Its almost winter. Time to ruin another bike (1970 XS1)

Hey folks.
Been lurking on the site for awhile trying to research my new project and would welcome some input.
I picked up a basketcase 1970 XS650 for a song, so it's time to ruin another perfectly good motorcycle.

Have some questions:
My front forks are in real rough shape. I believe I can buy springs and internals from a 71-73 and switch over to internal springs, but does anyone know where I can buy these parts? Everything I've found thus far is for the newer 35mm forks.
Im hoping to have the $$$ to send my cam and crank to Hugh's for a rephase, but I'm cheap and I need to save every $ I can, so any suggestions on cutting the price down on a rephase/ignition would be appreciated.
I wanted to run a Mike's overdrive, but it doesn't appear to be an option for my bike (1970). Suggestions? I know I can fiddle with sprocket ratios as well, but having an OD gear would be great.

The goal is to build this bike to be as (mechanically) highway capable as possible. As far as frame/suspension modifications, I'm going to ruin everything, so I'd like to have the bike as smooth as possible at 60-70mph to compensate as much as possible for all the other stupid crap I'm planning on doing (possible hardtail, big dumb handlebars, and all the other asshole mods) to make it look and sit how I want.

This is the XJ I finished this year. It was my first build. I know it's not for everyone, but I put a lot of work into it, and I'm mostly happy with how it turned out. I've put a couple thousand km on it over the past couple months without a problem.

I like the xj. Ide run it.
As far as the 1970 bike goes, a 1972 honda xl has the same fork diameter as the early bikes ,not sure about a 70. It is intenal spring, and is a enduro, so may be a tad softer. I see forks for the xl on ebay occasionally.

Hey Abrasive.....i have a pair of forks from a project I recently completed in which i built my own front end. not sure of the cost to ship from Seattle to your location but would be willing to sell them cheap to help a project along. i completely understand building something that is not for everyone, which is one of the things that i love about motorcycles because you can do so much to personalize a bike to suit your needs/taste and end up with something completely different than anything else out there. keep us posted on the progress and good luck! WRMDOVR

thanks guys
I'll look up the length on the Honda XL. If the internals will work, I might be able to find them easier than XS1b forks.
I've got spoke wheels and drums brakes. I don't care about the brakes (would prefer disks actually), but I'm pretty set on keeping the spoke wheels, so that complicates fork swaps.
What are your forks out of WRMDOVR?
I appreciate the offer and I might take you up on it if I can't find a more sensible solution.

Ideally, id like to run a springer with 16" spoked wheels and disk brakes all around, but that would set me back about $3k (Canadian dollar in toilet + shipping is expensive) which is more what I planned to spend on the whole bike.


Unofficial super small sample size poll:
Hardtail or extended swing arm and custom low slung seat frame (similar to visual impact, but a bit more aggressive)

Haven't seen too many well done (read: mild) stretched soft tails. I don't mind riding a rigid, but it seems like everybody hardtails a these bikes...

Hi Abravise.....they were on a 1978 frame.....they are in excellent condition just didnt need them since i fabbed up my banana girder. WRMDOVR

Hi abrasive,
- - - and another one bites the dust!
You managed to push almost all of my hot buttons.
Except that you didn't mention the stupid little gas tank, the raked stretched forks and the front brake removal.
But I'm sure you are just trying to wind me up, right?

Welcome to the forum, Abrasive. A few things to consider when intermixing parts on the early bikes:

70-73 frames are different from mainstream 74-on bikes.
They're narrower, watch out for brat/loop kits.
The axle plates are thinner, use different axles and adjusters.
Swingarms are shorter.
Steering neck is shorter.
The top triple doesn't use modern pinch clamp design.
The bottom engine mount goes thru the frame, not above, so engine sets lower.

Finding parts for these early collectibles can get difficult and expensive.

All these issues have been tackled here, just gotta dig to find them...

Thanks for that.
I didn't know about the narrower frame, but have been looking into as many differences as I can to save problems in the future.

I knew about the triple tree....because I needs one. The PO obviously bumped something with the front. Doesn't look too bad. Forks are straight (and upon closer inspection look rebuild able if I can't find 34mm inner springs) but he bent the lower tree (have spare) and the upper tree is nowhere to be found. There's an extra one in the box, but it's like the one on my XJ and doesn't fit over the spanner nut sleeve as it should.

