The Outcast Bikes….
Describe Your XS650: Here is my latest project. At first I was going to build another xs650 bobber out of it adding a hardtail to it. Well I found out the 72 frame is a little different than the 76 I built. So I messed around with the frame and came up with this set up for the moment. Still debating the hardtail and springer front end. I need to mount my little battery and do the wiring and she will be ready to start. When I bought her she ran strong no noises or smoke, but was dumping gas out the carbs BADDD.
I bought this bike last fall after selling one of the bikes I chopped up. I drove 6 hours to get to the bike. It is a 1972xs. The bike started right up sounded strong and didn’t smoke. She was dumping more gas out of the carbs then she was using so didn’t get to ride it. That night when I got home she got tore apart. My original plan was to hardtail it and make a bobber out of it like the other xs650 I built. I talked to Kansas kustoms the next day and found out there stock hardtail wouldn’t work on this year because the frame is a little different. He could make me one to fit but I would have to send the bike to him and he would hardtail it for me. I really didn’t want to do that, cause I wanted to do it all myself. That is the best part about building a bike doing it yourself. I had been on the bratstyle site many times and was digging what they were doing with the xs’s, so I decided to give it a shot. I picked up a set of Honda rebel shocks they to use. Then I cut and moved the frame rails foreword to give it a low stance. I also cut 3″ out of the springs in the front end. You also have to add a spacer when you cut the springs down to make up the difference.
When I put her all back together I loved the stance she had. I wanted to clean up the neck area so I chopped out the extra brace she had in there and welded in my own little gusset. I also removed the top motor mount. Not sure if this will work or not, worst case I will add a smaller mount after the shake down ride.I had a hard time picking out the tank and I am still not sure I have the right one yet. I tried a sporty tank first. I mounted it high and low and didn’t really care for it. She looked like what everyone else was doing. A buddy had this wassle tank in his attic and sold it to me for $40.
It gave it a little different look and I loved the dual petcocks in the rear of the tank. I wanted to make the bike a little more dependable so I upgraded to a boyer ignition. I used one of these in the past and they are great. I also wanted to keep it old style and mechanical looking as possible, so I removed the starter too. After looking at the bratstyle site I seen they were cutting the rear of the stator cover and decided to give that a try. I think that is one of my favorite parts. I talked to the guy at Ardcore choppers about batteries. He gave me the heads up if you are running kick only you can run a super small battery. I bought a small 5″ long by 1″ tall battery that I will mount to the bottom of the swing arm. I have about 5 hours of work left to do before I can start her and ride her. My plans for the finished bike include using some black paint with a sand like finish on the motor. I will take the left and right motor covers along with the valve covers sand and grind swirls in them and paint them candy gold like the rest of the bike.
That will really make the motor pop. The rims have the high shoulders which I am really digging on. I plan on cutting the spokes out of them painting the hubs and rims black. I will leave the outside part of the rim around the tire raw like the exile bikes and respoke them. I also plan on using the old straight tread tires. The seat should be the finale trick piece. I am going to grind it and paint the pan gold. I plan on tooling a piece of leather with a set of praying hands. I will attach it with brass leather rivets.
It will be about a half inch smaller than the pan so the gold will show all the way around it. This will be the 5th bike I have chopped up and put my style to. I paint a lot of bikes every year. Here is my photo page if you are interested in some of the stuff I do or want to see the other bikes I have chopped up. http://www.flickr.com/photos/roofer429/
Thanks for looking and I love the site. It’s great to see what everyone is doing with the outcast bikes. There is nothing better than taking an old thrown away bike and making it cool again!
Thanks Joel
