Shocking Developments!



Sorry for the pun... I used to be an English teacher, ya know.  Anyway, yesterday saw the Kids Cafe begin to put some of the new parts on the bike.  First, a "proper" set of performance rear shocks went on.  The ones we had were likely fine (they looked new), but these items, in the Monza style, have a remote resevior and will likely help the bike handle twisty roads.  They look pretty cool on the bike!

Hugh's Handbuilt sent us some of his solid mount risers, as well as a fork lowering kit.  These are the risers being installed.  Very impressive quality!  The busings are solid aluminum, with a neat o-ring to keep them in place.  Here the students are installing the clubman cafe bars into the riser mounts.  Hugh machined the bore to exact specifications as well...

So exact, in fact, that we needed to sand off the powdercoating on the riser shaft to get the risers to go into the bore.  Powder coating can be thick, but it speaks to the precision of Hugh's stuff that we needed to remove a bit of paint.  While two students sand, the third disassembles the Mikuni carb to get the correct jets installed (to be purchased at a later date).



One of the last things we did was test-fit the enforcer intake.  This, as well as the Mikuni carb, will really set our bike apart from the rest.  We also have the correct jet information (or at least a starting point) to work with this unique intake setup.

Finally we installed the instrument bracket donated by n-r performance.  A lovely bit of machined aluminum, the included spacers and bushings really cleaned up the looks of the top triple clamps.  These are originally meant for SR400s and SR500s, but would also work with xs650s.  The supplied allen bolts were a tad long for our application, so we used some temporary hardware and will get the proper length bolts eventually.  It's these details which really clean up a machine!

You'll notice the too-long clutch cable as well.  xs650s are notorious for a heavy clutch pull -- Mr. Sheppard is scheming to come up with a hydraulic version which might work much better.  As usual, stay tuned...