Wesley Kagan
XS650 Member
Picked myself up a small project that is going to be a short commuter bike, has 16k miles, fairly well taken care of, but needs some tires, stuff like that. I had a XS400 years ago in high school that I did a ton of work to, so I know my way fairly well around the bike, but have a few things.
I'm going for a cafe racer- Not going to go as far down as some guys do, but will be stripping a lot of the unnecessary stuff. This leads into the first question:
1. Is there any benefit to going with a "points" style instead of the seemingly thousand boxes and wires you get with the electronic? Mine works, so i'm inclined not to screw with it, but finding room to mount the boxes is interesting on an open bike.
2. Tires- Would like some classic tires, My gut is the firestones, but I've heard those can be a little, uh, dangerous. Heidenau seems to have some good options, but what sizes would look good on the XS? The 16" rear rim is rough on that regard, but I'm going for something looking like this tire wise (I am deleting front fender) Link here
3. What other things should I look into doing? Here's the plan, roughly-
front fender delete
Both rims powdercoated black
forks powdercoated black
Get a better seat (possibly the 650 Tuffside kit?)
Cable management (working on now, sorry about the cables everywhere in the picture below, I started before I took the picture!)
Thanks in advance!
I'm going for a cafe racer- Not going to go as far down as some guys do, but will be stripping a lot of the unnecessary stuff. This leads into the first question:
1. Is there any benefit to going with a "points" style instead of the seemingly thousand boxes and wires you get with the electronic? Mine works, so i'm inclined not to screw with it, but finding room to mount the boxes is interesting on an open bike.
2. Tires- Would like some classic tires, My gut is the firestones, but I've heard those can be a little, uh, dangerous. Heidenau seems to have some good options, but what sizes would look good on the XS? The 16" rear rim is rough on that regard, but I'm going for something looking like this tire wise (I am deleting front fender) Link here
3. What other things should I look into doing? Here's the plan, roughly-
front fender delete
Both rims powdercoated black
forks powdercoated black
Get a better seat (possibly the 650 Tuffside kit?)
Cable management (working on now, sorry about the cables everywhere in the picture below, I started before I took the picture!)
Thanks in advance!