Wheelies!

Put some new rubber on the XS400 project yesterday. Ready for the gravel roads now. Had the boys cleaning up the wheel while I prepped the rest. Carole's back wheel had two broken spokes when I took the tire off. Had to salvage two from another old wheel I had. But they were too long so I had to thread them further down the spoke shaft with a die and then trim them shorter once they were mounted on the wheel. Pain In the ass.

XS progress

 

Dumped out the xs400 from the donor bike.

 

 

Dumped out the lame 360 from Carole's chassis.

 

Cleaned up the frame and controls.

 

 

Inserted XS400.  Anyone who tells you an xs400 engine fits in an xs360 frame is a damn liar. Had to redo the rear motor mounts and adapt the top brackets. Got a set of Duro HF-308 dirt track style tires coming for it too which should look great. Lots of electrical work to do before then.

Mama's Moto

 

Me and Du Keeps got busy last night scraping spider nests off of Carole's XS360. Pulled the gremlin ridden wiring harness out and replaced it with the non-gremlin one off the XS400. Man that's a lot of electrical! I forgot how much stuff there was going on on these stock Japanese bikes. 

Next I'll swap the motors too. We found out that the XS400 has electronic ignition which blew our minds. Hahah.

XS Lazarus

 

Got the $150 XS400 fired up last night. It was a race to see which XS was gonna be easier to get running. After finding electrical boogies and carbs needing a rebuild on the 360 I think I've decided to have a stripper party (details to come).

November ride's and Shop Updates

 

Went for a last coffee run with Cole and Brian on Saturday. Glad we did because chunks of ice literally fell from the sky on Sunday covering our streets with snow and ice.

 

Temp wasn't too bad, but cold enough that Brian's kickstand snapped. Ended up leaning the bike on a tree like a real gangster. haha

Also scored this little XS400 parts bike to help with Carole's XS360 project this winter. She's a runner and near complete for $150. Couldn't resist.

 

And just in the nick of time  I got Carole moved into her new warm and cozy basement studio leaving another quarter of the garage open for me to scoop in and fill up. Gonna be nice to have the extra space this winter and I actually got all the bikes in too. Stoked.

XS360 revisited

 If you go back far enough on the Antiquated Mule you may find the project bike that started it all for me. My first two wheeled turd, a 1976 XS360 I got for $500. I knew nothing about mechanics, motorcycle or otherwise and had only ever ridden out on the farm with antiquated 125's and the like.

Well only a few years later and here I am going into the winter building season and I'm building a panhead motor, transmission, wheels, forks, and basically everything else from the ground up and with old rotton pieces of chopper history long forgotten. We've come a long way Baby!

So I was pleased when my search for an adequate bike for my wife Carole led me to...you guessed it, a 1976 XS360. This one I got for $300. Looking forward to the new version of the original Black Sparrow.

  

Here's a sneek peek at the direction we'll be aiming for come spring.