May XSOTM WIDE OPEN contest, nomination thread.

[atomic22]

second rflives bike, even though he already accepted.

 

[uebe]

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170&page=84

I nominate olddudes bike

 

[gggGary]

Are we up to five seconded accepted yet????

 

[650Skull]

had trouble figgering that out myself. If you need another seconder i will throw my hat in to get the ball rolling

 

[gggGary]

I count six noms and a bunch O seconds that should do it for this months "relaxed fit" rules. I welcome ideas for a theme on next months contest too.

Here's a pic ofolddude13's bike

View attachment 16750

 

[I am Carbon]

if it's in the rules I accept for two wheel mafia.
I don't want to cause trouble.

 

[gggGary]

I don't want to cause trouble.

Sure you do. But that's fine this month.

 

[I am Carbon]

Sure you do. But that's fine this month.

 

[gggGary]

The nominations are closed and voting is now in progress til May 31st.
Go here to vote.

 

[Two Wheel Mafia]

Sorry Im late to the party Boys I Accept. Carbon thanks for filling in

 

[Two Wheel Mafia]

The Specs

Owner.............................Da Boss
Home..............................Gainesville, Virginia
Builders............................Two Wheel Mafia / Cycle Center, Culpeper, VA
Model.........................Yamaha XS 650cc
Time to Build...................5 Months
Cost to Build...................Not as much as you think.
Motor Assemb................Cycle Center, Culpeper, VA
Electrical.........................Cycle Center, Culpeper, VA
Chrome Plating.............ClassicComponents.com, Santa Ana, CA
Powder Coating..............Sand Blast America, Manassas, VA
Diamond Cut Heads.........Diamond-heads.com
Painter.............................Jay Danner Designs, West Virginia
Pinstriping.........................Razor Graphix, Fredricksburg, VA

Engine
Engine...............................1984 Yamaha XS Heritage
Displacement....................650cc Bored Out to 680cc; MikesXS.com
Cams.................................Web Cam Performance; MikesXS.com
Valve Springs.................. XS Performance; MikesXS.com
Carbs............................... Dellorto PHF 36mm Carb kit; MikesXS.com
Air Cleaner.......................52mm. XS Performance Pods; MikesXS.com
Ignition.......................Boyer Bransden; 650Central.com
Oil Pump...........................XS High Performance Pump; MikesXS.com
Oil Filter / Cooler Kit........Heiden Tuning, Holland; MikesXS.com
Exhaust......................Two Wheel Mafia

Chassis
Frame...............................GS Motor Co., Galesburg, MI
Rake..................................Stock
Stretch.............................Stock
Front Suspension.............Stock
Rear Suspension..............None, Hard Tail Baby
Front Wheel.....................Stock 1984
Rear Wheel.......................Stock 1984
Front Tire.........................100/90-19 Maxxis Classic
Rear Tire...........................MT 90-16 Maxxis Classic
Front Brakes.....................Stock
Rear Brakes......................Two Wheel Mafia
Front Fender.....................Milwaukee Iron, Lynchburg, VA
Rear Fender......................FrontStCycle.com / Owner Modified

Accessories
Head Light........................All Out War Cycles, Selkirk, NY
Tail Light..........................Model A; Dreamweaversprostreet.com
Turn Signals.....................Don't Need Them
Fuel Tank........................ Harley Sportster
Seat..................................Drag Specialties
Fender Struts...................Bruce Riley; Twistedsteelfabrication.com
Shift Linkage Rod ..........Bruce Riley; Twistedsteelfabrication.com
Brake linkage Rods........Bruce Riley; Twistedsteelfabrication.com
Forward Controls............TCBrosChoppers.com / Owner Modified
Engine Spike Bolts............WorkingClassChoppers.com
Mirror.................................JPCycles.com

 

[Two Wheel Mafia]

This was the article about us in an issue of Iron Horse magazine last year.

Veni, Vidi, Vici: I Came, I Saw, I Conquered.

You may have noticed that there are more and more custom rides on the road these days. Most are what we call "credit card choppers."They have huge rear tires, flashy paint jobs, extreme price tags and every Dr, Lawyer and CEO has one. I don't think that's the image Fonda and Hopper were going for. Some are very old school, home built, hand made one-offs that are really starting to turn heads. And a growing percentage of these works of art are metric. How else can you build a 50's style rat-rod for less than 5k, or a total dream ride for around 10k? That's where it all started for me. This is my 2nd metric chop and my first design and build by myself. I use that term loosely. No one ever builds a bike by themselves. You always need help with something. You only have two hands, and bike building takes at least three. My first bike was in the September 2008 issue. It's a total rat bike that a friend of mine built for me. It was flat black, red rims, white walls, and no chrome. People just stared at it wherever I went. It was awesome. Even though I worked on the bike a lot after it was completed, I never considered the bike my creation. And so the test, to push my skills to the edge of my imagination, began.

