The name ‘Kitset Deathtrap’ came from a competition me, and a mate have to come up with band names. I thought it would suit some young punk band, his suggestion of ‘Sue Ridge & the Perpetual Motions’ was good also but not for my bike!

Formally a pretty stock standard 1999 Yamaha Dragstar XVS400, I have made a bunch of custom bits and bobs and swapped out the shit I didn’t fancy. For starters the original tank on this thing was fucking ridiculous, in fact I have never seen a tank so out of proportion on any other bike, it would be perfect if I was planning to circum-navigate the globe or needed a place to hide a body.

Stripping everything off I could see some potential there so I ploughed on, building the new tank, rear guard, exhaust, handlebars and seat along with the brackets and various fittings. This was the first time I had built a fuel tank from fiberglass so some research took place and I was happy to find people were still producing them and you can still buy them for certain older bikes, mainly race bikes. This gave me some confidence towards my plan of action.

The main trick with a glass tank is the sealer and making sure the inside coverage is satisfactory, mine has been holding gas now for four years and I have made a bunch of tanks since, using this process (see Build/Tech Tips for more details), but if you don’t get 100% coverage the fuel will eat into the composition and bring your carbs to a slow painful and sticky standstill. The reason I did this is because I needed the tank to fit the backbone of the bike correctly, I didn’t have the experience to cut the backbone and removing the air box was going to give me jetting issues, so as I had experience with fiberglass (building surfboards) I went with that.

The exhausts are made from a bunch of cobbled together tubing and bends of different diameters that I had lying about, with the chrome ends formally legs off a table. Twisted gate steel brought my handlebars to life, not one person has ever said they liked them, just how I like it!
My paintwork is rattle can satin black with white and gold pinning by Steve Levene that I have now managed to put a few chips and scratches in, but hey it all adds character! I keep telling myself (sob).

Most recently I have chucked on a 21” front rim I got off Trademe for $40. With a stroke of luck the original axle fitted the new wheel and I was hit with ‘Double Strike o Luck’ to find the brake caliper position lined up the same. I had an Avon whitewall I picked up cheap off Trademe about a year ago for $60 so threw that on. I had to re-drill the brake disc to fit the stud pattern on the new wheel, which wasn’t too difficult in the end, i just used a ruler, scriber and a hand drill. Not having done this before I thought maybe the disc would be impossible to drill but it was fine. Once I got it on, the wheel was wobbling out of true by about 1.5 cm so I down loaded some instructions from the net and straightened it up. I have never wanted to mess with straightening having made wheels worse rather than better in the past, but I found the trick is not to rush and only tighten a little at a time till you get it right. I am running a bobbed front fender in these pictures as I went for a warrant just prior and I normally don’t have a front fender but I might keep it on for the up coming Coro run.

I made a new seat pan and had a local furniture upholstery guy ‘tuck & roll’ it for me in white leather, he charged me $30. If I had gone to a auto upholstery joint I am sure it would have cost me much more.
I feel a smaller rear guard coming on shortly with a side mounted taillight and plate and who knows what after that. It’s never let me down and it’s great fun to ride, easy on gas and loud on the ears. It’s a work in progress for sure and although I tried to sell it at one point, I see myself hanging on to it now.

J.

RATTLERS