80' xs650 - Bob to Tracker

Hey everyone-

Well, I’ve wanted to do a build of a Café bike for quite some time. Finally got the wife talked into it and found a 1980 XS60 to start my build. I picked this up yesterday after scouring the local craigs list for a couple weeks and finally finding one that was a suitable starting point. ;D It runs and shifts through all the gears but needs a lot of TLC and re-work of sloppy work done by the PO. It got about 13,xxx miles on it, and time to start on my is in overall decent shape.
The Bad –
The PO had already chopped off the rear making a pseudo bobber/rat bike out of it. I say “RAT” because it has been rattlecan’d, the front and rear fenders chopped and attached together to make the rear fender on it now, an old skateboard cut and wrapped with vinyl for the seat, a “custom” copper battery box that is functional, but very ugly and doesn’t fit with the style of the bike at all…. No turn signals, Drag bars, no gauges installed, open exhaust (no tail pipe or baffles) no front fender or fork brace in its place (Im pretty sure ill need to source a fender or make a stiffening bracket before riding it much), and many other sloppy mods that I will need to correct. There seems to be a couple small oil leaks that I will need to address, im pretty sure the carbs will need to be re-jetted and some carb tuning to get it running perfect. Foot pegs seem to be some cheap aftermarket curiser pegs. The PO put drag bars on but they are nowhere near close to fitting properly. The front brake line is smashed up against the top tree and for some reason because there must not have been adequate space the throttle and brake are about 3” farther out on the bars than the left hand side. WIRING is a mess so ill probably have to sort through and re-wire the whole bike. And a bunch of other odds and ends that ill find as I start to dig into it deeper.

The good –
The bike came with a bunch of the original parts… speedo, tach, spare brake disks, spare sprockets and chain, the old rear section, two other sets of handle bars (stock and a mid rise similar to stock) original air box, head light, tail light, 90% complete engine gasket kit (the PO had only replaced the gaskets needed when he did a valve adjustment) and a bunch of other parts that I still need to sort out. Has nearly new tires on it so I won’t have to invest in those on those yet…
Now time to start on my XS 650 project. While my exact direction has not yet been determined… Ill be building a tracker/café hybrid as I like styles from both. First, ill go through all the deferred maintenance items and make it a suitable rider for the summer. Then I will dig into the build once the snow starts to fly next winter. Maybe sooner depending on funding and time available.

Im sure ill have a lot of questions and I appreciate any comments or criticism as this will be my first bike build (ive done plenty with cars, just no bikes as of yet) and im looking to learn as I go.
Sorry for the long intro, here are some pics.
Me on the bike after taking it for a quick ride to see how it ran and get a feel for the overall condition.

The interesting Battery Box the PO fabb’d up

The not so pretty rear

2 into 1 headers (I think the ones from MIKESXS.COM

FRONT

Pile of parts to sort through

Looks like a good start!

haha that battery box is cash!!!

Nice start for sure...

There are some BEAUTIFUL XS trackers out there. If I ever come across another XS, thats probobly the route Id take. Heres some inspiration from my "pics of shit I want" file. Haha...




And my favorite:



Keep us posted on the build!

High pipes on a street tracker look really trick! gotta have the high pipes.

VonYinzer said:

Nice start for sure...

There are some BEAUTIFUL XS trackers out there. If I ever come across another XS, thats probobly the route Id take. Heres some inspiration from my "pics of shit I want" file. Haha...

And my favorite:

Keep us posted on the build!

Click to expand...

Thanks guys, yeah the second one is in my "shit I want file" too. Im thinking ill give a go at doing my own fiberglass rear section similar to those in pic one and two, clubman bars or clip ons, NO CHROME - all parts will be brushed aluminum or painted, and im thinking my pipes will be an up swept tail piece. maybe something short not really sure there... but no high pipes. The wife will learn how to ride on this bike so I dont want her getting burned when she is learning how to ride and not sure how to avoid such things.

Im working on a crappy rendering that ill post up when finished . Dont let the word "rendering" fool you, it will be done in paint so nothing special but will give an idea of the direction im taking.

as for the battery box, I think its cool, but doesnt fit on a bike like this (unless it was a bob or rat bike.... wait, i think that is what the PO was going for???? it could be cool on the right bike though.

