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Let me first say this build occurred over about 6 months. I have chronicled my build in detail on the XS650 forum but thought I would also finally get around to posting it here too. You will notice that I am posting everything all at once, so no, I did not build entire bike in one day. Not really sure what to call this bike- some have described it as a cafe tracker, so I will go with that.
From the get go, I built this bike knowing I wanted to keep it awhile. Several other bikes I have built, I have gotten bored with relatively quickly and have sold at a huge loss. For me, its more fun doing the building that anything else. As we all know, selling them doesn't get you anything other than a few bucks to put into the next project so you can lose money on that one too.
Well, hope you enjoy
So I picked up this 1981 special. Cost me $150 and it came with title! I saw ad on craigslist within a few minutes of him posting it. By the time I got to his house 3 hours later, he had about 20 calls and texts from people wanting the bike. I was lucky to get it before the others who wanted it. Here is how it looked at time of pickup.
I have built several hondas and a suzuki, but this is my first yamaha. The xs650 has tons of parts available for it so I figured it would be a good candidate.
WHen I got the bike, it had 150 PSI compression on both cylinders and supposedly ran, although I never did try to run it before taking it all apart. The PO basically just spray painted the whole bike and the engine had about three coats of different colored paint on it. Despite the good compression, I figured I would tear it down and rebuild motor anyways so I could get it cosmetically looking good.
For the engine, I stumbled upon a website for a guy who does vapor blasting to restore motors to factory condition. http://www.vaporblasting.biz/
I thought I would check it out. For $80 plus shipping, he was able to get my engine looking better than new. I would highly recommend checking him out. The only downside is it took about 4 weeks longer than he said it would, but he had trouble getting all the paint off, which took longer.
Here are some pics of the jugs as they looked after restoration. I have not put engine back together yet- the pictures below just show the empty jugs. Its hard to appreciate due to the dark pictures, but it looks better than showroom quality. Its hard to believe but there is no paint or powder coating on those jugs, its just bare, polished aluminum.
Next I sent a bunch of parts to the powder coater.
I did the mag wheels, all the side covers for the engine, fork lowers, tripe tree, swingarm, and a bunch of misc parts all in the same color- Iron Glimmer. The wheels are currently getting new tires on them as I write this- Avon MKII safety mileage 500-16 on rear and 400-19 on front. The frame and remaining parts will be powder coated same color when I get that far. THe forks have been rebuilt, the front caliper has been rebuilt and the wheels have all new bearings and seals. I put brass bushings in the swingarm and I have a set of new bearings for the neck.
I took the bike all apart because it was in my basement over winter, and brought it into the garage and reassembled again. It's amazing how this whole process took only an hour.
Anyways, got my seat from Ian at house on fire customs. I welded on a new rear loop and mounting brackets for seat. Upholstery will be done in black leather by ginger from new church Moto. Got rid of the frame brackets for the center stand and most other unneeded frame tabs. Still left the passenger peg brackets until I finalize which rearsets and exhaust I will use.
The taillight is a half moon billet led unit from radiantz that will tuck underneath the seat cowl in rear. There is a mount welded up underneath back of seat for this.
Gordon Scott sent some pics of my exhaust as he built them. Looking pretty awesome! He also made a custom fork brace that will fit the larger avon front tire.
Also cut out and welded some brackets for the rear turn signals. I slid them right over the shock mount bolt and welded to frame. These monza shocks are narrower at the mounting points than the stock anyways, so it worked out perfect. Otherwise, I would have had to put a shim there anyways.
Got my battery box. Made up by bradj from this forum. $50 well spent. Mounted it up and welded it on. It only hangs down 1.5" below frame, so its not too much of an eyesore. My welding skills are pretty rudimentary but it gets the job done. My little shorai battery came from bikebandit and fits right in. Supposedly at 220 cca it should start the bike up using starter.
More pics
Got he gordon Scott pipe mounted up, tightened down, etc.
Looks killer. Trying to decide on how to protect it. I'd love to do a clear ceramic coating on it and leave the bare steel look but not sure there is such a thing. Might do pipe wrap but I don't want to hear all the BS comments from the pipe wrap haters out there either. May just go with black ceramic coating on everything.
Also got the custom made fork brace mounted up too.my Avon tires were to tall for his standard sized one. The fork brace, frame, and motor mounts will be powder coated in the iron glimmer that is already on fork lowers and swing arm.
Got my seat back from ginger at new church Moto.
I cannot recommend her enough for upholstery. This is the second seat I had her upholster and the quality is second to none. I have seen a lot of custom bikes and have never seen a better quality seat. She does all the work for glass from the past too. I have no problems shipping my seat pans to her for work. She'll do tuck and roll, diamond pattern, leather, vinyl, piping, you name it.,
Got the tank back briefly from painter to have it coated with caswell sealer. Local auto body shop did coating for pretty reasonable amount.
Now it's back to painter for paint.
Used some pingel petcocks and adaptor plates on the xs750 tank.
I found a ignition that slides right down inside triple tree riser holes that I am not using. I also made a steel dash panel for the kill switch and starter button but its getting powder coated. Wiring is getting tidied up and then will wrap with tape and hide. Hope to have it running within a few weeks.
Got tins back from painter. Pictures don't show the awesomeness of this paint!
Silver base, gobs of HOK mini flake, kandy HOK lime gold and black Kenny Roberts style block stripes. It nearly blinds you in sun!
That black line on side of tank in first two pics is the throttle cable tat I haven't tucked under tank yet.
Taillight is hidden underneath tail and is a half moon billet LED lamp.
got some decent pics taken- borrowed a friends higher end SLR camera. Have about 25 miles on bike. Not as uncomfortable as one might think. Not used to riding an XS650 twin- they really vibrate alot!
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