Manky's XS650 Yamaha

[Manky Monkey]

Mounting stud welded to the frame & slotted holes cut in the chainguard, then bolted to the underside of the side panel & the frame. My only concern is that it might be too close to the sprocket. Depends how chunky the chain is.

[Manky Monkey]

Another stud welded to the front face of the frame at the same point & a pair of chrome exhaust clamps bolted to it,

[Manky Monkey]

Exhausts slotted back into place. Just need to finish cleaning up the welds on the right hand pipe & fit the baffles & they're done. They need to be chromed before the engine's run, (the chromers don't like exhaust carbon contaminating their vats).
-yes, there'll be a heatshield!   

[Baychimp]

Nice fit Andy. That should keep the muck off your Flared trousers.

[Manky Monkey]

My bicycle clips will do that.
Can you still buy bicycle clips?
Decided what to do with the blank looking right hand side panel. I'll ask Mr Clive if he can airbrush a small cartoon character in the bottom left corner of it, (won't be worrying about paint till it's had a bit of a road test, same as my truck).
The bike's gonna be called "The Coca Cola Kid", so I'd like Yosemite Sam from the Bugs Bunny cartoons, but with 2 bottles of Coke in his holsters instead of guns.

[goose]

its looking good andy

[Manky Monkey]

Thanks. Just plodding along, a little bit every afternoon after work.

[Manky Monkey]

Heatshield added. I had one from the balance pipe of a Harley in my spares box. It would normally mount with Jubilee clips through tabs on the back, but that looked poo. So we welded a couple of 6mm nuts into the pipe & it bolts to those. 10mm spacers tacked to the back of the shield raise it off the pipe to allow cooling airflow underneath. Hopefully it's enough to keep my leg clear of both pipes.
I bought a bunch of push-in exhaust baffles a while ago. We ended up welding 2 together to form a 12" long baffle for each pipe, held with a single 6mm bolt at the back. I grew out of overly loud pipes years ago & think a nicely set up, smooth running machine's more impressive than something that pops & bangs & won't tickover. I may also keep this bike outside the house I lodge in to commute to work on in the Summer, so noisy pipes wouldn't be appreciated. I'm hoping these custom pipes will sound more or less like the original bike. Of course, it might turn out to be over baffled & restricted, in which case I'll just pull the baffles out & cut a bit off the end of them.
A bit of smoothing around the front curves & these are ready for chroming.

[saddlebags]

Looking really nice Andy , make sure your baffles  are secure I done a trackday on Saturday and on the third session my bike spat the baffle out of the silencer, maybe a spring washer would be an idea, loving the exhausts tho looks good now so should look awesome chromed.

[Manky Monkey]

Cheers Scott.
Finished cleaning them up today.
Mr Baychimp's found a place in Alton, Hampshire, (local to us), who do chroming. He's getting his exhausts done in the next week or so -he bought my trike project from me. A couple of guys here have offered to do them, but as he's putting his in fairly soon, I'll bung mine in with his.

[merv]

Is he getting the trike manifold chromed. If he is I'll be interested in the finish and cost

[Manky Monkey]

Yup. Entire system, about 150 quid.

[merv]

Will you post pictures when its done

[Manky Monkey]

But of course!

[Manky Monkey]

Bob, (Baychimp), & I visited a local chrome this morning & dropped our respective exhaust systems off. Mine are made from a mixture of mild steel & stainless steel sections. They said the 2 metals react differently to chroming, so there may be some difference in the colour when they're plated. That's fine -this will be just a daily rider, not a show bike. They also said they can't guarantee the chrome will reach into every nook & cranny of Bob's Reliant manifold. The copper & nickel coats should, but the top chrome coat may not. Again, he's happy with that.
About 150 quid per system, but they're snowed under with work, so it'll be 8 to 10 weeks before they're done, which means I won't be riding the XS to the "Trip Out" show in September as I'd half planned to.
Some before snaps.
My XS650 system.