Spin Cycle Industries

Long and low

Josh Edgar — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:59:23 +0000

We took some time last week to drill down an actual concept for the KZ project. This bike is going to be available for sale as soon as it is finished so having a clear vision should help us stay on track and move a bit quicker. It is going to be brat style like the xs850 but have spoked wheels, dual sportish tires, and some quality suspension. Long, low and loud! Here is the concept:

We of course want the frame/tank to have the nice horizontal line so we dropped the fork 7 inches to get the right height. Thanks to Keith and Eric for machining us the part we needed to do the swap the correct way! Here is a little before and after:

The bike has been in the garage on blocks for a few months so it feels good to get it rolling again! Like we said… Long and low!

and finally on a less serious note we learned a new easy way to get old gas out of a Vespa….

Tank chop

Josh Edgar — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 03:13:11 +0000

When we first started building the thought of chopping the tail or welding on the frame was almost too intimidating to even try. As we get more and more comfortable it is amazing what you decide you should try yourself. On all our builds so far we have left the tank alone other then sanding off the ugly paint, but that is all about to change! On this bike the amazingly cool speedometer (more coming soon on that!), has inspired us to add some parts to help the speedo fit in and to give the bike some unique parts. In comes a new brass gas cap.

It is a weld in bung so we had to get rid of the stock cap. After some careful cutting we had the old cap removed.

We carefully cut a matching plate out of some steel until it dropped in perfectly…

Now as soon as Eric has a few minutes we will weld it in place and be ready for the new cap. In addition to the tank we started the process of wiring and therefore mounted the battery box under the swing arm. We still have to come up with a mini-fender to keep it somewhat dry in there, but for now it will allow us to get wiring.

We are replacing the stock regulator and rectifier with a cool combo unit from Oregon Motorcycle Parts so we had to make a little bracket for it which will also house the under seat start button.

We told a few people we would document the wiring better this time around, but honestly we just work our way through it with the diagram replacing a wire at a time. Taking the time to document it all would really slow the process down. We are doing our best to keep all the stock colors in the harness this time except for visible wires which will be the black cloth wire. Here is what we have so far after a few hours. Considering the time our first bike took this is some great progress!

Stay tuned for more…..

XS400 for sale

Josh Edgar — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:44:38 +0000

Emma has asked us to sell her ’78 Yamaha XS400, affectionately dubbed ‘INXS’.

We built the 400 for Emma about a year ago. It was built to be a light weight, un-intimidating, small-ish bike for a newer rider. She loves it. And, as a matter of fact, we love it too. We keep borrowing it back for ‘upgrades and maintenance’ and have possibly put more miles on it than she has in the process! It’s the most comfortable and agile of our builds to date.

We love ripping around town on the 4-hundie. It has proven super reliable; it kicks on the first or second kick every time. And yeah, it’s kick only. (hey, if a petite girl can handle it, so can you!) If you really must have a starter, we can install one for you, but it will take some time; we’re pretty backed up with builds right now…

The 400 was striped to the frame and rebuilt with a lotta love. The donor bike had 990 original miles (we have the paperwork). Since the re-build, the bike has only seen a few hundred miles. Yes, this bike has under 1,500 original miles on it, which is pretty amazing.

Here are the mods and upgrades:

frame was bobbed, shaved, narrowed in the rear, and powdercoated
custom seat and seat pan
cleaned up wiring harness
fork was re-built
clip-ons installed
new grips, new throttle tube
orignal clutch and brake levers were shaved and modified
new speedo
new headlight, taillight and turn signals
internal taillight wiring (in swingarm)
custom turn signal toggle switch
custom battery box below swingarm
new anti gravity battery
air box deleted pod filters added
carbs rebuilt, tuned and jetted
full custom stainless exhaust with hidden baffles; the bike is pleasantly quiet
Coker Diamond 4.5 x 18 tires front & rear on black painted wheels
tank clear powder coated over raw steel with white side panels, with original pin stripe design

The bike has been featured in numerous on-line blogs and shown in 2 moto shows since completion.

Emma would like to get $7500 for the bike. It will be a private as is sale between the future owner and her, but we will help with the transaction as much as we can. Conact us at info@spincycleindustries.com