The dream became a reality at the Smoke Out Bike Rally in NC when I started talking to a vender from the GS Motor Company. He had a mocked – up Yamaha XS 650 with a hard tail frame that they manufacture in MI. A friend I was at the rally with offered me a 650 motor that was just taking up space in his garage. I went from having an idea, to having a frame and motor in the same day. That's when I hit the drawing board. I have an art design background so the drawing board for me is my computer. I designed the bike from fender to fender over the course of a week, building the bike in my head every step of the way. Once I had the design down, I started to hunt for parts, and venders. I already knew from my escapades with the first bike, that eBay, along with XS 650 specific sites, such as Mikesxs.com, were the best places to start my search. This was also the time I really started thinking about what I was going to do with the bike after it was done. Was I going to ride it for a season, and then sell it? Or, was I going to build the bike I always wanted and ride it forever? Once I decided that time plus money equals forever, the sky was the limit.

I never really understood the whole women and shopping thing. I'm a guy. I know what I want. I go to the store and get it. It's just that simple. After this project, I finally get it. Searching and shopping for parts was a blast. Honestly it was the most fun I have ever had shopping, and I never left my desk chair. Knowing I was going to keep the ride for a long time, I wanted to totally rebuild the motor and get as much horsepower as I could out of it. At the time, the biggest head you could buy was the 680cc, and that's what I got. Now they make a 750cc big bore kit. It's all about timing I guess. I also bought all the performance parts I could off Mikesxs.com; pistons, cam shaft, oil cooler, oil pump, clutch and spring, Delorto Carbs and the Boyer Branson Ignition System. Everything else I got from eBay, fenders, seat, bars, misc motor parts, tail light and forward controls. It was an online shopping frenzy, and the basement was getting cluttered by the day as I organized and laid out all the parts on the floor. Needless to say, my wife was not very happy, but I was on the verge of mock-up and organization is key at this stage.

Mock-up made me feel like a kid again. It brought back memories of me sitting in my room gluing plastic model cars together. Instead of rubber cement, I was welding. The bike went together without a hitch. Maybe it was good design, or maybe just pure luck. Either way, it was a lot less stress than I thought it was going to be. Lots of grinding, some welding, and a ton of trips to Lowes for nuts and bolts. The basement got cleared out, the garage got dirty, and 5 weeks later, a bike got made. Sure I'm leaving a lot out. But the small, tedious stuff you really can't describe, and its not very interesting to talk about. But it's those little surprises, those flies in the ointment, and how you handle them, that can really make or break the build.

Five weeks to mock-up and five hours to tear down. That's all. It was really amazing to see how fast an entire bike can come apart. Organization is very important here and the trick is Ziploc bags, and lots of them. Every time you take something off the bike, throw all the parts of that component into a Ziploc and label the bag. When you send something off to the painter, you have all the hardware in bags labeled and ready to go when the part comes back, and you not stressing out over lost parts. The basement was full of Ziploc bags and my wife was upset, again. But it didn't stay that way very long. Once I had the entire bike broken down, I separated it all out into 3 piles: paint, powder coat and chrome. I spent the next 3 nights bubble wrapping everything, boxing it up, and shipping it all out. And for the next 2 months it was just me and a basement full of plastic bags.

The powder coating came back first, and I started what I could. I sent the rims to the local Yamaha dealer for re-lacing and fresh rubber. The motor heads I sent to "The King of Bling"in Las Vegas. The chrome returned from Classic Components in California. It was wild to see what the parts looked like before and then after. There really is nothing like a black and chrome bike. When the head came back from Vegas, I sent the entire motor to the Yamaha Cycle Center in Culpepper, VA. where Rob and Charlie built me a hell of a power plant. While they were building horsepower, I completed the full rolling chassis, without tins. The tins were painted by a friend of mine from work, Jay Danner. He has over 20 years of experience and was doing me a huge favor by painting the pieces for me. He had to call in a few favors and use his old bosses' body shop after hours and on weekends when they were closed, and still work his day job. Jay and I discussed paint designs. We both wanted black and metal flake, but it was Jay that developed the final design. A gloss black, with a metal flake design, in the clear coat. It came out better than I ever could have wished for.

Final assembly ended at the Cycle Center. I trailered the rolling chassis to the shop and helped Rob finish the motor. Jay brought the tins down and wanted to put them on himself. I think he was afraid I would scratch them. Over the next few days Rob did the wiring, which is something I know nothing about, and was not afraid to ask for help with. A few weekends later we were ready to fire her up. Rob had his fun and let me kick start the damn thing for the first time for about 10 minutes before he turned the key on. She fired right up. And there she was, my dream bike came to life.

Like I said, no one ever builds a bike by themselves. Thanks Rob, Charlie, Reaper, Jay, Toe, Jason, Ryan at GS, Randy, Buttercup, Tony D, Michele, Slade, MikesXS, all the guys at Sand Blast America, Bruce at Twisted Steel, Mom and Dad, and again to my loving wife Kelly, who not only lets me follow my dreams but lets me build them as well.