XS850 special: the Irish Mobster flip

Ah, the cafe racer. I joined this forum back in 2012 with a cafe project in my sights (cb550). I have been active ever since, but much to my shame and embarrassment, I have never actually completed a cafe or even a cafe style bike. For shame I know. I've been distracted by all manner and style of other vintage two wheel death machines in the mean time, but alas its time for a cafe

Enter this 1980 (er 81, can't really remember at the moment lol) Yamaha xs 850 special.

as momma always said, "being special doesn't make you valuable."

I drove up to about 100 miles north to Cleveland last night to pick it up. I met the seller in the very parking lot that infamous Irish mobster Danny Greene came to his fiery demise on October 6, 1977, so hence the name (also the fact that I'm a bit red bearded Irish myself).

Its a titled bike, parked running 6 years ago. I know i know, that is the same old story blah blah, but I bought it off of a friend who I know and trust.
The plan was to get it running, store it till the snow melts, and flip it for some bills in the spring time.

-BUT-....

I can't leave well enough alone.

The "special" sucks.

I figure why not build a budget cafe style bike. Mechanically sound, clubman bars, bump seat, replace the 16 rear with an 18 from an xs750, standard tank.

Not a tear down and resto mod.

Not a real performance machine.

Just un-80's-cruiser it as best as I can, replace said cruser style with "cafe" and send it on down the road in the spring.

Thats the plan. Follow along if you don't wanna end up like Danny. (you can google what happended to him, but i dont wanna end up on some list for typing it in haha)

here it is as i brought it home last night:

Love it! Let’s see if we can grab you a non fugly tank at a non spendy price...

Deviant1 said:

Love it! Let’s see if we can grab you a non fugly tank at a non spendy price...

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This is the most beautiful thing I've heard all day. Maybe side panels too if they are there?

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Sounds like a plan and by some odd coincidence, we just watched the Irishman on Netflix. Different Irish but similar connection.

And it's not someone else's project that you are taking on, so that may make things a little simpler.

Signing up, I'd maybe consider tracker ish more than Cafe ish but that's just my .02

When we lived in Cleveland in the early 80s a lot of people had remote starters on their cars and it wasn't to "warm them up" in the winter. We would be at a Mall or restaurant, some guy would get out his fob and people would start moving rapidly in the opposite direction. Those old XS850s make good sidecar tugs.

Maritime said:

Signing up, I'd maybe consider tracker ish more than Cafe ish but that's just my .02

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Yeah who knows, it might end up being that elusive cafebrattrackerbobber Mod Podge LOL all I know is I want mild custom with far less 80s Cruiser vibe. Part of the way I'm hoping to achieve that is using an 18in rear instead of the wide 16 in. A buddy of mine Parts out bikes for a living and I knew that he had recently parted out a xs750 which uses an 18in rear wheel. I stopped by his place after work and sure enough this was sitting on his scrap pile. He rarely sells these mags on eBay since they don't command enough money to justify the shipping most of the time. I ended up getting it for the whopping price of free fitty. Can't find any info on whether or not they swap out directly, but I am guessing that they should be pretty close. I will find out soon enough.

This may help. https://motostyle.com.au/blogs/news/project-veronica-part-8-rear-wheel-swap

Funny how that guy set out to do the opposite of pretty much everyone.

I'm pretty sure the XS750 wheel is 17 inch, not 18. Check before you buy a tire. It might be a direct swap or need a spacer. It will match the final drive just fine. As an aside, the XS1100 FD has a taller gear for traffic light drag racing. (Did I say that right?)

If you're flipping, you're right, XS Specials aren't valuable even though the triple engine is pretty nice. The Special tank isn't fugly to everyone.

Picture the XS850 with that seat and superbike bars. Add taillight and smaller signals and Bob's yer uncle! The cheaper you make it attractive, the better off you'll be. Texavina has that seat in direct swap from stock for XS850.

My 2 cents. Good luck with it! Photo from Texavina.com.

I’m on board.

@jetmechmarty the wheel that I got off of the xs750 is an 18 rear, but I don't know enough about the lineup to know if that is a specialty thing or what came with the 17. Thanks for the heads up though! That Midnight Special is a fine-looking machine for sure. I think I found a seat option which will be posted below, but if I hadn't I would definitely be considering one of those. Thank you for the info.

Before i took the bike off of the trailer, I ran it over to the car wash for a spray down. Always a fun ordeal when it is 33 deg outside. Either way, I was happy to find it to be really pretty clean underneath the years of dust. The gauges and chrome are all nice and usable, and the engine itself looks good to boot. As that one country singer would say though, "all the AJAX in the world couldn't clean off that tacky 80's"

Noice.

At least there are only three of them. I'm in.

Hurco550 said:

I threw a bit of boom juice in the tank, jumped the solenoid (the starter button is broken) and away she went. Shes running like crap, but i cant ask for better than what i got considering how long the bike has been sitting. Ill pull the carbs and give them all a once over now that i've heard it run.

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Carbs on these bikes are super shitty. If you can get it running, leave it that way and let someone with a love for the machine work out the kinks. I can't remember exactly which model it is, but one of the Triumph Triple carbs are a straight swap.

Pretty good, brother.