Part 8 of the 1982 Yamaha XV920 "Virago" Cafe Racer Build!
I know it's been a super long time between the last episode, but I do have a lot more progress on the cafe racer build!
In this episode we pretty much get all of the designing and structuring of the aesthetic mods of the tank.
The first problem was that we need to move the petcock/fuel valve from the back of the tank to the front. The reason is that when modifying this bike to look more "cafe racer -esque" I raised the back of the tank. This normally would not be an issue but of course you want the fuel to be siphoned (gravity fed) from the lowest part of the tank. The problem is that the lowest part of the tank is now the highest part, you could use it like this but you'd only be getting gas from the top 1/4 part of the tank, and after probably 1 gallon or less of fuel, you'd need to stop and refuel, and we can't have that. So I went through the daunting task of relocating the fuel valve.
I actually ended up just patching the hole I made with a fresh piece of metal, as well as getting a whole new valve instead of reusing the old one. The old one had seals that went over the mount too, which to me is just more places for it to leak, this new design it's just the valve itself that could potentially leak, which is less places to leak. It took me about a month to eventually seal off all these holes and patches to where they were air tight (and therefore gas tight). It would have been easier if I was much better at welding, but I suppose it's projects like these that are helping me get there. It's quite ugly, but it works, and that's good enough for me.
Next was tackling the issue of taking the very smooth, rounded, dolphin-esque shape of the tank and trying to make it much more angular, faceted and sharply designed. I figured the best way to do this or one way was to simply 3D print panels that would be affixed to the outside of the tank. Of course to follow the lines I would need segmented areas, much like you'd do with pie cuts to make a curve from non curved pieces. This was a lot of design choices and once I had that figured out I took it one step further with the complexity and decided to add LED edge-lit acrylic panels to go on top of these 3D printed panels. A lot of testing and designing but ultimately I think it will work out and look very cool.
More tank work next time, and then on to the exhaust!
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⛧ \\ Table of Contents: \\ ⛧
00:00 - Intro \ Tank Problems
02:52 - Would Be Nice If I Was Better At Welding
07:05 - Side Panel Design
10:57 - Holy 3D Printed Panels
15:13 - Painting + More?
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\\ 1982 Yamaha XV920 Virago Cafe Racer \\
I've waiting 5 years for this project to come to fruition and finally it is here!
1. The Bike
1982 Yamaha XV920 "Virago"
2. The Motor
920CC's of pure V-twin thumping power! You can't beat the sound and feel of a twin.
3. The Mods
We're going to be doing many mods throughout this project, the bike will not look much like it does in stock form here. Custom tank mods, front end, rear end, seat, electronics, suspension, lighting, exhaust. Just about everything will be modified except for the frame and engine!
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⛧ 2022 High Tech \\ Low Life | - Cyberpunk - Projects - DIY - Art - Tech - Modding - ⛧