Apr 13 2010
Dale – Canada xs650
- 45
Downward spiral
The bike was a ’74TX650A originally with a ’78 XS650 Special engine. It’s style was “updated” some time in the ’80′s which began it’s downward spiral. I messed around a bunch with the engine the first year setting it all back to spec.
The frame, as I said, was hardtailed by a buddy, HamBone Kustoms. He also fabricated the battery box. The rest of the fabrication, mounting tabs, light mounts, foot board mounts, and the like were fabricated my me with very primitive hand tools. This includes the sissy bar which I bent up with a mapp gas torch and a homemade jig. Took some 1/2″ round stock stainless, bent it up, and bashed the tips flat and drilled them for mounting. A technique I found in an old chopper magazine from the late ’60′s.
There’s tonnes of OEM bits left on the bike. I live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada so we don’t have a lot of great parts dealers around unless you want to buy more old Japanese OEM parts from the hillbilly brothers. Sooo we make old new. Pretty simple stuff. Make the front fender the new rear, rewired a signal light to be the tail light, moved the brake switch by drilling out the hole in the drum brake where the brake shoe warning light was mounted. The vintage chopper parts mostly came from Egay. The front wheel is off of an old Canadian CanAm dirt bike and is gonna remain functionally knobby.
Saskatchewan has the largest municipal (grid) road network in Canada, totaling 165,000 km. And yes we explore those gravel roads on the weekends on hard tails. I did a rough estimate of costs and the whole bike all up is likely around $1200 with a full tank of gas and fresh oil. Being in S’toon probably $500 of that is shipping.
Dunno what else you wanna know. Below I’ve listed some specs and some links to some videos of the build, first ride, etc.
I’ve also got a blog with a couple guys. Just a buncha prairie boys pullin’ shit apart and hoping to Christ it goes faster when we put it back together. www.antiquatedmule.blogspot.com.
Dale’s Specs:
- Engine……………………………………………………………………………1978 XS650 SP
- Frame ………………………………………………. Hardtail By HamBone Kustoms
- Forks ………………………………………………………………………… OEM ‘74 TX650A
- Fender …………………………………………………………. OEM ’74 TX650A (front)
- Handle Bars ……………………………………………. Cheap-ass 7/8″” Drag Bars
- Risers ……………………………………………….Vintage 3″“ Flanders Dog Bones
- Seat …………………………………….. Vintage Universal Cycle Seats, Cobra
- Headlight …………………………………..Vintage Bates
- Tail Light …………………………. OEM ‘74 TX650A Turn Signal (rewired)
- Oil Bag (Electronics) ………………………………….Vintage SMC/Acu-Weld
- Front Wheel …………………………………. CanAm MX Qualifier 21”, Drum
- Rear Wheel …………………………………………… OEM ‘74 TX650A 18”, Drum
- Tank …………………………………………. Vintage Avanti R&D (Wassell Copy)
- Foot Boards …………………………………………………… Vintage Harley Davidson
- Battery Box ……………………………………..Fabricated by HamBone Kustoms
- Sissy Bar ………………………………………… Tiny Garage Rod Shop (builder/owner)
- Other Fabrication ……………………………. Tiny Garage Rod Shop (builder/owner)
- Wiring & Electrical …………………….. Tiny Garage Rod Shop (builder/owner)
- Build Time ………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Months
Thanks,
Jordan Epp
i like your bike, so many people miss the mark. yours is right on target. the xs is cool because people can build them up, or down, or what ever. this cant be done on the new bikes.keep on building, we need more!
Thats exactly the sort of seat I want to throw on mine, however, I’m unsure as to how I’m going to accomplish that being that I wanna Bratstyle my ’79.
Anyways, awesome bike dude. Good to see another dude out there riding in the Canadian Fall/Winter/Spring
Im digging your build looks good, what did you have to do to get the front wheel to work?
