The Clutch
Justin – Honestly, a lot of my inspiration to complete this project was from all the great bikes that have posted on your site over the years. Most notably, Hans from Hollands cafe with a see through clutch cover was a big inspiration, as witnessed by my own clutch cover.
The bike started as a Photoshop pic i did about a year or so ago. I pretty much had all the details worked out in one way or another. It was going to be a build for me, and to hell with anyone that didn’t like it 🙂
I had the donor an 81 special, but lacked the funds. A friend of mine who was interested in buying a bobber project i was working on, saw the Photoshop and immediately laid out the cash for me to build it for him. Bitter sweet in the fact that i could finally build my baby, but would have to see it go.
The build took about 9 mos, building whenever i could get time in between other bikes. I made a hartail for it, raked it to 39 degrees, machined my own trees to fit the dual Harley 18″ street glide rims, which were covered in duro 904’s. Stock fork legs were shaved and reused. Besides that and the engine, that’s all i used from the XS. Sporty tank was narrowed, re-tunneled for a lower fit. I added an internal tube to run the wires in for the LED gas gauge. The LED is ultra violet, which reacts to a dye that is added to the fuel. So the fuel actually glows green at night.
The clutch cover was given the same treatment, i milled the cover and machined a trim ring for the viewing window. UV LED’s were also added around the cover to light up the dye in the oil. It worked in theory, and on the bench. But on the bike it appears to look more like an afterburner. The vid makes it look purple.
The headlight,… you either love it or you hate it i find. The headlight was something i tossed around a bit while making the bike (sometimes literally) sometimes it looked cool, sometimes like crap. Overall im glad i went with it. It gives it a whole new personality, and again. the bike was suppose to be what i wanted anyway, so whoever didn’t like it was just wrong. I dissected some projector fog lights for the lenses, fabed up the body out of a fender. I added green LED’s to it and the tail light.
The original idea was to use a RFID chip machined into a ring that i would wear, when you grab the handlebars, the ignition would turn on, and the Green LED’s would light up until you kicked it over. However the new owner refused to wear a ring, i offered to inject him with an RFID tag under his skin, but no dice there either 🙂 So we opted for a key-less entry remote setup that would allow him to turn on and off the lights and bike at will.
The engine was actually a Craigslist find a few years ago, someone did some work, ported heads, deleted starter, new top end etc. so i just painted it and ran it. Runs like a dream. but don’t they all. Bars are clip-ons i made from the old lower tree. seat was a freebie, so i ran it. really needs some tooled lovin on there though. all in all it was a fun build, already have plans to do another with a few twists. But this time im keeping it!
I do do this for a living, but i don’t build bikes to become famous, and im not striving to be the next hot “custom builder” but I had so many offers to build clutch covers that i will be doing a small run of them, so feel free to hit me up if they have an honest interest in one.
Covers will be $350, or $300 with core exchange. That includes LED color choice, and powdercoat color of their choice. Polished and or brushed covers will be a bit higher. Order at airhog (at) hogsden.net
Heres the links to more pics…
www.hogsden.net/images/bikes/xs650chopper2/index.html
The website was from a past business, im just storing photos there now. I used to machine custom paintball guns.
Thanks
Justin
