XS Build - A Father and Son Project

army85harley · Jun 1, 2018

Today the new gas tank, gas cap, headlight bracket, headlight and motor stand were delivered by FedEx!

To get an idea of what it will look like mounted, we used some zip ties to mount it to the frame’s backbone.

BigJimmyW13 · Jun 1, 2018

All of it looks like garbage. You should throw it all away and start over boy.

weekendrider · Jun 1, 2018

There is a blast from the past.

army85harley · Jun 1, 2018

BigJimmyW13 said:
All of it looks like garbage. You should throw it all away and start over boy.

Thanks for the kind words Jim!!!!!

Jim · Jun 1, 2018

To each his own I guess. Personally, I'm lookin' forward to seeing your build progress. And the progress you son makes in learnin' how to wrench.

army85harley · Jun 1, 2018

JimD54 said:
To each his own I guess. Personally, I'm lookin' forward to seeing your build progress. And the progress you son makes in learnin' how to wrench.

BigJimmyW13 is actually too. He’s like a brother-in-law that I never wanted but somehow he keeps showing up on every form of social media to give me a hard time.

He has a nice xs650 that he needs to get running again....mainly because I want him to let me ride it!

Jim · Jun 1, 2018

Ahhhh.... a little ribbing. Got it.

army85harley · Jun 25, 2018

Progress has been slow over the past few weeks for lots of reasons but tonight we finally made some steps in the right direction.

In reality, we didn’t get much done but my son thinks removing wheels is really cool. So he was more than excited to slip the front forks off. All in all, here is what we got done:

1) We removed all of the front brake components.

2) We removed the old headlight arms and mounted the new headlight bracket and headlight.

3) And laslty, in my sons words, “Putting the new motor stand together was the easiest project!”

army85harley · Jul 2, 2018

I spent some time working on the xs650 tonight. I got the back half completely disassembled and started working on the wiring up front.

If anyone needs anything, just let me know.

army85harley · Jul 10, 2018

Today, my son and I ordered some parts from Jumpstreet Customs.

1) a 1” stretch hardtail
2) a kickstand replacement
3) a set of black powder coated mags

Check out Jason’s products at: http://www.jumpstreetcustom.com/

JRay77 · Jul 10, 2018

I've learned with the hardtail situations; have everything, I mean everything tacked/ mocked up, assembled, welded, before paint. It's one of those where you'll put it together and take it apart several times. Your son will know that machine inside and out! Haha Rear wheel spacing seems to be a battle too. Did you get a drum mag rear wheel? I have not fabbed up a caliper on a hardtail yet. I'll be watching this thread. Main reason I'm posting so I can find it haha. Don't know how much experience you have at this, also plan on a chain tensioner. I like the sprocket type over the skate board wheel. I definitely don't wanna come off like a know it all. Like wiring, you know you need. A tail light, brake light, etc. consider running the wiring in the chassis. It's the little things. Looks like fun! I'll keep watch. Straight pipes? These machines shake like a sum bitch. Blue loctite. The medium stuff, not satans blood that requires heat to remove. Haha

army85harley · Jul 11, 2018

JRay77 said:
I've learned with the hardtail situations; have everything, I mean everything tacked/ mocked up, assembled, welded, before paint. It's one of those where you'll put it together and take it apart several times. Your son will know that machine inside and out! Haha Rear wheel spacing seems to be a battle too. Did you get a drum mag rear wheel? I have not fabbed up a caliper on a hardtail yet. I'll be watching this thread. Main reason I'm posting so I can find it haha. Don't know how much experience you have at this, also plan on a chain tensioner. I like the sprocket type over the skate board wheel. I definitely don't wanna come off like a know it all. Like wiring, you know you need. A tail light, brake light, etc. consider running the wiring in the chassis. It's the little things. Looks like fun! I'll keep watch. Straight pipes? These machines shake like a sum bitch. Blue loctite. The medium stuff, not satans blood that requires heat to remove. Haha

Its a disc brake mag wheel and thanks for the words of advice. This is my first xs build so my son and I are doing our best to plan things out ahead of time before we hit any problems.

Our goal is to have a cool bike for me to ride around on while having fun building it together. And yes, we will use loctite and we are planning on keeping it clean looking with most wires hidden.

army85harley · Aug 15, 2018

Our 1” stretch hardtail and new kickstand from Jumpstreet Customs arrived today!

59Tebo · Aug 16, 2018

It think it's great, you've got your son involved. It doesn't matter how the bike turns out, as long as the two of you get to spend time together. So cool. "...give a boy a wrench, and he'll take off a nut. Teach a boy to wrench, and he'll fix the world!..."

army85harley · Aug 18, 2018

59Tebo said:
It think it's great, you've got your son involved. It doesn't matter how the bike turns out, as long as the two of you get to spend time together. So cool. "...give a boy a wrench, and he'll take off a nut. Teach a boy to wrench, and he'll fix the world!..."

Very true! Well, luckily for me I have a son that likes things besides video games. He is so excited every time we work on it. He said the other day that he can’t wait for it to be done so I can do a huge burnout on it. That way our neighbors will figure out why we have been making so much noise in our garage!

59Tebo · Aug 18, 2018

That's terrific, Army. Now you need to find him a bike of his own. Something small-displacement, light weight, that the two of you can chop, and turn into the baddest bike in the neighborhood. his 'street 'cred' will go through the roof! The coolest kid in the school! :rock:

army85harley · Aug 19, 2018

59Tebo said:
That's terrific, Army. Now you need to find him a bike of his own. Something small-displacement, light weight, that the two of you can chop, and turn into the baddest bike in the neighborhood. his 'street 'cred' will go through the roof! The coolest kid in the school!

My wife and I have talked about gettting him something small after we are done with this build. Today my son was talking about us building a drift trike for him to slide around the neighborhood.

army85harley · Aug 23, 2018

Well, I've got another update. My son and I have been selling our old parts pretty quick. Mainly to folks all over the U.S. and two friendly folks in Canada. So tonight we made another purchase from TC Bros. Our motor is still sitting in the frame on our lift but we plan on working on it this weekend. Hopefully we will get the motor out and everything else completely stripped from the frame since our hardtail arrived last week or so.

Tonight, we were able to use money from selling our old parts to buy handlebars, 2 fender mounting tabs, a tank bung kit, and a fender strut kit without having to spend anything out of pocket.

army85harley · Aug 23, 2018

I'm actually amazed at how well this project is going (even from a financial standpoint). Also, I'm a little OCD about this project so I've kept a list of parts needed and parts purchased on an Excel Spreadsheet. Including our initial purchase of the bike, here is a breakdown of what we've spent so far.

fredintoon · Aug 24, 2018

Hi army,
it's great that your father and son project has worked so well and at a reasonable cost too.
Choppers ain't my thing at all but if that's what you and your son want, OK.
However, I do hope you realize that your build is strictly for slow rides in parades.
Anyone riding a bike with no front brake on today's highways is gonna effin' die.

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