Bratstyle XS650 build

I had started a confusing cafe racer thread for this build, it took me a while to figure out which direction I would take with my project.

Bike is an 1980 XS650 that I found neglected and in sorry shape for 400$. Engine seemed good, most of the bits are there. The rust, though widespread, seemed to be mostly of the surface kind.

The tank was horrible, but a good opportuity to practice bodywork and paint.


The plan was to make a cafe racer at first, but I quickly found that this bike is an XS650 special and that it really has the soul of a bobber/chopper. So I opted for a brat style.

Bike was torn right down, frame was blasted, stripped and painted with appliance epoxy. The swingarm received new bronze bushings and the race bearings in the steering were replaced with tappered bearings



The engine has been painted flat black with engine paint. If al goes well it will be back in the frame this week



The rolling chassis is now together. Cast wheels were painted black, lower shocks were setup in the back. I will be adding pics of the mockup tonight. The bike will remain near stock mechanically, I am limiting the scope and cost of this build so I am back on the road this summer, and will probably improve further once the basics are in order. A lot of little details will hopefully add up to a big difference from stock in the end

More pics to come soon!

Here's a quick mockup of the bike. The stance is very different when the bike isn't on the centerstand, the rear is actually almost 5 inches lower than pictured.


The headlight is a 5 1/2", I used the stock brackets, but turned upside down. The ears are in bad shape, I will be stripping them of rust tonight, maybe they will get a few coats of black if I can't restore to chrome to a presentable state.

The handlebars are Clubman bars, turned upside down. I wanted a moderate rise but little pullback, this does the trick. I will be running a mini speedo only, this one is from mikes xs and has all the idiot lights in it.

The gas tank is primered and a work in progress. Once I'm happy with the bodywork it will get painted with some "Toyota Cypress Pearl" I had made at napa, then pinstriped and cleared. Here's a quick photoshop of the colour scheme I'm hoping will come of it.



Cheers,

Guy

Really nice job so far. I love the direction. Fork boots and new headlight are sweet. Did you lower the back end with shorter shocks? Maybe I missed that part. I'm also wondering what kind of a seat do you plan to run?
Colors are awesome as well. Are you going to do the pinstriping?

troybilt said:

Really nice job so far. I love the direction. Fork boots and new headlight are sweet. Did you lower the back end with shorter shocks? Maybe I missed that part. I'm also wondering what kind of a seat do you plan to run?
Colors are awesome as well. Are you going to do the pinstriping?

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Thanks!

The backend is lowered using the 11" shocks from Mikes XS. I'm curious how they will ride, but they look pretty good for the money, and have adjustable pre-load.

This will be my first shot at a paint job... using the "rattle can bling" tutorial I found here actually. The colour is from a newer Toyota Highlander I saw while sitting in traffic... Pinstripes definatly will not be the good freehand stuff. Either I will cut a stencil and get a friend to airbrush it on for me, or I will get a vinyl one like theses.
http://www.twistedchrome.com/index.html

Apparently you can clearcoat over them and they are pretty cheap too. For the seat I think I will trim the stock seat pan to make a flat two-seater. I'll get it upholstered somewhere

You can do a rad job w/ rattle cans...One thing I found that helps it to stand them up in about 4" of warm water for about 10min. Make the paint laydown wayyy better. I did El' Macho Barrocho's tank w/ cans. Cheap and fun....

Swapmeet Louie said:

You can do a rad job w/ rattle cans...One thing I found that helps it to stand them up in about 4" of warm water for about 10min. Make the paint laydown wayyy better. I did El' Macho Barrocho's tank w/ cans. Cheap and fun....

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I'll be sure to try that when the time comes. I'm just finalizing the body work right now.

Made a bit of progress again today, the engine is in the frame, and the kickstand's been cleaned up. I worked the chrome back on the headlight ears, it's not perfect, but this won't be a showbike anyways.



You can see the stance of the bike with the 11" shocks on this pic. My garage is a disaster right now

Nice so far. I love the stance and the eventual color scheme. As for the seat, I say upholster it yourself. If it comes out looking cruddy you can always send it off for someone else to do. That's just me though. If you're going to do all this work by yourself, it would be a shame to farm that one thing out if you didn't have to.
Love the bike man!

