I see some awesome 650’s on the site so I decided to join to see more and to show mine off and hopefully get some good ideas to help finish my X’s project. Ive never built a bobber before and always fancied a bit more of a chilled riding experience and I love one offs too.
So me and my dad and a couple mates have been building this XS on and off for about two years now mainly on my own but whenever a friend pops in or dad they always get stuck in or end up taking a little fitting away to help out! There’s lots of welding (TIG) gone into the build on frame alterations and lots of little brackets for holding lights and electrics. Lots of machining to mate everything together like the front fork spacers adapted to fit the xs1 drum brake.
I’ve spent about £2.500 so far but still need paint plating and anodising I think I’m going to ride it bare/cold for a while then save some more and strip to paint over winter. I’d love some ideas on paint scheme and any other good ideas. Just had engine vapour blasted and I’ve got new standard size pistons to go in. The fuel tank is chopped up from a little honda.
The shock is a cheapy but looks good quality and has lots of adjustments then I sent it to hagon and they measured a spring to suit new shock position. Every nut, bolt and spindles are stainless steel or titanium I spent months and months identifying threads and finding the right ones I wanted after all I think it’s the bolts that really make a bike pop! I tried to keep lots of the original parts to keep the bikes identity. All electronics are fitted under the tank apart from the horn I still need to get and fit one.
At the minute I think I’m going to paint the mud guard and tank candy apple red and the frame powder coated gloss black and the forks and drum brakes mirror finish. I want to anodise the rims black and the top yoke black too. The ignition is fro Tri-Spark. It has a small lithium battery under the tank.
At the minute I’m concentrating on fitting a single carb but it’s a really tight squeeze to fit the carb in the centre but I’ve found a few guys have made it work with a little Amal carburettor so next few weekends hopefully will have something sorted. I can’t decide what levers to fit could really use some ideas for clutch and brake levers probably black but I can’t find a good style that I like.
After the carb saga is over with I’ll probably move on to the exhausts I have a load of 38mm (1.5″) bends and some stainless pipe to build them, obviously straight through but and cool ideas on routing them would be much appreciated!
SENT TO US BY JOE