Fred:
I can't wait to start hacking on this rare mint frame....haha

Hey Fred.....calm yourself! as a purveyor of the unique, odd and the occasionally questionable.....ie no front brake. I have no doubts that a beer bottle opener, black tribal paint job and perhaps a trucker girl or two will be squeezed in......"please note tongue in cheek" WRMDOVR

A viable economic strategy would be to sell or part out that early bike. Collector/restorer values, you know.
Then get a better condition budget later model, which will have better options and parts support...

wrmdovr said:

Hey Fred.....calm yourself! as a purveyor of the unique, odd and the occasionally questionable.....ie no front brake. I have no doubts that a beer bottle opener, black tribal paint job and perhaps a trucker girl or two will be squeezed in......"please note tongue in cheek" WRMDOVR

Click to expand...

Hi WRMDOVR,
I've seen photos of your work. You convert motorcycles into moving artwork and that's OK and you said yourself, you don't drive them very far.
I'll await abrasive's final build photos to see what he comes up with before I get on his case.
Just remember, it took the Vandals to make the Goths seem civilized.

if I lived in a major city, especially a major city in the US, parting/selling this one and buying something else would be an option.
However, I live in the middle of Alberta. riding season here is pretty much over for most people, and all the fellas here want Harley's. There's not much demand for vintage collector stuff that I can tell, especially since the oil patch is slow and everybody's broke.
additionally, this bike has a clear title, and is still in the Alberta registries system (despite not being registered since 1985), so I don't need an inspection to get registration. That saves me a ton of effort and headaches.

In the end, I'm sacrilegious. While I certainly have nothing against the collector/restorer guys, it means nothing to me personally. I like these bikes based on what they can be made into, not what they originally were.
As such, the idea of grinding away the next 8 months negotiating with flaky people on kijiji in an effort to preserve the sanctity of this bike isn't overly appealing to me.

That said, the XJ was my first bike and I pretty much just hacked it up and threw it together to see if I could. Now that I've built one and understand it a bit better, this one is being planned out in advance and will be much more deliberate. But still probably really stupid.

Fred: you're only a few hours away. You make me an offer that makes sense and I'll meet you at the border. Haha

Any pics of the 70?

If my garage wasn't such a disaster right now, I'd take a pic of the pile of parts. Suffice it to say that right now it's a pile of parts. It was a pile of parts and a bare frame when I bought it. Looks like someone was going to fix the triple tree but got stumped as soon as they saw a spanner nut. Haha
Most of the big parts are there, most of the small parts (electrical, etc) aren't.

Abrasive said:

- - - Fred: you're only a few hours away. You make me an offer that makes sense and I'll meet you at the border. Haha

Click to expand...

Hi Abrasive,
that's a fair offer but I gotta turn it down because I'm too effin' old to start another rebuild.
I can't even raise the enthusiasm to fix the leaking fork seal that's keeping my XS11 rig's front brake pads lubricated and I've had the parts for a year already.
And last year I passed my 1970 BSA onto my son so it would have a better chance of seeing it's next vintage rally on it's own two wheels rather than on the bike trailer.
He tells me that it's intermittent ignition failure was the Boyer I'd fitted 15 years ago crapping out and he's taking it back to stock Lucas coil ignition.
And yes, I did tell him the black wires are red on purpose because the bike came with positive ground electrics.
But back to your pile of parts.
I'm with 2-Many, you'd do better financially to sell off the '70 to a rebuilder and build your dream with a later model.

Going with the extended swing arm would be better than the hard tail. Brat style would be my choice.

Yep. I've decided no hardtail on this one.
I'd prefer to do as much fab work myself as possible, and if I need to extend the swingarm to get the seat position right, that's much simpler than building my own hardtail from scratch. Plus, it'd be nice to have a bike that I can ride for more than 45minutes at a time without needing painkillers and a nap. Haha

I'll make a couple calls to see if I can find a buyer on this one, but I think it's a long shot. Like I said, I'm not in a major city, and I'm not willing to deal with the flakes and no shows on kijiji for the next 8 months trying to part this thing out.

Should find some handy info in here:

http://www.xs650.com/threads/71-xs1b-conversion-to-cafe.45115/

HI Fred.....I was just poking fun and meant no malice....btw, wonderful oblique reference contrasting the Vandals and Goths.

Hi Abrasive.....though my bikes are hardtailed the springs i use surprisingly allow for a very comfortable ride and in my advance years anything after 2-3 hours requires a stop and a beverage!

2M: fantastic. Read through it and I'm really hoping not to have as hard a time with my engine. It isn't seized, and if the odometer is to be trusted has about 21000km on it.

Wrmdovr: my XJ seat is on a leaf spring. It's hinged on the leaf eye at the back, and has a solo seat spring in the front, so the whole pan floats up and down. The problem is mostly due to the saddle being tilted too far forward (I'm re-bending the spring) and not having any padding in the seat (I'm working on it...)