Scotty – I Picked up an untitled roller with a 78 motor late last year in sacramento CA. The frame was already hard tailed with a TC bros section. I cleaned up the frame where needed to make sure it was road ready and made a few modifications for the seat, tank, fender mounts and switches.
My goal was to keep the bike skinny and kinda tall. The bars were made by Front street cycle, the pipes are by Pandemonium Choppers. I did the rest of the fab work myself including the sissy bar, brake pivot etc. I hand shaved and polished the forks which is quite the task without proper tools to make it easy.
I made the seat pan and foamed it. It was wrapped by my good friend miss Kate who did a killer job and added some subtle black diamond stitching to the top to give it a little something extra.
I haven’t had to touch the motor besides adjusting the clutch. I rebuilt the mikunis and It runs great. Super nimble, fun bike for mashing around town.
Once i had the bike running/riding i tackled getting paperwork which i was fortunate enough to not have any issues with and was able to get it titled as 1978 xs650 instead of special construction which helps with registration and insurance costs.
All of the paint work i did myself. The navy color is the original ford “washington blue” from 1936 and the gunmetal is a blend of a few different colors,which has a really cool gold pop in the sun.
I had the rest of the parts powder coated and chromed and once i had everything back i assembled the bike to what you see today.
Im really stoked on how it came out for my first bike i have built. Im thankful for everyone who helped me along the way and to my Pops for finding me the bike to begin with.
This bike is currently for sale to make room for new projects, any enquiries or questions please feel free to email me-Scotty.dettwiler(at) gmail.com
Big thanks to XS650chopper for the feature and thanks to everyone for the interest!
Photos by Scotty Dettwiler.
