Ian Chave – Here’s my 1972 XS650. I was looking for a good first bike and spend a few months browsing Craigslist, I finally came across a stock ’72 XS for $1,000 and jumped on the opportunity. I bought it about mid November and played around in the snow a bit before deciding to strip it down and give it a hardtail. Within about a week of making my decision, I had a bare frame and assorted parts laying around my apartment.
I then proceeded to cut my frame in half and started looking for a new ass end. there were a few different options to choose from, but I ultimately went with a VooDoo Vintage hardtail and began putting things back together. My overall goal was to spend as little money as possible and recycle as many of the original parts as I could.
I ended up buying the Hardtail section, a new seat from Biltwell, a set of used pipes I got from a fellow on an XS650 FB page, and of course a new battery. The tank was my father’s from his old Sportster, which was handed down to me as the build progressed. I was originally going to build a tall sissy bar, but later felt it wouldn’t quite fit the bike and ended up with a much shorter tail light mount.
Pretty much everything else on the bike was there when I bought it. I cut down and relocated the original battery box, remounted the stock foot pegs, the front end is all stock, both tires are the tires that were originally sold with the motorcycle back in ’72, stock carbs, original disk and drum brakes. overall I sent about $1650 on the build, including the price of the bike, and I’m pretty happy with the way she turned out.
