Busch Bros’ Tokyo Thug XS650
- 20 Comment
Twist into that shape
This is a bike my brother and I built over the past year. We got a lot of influence from the Japanese biker mags and tall, narrow Tokyo choppers. The highlights of the bike are of course the paint and all the twisted metal accents, all done by myself and my brother. The beauty of the paint is that it only cost $10! Yellow artist ink applied over machine turned bare metal to stain it, then clear laquered over. The highlights in green are a spray on tinted clear from a can. Pinstripes by myself. Nothing too technical but you get it in the sun (pretty rare here in Seattle) and it just dazzles!
The 5″ risers took a whole bottle of oxygen alone to twist into that shape, and the headlight mount, kickstand, fork brace “fender” and rear fender brace are all bent to match. the electronics are housed along with the battery in the mini keg under the seat. The exhaust runs much worse than it looks- it needs a lot of tuning but I think we can make it work, in the near future I will remake it all out of a larger diameter tube.
The 11″ Z-bar was also made by myself, and the alternator cover was machined by my brother Danie
l. The hard tail rear was welded on to the stock front half,-after a lot of tweaking. In hindsight it would have been quicker to fab the whole rear but live and learn.
The mid controls are stock XS rear peg mounts welded to the frame rails, and the stand was reclocked so it sits at more of an angle and doesn’t drag the ground.
Future plans call for a skid plate, leather tooled seat, a final pinstripe for the tank top, dyno tuning to make the pipes work, and some small legal type crap. The bike is a real head tunrner, and love it or hate it you can’t look away!
See more pics at buschandbusch.com
Lance and Daniel Busch
Looks cool, I like it. The risers are real cool. Nice job.
Any probs with the pipes?
Great bike, be proud. I’d love to see some closer detail pictures of your hard work, in the sun for sure. What type of fork lowers are those or what did you do to them? Let us know how those pipes work out. Again, sweet ride.
thanks guys- the forks are ’71, but I’m running the mag wheel with a combo of spacers from ’71 and ’79 front and rear wheels. I didn’t have to shave any lugs off the side, and just painted them black. There are more detail shots at http://www.buschandbusch.com/rides down at the bottom.
The pipes- they do “work”, as in the bike runs and doesn’t choke out, but being triple walled doesn’t help the ID. I want to remake in a 1 5/8 tube to keep some amount of flow. Dyno tuning with no air filter and stock jets, needles raised puts it at around 11 to 1 AFR, so rather rich and shows the pipes don’t flow well, but I’m determined to make the design work!
Great Work!
sorry forgot- the jetting is stock ’71, needles raised to max and fuel screw at 1.5 turns. turned down the fuel to 1 and will lower needles one position and run on the dyno again.
Thats some funky looking exhaust I like that keg you have for the wiring looks killer I like the bike.
Cool bike…looks like you may have big bore jugs on there??? Dude those pipes are killing you flow wise… but you know that… no offense meant
Merry Christmas everyone.
Absolutely great looking bike – big hands!!
I like those narrow Z-bars. Exhaust is (horse power;)) killer too – so simple and nice.
quick update- rode it a bit yesterday and after pulling the carbs for the third time, cleaning more bits out (this bike is like a vibrosonic machine) and putting on some filters, she was running great. Seat of the pants you really can’t tell the pipes are choking it (the dyno shows another story)- it’s basically hold one or be thrown off the back of the seat, another reason I’m going to retool it, with more of a lip on back. But, it’s very rideable as is, until I can remake the pipes larger
Hey guys,
You never cease to amaze me with your inovative and creative projects. From yer big ‘ol army truck, to that rat rod thing, to this. Yer uncle Ed and I are always impressed the the stuff you come up with.
Do a wheelie,
Mitch
@Lance – Man you and your brother have some really cool projects going on. Are you still living on the boat? I just posted up the video of your dyno tune with a link to your site.
hey thanks ted. Yup, my bro and I live on the boat here in Seattle, have a shop space at our job that we can chop stuff up in, and it’s not a bad setup. We also have dyno access that comes from our job. Look for some more vids soon, cause we’re going to throw it back on the dyno now that I did some tweaks, and added velocity stacks. I won’t be afraid to post the numbers cause they’re what a lot of guys will be getting frmo engines that are stock, probably haven’t run ina long time, and may be way out of tune. This first run netted no more than 17 or 18 horse. That was WAY lean. Playing around the second time we saw 25. With the final tuning and velocity stacks I’m expecting more. Remaking the pipes I hope to get back up around 35. We’ll see! In any case the thing is much more rideable now, no issues on the street at all except my clutch slipping.
hey Ted- just posted new vid of chop on dyno on youtube. This one made 35hp, no velocity stacks and I’m getting the air fuel just about 13:1 the whole way through the revs. And it also shows how much engineering needs to go into a vibey bike like this. license plate mount and sissy bar broke from vibration. In all my dyno testing I’ve uncovered a lot of poor quality fasteners and bad mounting choices, stuff that seemed solid at the time. Just a reminder to use high quality parts, fasteners, and solid welds for safety!
Hey Lance and Daniel, I have a TC Bros tail coming my way, would you guys be willing to weld it up for me? I am down in Tacoma.
Ty!
Adam
hey Adam, I sent you an email, thanks
Hey guys, I’ve done a little more work, added whitewalls, pinstriped the seat, and white grips, plus mounted my rat Fink tail light and plate. More pics at http://www.buschandbusch.com/xs650.html
thanks for the feedback!
I am in Seattle and would love to see this up close. Just so happens tomorrow 3/3/10 is the VME gathering at the Goldies on airport way. if you get this and by chance you would like to. A lot of bikes will be there, weather permiting this time of year..They meet the first Wensday of every month. if you don’t already know about it…
hey kevin, sorry i didn’t see your comment til now. Will have to make it in April though. Thanks!