Barkcollar's build

[barkcollar]

My father-in-law gave me a '77 XS650. WOW!
He said he would like to see it back all original. OOP's
I ripped it apart as soon as I got it home. Being my first bike I was a little sketchy but no chickenshit.
here's some pics

 

[Yamaha_chop]

definitely like the direction of this bike.

One question for you, was that shock designed to be a direct drive like that? Most monoshocks use a lever type bottom section which compounds the force applied, if you don't have that lever action and run it as a direct shock the spring might be too stiff.

 

[Travis]

Nice.. What bender do you have? Also, welcome to the site!

 

[barkcollar]

thought about that on the shock. But it worked out. It was very spongy with my 160# fatass.
I made a spacer to compress the spring a little more to make it stiffer.

It's an old bender from work hydro manual.
Thanks.

 

[nj1639]

Typical son-in-law.
Uh, I'm one too, HA!
Welcome to the site, he shou'nt be too pissed.......

 

[inxs]

- after seeing what youve done to his bike hes going to be asking himself what youre doing to his daughter

 

[barkcollar]

I think he's got a clue of what I've been doing to her. 2 beer babies popped out.

 

[barkcollar]

put the controls on. Used a banchee master cylinder
made some bars from the orginals.

 

[Yamaha_chop]

Like the bars, sweet volksrod in the background as well!

 

[Travis]

The bars look really wide. How wide are they?

 

[Trebor13]

welcome
nice buildt on the bike.

ot: got more pics of the v-rod, i really like the roofline.

 

[barkcollar]

Bars are 34" tip 2 tip.
Thanks
I built the v-rod last year. made the carson top for the winter then cut a hole in it for the summer.

 

[Teebs]

Very cool. Looking forward to seeing where you end up with it.

 

[PhatTony]

Nice build I definitely want to see where you go with this one.
My father-in-law has two XS2's he barely lets me see since he knows I'm a chopper guy. If he ever dies he'll give it to the daughter that knows nothing about bikes instead of my wife. XS2's are too rare to be chopping anyway.

 

[barkcollar]

Kiss his ass more

then maybe

 

[barkcollar]

few updates.
removed starter and put a batt in its place. elec. in a tin can.
painted tank. fender/tail light bracket, straight pipes

 

[Travis]

Bars are 34" tip 2 tip.

ah. Just to follow up, I went and measured the bars on 5 different bikes, some new, some old. All were between 27-29" (if you don't include the bar-ends on some of them) except the GS1000 measured 31". I guess that's why I thought yours looked a little wide... It looks like it wouldn't be too hard to take a little off each end if you wanted.

 

[barkcollar]

I'm going to try some clubmans. maybe I'll dig them better.

 

[barkcollar]

had the rear fender copper plated in antique finish. headlight bucket is copper flaking off (badass). and the kicker plated as well.

 

[gentlemanjim]

You've done your father-in-law proud!