DrewMartin
Old fashioned new guy
Hey everyone, new guy here. Have wanted an XS650 for over a decade but things never really matched up right with either funds or a place to do it. I'll try to keep this short but mostly the build thread is to log this all for myself.
A brief history of myself; Grew up with dirt bikes, built an fzr600 from a wrecked bike when I was 14, got my m/c license on 16th b-day, wrecked it myself when I was 17. Bought a Triumph Sprint ST, was run off the road, damn near totaled it and swore off bikes for over a decade. Owned a race car shop and built a bunch of cool stuff before I got burnt out and fell into industrial maintenance. Moved to Portland from Dallas and realized everyone here is really conscious of anything on 2 wheels and wanted to build a new bike.
On to the build itself. A week ago I picked up an XS650 the previous owner had disassembled and felt overwhelmed with the projected. The frame and swingarm have been blasted and painted in prep for cleaning up the bike. The original motor was locked up however a new motor has been purchased by the previous owner that seems to have compression and turns over smoothly, in addition to this a whole lot of additional spare parts came with the bike like an extra set of wheels, a few sets of carbs, fenders, etc. pretty much everything except another frame.
Build plans as follows;
XS1 fuel tank, stock tank had a leaking bondoed spot that I got 1/4" into and never hit metal (ever start sanding and smell the gas get stronger?) and I think the lines look better
Rebuilt big bore motor leaving the good one for the next project
Progressive springs up front
Cartridge valve emulators
13.5-14.3" rear shocks
Omar's 19" rear wheel conversion
Something other than an XR or champion seat
Some kind of electrical nonsense without getting too fancy to keep it reliable
Renthal high superbike bars
Fairly short gearing, it's just to blast around town and twisty back roads.
Pics from the PO
And its current status, still reorganizing the garage to make space for all the parts, goal to have the complete motor in for mock-up by the end of the week. Gas tank is in transit and I'll have shocks and bars ordered up by the end of the week.
A brief history of myself; Grew up with dirt bikes, built an fzr600 from a wrecked bike when I was 14, got my m/c license on 16th b-day, wrecked it myself when I was 17. Bought a Triumph Sprint ST, was run off the road, damn near totaled it and swore off bikes for over a decade. Owned a race car shop and built a bunch of cool stuff before I got burnt out and fell into industrial maintenance. Moved to Portland from Dallas and realized everyone here is really conscious of anything on 2 wheels and wanted to build a new bike.
On to the build itself. A week ago I picked up an XS650 the previous owner had disassembled and felt overwhelmed with the projected. The frame and swingarm have been blasted and painted in prep for cleaning up the bike. The original motor was locked up however a new motor has been purchased by the previous owner that seems to have compression and turns over smoothly, in addition to this a whole lot of additional spare parts came with the bike like an extra set of wheels, a few sets of carbs, fenders, etc. pretty much everything except another frame.
Build plans as follows;
XS1 fuel tank, stock tank had a leaking bondoed spot that I got 1/4" into and never hit metal (ever start sanding and smell the gas get stronger?) and I think the lines look better
Rebuilt big bore motor leaving the good one for the next project
Progressive springs up front
Cartridge valve emulators
13.5-14.3" rear shocks
Omar's 19" rear wheel conversion
Something other than an XR or champion seat
Some kind of electrical nonsense without getting too fancy to keep it reliable
Renthal high superbike bars
Fairly short gearing, it's just to blast around town and twisty back roads.
Pics from the PO
And its current status, still reorganizing the garage to make space for all the parts, goal to have the complete motor in for mock-up by the end of the week. Gas tank is in transit and I'll have shocks and bars ordered up by the end of the week.