Charlotte
Aspiring XS owner
Awesome people of the XS650.com community, I am looking for a bike to take me on an adventure in the USA early next year. I live in London, England and I am planning a motorcycle journey across the United States in maybe late March, but rather than fly in and hire a stock bike, I want to ride something cool, something low and something custom. I need an XS!
You could be literally anywhere in North America - if the bike's right, I will plan my trip around coming to buy it. I'm sort of vaguely hoping to end up in New York to fly home after crating the bike up and sending it to the UK by sea freight, but I could equally do that out of any decent size port.
I've not owned a custom motorcycle for over a decade (my daily ride is a Triumph Explorer at the moment) but I'm a biker through and through and I'm no stranger to building and maintaining my own machine.
So what am I after? Well, it's got to be a hardtail - conversion or one-off, but no swingarms, please. It needs to be totally mechanically sound and capable of riding at least 2000 miles at highway speeds with little or no maintenance. It'll have to be road legal back in the UK, so lights, front and rear brakes, speedo, rear guard, and proper title documents all in order are a must. I'll probably need help getting it transferred to me and properly insured, too.
I'm pretty open to what I might find (after all, this is an adventure) but if I could write my own specs, it would also have:
Sprung single seat
3+ gallon tank
Mild ape-hanger bars
Mild over length forks (but ideally not springers)
Sissy bar and/or room to strap a little bit of luggage
Low pegs, rather than forwards
No wild colour schemes
No suicide clutch/shifter
If you have (or know of) a bike that might fit at least some of this bill, please let me know. You can message me here or email me on fixiegirl@gmail.com
If you have any other ideas, advice or contacts for a crazy Englishwoman who wants to cross the continent on a chopped XS, then I'm all ears. Just don't try to tell me I shouldn't do it, okay?
Thanks in advance!
You could be literally anywhere in North America - if the bike's right, I will plan my trip around coming to buy it. I'm sort of vaguely hoping to end up in New York to fly home after crating the bike up and sending it to the UK by sea freight, but I could equally do that out of any decent size port.
I've not owned a custom motorcycle for over a decade (my daily ride is a Triumph Explorer at the moment) but I'm a biker through and through and I'm no stranger to building and maintaining my own machine.
So what am I after? Well, it's got to be a hardtail - conversion or one-off, but no swingarms, please. It needs to be totally mechanically sound and capable of riding at least 2000 miles at highway speeds with little or no maintenance. It'll have to be road legal back in the UK, so lights, front and rear brakes, speedo, rear guard, and proper title documents all in order are a must. I'll probably need help getting it transferred to me and properly insured, too.
I'm pretty open to what I might find (after all, this is an adventure) but if I could write my own specs, it would also have:
Sprung single seat
3+ gallon tank
Mild ape-hanger bars
Mild over length forks (but ideally not springers)
Sissy bar and/or room to strap a little bit of luggage
Low pegs, rather than forwards
No wild colour schemes
No suicide clutch/shifter
If you have (or know of) a bike that might fit at least some of this bill, please let me know. You can message me here or email me on fixiegirl@gmail.com
If you have any other ideas, advice or contacts for a crazy Englishwoman who wants to cross the continent on a chopped XS, then I'm all ears. Just don't try to tell me I shouldn't do it, okay?
Thanks in advance!
