Rich – Short story, in the late 50’s/ early 60’s my dad had a business making a fibreglass sidecar of his own design called a Clarendon and after a 25year search I found one !! This was duly restored to as near as original spec as possible but what to attach it too? I decided to do a combination of my dads work and mine, so a mildly customised/aged XS650 was born.
![a2012-9765](https://xs650chopper.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/a2012-9765-600x371.jpg)
The bike has the rear subframe lowered & shortened otherwise the frame is standard, wire wheels were fitted to get an older look. A dummy oil tank holds all the electrics and the copper tube ‘oil lines’ hide the wiring. All the switchgear has been converted to levers connected to relays, the bar-end ones operate the horn & main/dip beam and the ‘choke’ lever turns the lights on/off.
![a20120427](https://xs650chopper.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/a20120427-600x342.jpg)
![a20120431](https://xs650chopper.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/a20120431-600x328.jpg)
With a lot of help from people on ‘Britchopper’ (a custom bike forum) the bike also got a one off wooden headlight, a wood number plate holder and a leather seat.
![a2012hjk](https://xs650chopper.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/a2012hjk-600x362.jpg)
Have now upgraded the frontend to a set of leading links, with much improved handling. Rich