Chained to a tree with a for sign on it.
Write about your XS650.: Here is a few chitty pics of my pos. Driving home from work one day I seen this 73 tx log chained to a tree with a for sign on it. I ended up getting it for a hundred bucks. I drug it home and got it running, then proceeded to tear it apart. I built the hardtail section adding 2″ of stretch to it. I used 1 1/8 tube for the hardtail. I took the tube and had a local shop bend me 3 bends from it. I used them for the upper and lower rails around the tire then with the last u bend i cut and split it to use under the seat area. The rear axle plate is fixed, so to adjust chain tension I built a tower with a slotted hold to adjust the skateboard wheel to adjust the chain. The rear wheel and forks are from a mid 90’s zx6. The front wheel is a 19″ rim from a Suzuki Vstrom. Tank was made by Pabatco. which supplied Hodaka with aftermarket parts.
This was a trials tank. I changed the fill and mounts and relocated the petcock. The license plate is mounted on a detent cabinet hinge. I went through the top end, 50mm oversize pistons, new guides and valves and a Shell cam. It has 34mm round slides on it. I have a Gary Poh offset sprocket to clear the 180 tire. The first year i had it on the road i had reversed the clutch actuator to the outside of the cover to clear the new offset sprocket-it was always very hard to release the clutch-over that winter I had Blacksmith Billy modify my side cover to accept a Honda VFR hydraulic clutch actuator-by far the best thing I did to that bike. I run a nicad pack for the battery that I had Interstate Batteries build for me. It has held up well for a couple years now. That about sums it up-oh yeah-the seat aint it aint anywhere near being comfy.
Thanks Jason Crooks
