This is my 1982 XJ650 Survival-Rat or ''The Rock Rat!'' , I brought it
from a mate for AU$800 , it was in a pretty sorry state. It had been
used as a paddock hack for about 6 years. Now she is my daily ride and
I just love it when kids in the street say to Mum or Dad ''Hey, check
out the army bike.''
To get it on the road (it had to pass a roadworthy) I had to do a few
things like brakes and leaking forks, I rebuilt the front calipers and
master cylinder, relined the rear drum. The head stem bearings had to
be replaced as did the seals in the front forks. The wiring to the
rear of the bike was shot and it needed some serious work in that
department, the coils are off a hondaCBR250RR.
I fabricated the muffler myself for the four in to one exhaust, using
an alloy muffler that had all its baffles rusted out. I made a new
baffle tube by hand out of an old bit of steel pipe and about 100
holes later I was able to pack it with fiber glass to pass the
roadworthy. The glass was ripped out later to make it cackle nice and
loud, I also cut an old gear sack rack down to make a sub frame for
the ammo box panniers and the only thing I really splurged on was
AU$100 to have the seat recovered in green.
Important Announcement
The fairing I picked up from a mate and I have no idea what it was
off, but the headlight hole suited the large XJ headlight, which is
now covered by a stone shield made from an old record player lid.
As for the paint, not the standard rat fair, but ratty none the less, A quick hose down (Its first and last one from me), four cans of spray paint at less then AU$20 for the lot and a few leaves out of the garden to create the camo pattern and I was done. Spent the afternoon spraying anything that didn't move (and a few things that did.) In rat style nothing was actually painted off the bike, all I did was hold a bit of cardboard across anything I didn't want painted, which wasn't really a lot.
She is about finished and the only plans in the works are to rip out the carbies and re jet them for a set of pod filters, rip out the air box and add a set of fog lights to her. I also have a 2 channel UHF CB and a 40 channel 27mhz SSB CB that are fitted to the bike for communications on longer trips.
As for the paint, not the standard rat fair, but ratty none the less, A quick hose down (Its first and last one from me), four cans of spray paint at less then AU$20 for the lot and a few leaves out of the garden to create the camo pattern and I was done. Spent the afternoon spraying anything that didn't move (and a few things that did.) In rat style nothing was actually painted off the bike, all I did was hold a bit of cardboard across anything I didn't want painted, which wasn't really a lot.
She is about finished and the only plans in the works are to rip out the carbies and re jet them for a set of pod filters, rip out the air box and add a set of fog lights to her. I also have a 2 channel UHF CB and a 40 channel 27mhz SSB CB that are fitted to the bike for communications on longer trips.
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Hope you like it,
Mark ''Pockets''