Ok, so this is what i have been kicking around. something like my very crude rendering below..... oh and my other project in the background. the color on the truck will end up on this bike somehow... just not sure where yet. mainly because i still need to spray the bed soon and ill have plenty of paint left over. Plus I love the color.



What do you guys think? Its a blank canvas as of yet, so im open to suggestions.


as you can see i am kinda blending the cafe and tracker styles as i like some aspects of both, and this bike can go either way at this point.

Small progress update. I ordered a set of clubmans, should be here by the end of the week. I've also been sketching out the look I want for the rear. I ve also been making a list of things to get her road worthy for the summer riding season. At the top of that list is to replace the fork seals, or rebuild the front forks not sure there yet... Also need speedo,clutch, ant tach cable (we'll see if the stockers still work.

That's all for now...

Well, my clubmans showed up today! of course I didnt waste much time in gettnig them mounted. I also got new grips on too. They fit really nicely and i really like the riding position. Very comfortable... for me anyway. and they look alot better. of course not much of an improvement since the rest of the bike looks like hell. on the plus side, the front brake line isnt smashed up against the top of the fork tree.

so after I finished gettng the bars mounted, of course i wanted to take it for a ride to see how it felt! well turn on the key, pres the starter button....... nothing! Thankfully i have the kick start... it popped right off with two kicks. I dont know what happened it worked yesterday but i took a few minutes inspecting the wiring, this thing is a mess. I thing completely re-wiring this thing is in my very near future. Ive found the factory wiring diagram, ill have to study it and figure out what i need to do to build a new harness. This will lead to another side project.... making an electrical component tray and battery box. I figured id wait till winter when i tear it all dow, but it looks like ill be doing this sooner than i thought.

anyway, thats all for now. Ill post pics of the bike with the clubmans on tomorrow (too dark to take pics after i got them on).

A little inspiration!

I sketched this up (actuall about 4 of them) to decide what type of tail section i liked. This one is the one I think Ill be making, still need to figure out the rear profile, but its a start.

Got it hanging in the garage for inspiration....

well I managed to make some progress this weekend.

I tore into the wiring... the stock harness had been modified by one or more of the PO's so it had cut and patched wires every where. too many problems to list, its actually amazing this thing never burnt to the gound.

Since ill be making this a rider i am putting all the guages signals ect... back on the bike and re-doing the harness to clean up the wiring. so far i have the whole arness taken apart and everything is labeled. now to figure out where im going to put everything then to start building a the new revised wiring harness. Ill make it match stock, but routing and length of wires changed to accomidate the cleaner look I want.

here is the main problem i encountered among many others.


when my fingers were numb from pulling apart the harness and peeling of old tape I decided to start painting a couple of parts. here is the speedo/tach bracket... also painted the ignition switch and guage housings the same. all of the brackets on the bike will eventually receive the same. Its Rustoleum hammered metal finish. actually turned out pretty well, at least i like it!


and one more late project for sunday..... i started cutting all the brackets off of the stock rear tail section. here is where I stopped for the day. Still a bit more gringing to get it smooth and need to get some tube to insert to sleve so I can attach to the frame and have some strength.


Im planning on doing just a seat for now, then make my fiberglass seat/tail section.

nice start!
That wiring looks terrible. Glad to hear that you are going through and fixing the whole thing instead of just patching it.

Hammer Rustolieum stands up pretty well I have about 3 seasons on brackets I did in he silver and it still looks great. Some of the other paint I used, not so much. Your paint looks good to me. good idea to rewire, PO splices have a tendancy to crap out on you at the worst possible time.

This wiring is a nightmare. Im no stranger to following wiring diagrams, but this one sucks.... I think i have all the parts and pieces Ill need to get the wiring done right, and the way I want it. also have a bunch of parts arriving in the next week, so as soon as the wiring is done ill dig into the fork seals and lowering a couple inches. Since it will all be torn apart, I will paint the tripple's and the forks then too.

my goal is to have phase one done and the bike back on the road by July 1. time and cash flow will be my biggest obsticles at this point.


on a seperate note, as I have progressed through this re-build i am really leaning more toward the cafe styling. That said, i have started a thread over in the appropriate sectoin... you can follow the rest of the build over in the Cafe section if your interested in the progress. In the end it will be a mix of different styling queues that I prefer (build it how you want it right). http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=37570.0