1974 XS/TX650 rebuild

[th62]

A few weeks ago I sent off for some tapered mufflers, these were said to suit from 38 - 45mm pipes using the supplied sleeves. Well they came, but aside from being chrome when I ordered black, they were rubbish: The spigot that goes over the exhaust pipe is tapered, so no matter how tight the clamp is done up, they have an alarming amount of movement, so I wrapped them up and on sold them.

Today I went to an exhaust shop and bought 1.5 m of 57 mm pipe and the same amount of 41mm pipe and asked the guy to taper the ends of the 41mm pipe out to 57mm. This was just an experiment mind, just wanted to see what they'd look like. Once I'd welded the tapered cones on to the 57mm pipe, I slid the 57mm end of the mufflers over the exhaust, stood back and had a squiz. Very pleasantly surprised, they give the bike the look I'm after. So next week, or whenever, I'll get some 45mm pipe and get the guy to expand the ends out to 57 mm and weld them on to the other end of the muffler.

The plan is to make up a couple of long baffles and slide them all the way inside the mufflers, start the bike and gradually slide the baffles out until I achieve what I think is an acceptable noise level. I'll also throw a bit of fibreglass insulation in the bodies to dampen the high level noise.

They look a bit Pommyish, but that's alright, I like Pommy bikes.

Once I've finished the mufflers, that's pretty much the build finished. So I'll strip it down, repaint everything again, give the tank a coat of isocynate free clear coat and stick the bike back together. All that remains to be done then is get some tyres fitted and upholster the seat. That'll be the end of my bike building days though, unfortunately, this build has pretty much stuffed my body, my elbows are stuffed, can't doing anything without lots of pain now. So once finished I'll probably book elbow replacement surgery and retire from life. Although, every now and again I'll probably wander out to the workshop, sit on the bike, blow through my lips to make some bike noises, dribble down my chin and remember the good old days of my youth. Still a bit left to do though.