XS650 chopped & Raked Lots of pics!

[justin]

Well, ive been at this project for a few months and things are stalling out. Life gets in the way way to often around here. Hopefully this will help get me back on track, and some motivation wont hurt. This started out as a 81 XS frame with a 73 engine. Wanted to do somewhat more of a modern/deco chop, and avoid as much cookie cutter crap as possible. So i started out chopping the frame up and getting the stance down (after i built the jig) Wanted it raked out to about 40* 2-3" stretch, about 5" clearance...

After i got the stance the way i wanted it, i started stinging my tube...

Wheels came in, i originally wanted to go with dual 16's , (spoke front, street glide rear) with some gnarly knobby tires. But all the good looking dual sport tires don't come in 16's So i went with dual 18" front street glide wheels i grabbed from Ebay. These paired with the Duro dual sports i picked up look pretty tough...

Went ahead and welded up most the frame, picked up a TIG from harbor freight (i know i know) but it works NICE, did a full review of the TIG on another forum HERE so i wont go into much more detail in this thread

 

[justin]

After i got them mounted i realized i was going to have to make some trees to get them to fit between the stock legs. I thought i might, but i was hoping not. Figured at best i would just have to machine some material off the wheel hub. So i did the math and made up some trees that would be wide enough, but i SUCK at math and am even worse when my kid is doing donuts around me asking for candy, so ended up having to both make trees, AND, mill the hubs to get the fit. LOL...

After all that i was able to finally put it in a roller, came out pretty good, really happy with the stance although i dont like the way the tank sits so that was next...

 

[justin]

Decided to do the standard tank chop, cut 1.25 inches out to make it the width of the trees, and re-tunneled it to get it under the trees, and give it a better line.

Made some bars using the clamps from the old trees and some 1" tube, was also able to get the rear sprocket drilled and bored to fit the street glide hub. You can see in the pics how much room i ended up with between the trees it was close!

 

[justin]

The frame was getting real tedious, alot of time measuring spacers, welding, grinding, MATH, errr!. SO i decided to switch it up and do some more of the sheet work. For the tank i wanted a bit of an aviation style paint job and feel. Basically just brushed metal, with some stained black streaks. Added a rib down the center, and welded in some bungs for the fuel gauge. Also welded a tube running through the tank so i could run a LED to light up the fuel gauge at night. Wires run through the tank, out the bottom. The LED is UV light. It will light up a dye additive in the fuel, making the fuel glow green. Ill be doing the same with a see through clutch case and dye added to the oil, as well as the brake fluid in the reservoir.

Heres a simulated test with a piece of plexi in lieu of the gas tube

And here it is after i brushed it out and powder-coated it gloss clear. Then i airbrushed some black streaks to age it a bit. Ill get a better pic later Looks freaking great in the sun.

 

[Hooligans]

man this is lookin good... lots of great ideas here

 

[gordonscott]

HOLY CRAP!!! Tell us what do you do for a living? You ain't no used car salesman Awesome work! just wondering, what are you using for a mill? I see it in the background...

 

[Tech7]

That is some crazy nice fabrication skills. Awesome. The only problem I see is that UV light. Really hard on your eyes without protection. I use those at work with the dye for leak detection. You could have people seeing spots everywhere! Seriously cool bike.

 

[birdhouse]

Hands down!!! just insane. The rim wheel combo looks killer.

 

[bigpup]

wow, very nice work my man. you have some sweet skills.

 

[theirie1]

Talented, and creative...Mad skilz.

 

[Teebs]

Wow. This one definitely goes into my favorites list. Impressive stuff.

 

[chopfather]

Very nice !! I love the whells and the tank is bad-ass too.

 

[chopfather]

I Meant wheels but I'm still not awake. ^^

 

[pamcopete]

Well, with all those tools and all that excellent skill that you have, why didn't you design and make a real suspension for the rear?

 

[justin]

HOLY CRAP!!! Tell us what do you do for a living? You ain't no used car salesman Awesome work! just wondering, what are you using for a mill? I see it in the background...

Thats funny coming from you, your black and white bike is what inspired me to build XS650's! Still one of the nicest XS's i have laid my eyes on. If this one comes out half as nice ill be happy. My Fabrication background comes mostly from car customization, and machining. However i have been out of the fields for a while.

The mill in the background is a leftover from an old business i had, not quite up to task for all the work needed on a bike. Its a grizzly X3. Works really well, just getting small.

That is some crazy nice fabrication skills. Awesome. The only problem I see is that UV light. Really hard on your eyes without protection. I use those at work with the dye for leak detection. You could have people seeing spots everywhere! Seriously cool bike.

Yeah i hear you, i was seeing spots myself. The plan is to shroud the UV LED's and dim them a hair using an appropriate resistor, so they shouldn't be visible at all once done. As they are now its just a big blurry blob to me. My eyes cant adjust to them at all LOL. Them and blue Christmas LED's drive me nuts

Well, with all those tools and all that excellent skill that you have, why didn't you design and make a real suspension for the rear?

The hard tail was one of the first requirements for the build Ive done a couple swingarm XS's, and am working on one now as well. Just wanted a rigid for this one. The seat will have springs LOL

 

[gordonscott]

Well, with all those tools and all that excellent skill that you have, why didn't you design and make a real suspension for the rear?

Come on Pete, are you for real

 

[justin]

For the headlight setup i really wanted a bit of a sport bike fairing, with a bit of a futuristic twist. The idea was to gut a couple of cheap aftermarket projectors, and mount them in a stepped fender. I also wanted a couple of dim green LEDs mounted inside for the parking lights to echo the other green highlights. Just wanted an eerie green "alien blood" type glow when the bike is sitting. In the pics the projector lenses still have the yellow polarizing layer on them, i have since took it off and they look MUCH better...

After i cut out the holes, which was a geometrical nightmare. I telescoped some tubes together and plug welded it up. this way i could slide the lens/LED/bulb assembly through the back., which makes for easy bulb changes. Top is the low beam bottom is the high beam.

The plan was to lay some nice TIG beads all around the visors and leave them as is, but cutting out the hole was pretty complex (for me anyway) and some gaps were too big. So i welded in all the gaps and smoothed it all out after i cut down the visors. Still need to blend a bit more but i HAD to test them out. The whole assembly can be adjusted in all axis's to dial in the headlights. Still need to add some details to it as well...

 

[Travis]

Wow.. Outstanding work on the whole bike! Especially the trees! Thanks for sharing. I'm sure your work will inspire others. Care to share pictures of your other builds?

 

[birdhouse]

This might be a silly question, What kind of tires are those? that knobby look is awesome. looks like a cross between a avon gripster and a mx tire!!!!!!

 

[justin]

This might be a silly question, What kind of tires are those? that knobby look is awesome. looks like a cross between a avon gripster and a mx tire!!!!!!

Yeah they look sweet, its a duro HF904 dual sport.