1978 XS650 Custom Build, The Dirty Dizon

KentMoney

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Another XS650 sacrificed to the chopper Gods! Muahahhaha!

All joking aside, this thread is to document my first contracted motorcycle build for a local chap here in San Jose, CA. He had found my build here on xs650.com and asked me if I could help him out. After a few meetings and discussions with him I was starting to get a solid grasp on the style he was going for and said, "Let's do this!"

This is what we started out with: A hackjob of a cafe racer. The seat pan was made of two pieces of wood stapled together, there were no brake lights, and I found a rag stuffed into the electrical harness when I did the tear down. Oh yeah, and the battery was fastened underneath the wooden seat with a screw hook and zip ties. Oh lordy!

Here she is when I brought her back to my two-wheeled stable.

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I was surprised to find on the ride over to my place that the engine seemed to be pulling pretty damn well, wasn't leaking oil, or making funky noises. Although she didn't look respectable, her heart was in a good place. Because of this, I recommended that we skip touching the engine for now and see what a good tuning could do. The primary mission here was to make a stylish looking bike for cruising, not a second-splitting-racer.

And so the tear down begins.

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Here you can see the rag I found stuffed in the gusset in between the electrical.

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I started hacking at the neck area so that I could get the new Wassel-style tank on ASAP. Johann, the owner of the bike, had already bought a handful of critical, style-dictating parts: the round Wassel tank, a brat kit with Burly shocks, a lowering kit for the forks, and some other parts. So, you can imagine a low, lean-but-curvaceous machine brewing.

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Began to really clean up the neck area. We opted to remove all the stock gussets in favor of the open, airy feel it would give. Anyone have any objections to the structural integrity of this choice? We plan on keeping the cross bar...I did a quick spray with black to keep it from getting rusty after I was done grinding/cleaning. Johann wanted to run the tank as low, and as far up as possible on the backbone of the frame.

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Some more hacking to the passenger peg mounts and center mounts

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Starting to accumulate a good amount of hacked vestiges.

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After a few hours of tearing down and putting the frame on a weight-loss diet of cutting and grinding wheels, it was time to start prepping for the Brat kit install from Visual Impact. Johann had opted to purchase a pre-welded Brat kit which saved me some work but also made fitment a little tricky. Here is a mock up of the kit after I removed the seat rails from the original frame. I opted to keep about 3/4 of an inch extra on the upright portion of the install because this would improve the rear shock angle and also give a tad more leg room for the rider. You can also see where I had to remove the overlapping piece on the backbone so that the seat rails would mate perfectly with the backbone.

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One of the difficulties we had with the Brat Kit install was finding a suitable shock. Visual Impact suggested that we use an 11.5" shock from Progressive as they have found it to be a relatively simple bolt-on for the XS650. However, Johann had his eyes set on a set of 10.5" Burly shocks, the suspension of choice for many HD riders who want to slam the rear end down on their Sportsters.

After a bit of research we finally found a pair of Burly shocks that would give us as close a fitment as possible, (model #B28-1201B, http://www.amazon.com/Burly-B28-1201B-Slammer-Harley-Davidson-Sportsters/dp/B007KPSSDY).

We have developed a kit that will allow you to use these Burly Slammers or Progressive shocks in your Visual Impact Brat installation. Visit
www.retropetrolmc.com for ordering. If you purchase your shocks through our Amazon affiliate link you will receive a $5 discount on the kit.

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So I began to mount the shocks to the swing arm. For this procedure the stock 1978 XS650 swingarm only needed one minor modification: it needed to be bent out just slightly to allow the new shock to fit.

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Using a set of vice grips and a little leverage I brought it out a few millimeters so that the shock would slip in. But before I could finish this install, one minor modification had to be made to the sleeves. As you can see below, the provided Burly sleeve has a shoulder on it that must be removed so that it will fit in the swingarm shock mount. Just slice it off and were good to go. On the left is a stock sleeve, then the one I cut, and then the adaptor sleeve

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If you are interested in using Burly shocks with your Brat kit install, and if you want to save some money and time, I am offering the necessary bolts, nuts, and sleeves to adapt the Burly shock to the Brat kit. www.retropetrolmc.com

In order to mount the shock to the Brat kit I used the same procedure except this time I did not remove the shoulder from the Burly sleeve. I used M10 bolts which are the largest bolts that the brat kit will accomodate. After cutting all the sleeves to fit we had this:

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At this point the Brat kit was ready to call the stock frame its new home. I recruited my friend, a welder by trade, to do this critical installation. However, during the initial fitment we found a bit of a problem. On the pre-welded Brat kit the left side's upright was shorter than the right. Uh Oh. To compensate for this, and to get the seat rails centered on the backbone, we had to bring the left side slightly up on the slug to get the additional height. Thankfully it was no big deal with the slugs that Visual Impact provides.


