Made a little more progress on the weekend. I wanted a free-flowing muffler that the USFS guys would approve of, and I wanted a cleanable spark arrestor. I found a 2001 XR250R muffler for a fair price on eBay, so I bent some tube and welded it together. The muffler came with a quiet core insert, but I also have a wide open insert on my '96 XR250R, so we'll see which one sounds better.

I also cut the heat shield mounting bungs off of the head pipe and re-welded them to accept a different heat shield that I had laying around. The original heat shield is really large, and I wanted something smaller. If I get motivated enough, I might build a custom shield out of stainless.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps41be741b.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...psde694f54.jpg

After I was satisfied with the fit, I painted the exhaust system with semi-gloss black heat paint. I also made some progress in fabricating a headlight mount. No pics for that yet.

I love your custom muffler work! :tup:

X2

Thanks, guys. :D

I made some more progress. The paint had cured enough that I could mock up the exhaust system. When I fabricated the midpipe, I failed to make a mid-point mounting bracket, so that's next. I really like the Duplicolor high heat semi-gloss black.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...psd9e4d9c5.jpg

I bent up some aluminum recently to mount the headlight that I bought on Taobao, and I think it worked out well. My buddy offered to reinforce it for me with his TIG welder, so I expect that we'll find time for that next week. I secured the mount with stainless T-bolt clamps, and then I drilled the mounts for some neat little signal lights I found on eBay.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...psd03da03f.jpg

This shot shows the bracket, but it also shows the Roketa speedo and indicator lights, along with the Roketa steering lock ignition. It all seems to work well together. There's plenty of room below the indicator lights for future considerations, like controls for heated grips, etc.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps22e6f25a.jpg

Nice job! :tup:

Nice Progress :)

nice simple instrument setup. are you going with the honda silver red colour scheme?

Not on purpose. The frame is a sort of silver / grey, and the plastics will be black and red with a black seat and black tank. I've changed the bike quite a bit, but the registration says red, so I don't want to stray too far.

I like the instrumentation as well. I have no need for a tach that lies to me, and I like the Roketa speedo.

Forum member Atomic Wedgie welded my aluminum headlight frame for me, since cracks developed on the corners from bending. He also added some extra pieces for strength.

This is an action shot of TIG welding in progress.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps06437d32.jpg

And this is the frame mounted to the forks with stainless T-bolt clamps.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps04f91f5e.jpg

looking very awesome

Thanks! I hope to complete it this weekend and go for a victory ride. :D

Wonderful work.

I love the action shot.

The exhaust is looking great.

The XR exhaust is durable and quiet. You will love it.

Thank you.

The XR pipe sound volume will depend upon which insert I use with it. The 2002 version is a quiet core, but my '96 is nearly wide open. We'll see which one sounds better and is less obnoxious.

I made a bunch of progress over the weekend. I completed the wiring over the weekend, and I discovered that the audible turn signal box is quite necessary, since there's no quick way to incorporate a flasher. There is a nice by-product of the box, and that is that the turn signals flash rapidly nine times when you apply the brake. Since Son of Weldangrind will be the primary pilot, I'm happy to know that the Lifan has this safety feature.

I discovered an oddity. I had unplugged the alarm, without knowing how it interacted with the electrical system. The bike started up fine without the alarm, but I couldn't switch it off! Neither the kill switch nor the key switch had any effect on the engine, yet the key switch could shut off all electrical accessories. :hmm: The solution was to simply plug the alarm back in, minus the loudspeaker. The kill switch and key switch now work properly.

I hope to get some time on the bike tomorrow evening, at which time I'll install the front brake (and flush it). After a little tuning, it should be ready for a maiden voyage. I'll post pics when it's done.