xs650 tancho

[urbandork]

What it looked like when I first bought it

saw enough brit guys with brit bikes with brit flags on their tanks and as a japanese kid with japanese bike i figured why not put a japanese flag on my tank

did a fair amount of work on it... recently rebuilt the top end and threw new rings and pistons on, and made a fiberglass tray to store my rewired loom and battery under the seat. Still a work in progress

 

[isolato]

nice job cleaning up the electrics. when you said Japanese flag I was expecting the "sun rays" one. I had thought about that as well, using the "white" color from the WW2 Mitsubishi aircraft as a base paint. What shade of white did you use? I wonder what shade of "white" was originally used. Hard to tell in the pics I've seen. Maybe that was the idea... hmmmm
is that a xs750 tank? works well

 

[isolato]

oh yeah urbandork, outstanding self-deprecating user name! also, I'm glad to see another fan of turn signals.

 

[urbandork]

I had thought about using the rays flag but that was to 80's for me not to mention all of the negative connotation associated with the rays flag around the world in the asias as well as during WWII. Plus my grandfather was in the 442nd infantry for the US so if i where doing n e thing war related i would have done the 442nd shield on the tank which also had crossed my mind

The paint that i used was simply just some krylon spary can. I got a satin white for the tank and the red was a high gloss called "sunrise red" I got both colors at home depot and when i saw the name for the red i figured it would do just fine.

as for turns im keeping the fronts but may be taking off the back ones and replacing them with smaller ones that integrate with the brake light that im using, essentially putting the brake and turns on a light bar under the seat. I feel that the turns in the back distract from the curve of the seat.

 

[isolato]

hmmmm... a negative connotation to the 'rays flag' never occurred to me. :-\ After a search I found this tasty discussion on the subject. http://www.jref.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16795 I wouldn't put it anywhere near the same level as the Nazi flag. My father was wounded twice by Japanese soldiers and never once uttered a negative word. He either kept it all inside or let it all go, I never knew for sure which. I've always associated Japan with pride, honor, and dignity personally.
Anyhoo, I like it and probably will use it tho not as big a 'sun' as yours. It looks good on your XS and that's all that counts. ;D