Melmwood
XS650 Enthusiast
I have no idea why I didn't track my build real-time this summer, but better late than never (I suppose) to put my build out here in case it helps someone along the way on theirs. Like everyone, the pandemic shut down a lot of the places I'd socially spend my time - in my case, the biggest impact on that front was my bouldering gym closing down in mid-March. As we moved thru April and shutdowns still were common here in Minneapolis, it was quite obvious that I needed a distraction from the world. So, instead of buying a turnkey bike for the summer (which was my original plan as I sold my '74 Honda CB350 last fall in preparation) I decided I had endless time to kill so I might as well tackle a project bike. This was going to be my first project bike - the Honda just required casual maintenance but was otherwise pretty original - and I had about 2 months of internet-ing under my belt to learn about the XS650, see various builds, and get a rough idea in my mind for what to do.
So, in mid-May I bought a '77 off a guy in neighboring Wisconsin for $1,100. The engine ran great, gears shifted smooth, had strong acceleration, and brakes were solid. He had owned it a year or two and had intentions of cafe-ing it, but all he really did was throw on some non-XS650 seat and cafe-style bars. The previous owner had owned it for years and maintained it well (unsure if that owner was the original or not), including a top end rebuild about 5-7 years ago. So it was exactly what I wanted: a good mechanical bike that just needed some cosmetics...or at least that was the plan.
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So, in mid-May I bought a '77 off a guy in neighboring Wisconsin for $1,100. The engine ran great, gears shifted smooth, had strong acceleration, and brakes were solid. He had owned it a year or two and had intentions of cafe-ing it, but all he really did was throw on some non-XS650 seat and cafe-style bars. The previous owner had owned it for years and maintained it well (unsure if that owner was the original or not), including a top end rebuild about 5-7 years ago. So it was exactly what I wanted: a good mechanical bike that just needed some cosmetics...or at least that was the plan.
View media item 28765
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