Newby chopping a 72?

[wickermann]

Hello all,
Old English guy thats new to this site and new to Yamaha XS-2 ownership. I have today purchased a 1972 Yamaha XS-2, Candy Green, low mileage and low owners. It has been off the road for around 15 years. I will be trying to fire the engine up this week and see what happens. Kicks over fine with good compression, carbs all siezed up so will require some work but hopefully it will run fairly easly. I dont know what to do with it, I may hardtail it. Over here in England we dont get all the goodies you guys get the other side of the pond. I will be looking to get a weld on hardtail at some point soon. I will be selling a lot of bits off the bike such as fuel tank, side panels, front mudguard, headlamp, headlamp mounts etc. It might give me some money towards the hardtail. Lets see how it goes !!!!

 

[peanut]

Hi Wickerman welcome to the forum from another old English guy
Sorry to see that no one else has seen your post yet and responded. Its not normally like that.
Saying that this site is now so popular that posts go off the page within an hour lately and after 24 hours its buried .

Seems a shame to chop an early stock bike but better that than sit in a barn or garage for 15 years rotting eh !

Good luck and keep us informed of progress. maybe start a build thread with lots of pictures.

Check out www.customxs650.com/ mostly Brits but the site is flaky at times.
if you don't know any suppliers there is Yambits and Wemoto both of which advertise on ebay as well and of course Heiden tuning in Germany .

 

[Johnt3]

wickermann, welcome to the forum man! Yeah, your gonna get some eye poking for cutting a early bike,but if that's what you have then go for it dude.
Get some pics up of your bike.

 

[uknowme2goog]

Welcome to the forum...Any pictures of your new bike...nice to see a few before and after pictures....Good luck

 

[cra-z1]

If it has a green tank it may be a 1970 XS1. Does it have an electric start. Pretty rare bike and you want to chop it? Just looked at the pics and it looks to be an XS2 engine. Bike looks in rough shape. Good Luck!

 

[wickermann]

Thanks for the comments guys. The bike is not currently green but I have some paperwork going back years which states it was green, I have also checked with VOSA, our version of your DMV and they say it was registered as green. It is definitely a 1972 XS-2 with electric start and a decompressor lever on the right handlebar.
I am going to cut the back off and weld on a hardtail. Re-lace the rear wheel with a 16 inch rim and maybe have a 21 inch front wheel.
The XS-2 stuff that I have removed from the bike I will sell on, fuel tank, side panels, seat, front mudguard, rear mudguard, battery carrier, rear light assembly (which is like new!!), footrests etc. All the tins are in a sorry state and possibly only fit for scrap, but if someone wants anything then you are welcome to it.

 

[CDNTX650]

If its in that bad of shape, give er with a chop!

 

[yellowdog]

Hi ,I have sent you a pm regards the parts , thanks

 

[Captmandel]

Hi! I sent a PM about the tank. Welcome to the forum.

 

[NUTZ]

Oh man can,t you chop up some puppies and babies which will upset me less and restore the bike original or better still sell me it .

 

[wickermann]

Frame cut today and tack welded into place. About another 8-10 degrees of rake. Next job is the hardtail.

 

[wickermann]

And here's the other side. Anyone got a good 16 inch rear wheel for sale???

 

[Whiterabbit]

Good job!

 

[angus67]

I hope you slugged the welds on those down tubes. looks like it was pretty rough. frame looks 72 to me, along with the "floating" front rotor.
Do your self a favor, and ditch those cheap air filter. they block the vacuum hole that the slide needs to lift. Heard they cause turbulence in air flow at high rpm's too.
Get you some uni-foams.
Post some pics in the classifieds of the parts your getting rid of.
I suppose chopping is better than sitting.
Doing a restore of a older model takes a lot of time especially if all the parts need replacing. chopping is easy, and cheap.
I look forward to seeing you finish this up.

 

[peanut]

I'd add some reinforcing brackets to the head/downtube junction if it were mine . Why is there a bend in the downtube just back from the headtube ?

 

[angus67]

because he cut the tube and just tilted the head back to weld them back together(slugged, I hope)

 

[wickermann]

yes, all slugged.

 

[wickermann]

I have neck reinforcing plates already cut out, I will weld them on when I have permanently welded the frame. The frame is only lightly tacked at the moment.

 

[rusty rocket]

I really like the rake. So many of the bobbers I see look like they have hit a brick wall.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Exactly! I have this 3-panel cartoon in my head:
Panel 1 - chopper dude crusing happily.
Panel 2 - Smacks into brick wall.
Panel 3 - Dazed dude rides off on scrunched-up brat bike...