Okay guys, I haven't been on here much. I don't know if I am posting in the right spot.  But for a little back ground, I am 18, movin off to college soon and picked up a 1986 ls650 for really cheep. I got the bike runnin. Found an oil leak from what looks to be the valve cover and looks like someone beat the crud out of the carb. The mixture screw is stripped and can't get it to move at all. I pulled apart what I could and cleaned it. Then found wiring issues which I have been dealing with for a couple weeks now. Have a starter relay on the way. And hack been cleaning out about 50 feet of wire from the harness. While I have been waiting on the solenoid, I decided to start building a bobber.. So. Lots of questions.
If I decide to strut the rear end, how thick of steel should I use?
I am building a custom rear fender. Super short and straight. The seat will be made out of steel as well. Some say an unsprung seat+ strutted rear end is a bad idea.. Any thoughts on that?
Can I buy replacement carbs for this bike? It seams as though there is no salvaging this thing..
I am going to mount a tail light onto the side of the bike to give the fender a clean look. Where can I buy just a small round taillight that I can make a mount for to hold the license plate for as well.
Also, whoever had this bike before me broke the headlight. I have a driving/ off road light sitting in my garage. I know it won't have a hi/low filiment. But I don't plan on driving at night anyways.. How would I hook up the offroad light? Can I just tie the white and green(I think it's green) together and connect them to the red of the offroad light?
I know it's a lot. But. I work full time as a boat mechanic and am a dang good welder, so, I am tryin to build everythin I can and make a budget bobber with a different look than normal!

Garrett wrote on 06/09/13 at 23:50:59:


Garrett, put some damping somewhere on that rear or you'll be looking for a kidney transplant before you even graduate !


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In theory any 32-36mm carb sgould do the job, but perhaps a rehaul&reconditioning of your own carb is a safer bet.


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Any decent web-based chop shop has plenty of stuff starting from $20...


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My suggestion is to look at the light bulb and make sure the low beam is at least 37.5W and the high beam at least 50W.
Never mind you don't plan riding at night, Noah never went skin diving and Moses never went skinny dipping, either. Who knows, you might beet a biker chick in college who rider badder
and faster than you, what are you going to do, "not ride at night"?
Get yerself a headlight.



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OK, may I suggest you get yourself a sprung seat FIRST, tailor it to your liking as related to handlebars and footpegs, and only THEN think about rear struts. Those rear shocks are so short, they're stiff anyways...

Also, if you want to be cool, replace the stock speedo with a cookie jar and fit 2" tacho and speedo to the handlebars, they look and work much better!
THEN
source a 4 gal tank off a broken HD Road King and adapt it to the Savage frame; that'll give you the opportunity to cruise around town with the stock 2 gal tank, or go off on weekends with the 4 gal tank...
You don't want to be left stranded 'cause you ran outta gas... for real !  

For the headlight wiring....Black is ground, White is low beam, Yellow is high beam.

Gee guys, thanks for all the reply's!
I think im going to keep the stock shocks for now. Thanks for the wiring info. I am going to go look at a couple chop shops in town today and see what I can find for a taillight. It seams like everyone goes with that 32 ford tail light. I am wondering about mounting led's inside the fender. So I going to try to find some bright enough ones that I can recess into the steel. Also, I did some measurements, I think I am going to try and find a handle bar with 3inch rise, maybe 32inch length, with a 4inch pull back. Any recommendations?

JLight wrote on 06/10/13 at 08:29:27:

what size tubing did you use?

does anyone know how low of handle bars you can go without having risers?

That's the taillight I was talking about.Like you said too...D.O.T. approved.

JLight wrote on 06/10/13 at 20:13:15:

thanks! i may make me up some handle bars soon.
i ended up going to my dads shop and finding a red caution light (the lights that sit on top of those barrels for construction workers.) i made up a mount with a little gromlet to hold it in place. welded up it and the seat and the license plate holder last night. i also got my starter relay in the mail. hopefully next week i can get all my wiring taken care of and start it up again. any kind of cool mirrors that you guys would recommend?
and also, is there a valve cover gasket? or is it purposefully RTV'd in place. last time i had the bike running, oil was leaking down the side of the engine on the left hand side.
also! one more question, how hot are these things going to get?

Here are my two cent... i would not go rigid in the rear,keep the shocks... unless you switch to a Ryca rigid bobber frame, that stretches the wheelbase and it's a proper rigid frame (very nice also), but seems to me that you're on a budget so the ryca frame it's out of the question.

For the parts check ebay, i found plenty of spare parts from salvage yards that sells stuff over there, and not to mention the sellers of aftermarket parts like the Ford rear taillight and other universal accessories.
Check the forum for the rear fender, i' ve seen a lot of guys going for a trailer fender and light, they are cheap and seems to fit with minor adjustments
And for the headlight, you have to consider that there are a bunch of wires that are hidden in the headlight, like those of the turning lights.
Don't know where you live and especially where you will ride your bike, but i suggest you to keep it street legal as much as you can to avoid tickets or worst.
As i said, my humble 2 cent