72 XS2 take two.

andrewc

XS650 Enthusiast
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Location
fort lauderdale florida
built this xs a few years back now, with limited knowledge and tools. i never liked the tcbros hard tail, but as you go your tastes change, and i lived with it. i rode it around for a year or so and parked it in the corner until now. i ave put together a few bikes since then, and now it time to give this one another shot. heres how it looked before i tore it down.



i cut the old hard tail off and called david bird for a 0 stretch, 3 drop tail. since i never liked the way david bird tails attach at the lower rail, (nasty triangle boxes) and since the frame had previously been rigid, i had a buddy turn some slugs to plug weld it the way it should be. i then put together a front end for the bike. full 39mm narrow glide front end with tapered lowers and shrouds. still need to weld up the holes on the top clamp and metal finish it. both the sliders and shrouds will be chromed as well as the triple trees.


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also cut off the steering lock tab as to clean up the lower clamp. i still need to weld a proper steering stop to the frame.

 
So, you tore up a really nice piece.....to make an even more desirable one. I love that front end. What about the brake? Is that legal in Florida?
 
took a little work to get the tank to fit right. of course, the alien tank i had before was longer so the bungs i welded in then weren't spaced correctly for the new tank. i was able to reuse the front mount, but ground out the old rear mount, welded it and smoothed it out. i then welded in a new mount a little forward for the new tanks rear tab. since the lowbrow tank has such a narrow tunnel, i ordered Hughs top motor mounts, but had to modify those as well. i took two nuts and shaved them down to about 5 threads thick and welded them to the one mount. the bolts are button heads and were shortened to stop before the end of the nut. this was the only way to get these mounts to work with this tank.

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don't mind the bottom mount bolts. they will be shortened, heads shaved, and acorn nuts will be used. just there for mock up.
 
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So, you tore up a really nice piece.....to make an even more desirable one. I love that front end. What about the brake? Is that legal in Florida?

there were a lot of things i didn't like about my first go round', but i learned a lot and am now rebuilding it yes. as far as legality of no front brake in florida goes, i would assume its not legal, but I've never been stopped on my other bikes that have no front brake, so this one won't have one either. :bike:
 
for a rear wheel i wanted to go 19, so i ordered some parts to make one. the hub is 2000+ sportster/big twin, Buchanan's stainless spokes, and a new 19x2.15 front rim. i laced the wheel and had a buddy true it up for me on his stand. tire is a 19x4.00.

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i am using a mr.luckys 32t sprocket and a standard 11.5" rotor. the caliper I'm using is a 4 piston tokico caliper, and will be hanging from a fab kevin bracket. (which will be polished) i just got the bracket in the mail and will post a picture when i get it mocked up.
 
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and present day. will be using this ribbed fender. I'm waiting on some bungs to show up so i can mount it, as it is just loosely mocked up in these photos to get a visual idea for size and where to trim.

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will post more pictures/updates as I'm complete them.
 
got the caliper in place. don't mind the washers, they are just there to space things accordingly. the spacers will be 1 piece on each side. have to make an anchor rod and weld a tab the the frame for it.

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That front end is the best, and I like the ribbed fender, too.
 
got the majority of my brake set up done. i welded the pivot tube to the peg mount so it could be removed to ease engine installs. i also heavily modified an rd pedal to work with this set up. you can see the notch in the pedal to nicely rest on the underside of the foot peg.

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i also had to notch the kicker as well for full 180 rotation. i shaved off a bit of the pivot nub as well as the arm itself. ill get a full compression stroke before it gets close, but i figured its better to be safe than sorry.

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made a hidden return spring set up. the spring i had was the prefect length and attaches to a tab off the forward most starter motor boss that i use to mount my regulator. the flat part of the weld on the tab is to keep it from rotating forward if the bolt were ever to loosen itself. (this was probably unnecessary as it never has or will, but i tend to over analyze things) i drilled two holes in the tab to play with spring tension, and the further rear hole ended up working perfect.

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the spring then attaches to the pin on the master cylinder clevis. it just happened to be the same gauge as the cotter pin that originally kept the pin in place. kill 2 birds with one stone i guess.

gonna figure out the MC mount tomorrow. still not 100% sure on this nissin mc. its the correct bore for the caliper, but I'm thinking i may go down a mm and run a brembo MC as its a little more compact. i guess ill see how I'm feeling tomorrow.
 
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completely scrapped version 1. quite the pain to cut that bracket off and smooth out all the weld. not much space to fit an angle grinder. ended up doing what i shouldve done in the beginning. made the bracket out of thicker steel and just tapped it for the 2 screws. much cleaner looking.

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pretty much done with the MC/pivot/pedal set up. i whipped up a little bracket to hold the brake fluid hose.

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and then made a stainless plug. the hose will be about an inch shorter than whats shown, i didn't feel like sacrificing a piece of fuel line just for a photo.

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