I picked this 1980 xs up from a close friend, and owner of River City Moto Jesse Bell, in december 2013. I bought is as a frame, half torn apart motor, couple wheels, and a box of bits. It came with a TC bros hardtail on it of unknown stretch or drop, and some bogus neck gussets welded up. The old neck gussets got cut off, and new gussets from Hughs Handbuilt were put in, as well as eliminating the top motor mount.
I didn’t care for the out of the box hardtail, so the rails just forward of the axle plates were cut off up to the backbone. I lathe up some bugs for strength, fitted a u shaped hoop just forward of the rear wheel, and rand straight tube up tp the backbone.
The chain tensioner was an idea that came from looking at the bottom frame rail angle, and not wanting to run a spring tensioner. The rear fender is off an older KZ using all the stock mounts for strut points. The only brakes are the rear caliper, with a hidden mount in the frame, and a stainless line up to the master Cyl on the handlebars.
I drilled out the front wheel to reduce weight, and because it looks bitchin. The back wheel has custom spacers welded in place, eliminating wheel adjustment, because with the manual chain adjuster, movement wasn’t needed. The gas tank came from Throttle addiction, and seat was an eBay special.
The front forks came from a buddy wes, and we’re swapped into a set of shaved lowers.
The motor got completely stripped and freshened up at Grawmunbecks Competition Engines with a bore, valve job, port and polish, while the crank and camshaft went to Hugh at Hughs Handbuilt for rephasing, and new con rods. The starter and all associated parts were removed and tossed away, m making it kick only, and saving weight. The ignition got a HHB Pma kit, a pamco ignitor from Mikes Xs, sparx capacitor to ditch the battery, toggle switch in the headlight to turn all the lights off, and a custom harness to eliminate everything that isn’t absolutely necessary.
The wheels were powdercoated gloss black by Nates Powdercoating in Kensett iowa. The paint was handled by my older brother steve and I over last winter. The frame and forks were filled, smoothed and shot with tri-coat rootbeer metalflake. The tank and fender had a gloss black base clear applied, then turned over to Ben Harrington of Twisted Kreationz in Hudson iowa for striping and goldleaf, which all got buried under clear.
I want to thank my friends and family for all their help and support during this project, especially Jesse Bell of River City Moto, and my brother Steve.
Submitted by Tom Kopp