Using his trusty MIG we did the initial plug welding on both the Brat and on the stock frame.

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With everything tacked and square, he went in for the final welding. That's his Triumph outside his garage.

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I got the frame back to my place and began to grind down the welds from the Brat installation. I cleaned up the uprights but decided to leave the welds on the backbone because it looked pretty good. I decided to shoot it with some primer and black paint just to give it some temporary color and rust resistance.

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While the paint was drying I gave the engine a good washing with some mineral spirits, engine degreaser, elbow grease, and an air compressor. Here they are basking in the sun.

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I wanted to get this thing back as a roller so that we could see the stance start to come together and then go from there. So, using the 3" lowering kit from Hugh's Handbuilt, I started to overhaul the forks and install the lowering kit. It was interesting to find that the fork springs were at 19". But looking in the Clymer's guide, I saw that spec was supposed to be something like 24" for the 1978 and later models. Does anyone know what is up with this? My 1981 XS650 also had 19" springs...

Nonetheless, the install was straight forward and simple, in the pic below you can see my assistant (errr, vice) helping me by holding the handmade tool in place while I re-installed the damper rod.

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Finally she was back on her own two feet again. As you can see, the shock angle, swing arm angle, and everything else is sitting pretty damn great! I imagine when the engine is in the front end will sag a tad bit more.

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Next up is making a headlight mount.
 
Thanks guys, I think?!

OK, so I want to request some of your opinions on our bar dilemma. My buddy wants really low, curvy, cafe style bars but I am more partial to the straight drag look. To me, the ergonomics are gonna be painful if the bars are too low with the current foot peg position. Straight bars also lend a better profile view of the bike, IMO. To me, the stance of the bike is asking for slightly higher bars.

Here are the cafe bars we got now.

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and here are the straight drags I am suggesting

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So, we had also already decided that the headlight needed to come up more, so I built a new mount and here is how it is looking (with the drag bars). I also mocked up the speedo where we plan to run it.

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Shes a lean gal.
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What do you guys think?
 
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Honestly what I think may be the best of both worlds would be some clip-ons just below the upper tree. But then again the ergonomics would probably be murder with the current pegs. What kind of clearance is there between the tank and bars with them flipped up side down like that?
 
You need to put the body on the bike and then decide bar configuration. A lot of times what looks good is murder on the rider.
 
I'm one of those builders who doesn't really care how I have to ride the bike, the look is what matters. How long are you going to be riding the bike at one time really anyway? I like the lower bars rather than the drags, but they need to be better executed.
I really like how the bike is turning out so far though! Great work.
 
How long are you going to be riding the bike at one time really anyway?

Um, tomorrow we're going on an average ride of about 3-4 hours. Several stops during, but enough that if the bike was uncomfortable it wouldn't be much fun. But I understand what you're saying. Different strokes. Carry on.................:D
 
Yea I figured that the tank he's using would get <100 miles before needing a fillup. I've found that with my bikes as long as I can get off of 'em for about 10min or so at each fuel stop then I'm good to go for the next leg. And then you look at it when you're walking back to it, and you think, "Dang, that bike looks awesome!" :p

I suppose being fairly young has something to do with it as well, although I did just turn 29 time to get out the rocking chair! :)
 
I probably would have at least used a skeletonized plate where the gussets came out. I don't think Yamaha just put them there to hold the tank, but I may be wrong. My personal preference I suppose. Seems like a ton of work on your end. Are you getting paid? Ya should be! It's looking pretty sharp. And how lucky are you that someone proposed a project to you that started with a decent runner! WAHOOO!

Oh, and Function over form, all the way to the point of FUGLY! I can't see the damn thing when I'm riding it!
 
you might suggest mid mounts from either lowbrow or pandamonium, I cant remember who has them. they are a little lower, but not all the way down to the bottom of the frame. then his bars would fit him a little better.
Is he a bigger guy? Im a bigger guy, and being cramp up for anylength of time equal muscle cramps
 
The bike should reflect "you". It's a custom and I know
Not everyone will like it to look the way I do lol but oh well! Different strokes for different folks!
 
Looking good kent - loving the overall stance with that back end! Regarding the frame gussets, the original factory ones are considered by some to be barely up to the job of keeping things in order on the twisties. I'm guessing removing them completely is likely to exacerbate this as a potential problem - unless your clients riding is going to be very limited.
There was a magazine article many years ago (referred to I think in the Minton Mods write-up?) where the journos were able to remove the front end of a standard XS and push a broom handle down through the headstock, from where they were able to flex that section of the frame by hand... *gulp* Keep up the good work
 
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