I'm new to XS650.com and you guys have some really cool stuff here. I've been fooling around with other bikes for awhile, but alway wanted an XS. I've been on this project for some time now so here is a bit of history and the mods to date. I hope you like it
A friend gave me a 1979 XS650 2F a few years ago that was sitting outside. It had no title and hadn't run in many years ... Just the way we like em
My brother and I picked it up and drug it back to my place. Getting old junk bikes is like Christmas morning for me and I can't wait to find and the rodent nests and spider webs packed into it. Under the seat on the XS it has the plastic document holder like a lot of the old bikes. Inside was the title signed off and notarized in the 80's
I ran down to the title bureau this next morning and I was the legal owner of this gem.
She's a beaut ain't she
The truth is that after I got the title I let it sit in my garage at home for a couple years promising myself I would not touch it until I had an actual plan and time to do it. I've done some other bikes and opened up a new shop for work since then. Also had many ideas for what the the 650 should be in its new life. Initially it was going to be a street tracker, then a bobber, thought about a cafe for awhile too. I really like the street tracker XS650s and that was it until I was searching Craigslist one morning and happened upon this jewel.
A 1987 YZ125 basket case. After seeing a few pictures of a YZ650F that someone made I was hooked. An XS650 adventure bike it was.
I put that YZ in the garage for a bit while I was working on my F11. Then the owner of a regional motorcycle paper, Midwest Motorcyclist, mentioned that if I wanted to run a series of articles on a motorcycle build he would be happy to support it. That was late Spring / early Summer. We talked about what to do and he liked the adventure bike idea and a possible second set up for supermoto duty. We are in the middle of this now, but here is what we have after the bulk of the suspension mods.
A hybrid of the XS650 frame and motor with the YZ125 front and rear suspension, monoshock and wheels.
Most of the YZ suspension linkage was used as is, but I could not mount the lower frame mount for the linkage far enough forward on the XS frame so we had to mock up a new dogbone. A friend with a CNC mill is making a new one with the original specs and the 3 mounting points from the mock up here:
To mount the triple tree to the XS frame we had to cut the stem out of the original lower tree, re-machine it and the upper and lower trees from the YZ and press them together. BTW I think the 1989 YZ490 trees that I picked up since will be a much easier swap
To fit the resevoir for the rear shock the right rear frame support had to be moved and the side cover lower mount modified and relocated:
Extended the kick stand. Twice, as the first time was too short
Here are some other mods that have been done so far:
Top shock mount and electrical box.
520 chain conversion to match the YZ rear sprocket.
The 2 into 1 modified exhaust to get it up above the frame rail obviously still in progress
Relocated the foot pegs lower and further back:
Sectioned the brake pedal to clear the exhaust with the new peg locations:
Modified the original air boxes to fit with the monoshock:
We're going for a dual setup on this bike. The stock tank and shorter seat for regular riding but we also wanted an MX style tank and longer seat for reduced weight and the misplaced thought that this bike will have significant off-road duty
To do that both tanks had to be able to be mounted and not affect the other tank. The stock tank was easy and we found an old MX125 tank that mounted to the front and postioned the rear mount so it would not interfere with the stock tank.
We also have another set of wheels that will be laced up for supermoto duty.
For some rough specs it has a wheel base of about 62", front suspension travel of 11", rear suspension travel of 9", 10 to 10 1/2" of ground clearance. I don't know about the weight yet, but we're going for as low as possible.
That's about where we stand on this one. The next step is to make 2 fiberglass seat pans, one for each tank. After that we need to finish off the exhaust. Then we can finally tear everything down for final welding and rebuilding everything
A friend gave me a 1979 XS650 2F a few years ago that was sitting outside. It had no title and hadn't run in many years ... Just the way we like em
My brother and I picked it up and drug it back to my place. Getting old junk bikes is like Christmas morning for me and I can't wait to find and the rodent nests and spider webs packed into it. Under the seat on the XS it has the plastic document holder like a lot of the old bikes. Inside was the title signed off and notarized in the 80's
I ran down to the title bureau this next morning and I was the legal owner of this gem.
She's a beaut ain't she
The truth is that after I got the title I let it sit in my garage at home for a couple years promising myself I would not touch it until I had an actual plan and time to do it. I've done some other bikes and opened up a new shop for work since then. Also had many ideas for what the the 650 should be in its new life. Initially it was going to be a street tracker, then a bobber, thought about a cafe for awhile too. I really like the street tracker XS650s and that was it until I was searching Craigslist one morning and happened upon this jewel.
A 1987 YZ125 basket case. After seeing a few pictures of a YZ650F that someone made I was hooked. An XS650 adventure bike it was.
I put that YZ in the garage for a bit while I was working on my F11. Then the owner of a regional motorcycle paper, Midwest Motorcyclist, mentioned that if I wanted to run a series of articles on a motorcycle build he would be happy to support it. That was late Spring / early Summer. We talked about what to do and he liked the adventure bike idea and a possible second set up for supermoto duty. We are in the middle of this now, but here is what we have after the bulk of the suspension mods.
A hybrid of the XS650 frame and motor with the YZ125 front and rear suspension, monoshock and wheels.
Most of the YZ suspension linkage was used as is, but I could not mount the lower frame mount for the linkage far enough forward on the XS frame so we had to mock up a new dogbone. A friend with a CNC mill is making a new one with the original specs and the 3 mounting points from the mock up here:
To mount the triple tree to the XS frame we had to cut the stem out of the original lower tree, re-machine it and the upper and lower trees from the YZ and press them together. BTW I think the 1989 YZ490 trees that I picked up since will be a much easier swap
To fit the resevoir for the rear shock the right rear frame support had to be moved and the side cover lower mount modified and relocated:
Extended the kick stand. Twice, as the first time was too short
Here are some other mods that have been done so far:
Top shock mount and electrical box.
520 chain conversion to match the YZ rear sprocket.
The 2 into 1 modified exhaust to get it up above the frame rail obviously still in progress
Relocated the foot pegs lower and further back:
Sectioned the brake pedal to clear the exhaust with the new peg locations:
Modified the original air boxes to fit with the monoshock:
We're going for a dual setup on this bike. The stock tank and shorter seat for regular riding but we also wanted an MX style tank and longer seat for reduced weight and the misplaced thought that this bike will have significant off-road duty
To do that both tanks had to be able to be mounted and not affect the other tank. The stock tank was easy and we found an old MX125 tank that mounted to the front and postioned the rear mount so it would not interfere with the stock tank.
We also have another set of wheels that will be laced up for supermoto duty.
For some rough specs it has a wheel base of about 62", front suspension travel of 11", rear suspension travel of 9", 10 to 10 1/2" of ground clearance. I don't know about the weight yet, but we're going for as low as possible.
That's about where we stand on this one. The next step is to make 2 fiberglass seat pans, one for each tank. After that we need to finish off the exhaust. Then we can finally tear everything down for final welding and rebuilding everything
