheel and steering bearings, brass swingarm bushings from TC Bros. and I don't even know what else. The whole bike was gone over. Now I'm not saying every bolt is new on the bike. Certain original bolts and other parts where left original to keep the soul of the bike.

"Lucky 7" XS500 Dime City Cycles Grand Opening Party

The 1976 Yamaha XS500 is finally complete! I finished her up right before the Dime City Cycles Grand Opening Party in Largo, Fl. She gave me hell right up until the last 5 days of the show. At one point I really thought I screwed something up on the wiring only to find that the two brand new reg/recs were bad. They were Accel models bought off Amazon. I'll never do that again. The original reg/rec is been back in it after having to replace the alternator since the first rectifier fried it. She rode hard and rode trouble free. It was a great time. I met a bunch of cool people! Now time is coming to let her go.

I will have a detailed list of the work performed on this motorcycle to show the design and customizing as to what was performed to make this bad ass "Vintage Style Cafe Racer," with a very Modern Day vibe to her, from the carbon fiber wrapped seat, to the new R-1 rear sets and other cool do-dads on it. Thanks for following and peace out, peeps!

Finished seat on the xs500 custom cafe bike

That's it. She finally got taken off the center stand that made it easier to work on, so this is her standing on her own. The carbs where off in this shot. But you can't really see them at this angle and the final touches to the rear cabon fiber wrapped seat are on.

Right side view of the finished seat with the vintage Europeon #7. The number is cut out of the yellow vinyl to show the carbon fiber behind it.

View of the back of the seat. These l.e.d. lights look wicked at night! Oh and there's some road dirt on them tires now. I was able to take it for a nice little run around the neighborhood today.

xs500 1st start

we got a runner finally. have to jet and hardwire the rectifirer. but she fires 1st kick which is a great start.

group pics of the gs450, kz750 twin, xs500, and gsf400

Had to throw em all together today! picture day.

Trying to show the different styles of the bikes, trying to keep each one to its own character. these are the 1st of many more to come! Have 3 more in the garage waiting but i really want to do all styles. it's hard to do something one-off.

There are a lot of really good shops out their building some wicked shit that just blows my mind on the no limits to customizing rule. Not saying I feel I have one off bikes, just taking something and giving it a new look. But in time I think I'll only get better, even with the stress of "is someone is going to buy it?"

These bikes have no customers. I just picked up whatever I could get my hands on before moving down to GA to start this shop, and this is where i'm at after about 6 months of wrenching in the garage.

So it's just me building my ideas of the bike and hoping someone is gonna want one. But no matter what I know I'll always do this as a pro or as a hobby. It's just to kool to take something that looked like shit and giving it a wicked look!

xs500 and gsf400

Had to put the two of them together for some pics. Really cool looking together!

yamaha xs500 l.e.d. lighting and electric vid

Here's a vid of the XS500. All electric is done other than the rectifier and charging of the battery. Easy way of keeping it in the garage untill ready. Otherwise I'd be annoying the shit out of the neighbors.

It's my 1st vid and the battery was dying and I just wanted to get it done, so bare with me on this one.

yamaha xs500 rear cafe carbon fiber wrapped seat pics

Nice and clean!

xs500 electric panel and exhaust

Seat on.



Seat off showing the electrical panel. When seat is open, it will be very organized, like it came from the factory. The seat still works like the factory with the original seat pan converted to cafe seat.



Close up.



Exhaust on my original build. Built out in the driveway.



New setup on exhaust.



Painted flat aluminum. Even though it's getting wrapped, I want to make sure it's finished underneath so no moisture starts eating away at it. High temp 2000 should protect it.

final assembly of the xs500