There’s a handful of CanAm bikes (the big ones) with a 17mm axle front wheel. Used the original XS axle and bought some 5mm and 10mm go-kart spacers (17mm) to “center” it. works great.
Cool as hell,nice job.
Sick bike!
Thats a damn nice bike. Tank, seat, sissybar combo works real well together.
But you should change the footboards to these ones – would be much nicer imo (shit – soldout)
http://www.mooneyesusa.com/moon-foot-pedal-bolt-p-998.html
Absolutely perfect.
Love the style! sort of the way I am gonna go with my build this summer! Keep choppen!
You look like the candian max schaaf!
Great work man!
Love the bike, the whole look is sick! Coming from a proud canadian in Whistler.
Great lookin bike. I like the hardtail. How much stretch?
that bike has a nice old school look
Sick bike dude. What’s the scene like in “The Gap” anyway? I started choppin peoples bikes out here in Edmonton and have gotten a lot more business than I expected. Maybe the boys and I will haul ass out your way this summer. It’d be cool to hook up and shred. Maybe shoot me an email and I’ll hit you up if we get a chance to ride out there. LionsSpeed@gmail.com
Eric
The bike looks great! I’ve been trying to decide on pegs or foot boards. They look good on your bike, I think I’m going to go that way too.
The floorboards look way better than i could imagine. Not sure on the slight forward angle of the sissy bar, but not my bike, right. great build.
Great Bike!!!…I like the hardtail…and BTW…- I like your sissy Bar…
You have a lot of good work in that bike…- Love the teaspoon seat…-follows the beautiful lines of a ridged frame…-I would like to see them make a big comeback…
Nice bike I like the pictures and riding in the cold thats hardcore
Jordan, which bigger can am bikes are we talking about? Which bike is that wheel off of exactly?
Yep, this is a great bike.. Simple, straightforward and good looking. I’ve come back this post a couple of times to look over the pictures. Good stuff…
Seems to be some interest in the CanAm wheel so I’ll tell y’what I know. To be honest, I don’t know what model exactly it’s from. There was an MX Qualifier 400 in 80/81 that I think had this wheel with the 17mm axle. I’ve been told there were big 500 Honda’s around the same time with a 17mm axle too, but I’ve never found one. I pulled about 15 wheels off of various bikes at the hillbillies salvage and found nothing. Got this one at auction. Good luck.
Thanks for the info on the wheel. I actually found one on egay the other night and its en route to my house right now.
What model and year was the winning combination? What did your wheel come off of?
It was a 1980 Can Am MX-6 400. I’m still not sure how I’m going to make the brake hub float though. Any suggestions?
I’m loving this bike. It is simple, but perfect. Like the floorboards, but I think you need some two into one upsweept fishtails to set that bike off. Don’t get me wrong, i Love, it, but if it were mine some fishtails for sure. Good work. Did you do that paint yourself? I want pointers.
I loooove this bike. Im new to the site and just saw this the other day, and holy shit. The first picture looks straight out of the sixties! Im working on a cb360 right now, and if i can finish to have half the MOJO of this thing ill be happy. And i can believe how little money you have into it! just goes to show where ingenuity and necessity will get you, shit is the REAL DEAL.
sweet bike bro
This is my favorite bike on this site……EVER!!
I love how the exhaust follows the frame. That sissy bar looks wicked…like you’d get impaled if a big bump threw you off your grip.
Yep if you squint it looks like a San Francisco Trumpet from the early ’70′s. Damn you’re good, but you know that so I won’t tell you.
damn. I cant stop lookin. I think about this bike at work. it is in my eyes…..perfect. the floorboards are a perfect fit. nice impala, too.
looks great is the back seat portion functional?
I_am_10_Ninjas makes a note about shaving the Yamaha off the side cover.
It’s as if some guys who do that are embarrassed that they ride a “cheap” bike.
I used to feel that artistically speaking, the Yamaha logo on the side cover was too big and too loud, and that they should have gone with something smaller. I’ve taken the black paint off mine so it won’t be so loud looking, but that’s as far as I’m going to go.
