how fast can you afford to go?
You might remember my last XS650… The Hornet. Well, this XS650 Heritage Special is a bike that belongs to it’s original owner who bought it new in 1980, rode the crap out of it, melted the engine (quite literally) and forgot about it for 10 years. My plan (and the owner agreed) was to make it an extra-special… which is basically a stock-ish looking bike with some much needed performance upgrades.
It sports a gas flowed head (best power for money you can buy), a Bub 2-2 exhaust (which sounds dreamy), high output coil and Mikuni VM34 round slides (with my special jetting recipe). The chassis had help from taper head bearings, progressive springs front and back, uprated brakes, bronze swingarm bushings and a few other subtle changes here and there.
The result is a very quick, tight handling bike that apparently is nothing like it was when it was new according to the owner. Plus it’s gained a fair few horses to boot.
You can see the progress of the bike on my current projects page under the ‘Betts XS’ tab. I can also build complete bikes or motors up to 70 HP to order. You can either exchange your engine, buy one of mine or have yours worked on. But remember… speed is a question of money… how fast can you afford to go? Complete stock, bead blasted engines with all new internals start at $1500. Fast 60-70 HP motors vary in price considerably. You can contact me on my website if you’d like one. Complete bikes from $5000 using your machine.
FYI, my next bike is going to be a hard-tail racer… should be fun.
Chris Kelland: AKA ‘The Limey’
www.limeybikes.com
