1974 XS/TX650 rebuild

**olderdan** · Oct 12, 2020, 11:33 AM

I have a similar fixed rolling bench for building motorcycles, the problem of mounting and dismounting was solved by the use of a cheap electric winch which rides on a scaffold pole. Rated at 250 klilo it will easily lift a complete machine on and of, once you get used to a motorcycle dangling four foot in the air from webbing straps. Like you I no longer ride for health reasons but I still get a lot of pleasure from restoring, (mostly old british iron).
You are doing a great job on that XS/TX650.

**th62** · Oct 15, 2020, 02:17 AM

Couple of top end mounts made today, just have to polish them and turn up some spacers. Exhaust was a no go today, none of the exhaust shops I went to do mandrel bends. Got an address to try tomorrow. Crossed fingers, otherwise it's an ugly exhaust system!

**th62** · Oct 19, 2020, 11:55 PM

Polished the upper engine brackets and spun up some spacers for them. Also shaped an exhaust clamp which I can't polish yet as I'm modifying the polisher stand. Waiting on the exhausts at the present time, probably another week or so.

**th62** · Oct 22, 2020, 01:59 AM

New, revamped polishing and sharpening stations. Polisher is GMF, bought in 1976, now that's good service. Be interesting to see if the Abbot and Ashby grinder lasts as long as the GMF grinder has, no matter, I'll be long gone.

**th62** · Nov 3, 2020, 05:43 AM

After making a few different style exhaust brackets, I've decided on these four bolt ally/steel exhaust brackets. A real job bending the 50/3mm steel to shape, ally was easy by comparison. Should get the pipes late thiS week then I can weld some mounting plates to the rear of the steel brackets, paint them and polish the ally.

**th62** · Nov 14, 2020, 02:41 AM

Picked up the exhausts yesterday, unfortunately, not a good job: Angles were out, left and right sides slightly different. Annoying considering it took him four weeks to bend them up. So, on to the bandsaw, cut the pipes into three pieces and welded them back together. Not much I can do about the angle not following the downtube angle, but I cut and welded the lower tube so it followed the ground, didn't like it so cut and welded again with just a slight upsweep. Lower section on the right is only tacked, should be able to finish them off tomorrow, then finish off the brackets, form the ally clamps and polish them up. Happy with the outcome.

**tonyfoale** · Nov 14, 2020, 09:54 AM

Originally Posted by th62

Picked up the exhausts yesterday, unfortunately, not a good job: Angles were out, left and right sides slightly different. .........

It is so annoying when you can't find people to do a good job for you. Shame about the angles not matching the frame.
You are doing a great job with that bike.

**th62** · Nov 19, 2020, 12:26 AM

Pipes, brackets and clamps all done. Slapped some paint on and bolted them up. An absolute nightmare grinding, filing and smoothing all the pipe bender marks off, these pipe benders make such a mess of the pipe. Then there was Cutting and then welding the sections together, round tube right? Nope, not very round at all, get one side lined up nice and flat and another section doesn't quite line up. Not far out, but enough to notice. Lots of bashing and grinding and filing.

The top bend was such that the downpipe was to match the angle of the frame downtubes, that didn't happen, exhaust shop got that wrong. Not much I could do about that, but probably not that noticeable unless you get on your hands and knees to line the tubes and pipes up. The lower bend was way out, pipe was meant to run parallel to the ground. So, I cut the pipe further along and angled it up so it was parallel, didn't like that, so cut and welded again with a slight upsweep. That then threw the lower bracket angle out, once again, cut and reweld. All good in the end. I got the angles absolutely spot on, so both brackets are identical.

The top clamps were turned on a lathe using a four jaw to get the large central hole lined up. Managed to get them spot on, just using a punch mark and a dead centre. The lower brackets have very tight bends to get the bolts as close to the pipe as possible. Ally was easy, but the 50x3mm steel was a little more difficult, first bending in the bar bender, then bashing them in a vice.

I'd like to know why, when forming circles, or half circles in this case, PI is always incorrect by a couple of mm. Pi says these half brackets needed to both be 65.155mm long, including the right angle bends at each end. Now that is for the two halves to meet. I ended up making them 67.5 long including bends and that left a gap of 1mm once clamped together, which is what I was after.

I've done a lot of these type clamps over the years, Pi is always out, but it does give a ballpark length.