I thought I wanted a Fatbob?

It had always been my intention to fit a Fatbob style rear mudguard to my bike. In my ageing mind I just knew it would look right. After months of searching for a decent second hand mudguard and failing I gave up and bought a fibre glass Fatbob mudguard at a very reasonable price. Not being made of steel wasn't going to be a problem, with no passenger seat the only weight supported by the rear guard would be a tail light.

Rear mudguard just looks plain ugly.

With my new mudguard to hand I dragged the bike out of the corner of my tiny garage to spot where I could work on it. I excitedly positioned the grey fibre glass mudguard over the rear tyre and took a step back, bloody hell it looked horrible!. I tried adjusting the position forwards and backwards but nothing helped, it just didn't suit my little XS. I sat on an upturned crate staring at the bike and that pig ugly mudguard for about half an hour before I saw a simple solution. I tried to imagine the mudguard shorter and mounted in reverse. In my head I thought it would work, but let's not forget, in my head I thought a Fatbob would look good!. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained so, out came the hacksaw and soon I had a much shorter mudguard with a matching angle to either side of what had now become the rear section.

I really like the simpler, less fussy look of the reversed and modified guard.

A simple bracket was fabricated to support the mudguard from the rear frame loop, another will be made to add strength when I get the battery and electric box fabricated. I'm intending to mount both items off the same bracket.

I'll need to cut another slice off the mudguard where the Fatbob tail flick begins but I'll wait to apply the hacksaw again until the battery box is made and I can best judge how to blend the two parts together. For now I very happy with the look of the rear end.  Next job is finding a suitable headlight. I had a small lamp that I tried but it's size and the way it mounted made the front forks look too long for my taste. I need to find something larger that can be positioned lower on the forks to help fill the empty area between the upper and lower yokes.



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Adding Brakes

Front end looks weak.

I have been looking at my bike and worrying how lightweight and puny the front end appeared. From some angles it looked OK but in profile the front wheel looked seriously under nourished. My hope was that adding discs and calipers would improve the appearance greatly but, although I had a set of MK1 Bandit calipers, hoses and master cylinder assembly I had been unable to find a good pair of discs at a price I could afford.
Finally, a pair of lightly used Bandit discs came up for auction and I managed to buy them at a very reasonable price. They duly arrived at my place of work yesterday, Friday, so I hid myself in the garage this afternoon and set about adding some beef to my bike's pointy end.

Just adding the discs vastly improved the look of the wheel.

As this is only the mock up stage I didn't bother adding locktite to each of the bolts, I just wanted to make sure the components would all marry together and that their addition would cure my wimpy looking front end.
With the discs in place I re-fitted the front wheel and set about mounting the twin pot calipers. I still need to buy the correct caliper mounting bolts so am making do with some stainless Allen bolts at present. Both calipers mounted easily followed by the associated pipework. I used some stainless Allen screws to secure the hoses to the lower fork legs and the splitter to the underside of the lower yoke. Not forgetting to use copper grease on every one to save myself the grief of seized fasteners further down the line. Once everything was installed I sat myself down on an upturned crate and enjoyed a mug of coffee. My little XS650 was looking much more muscular and I was happy.



Discs and calipers installed

Unfortunately, the weather outside is awful, heavy rain and high winds mean I am unable to wheel the bike outside to take pictures so I have had to make do with shooting in the confines of my tiny garage but I hope these pictures show just how much installing the brakes has improved the visual impact of the bike.
In the final build I intend to change the current tyre for one with more sidewall height to match the BT45 on the rear. I think the current rubber looks much too sports orientated to be on my little bobber.
But for now I am much happier with how the Yam looks and can now focus on getting the GS500 rear caliper to work with the XS swingarm.



The bike is looking much more balanced front to back now.

Sooty called.

With engine in place

I finally received the phone call i had been awaiting from Sooty to say he had completed the alterations to my frame and swing arm and they were ready to collect. Being a Saturday I was able to jump in the car and drive over to Emberton to collect my parts. I pulled up outside the workshop to see my frame, swing arm and shocks were loosely assembled outside,  As I inspected the lines of the frame and quality of workmanship I knew faith in Sooty had been justified.

The extended swing arm and GS500 rear wheel soon
followed the motor.

The curve of the frame rails was just as I'd specified and this combined with the extended swing arm gave the look I was after whilst ensuring a comfortable ride.
Back in my small garage I soon had the engine in the frame and the frame tethered to my bike lift. The swing arm was slotted into place and some old shocks I'm using for mock up connected it to the frame. I'm using a Suzuki GS500 rear wheel and, much to my surprise this is a perfect fit for the Yamaha swing arm.

Tank mounted on the frame.

Next, I mounted the tank, although at this stage it is only secured at the neck gusset. I've still to fabricate the lower back bone mounts.




Although the Suzuki Bandit yokes will need some machining before final build to achieve a perfect fit they fit well enough to throw on the front end so I can see how the bike sits.


Low profile tyre looks odd but will be changed.

Much to my delight the bike sits as required with engine level to ensure there are no oil supply problems. I will need to change the front tyre in the future as this low profile example doesn't suit the look I'm after. I need something with much more sidewall depth like the BT45 on the rear. Again, something that can be changed as the build progresses.


The front headlamp and bars will need to be changed also. The high mounted lamp makes the front end look too long and lightweight for my taste. I'm thinking of a more traditional seven inch unit mounted between the upper and lower yokes to add a little beef to the front of the bike but we'll see.

Outside in daylight for the first time.

Looking like a bike but still a million things to do.