unique frame, can anyone identify this?

[bluelobster76]

I picked up this 79 chopper from a guy that had it earlier in it's life but he couldn't give me much information on it. I know it looks like an Amen frame but I haven't found another image that it matches online.

 

[650Skull]

XS750/850 Special triple, front forks

 

[azman857]

That's no Amen frame like I've ever seen....

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Looks like a homebrewed mini-swingarm, hidden behind that side plate...

 

[bluelobster76]

I know it doesn't look like any Amen frame that I have been able to look up but I thought maybe somebody could identify it as a frankenstein of some type of plunger frame. Overall it doesn't look like somebody made it from scratch in there garage so I was hoping to find someone that has seen this style of plunger frame before. It is a little mini swing arm but they have isolated it with the two side bolts so it doesn't move.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Yours has the plunger look, but there's no plunger guide.
There's another, but different, mini swingarm in this thread:

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27636

 

[bluelobster76]

I really just want to know if the general consensus is that it is a one off, garage built mod that somebody put together or it was something that was modified from a manufactured platform? and if so what frame/platform?

 

[501Spanky]

I really just want to know if the general consensus is that it is a one off, garage built mod that somebody put together or it was something that was modified from a manufactured platform? and if so what frame/platform?

My - It looks like a home built experiment. I would hazard a guess that the locking bolts were added to give the back end some kind of stability. I'd be willing to bet that if you tried running it without the locking bolts your rear wheel would torque out of alignment. Just my observation from looking at the pictures.

 

[bluelobster76]

thanks for the two cents. It's kind of cool that it doesn't look like anything else I've seen and its a survivor from that era, I think it's a worthy project.

 

[bluelobster76]

I recently found a picture of another frame with the same funky rear end as mine. Could it have been a kit? I am currently stripping it down to the frame so I should be able to see more in a week or so.

 

[bluelobster76]

I recently came across a picture on another board of the same type of rear section as mine. Could it have been a kit? I am stripping the frame to bare metal soon so I should be able to see more.

 

[fredintoon]

Hi blue,
I've seen that short swingarm frame before so I reckon it's someone's limited production item rather than a shadetree one-off, dunno who's though.
Check the fork tube diameter. 36mm is like Skull sez, XS750/850. 37mm dia it's XS11.
Note that XS750/850/11 all had dual front disks.
If your bike only has one disk and the stock diameter front brake master cylinder that brake is gonna feel like wood.

 

[bluelobster76]

Thanks fredintoon,
It's amazing when you start digging around how many small manufacturers there were back then. I am replacing those forks with a vintage narrow springer that my brother just pulled out of a pile. It was one of those meant to be finds, in Maine those parts are not very easy to come by.

 

[weaselbeak]

I doubt that's home built. My nephew had one like it on a Trumpet chop years ago, with that little bitty swing arm. We never knew who made it. It worked OK.

 

[bluelobster76]

thanks for the reply weaselbeak, I saw the other one like it on Jockey Journal and nobody there seems to know what it is either.

 

[savage454]

Looks like it's from an old preunit British bike.