I got the bike in a bunch of boxes.
Michael- Heres my latest build. This one came to me pretty rough. I got the bike in a bunch of boxes. All the hardware was missing on it. The frame looked like it was attacked by a grinder. It was a complete mess. The tank started out as a stock Honda tank. The side of it was dented in pretty bad but overall it had a cool shape so I started with that and removed the dent. I welded a backbone down the middle of the tank with some round bar.
I raised the front of the tank about 3 inches and made a new tunnel for it. I welded in crossovers in the rear, site gauge bungs and finally I closed up the stock filler and made a new one. The rear fender is from Barons and I took that and grafted it into a homemade battery box. The fender struts I made started out as a sweet little one piece deal.
Unfortunately to much material got removed around one of the mounts when it got cleaned up at the chromer and it ended up cracking after a few hundred miles. I decided to cut it down and make it a two piece fender strut so I wouldn’t loose my riding season to a chrome part. The bars on the bike I had made by Slims fab. The kick arm is cut down a few inches and I welded on a CHC pedal. The pegs are stock mounts that were cut apart and reworked to accept the brass pegs. I had the brake arm and shift arm brass plated.
The front end is basically stock. I took the stock upper tree and shaved and polished it, the lower tree I shaved and had chromed and the forks, I shaved and polished as well. I spent a retarded amount of time polishing the motor and cases. The exhaust is a two into one that I added a car exhaust end on. Seat from west eagle.
IGNITION POD INFO
One of the things on the bike I like the most is the key start. I made a pod that attaches to the back of the case. I put a machined down brass cap that you turn to start the bike. This led to coming out with a new product. I took that idea and put together a basic kit to mount a ignition switch. Its a 2 inch wide tube with end caps and weld on tab to mount it. It also comes with or without a car type ignition switch and also comes with a grommet to run the wiring through.
Its pretty simple to put together, just drill a 5/16 inch hole for the grommet, a 3/4 inch hole for the switch, weld the tab on where you want it and your ready to go. If you are running the bottom end cap you may also want to add a small set screw or screw to hold the cap on. The ends are very tight but we all know how much these bikes can vibrate. Any way, you can check out the kit in my store along with a few other xs related items.
The paint is PPG silver with HOK ultra mini flake under Red Candy. Next I did some spun 23 karat gold lettering. The pinstripes are done by Ed Foody. Hes been at it for half a century and still going strong into his 70s. Im honored to have his stripes on both of my xs 650s. All in all I started it over last winter and finished it up in august about 7 or 8 months chipping away at it in my spare time.
I’m super happy with the way it turned out. Its exactly the way I wanted it. On a side note, I have been blessed and lucky enough to have it featured in this months issue of Cycle Source magazine(oct issue) and also supposed to be going in Dice magazine at some point(issue yet to be determined). Check it out and support a fellow xs 650 nut.
Michael Piantieri
www.visualimpact2.com
