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Funded by firearms

This is Emma, my ‘77 XS650.  I bought her a year ago after about two years of planning out what I would do with an XS and searching for the right donor.  Fortunately, she’s turned out pretty much exactly as I envisioned.  She was funded almost entirely by me selling stuff that I wanted less than I wanted her; the bulk of the money coming from firearms, bike parts, and vintage skate and punk t’s.

I’m Lang and I’ve owned and ridden bikes all my life; got my first dirt bike at six and my first street bike at twelve. In fact, I never did own a bicycle.  But this is my first ground up build (well really assembly) and as you’ll see, I had a lot of help from some very talented folks at The Chopper Underground.

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My friend Dirtnap did the +2″ hardtail and 36* neck rake. He also turned the brass rods for the brake arm and stay and made the fender struts.  The bike wouldn’t exist without his help and friendship. CCgirl (Brianne) of Cycle Cosmetics covered my seat and did a fantastic job of  tooling in my design – yes, there’s a meaning behind each element on the seat, but I won’t bore you with them.

Southernmenace (Kevin) of Bartertown Bikes made the brass risers for me and they fit better than any set of risers I’ve ever held.  Scrapmetalart (Craig) from Front Street Cycle made the peaked fender and bent the bars to my specs. Craig’s work is top notch.  G&L Choppers did the brass pegs and mid-controls; really great folks to deal with and they were happy to accommodate my suggestions.  And finally, Blacksmithbilly made my 1.75″ pipes, which contrary to their appearance, were a real bitch to get bent – the guy is an artist. You can find all these folks on TCU.

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Now if you’re still with me, I’ll give some more details. When I got her, her compression was low and the poor girl had been sucking in the remnants of her air filter for the last decade or so, so I had Thomas Racing Service in Indiana bore out the engine to 750cc’s w/ Wiseco pistons and install a #1 Shell cam.  Then I popped on a set of 34mm Mikuni round slides.  She also had a cooked rectifier, but rather than just fix what needed fixin’ I went a little overboard and threw on a Sparx three phase alternator and a Pamco ignition.  She’s got decent pep now.

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The front end is a hodgepodge of Yami enduro parts: stock 34mm XS trees, DT400 forks, an XT500 hub and some Yami 21″ shouldered rim (to match the rear 18″ stocker).  The headlight is a 105mm CEV moped bucket that I fitted with a mini speedo, push button dimmer, and a tractor headlight.

The gas cap is an old diesel truck cap that I cut and mated to a vented Harley cap. The electrics bags under the seat are French sniper scope cases I found at the local Army Navy – one’s got my battery and the other has my fuses and ignition switch – I rewired her from scratch.

Well, that’s about it so thanks for listening and honk if ya see me on the road!

Good luck w/ your bikes – I look forward to seeing them finished!

Cheers,
Lang

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