Was a time when I’d have preferred a Triumph. The engines are really classy looking. The XS engine is just a little less stylish IMO.
The Yamaha is after all a sort of wannabe Brit bike. So was the old CB450.
But the XS is a perfectly fine bike, with many great positives I won’t get into here.
IMO you’re not going to make an XS into a Bonneville, so don’t bother trying to hide the fact that it’s a Yamaha. If you want to shave the side cover for artistic reasons, then I’m okay with that.
I’m going to leave my side cover alone because it’s simply time to give up on feeling inferior because I’m not riding a 1200cc Harley. I’m not going to expend elbow grease on something that isn’t all that important to me.
The Hells Angels have a rule that members must ride an American made (doesn’t have to be a Harley), 1200cc or larger bike.
This has filtered down to the macho homophobe on the street to mean that anything smaller than 1200cc is a “girl’s bike.” So, only the 1200 or larger Harley is a real American man’s bike. One guy actually told me to my face that my XS was a girl’s bike. He was serious. I do not believe he owns a bike; I think he’d rather walk if he can’t ride a 1200 Harley. I think he’s missing out on a lot of fun.
Remember America had a terrible time with Japan in WWII, and riding a Jap bike also has old anti-Jap attitudes associated with it that a lot of young XS riders maybe aren’t aware of. Lots of Americans died fighting Japan. So to deface a Yamaha side cover makes sense to some people.
But an XS is just a piece of metal, like any other piece of metal. They’re cheap and do a lot of things really well. America bought their bikes because it’s either that or, the fear was, they would rebuild their war machine. Better their people were employed making bikes than war materiel.
I really like Ironheads, but would I rather have an Ironhead than an XS? I don’t know. Actually I’d rather have both. Times change. I’ve really grown to accept my XS.
Motorcycles make political statements. I was surprised to find out just how nasty people can get over them. You can get attacked for owning the wrong one, but it’s not out of patriotism that some guys have fits over motorcycles, I think it’s more out of closed-minded assholishness. It’s as if they think, “Hey, we can kick sand in that guy’s face because his bike is smaller than ours.”
Lots of Harley riders won’t wave to you, as is customary. WTF
Some people just like to argue and fight and stir up chaos. Me, I like to be free of all that crap and just have fun.
There’s lots of good brands from all over the world. I’d like to have one of each. I’ve grown so attached to my XS, that even if I could afford an antique Bonny, I’d probably keep the XS.
So I have the same front wheel you’re running can you tell me in detail how you spaced it correctly? I love your bike by the way.
Reply to Rusty Nutz:
Although I agree with many of the sentiments in Rusty’s post, I’m afraid you’ve got me confused. This is not my rant. Sorry.
its crazy that i live in stoon too and i actually recongize the street lol, i got a sport bike currently but im planing on having an xs ready to go by spring as long as my race car doesnt get wrecked like last year. tight bike though i like the drag bars
Props on the Minor Threat background music
Still one of the top 5 best looking XSs I’ve ever seen.
Love the paint job
cool bike just brought myself a 1984 xs650 hs its a canadian import ( i live in new zealand ) the only thing i have don is put irridium spark plugs in it. The cheapist tune up u can buy
Still the best bike on this site.
@Rusty Nutz..
..You make good points my friend. I was just thinking the other day how half these dudes riding hogs these days are about as bad ass as your librarian. Im gonna do a XS build and name it Hog Slaughterhouse or something like that..
Not everyone can afford a harley or a triumph so we work with what we got. I wonder how many of these bad ass harley dudes posted up at Starbucks had there bikes repoed in the last couple years….
Just Right.
The low rise draq bars and drum braked front wheel give it a lean purposeful demeanor.
Nice job.
I live in Oakville Ont. wish there were some xs bubbies around here
Great detail put into this build love the tank.