Looking great man. Before you go with a vinyl decal or stencil for the pinstriping, ask around at some local tattoo shops. A lot of tattoo artists are also painters/stripers and can hook you up for a decent price. Focus on the shops that specialize in traditional tattoo work.

VonYinzer said:

Looking great man. Before you go with a vinyl decal or stencil for the pinstriping, ask around at some local tattoo shops. A lot of tattoo artists are also painters/stripers and can hook you up for a decent price. Focus on the shops that specialize in traditional tattoo work.

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Would a tattoo artist do it by hand with a brush? That may be cool actually because I know roughly the style of pinstripe I want, but it would be nice to have something that follows the curves of the tank and maybe wrap around the gas cap. Certainly hard to do with a vinyl sticker.

Ya man. Thats really the only way to properly stripe anything. I hate to sound like some kinda purist jerk, but vinyl pinstripes (other than factory resto stuff) is kinda lame. It will never have the look and soul of real paint. It will obviously cost more, but it will be well worth it. Also look into any local sign painters. There few and far between anymore, which is a goddamn shame, but they would be able to help.

VonYinzer said:

Ya man. Thats really the only way to properly stripe anything. I hate to sound like some kinda purist jerk, but vinyl pinstripes (other than factory resto stuff) is kinda lame. It will never have the look and soul of real paint. It will obviously cost more, but it will be well worth it. Also look into any local sign painters. There few and far between anymore, which is a goddamn shame, but they would be able to help.

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I hear you, I know it will look much better pinstriped by hand... I may hold off the graphics for now and see if I still have some budget left at the end... Don't want to spend 400$ on a paintjob and find out my engine has no compression... I'll still paint the base colour but leave it plain for now. Will the pinstripes go over the clear coat, or should the clearcoat go over the pinstripes?

Of course I haven't even started to think about the electrics at all either. Why worry about the little things?

Ha ha ha... Paint and wiring should be the last thing you do. Itll save ya a ton of headaches.

VonYinzer said:

Ha ha ha... Paint and wiring should be the last thing you do. Itll save ya a ton of headaches.

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I'm sure the wiring headaches are going to come eventually... For one wth the headlight I have I can't stuff all the connections into it. I'm also going to be ditching a bunch of stuff... Should be interesting.

Probably do a custom wiring job. One lesson I learned from my last build is to have the ignition system and accessories(lights, horn ect) on two seperate fuses... At least this way you can ride home when one of your lights takes a shit, instead of pushing the bike around like an idiot...

whats up,
got a side view shot of that thing, looking good.
any more pics.
later.

supercafe said:

whats up,
got a side view shot of that thing, looking good.
any more pics.
later.

Click to expand...

Hey man,

I'll post some more tonight.

Here's a couple of side pics as the bike sat tonight... Didn't make much progress, I spent all night trying to match the rear axle to a spacer.





Looking at the bike some more, I'm starting to wonder if I should just ditch the 650 tank and get something boxier.

I am starting to brat my 81 xs650 and will closely moniter your build for ideas. I changed my handlebars from clubman to a set from a friend's KZ650. I have all newly painted sheetmetal from a sportster (frt fender, chopped rr fender and tank) painted flat black and also found a aermachii headlamp bucket that will accomodate a 2.5" speedo or tach. I don't like the tail section with that big fender mount and may cut the rear section off. I see that you kept yours, what is your rear fender idea? I got 10.5" progressive rr shocks from a parts bin at work to lower the rear and will eventually powdercoat my wheels and add larger size tires. Keep the pics coming....

That's looking awesome, but PLEASE invest in some bars- mini-apes, superbike, flat track whatever. People know a flipped clubman when they see it and it just looks funny, man.

Kev Nemo said:

That's looking awesome, but PLEASE invest in some bars- mini-apes, superbike, flat track whatever. People know a flipped clubman when they see it and it just looks funny, man.

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I don't want ape bars... I do think the clubmans look a bit funny now, but I'll wait untill I trim them and get the accessories on them to decide. I want something narrow that has moderate rise and little pullback. Flat track bars tend to be wide, this bike will be narrow.