Blood Sweat Tears and Grease > Trackers

80' xs650 - Bob to Tracker

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SloKrt:
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

scottyS3:
Looks like a good start!

CurtisR:
haha that battery box is cash!!!

VonYinzer:
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!

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

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