Mad Maxx

Cafe racer

Born from a rusted, non-running, hard-tailed 1982 Yamaha xv750 Virago, the bike was completely disassembled, painted, cleaned, re-machined, welded, and sandblasted, and re-wired.  The final product is a 1982 xv750 frame, motor, and rear end, with a 1965 Benelli gas tank, custom seat frame and seat, with a 2012 Yamaha R6 front end, and a completely remade wiring harness.  

Assembly Time-lapse

First Ride

Engine

The engine was caked in oil and spray painted entirely black. The paint was rough and easily flaked off.  I loved the worn-in appeal of it, so I polished and cleaned the motor sparingly to keep the effect.  

Carburetor

The carburetors were filled with rust from the stock tank. A complete tare-down and rebuild brought them back to life. However, I soon learned that these were some of the worst and most finicky stock corroborators to work with. The Float bowl was too small for the engine, so if the floats were not adjusted perfectly, the bike would run very rough, if at all. After mounting, testing, removing, and adjusting several weekends in a row, I decided to go a different route; Mikuni’s, the holy grail of motorcycle carbs.

Throttle

Custom solution to retrofit 2009 R6 throttle system to the 1982 xv750 Carburetor. I cut and rebuilt the throttle cable myself including soldering The cable-end to fit in the grip.

Front End

Installing the R6 front end required re-machining the steering column as well as the bearing collar on the frame to accept a steering bearing that could properly bring the two bikes together. 

Speedometer

Drilled and tapped a hole into the front rim in order to mount the magnetic speedometer sensor for a compact gauge. 

Wiring Harness

All wiring was diagrammed, routed, soldered and waterproofed from scratch. This allowed me to use the controls from the 2012 R6 handlebars, the new led headlamp and signals, the 82 virago coils, the aftermarket brake-light and switch, the RFID key system, and the aftermarket speedometer and tachometer.

Mounting Electronics

The majority of the electronics and wiring were hidden under the seat.  A shock isolating mount was created for the solenoid from the old license plate of my first motorcycle