Amazing how popular the xs is

I would have never guessed there would be so many 30+ year old 650 xs still around.
To be so popular 30+ years later is a good testament.
Glad I found this forum. Great folks , great bikes.

I had one in 1975. Off & on, I still have one. So does my BIL.

They've been on my radar since I first started riding in 1976, finally picked one up a month ago.

Hi rainycity,
well the XS650 was in production for 14 years and they are eff nigh bulletproof so it ain't too amazing that there's lots of them still around.
What's amazing to me is how many of them become Sawzall victims.
Believe me guys, OC choppers is just a TV show and the bikes they build and you try to emulate ain't for riding, they are for posing on.

fredintoon said:

Hi rainycity,
well the XS650 was in production for 14 years and they are eff nigh bulletproof so it ain't too amazing that there's lots of them still around.
What's amazing to me is how many of them become Sawzall victims.
Believe me guys, OC choppers is just a TV show and the bikes they build and you try to emulate ain't for riding, they are for posing on.

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Hi Fred

You'd be surprised how many do less posing than they do riding. I'll let you know no one is trying to copy OC, there heinous. I'll admit some xs models should be left alone, but I did my 81 a favor. Bikes can be tasteful while still running suspension and brakes, and without as well. To each his own.

figure8 said:

Hi Fred
You'd be surprised how many do less posing than they do riding. I'll let you know no one is trying to copy OC, there heinous. I'll admit some xs models should be left alone, but I did my 81 a favor. Bikes can be tasteful while still running suspension and brakes, and without as well. To each his own.

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Hi figure8,
thing is, I'm so effin' old that the first bikes I rode had rigid frames, girder forks and teensy SLS drum brakes because that's how they came from the factory
and purely for looks, my 1937 KSS Velocette beats my XS650 by a mile.
Now some folks claim that a modern bike is aesthetically improved by having it's rear suspension removed, it's forks extended and it's brakes downgraded and in some cases they are right.
But anyone who claims that those changes make the bike a better ride needs psychiatric help.

Fred come on you are showing your age ..... Us old guys still have some left.
I will be 64 in November and I started cutting up bikes because I just didn't fit on them stock. Two of my first bikes I could not touch the ground then this old outlaw biker dude showed me his Pan Head and Triumph and I was hooked. The first bike I cut up I did it with a hand saw and I cut a lot. So I have been riding hard tails all my life and I even rode to Canada on one and back on a run.
To me I look at a stock bike and look at what it can be not what it is. Now I have owned some stone stockers and rode them but for me I was in the chopper business and that's what I did to pay the builds CHOP! In 1980 I had a guy bring in a stock XS650 for work never came back for bike and one day in the mail I got the title and I still junked it. I think I have the paperwork still for that bike. Back then they were a $200 bike to a chopper shop . Now I drive 5 states to get one.

DADDYGCYCLES said:

Fred come on you are showing your age ..... Us old guys still have some left.
I will be 64 in November - - -

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Hi DaddyG,
or perhaps at my age, "Hi Kid" would be more appropriate.
The only "chopper" I ever built went in the other direction.
I added a set of Dowty Airdraulic teleforks , a poorboy copy of a McCandless swingarm conversion kit and an ex-BSA dualseat to a rigid frame girder fork 250cc Velocette just so I could take my girlfriend for rides.
Must have worked, we were married for 27 years.