V Star Bobber.

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endicott_jb

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Messages
1,352
Location
Havre, MT but may as well be the north pole
A few of you have seen my cars but now, I’ve finally dove into a bike build. Sort of, kind of, head first. I was looking for a honda shadow due to its small tank, small v engine, reliability, and mono shock rear swing arm but couldnt find one in the right price range so I kept searching craigslist. Still could not find a shadow that would be a good candidate near by. Instead, I came across a craigslist ad. It was a 2006 yamaha v star 650 classic. The guy had burned up the engine, started tearing it apart, and realized it was way out of his ability to put it back together so he listed it for 800 bucks. So I waited, and waited, and waited. Finally he dropped the price down to 600 so I struck a deal. Got it home and started tearing it down to where I wanted to start. At one point in time he had chopped the rear fender so the first things to go wee the seat, sissy bar, and rear fender. Once I had all that off, it was time to fab up a fender of my own. Using a normal trailer fender I cut down, I made a bobber type. Cut about 1” from the center, welded it back together, and worked it into shape with my english wheel. Once that was done, I started on the seat mount. Using a piece of cardboard as a template, I cut a piece of 18ga and shaped it around where the factory seat goes and mounted a sungle springer seat to it. I then test fit everything and pulled it all apart again so I could paint the bits of frame that I welded my mounts to. Since then she has sat waiting for me to get back at it. Ive got most everything ordered for it but it’s still going to take some time. A lot of little piddly things to do to get her to where I want her. First picture is the craigslist ad and the second is where I’ve gotten her so far.
 

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Good choice

Good progress you've made.

These are popular. I would like one.
 

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A definite improvement.

Personally, I am partial to peanut tanks, but the fat bob is way more practical, and it looks good too.
 
I hate the way the tank looks but without making major mods to the frame, engine, and intake system, there’s no way around the fat tank. I was going to modify the stock tank but after the mods I would have been left with maybe 2 gallons and thats not nearly enough for out here in the boonies.
 
Got the engine sitting in the frame today. Unfortunately, the guy I got it from had lost all of the mounts and hardware and I didn’t realize it when I picked the bike up. I know I could make them myself but with this being a fairly factory setup I decided to order the correct stuff. Should all be here on friday so I’ll finish the engine install then. For now though I’ll go through and rebuild the carbs so they’re ready to go when the time comes to slap them on.
 
Engine is mounted, rear fender struts are finished, and forward controls are done. Still need to rebuild the carbs but waiting on exhaust anyway. As far as the mechanics are, she is almost finished.
 

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Got the carbs rebuilt and installed today. The guy I bought the bike from had installed some crappy chinese “procharger” that I didn’t really like. So I had ordered a triumph air cleaner from low brow but because the v star has a weird mounting system I had to modify the air cleaner just a little bit. So now, all I need to do before starting it up is draining the tank and for the exhaust to come in.
 

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Here's a couple I did way back.
 

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